Market Research for Branding:  How To Know Whether Your Marketing is Working

If you have invested the time, effort, and money into branding, you will want to make sure that your branding is working.  There are several ways you can market research to accomplish this:

Step One:  Ask your customers

At some point, you will need to ask your customers how you are doing.  You can do this yourself or by hiring a marketing company.  You will want to ask your customers several questions:

•Where did you hear of this company?

•Do you use this company?  Are you likely to in the future?  Why or why not?

•What brand of similar product or service do you use?  Why?

•When you think of this company, what qualities and ideas come to mind?  What does this company make you feel?

The idea is to get a sense of how many people are getting the message about your company and how your company impression matches the image you wish to project.

Step Two:  Offer Polls and Contests

A simple way to get more feedback about your branding efforts is to offer a poll or contest.  Offering a poll on your web site or blog can provide you with useful information.  However, you may not get as many responses as you might like.  Therefore, offering the chance for a prize for every person who completes a poll or survey can help ensure that you get enough responses for market research and can also help promote your business.

Step Three:  Keep Track of Responses

Once you implement a new branding strategy (such as promoting your company on a radio show) do watch for the responses.  Do you suddenly get more inquiries?  Who are the inquiries from and what are they about?  Often, branding can be so subtle that customers may not even be aware why they choose your company over others.  However, a sudden increase in business can let you know that your branding strategy is working.

Step Four:  Adjust Your Branding Strategy

Once you have conducted some market research, you should use the information you have gathered to change your strategy.  If you notice that you are getting calls and inquiries, but not for your target customers, then ask yourself what about your brand is giving customers a certain idea.  Does you logo and name suggest a service that is too expensive or does it build expectations of a very inexpensive product or service?   The idea behind branding is that it gives customers an idea of what to expect from a company.  If your branding strategy is creating false impressions of your company, you need to either change your company or your branding and brand image to ensure that potential customers become loyal customers.

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