I’d estimate that at least 70% of my discovery calls reveal companies haven’t done an audit in at least the past five years. And for brands that have never done brand strategy planning before, this number climbs to 100% because they believe (incorrectly) that an audit isn’t necessary.
In a way, it makes sense. Running a business requires juggling so many things – people, processes, customers, revenue, marketing – that brand strategy can quickly get shoved onto the “tomorrow” list… and potentially stay there.
The irony is that the larger your company gets, the more important having a brand strategy becomes.
Since your brand is what others think of you, you’ve been building a brand whether you realize it or not. And the larger you are, the more visibility you have, and the easier it becomes for that narrative to run rouge when you aren’t the one intentionally driving the messages and your reputation.
Conducting a brand audit provides you the baseline you need to make informed, creative, and powerful decisions for shaping your strategy that will propel you forward.
Five Reasons to Conduct a Brand Audit
- Strengthen internal alignment
When even the founders cannot describe their company or brand completely in sync, getting your promise, messaging, and other factors down on paper go a long way to getting the rest of your team onboard. Aligned internal stakeholders lead to aligned understanding from your audience. - Create more consistency in your marketing
Messaging can take multiple forms but they all need to stem from the same starting point. A consistent visual identity, messaging, and tone of voice provides your audience with reassurance you actually know what you’re doing. A brand audit also identifies which channels do/don’t/could/should work for you. You’ll be looking at everything from website analytics to social engagement here. - Understand your target customers better
Do you know what your target audience ACTUALLY wants and needs? Cares about? Gets annoyed with? Why they chose you? (Or, why they passed on you in favor of your competitors?) If you’re not asking them, you’re missing critical insights. - Vet your competitive advantages
Unpopular opinion: Being different from your competitors isn’t enough. You need to understand what makes you the most relevant option for your customers. Different features or price makes you a commodity – what emotional or relevant factors make you the best choice? - Position for greater brand equity and revenue growth
When your brand is firing on all cylinders, you’ll be better positioned for growth. Greater brand awareness leads to higher equity! Just look to Apple, a company whose brand catapulted their equity to nearly $1 trillion recently.
Brand audits can bring enormous value by revealing your strengths, weaknesses, gaps, and potential. A lot should go into them (I’ve got more info coming soon on how to do an audit) so it can be helpful to let me do them for you to minimize disruptions to your day-to-day business operations.
Want to learn more? Learn more here or book a Spark Session directly to get started!
