What if your brand’s health was as vital as your own? Just as you need to eat well and exercise to stay strong, your brand needs consistent care to thrive in a super-competitive business world.
Here’s why: 90 percent of people buy from brands they trust, and 46 percent are even willing to pay more for that trust.
Imagine knowing what customers think, why they choose your products, or when they might switch to a competitor. That’s brand health — the invisible pulse of how people feel about your brand and how it compares to others.
When you track brand health, you monitor numbers while actively building trust, loyalty, and long-term success. And to keep your brand in top shape, you need regular check-ins and the right insights to track what matters most.
In this post, we’ll show you why brand health matters and which metrics to focus on to maintain a thriving brand.
What Is Brand Health and Why Is It Important?
Brand health reflects how well your brand performs in the market, how well it resonates with customers, and its overall value in the marketplace. Picture it as a regular wellness check-up for your brand that includes everything from how customers feel about you to how often they choose you over competitors.
So, why is a brand health assessment important in today’s competitive market?
Enhancing Customer Experience (CX)
The last thing you want is for your customers to have negative experiences with your brand.
Why? Well, 32 percent of them leave your brand, no matter how much they love it, after just one bad experience. Further, 59 percent will walk away entirely after two or three negative encounters.
Brand health tracking helps you quickly spot areas where you can improve customer experience, keeping customers happy and loyal.
Builds Customer Trust
Monitoring brand health gives you a clear view of how much customers trust your brand. This way, you can make any necessary adjustments that strengthen that bond. The stronger the trust, the more loyal your customers will be. And loyal customers are more likely to recommend you to others.
Plus, building trust over time makes customers more forgiving of the occasional slip-ups, giving you a buffer against minor mistakes.
Boosts Customer Loyalty
Tracking brand health reveals what keeps customers coming back. You can keep them happy and engaged when you understand why they choose your brand over others.
Moreover, loyal customers often become advocates who recommend your brand to others, enhancing user engagement.
Keeps You Ahead of Competitors
As earlier mentioned, keeping your brand in top shape requires regular check-ins. These include competitor analysis to show how you stack against competitor brands. These insights can help you stay aware, spot areas to improve, and tweak your branding strategy to become a worthy competitor.
Identifies Weak Points Early
Minor issues can easily turn into bigger, costlier problems. They could be a dip in customer satisfaction, a rise in complaints, negative sentiments, or a drop in brand awareness.
Whichever they are, early warnings let you fix things fast before going out of hand, protecting your brand reputation over time.
Increases Return on Investment (ROI)
Understanding which areas of your brand are working and which you need to improve gives you the power to invest time and money where it counts.
Since you have clear insights into customer preferences, you can align your marketing efforts with what they truly value. And with brand health assessment comes smarter spending, better customer connections, and ultimately, better returns.
Key Brand Health Metrics You Need to Track
Assume your brand is like a car on a road trip. If you only watch the fuel gauge, you’ll miss other signs that need attention, right? Your brand’s health works the same way — you need to check multiple indicators to keep it running smoothly.
Here’s a breakdown of the essential brand health metrics that show whether your brand is cruising along or needs a tune-up.
Net Promoter Score (NPS)
Net Promoter Score (NPS) measures customer loyalty and willingness to recommend your brand to others. The more enthusiastic customers are about your brand, the more likely they are to share their positive experiences, which can boost your reputation and attract new customers.
High NPS scores mean your brand has strong support, while low scores suggest areas for improvement.
How to Measure: Survey customers with a simple question: “On a scale of 1-10, how likely are you to recommend our brand to your family, colleagues, and friends?”
Responses fall into three categories:
- Promoters: Your biggest fans who rate your brand highly (score of 9 or 10) and are likely to recommend it.
- Passives: These customers feel neutral, giving a score of 7 or 8.
- Detractors: Unhappy customers who rate your brand lower (0-6) and are unlikely to recommend it.
To get an NPS score, subtract the percentage of detractors from the promoters.
NPS Score = Percentage of Promoters − Percentage of Detractors
Share of Voice (SOV)
Share of Voice (SOV) tells you how much of the conversation in your industry revolves around your brand compared to competitor brands. It indicates brand visibility, market influence, and position relative to others in your field.
For instance, are consumers mentioning Coca-Cola or Pepsi in the beverage industry?
If people are talking more about you than your competitors, it’s a strong sign that your branding efforts are making an impact.
How to Measure: Track mentions of your brand across social media, forums, and news sources. Social listening tools can simplify this process, allowing you to monitor positive sentiments and any negative sentiments that arise. Comparing your SOV to competitors helps you see where you stand in the market and shows you where to improve brand awareness.
Customer Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction reflects how happy customers are with their experiences when interacting with your brand or with your products and services. It shows how well you’re meeting or exceeding what customers expect.
High satisfaction means customers are likely to return. Low satisfaction can point to problems in service, product quality, or other areas needing improvement.
How to Measure: You can check product reviews and feedback on social media and surveys to directly ask customers for feedback to understand:
- Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT): How happy customers are by asking them to rate their experience with your product or service on a simple scale.
- Customer Effort Score (CES): How easy it was for customers to complete a task or get help, with the idea that the easier it is, the better their experience.
- Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI): Combines different customer ratings, like product quality and customer service, to give a complete picture of how satisfied customers are with your brand.
Brand Sentiment
Brand sentiment refers to the overall feelings people have about your brand — whether they’re positive, neutral, or negative. It gives you a clear view of how well your target audience sees your brand.
Positive sentiment often means higher loyalty and stronger relationships. Negative sentiment may indicate areas to improve.
How to Measure: Conduct sentiment analysis on surveys, social media posts, reviews, and customer feedback to see how your brand is perceived. AI-powered social listening tools help you spot conversation trends to see why people feel positive or negative about your brand.
You can then calculate the Customer Sentiment Score (0-100) to get a clear, quantitative view of sentiment:
Customer Sentiment Score = % of Positive Responses – % of Negative Responses
Unprompted Brand Recall
Unprompted brand recall shows how often people think of your brand without being prompted by any specific cues or reminders. High recall means your brand is top of customers’ minds, indicating strong brand awareness and familiarity.
This metric can provide a bird’s eye view into how well your marketing strategies are working to keep your brand visible.
How to Measure: Conduct surveys and ask respondents to name brands in your category without showing them any logos or lists. If your brand frequently comes to mind, it’s a sign that your branding strategy is memorable and effective.
From here, you can calculate the unprompted brand recall:
No. of survey respondents who correctly guessed or identified your brand / Total No. of survey respondents ] X 100
Brand Uplift
Brand uplift measures how customers’ perceptions change after being exposed to your brand through an ad, event, or campaign.
In other words, it shows the positive results of your digital marketing campaigns by highlighting how many more consumers are interacting with your brand. Monitoring brand uplift is an effective way to refine your future marketing strategies.
How to Measure: Use search traffic, surveys, or focus groups to track customer perceptions before and after your marketing campaigns. If there are any positive changes in metrics like awareness and sentiment, your campaigns have created a favorable impression among your target audience.
Preference in Category
Preference in category — a.k.a prompted brand recall — measures how many customers would choose your brand over competitors within the same market. A high preference indicates loyalty and brand strength, while a low preference may mean you’ve got a lot of work ahead of you.
Understanding category preference lets you know how well your brand health tracking aligns with customer needs and expectations.
How to Measure: Start by choosing your niche or category and list several brands, including yours and your competitors. Then, conduct surveys asking customers if they prefer your brand over your competitors and why. Analyzing purchasing behavior through your CRM or point-of-sale data can also help.
Purchase Intent
Purchase intent gauges how likely customers are to buy a product or service from your brand soon, like over the next 6 or 12 months. High purchase intent shows that customers see value in your offer and are ready to put their money on the line.
This strongly shows that your branding efforts have been successful and improved product appeal.
How to Measure: Conduct surveys to find out how likely the consumers are to purchase from your brand soon. You can also leverage social listening tools to track conversations about purchasing decisions, providing insight into what influences customers.
Brand Awareness
Brand awareness shows how well people know your brand and how familiar they are with your brand name, logo, and products. Strong brand awareness means more people know your brand, which can help attract new customers.
Tracking brand Awareness can include:
- Brand Recognition: Consumers can identify your brand by its logo or ads.
- Brand Recall: Consumers can remember your brand without any hints.
- Brand Association: Feelings and thoughts consumers have about your brand.
How to Measure: Aided and unaided recall surveys and brand perception surveys are great for measuring brand awareness. You can also use digital metrics like social media mentions, website traffic, search volume, and social media and website visits.
Total Brand Equity
Total brand equity shows your brand’s overall value and reputation in the market. It combines several brand health metrics like customer loyalty, NPS, and public perception.
How to Measure: Track all brand health metrics together to get a complete picture of your brand’s equity and highlight areas for growth.
Then follow these steps:
1. Calculate Brand Strength:
Brand Strength = (Purchase Intent + NPS) x 100
2. Calculate Total Brand Equity:
Multiply the Brand Strength by your Unprompted Brand Recall, and then multiply that result by 100.
Total Brand Equity = (Brand Strength x Recall) x 100
Methods for Measuring Brand Health and Tips to Do It Effectively
So, how exactly do you conduct an effective brand health assessment?
Here are several ways to measure brand health metrics and how to do it like a pro:
Surveys and Feedback Forms
Surveys are a great way to get direct opinions from your customers. They can help you track NPS, customer satisfaction, and brand awareness.
You can learn what your customers truly think about your brand by asking the right questions and getting direct feedback.
Social Listening Tools
Social listening tools help you hear what people say about your brand online. They let you see how people feel about your brand in real-time, which is super helpful. This way, you can catch any changes in brand sentiment and shifts in perception and respond quickly.
Competitor Analysis
Keeping an eye on your competitors lets you understand their strengths and weaknesses. It shows you gaps and opportunities to attract more customers.
Moreover, knowing what works for your competitors — and what doesn’t — can help you adapt your strategy. This way, you can stay competitive and make your brand stand out.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Tools and Analytics
CRM tools help you gather important information about your customers like purchase intent, prior usage, and preference in the category. These insights are key for keeping your customers happy and encouraging them to return.
Strategies for Improving Brand Health
After conducting a comprehensive brand health assessment, you’ve unfortunately discovered that your brand isn’t as healthy as you’d hoped. What next? How can you improve your brand health?
Enhance CX
Focus on creating smooth, enjoyable interactions at every touchpoint, from your website to customer support. Customers are more likely to stay loyal and spread positive word-of-mouth about your brand when they feel valued and understood.
Use Targeted Marketing Strategies
Targeted marketing helps you reach the right audience with the right message, making every marketing dollar count. Using brand and performance marketing strategies can help focus on building build awareness while also driving sales.
Invest in Customer Service
Great customer service is at the heart of a healthy brand. When customers know they can rely on your team for quick, helpful responses, they’re more likely to stay loyal. So, make customer service a top priority, and consider offering additional training to ensure your team meets customer needs effectively.
Refine Your Branding Strategy
Sometimes, a brand refresh is just what the doctor ordered to boost brand health. Look at your branding elements — like messaging, visuals, and tone — and ensure they resonate with your target audience. If not, perhaps it’s time to overhaul or refine the strategy to strengthen your brand’s identity and make it more memorable.
Implement Social Listening Tools
Social listening tools help you monitor conversations about your brand on social media and other platforms. It’s easy to respond quickly to feedback and potential issues when keeping an ear to the ground.
The Role of Brand Health in Performance Media
Performance media is all about driving measurable results, like clicks, conversions, or sales.
The role of brand health in performance media is to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of advertising efforts. It helps build a strong foundation of customer trust and brand recognition. So, your brand is well regarded. Consumers are more likely to engage with your ads, respond positively to marketing messages, and complete desired actions.
Additionally, good brand health can help performance media deliver stronger results with lower acquisition costs. This is because a positive brand reputation makes each campaign more impactful and cost-effective.
Leveraging AI-Driven Insights to Strengthen Brand Health Metrics
Painstaking manual brand health tracking is a thing of the past.
With AI, understanding what resonates with your target audience — and what needs improvement — has never been easier and fun! AI sentiment analysis helps you quickly analyze areas such as social media data, product reviews, and customer feedback, tracking brand health metrics more accurately and efficiently than ever.
Moreover, AI-driven analytics helps make data-driven decisions that improve brand health and keep them aligned with evolving customer expectations. If you’re ready to start or enhance your brand health approach, consider reaching out to our experts at AudienceX. Contact us to discuss our customized strategies to help you build a stronger, healthier brand.
