Tracking an individual branded product requires measuring brand awareness and image, using both recall and recognition measures and moving from more general to more specific questions. Thus, it may make sense to first ask consumers what brands come to mind in certain situations, to next ask for recall of brands on the basis of various product category cues, and to then finish with tests of brand recognition (if necessary).

Moving from general to more specific measures is also a good idea in brand tracking surveys to measure brand image, especially specific perceptions like what consumers think characterizes the brand, and evaluations such as what the brand means to consumers. A number of specific brand associations typically exist for the brand, depending on the richness of consumer knowledge structures, which marketers can track over time.

Given that brands often compete at the augmented product level (see Chapter 1), it is important to measure all associations that may distinguish competing brands. Thus, measures of specific, “lower-level” brand associations should include all potential sources of brand equity such as performance and imagery attributes and functional and emotional benefits. Benefit associations often represent key points-of-parity or points-of-difference, so it is particularly important to track them as well. To better understand any changes in benefit beliefs for a brand, however, marketers may also want to measure the attribute beliefs that underlie those benefit beliefs. In other words, changes in descriptive attribute beliefs may help to explain changes in more evaluative benefit beliefs for a brand.

Marketers should assess those key brand associations that make up the potential sources of brand equity on the basis of strength, favorability, and uniqueness in that order. Unless associations are strong enough for consumers to recall them, their favorability does not matter, and unless they are favorable enough to influence consumers’ decisions, their uniqueness does not matter. Ideally, marketers will collect measures of all three dimensions, but perhaps for only certain associations and only some of the time; for example, favorability and uniqueness may be measured only once a year for three to five key associations.

At the same time, marketers will track more general, “higher-level” judgments, feelings, and other outcome-related measures. After soliciting their overall opinions, consumers can be asked whether they have changed their attitudes or behavior in recent weeks or months and, if so, why. Branding Brief 8-1 provides an illustrative example of a simple tracking survey for McDonald’s.

Marketers may also want to track the corporate or family brand separately or concurrently (or both) with individual products. Besides the measures

of corporate credibility we identified in Chapter 2 , you can consider other measures of corporate brand associations including the following (illustrated with the GE corporate brand):

• How well managed is GE?

• How easy is it to do business with GE?

• How concerned is GE with its customers?

• How approachable is GE?

• How accessible is GE?

• How much do you like doing business with GE?

• How likely are you to invest in GE stock?

• How would you feel if a good friend accepted employment with GE?

The actual questions should reflect the level and nature of experience your respondents are likely to have had with the company.

When a brand is identified with multiple products, as in a corporate or family branding strategy, one important issue is which particular products the brand reminds consumers of. At the same time, marketers also want to know which particular products are most influential in affecting consumer perceptions about the brand.

To identify these more influential products, ask consumers which products they associate with the brand on an unaided basis (“What products come to mind when you think of the Nike brand?”) or an aided basis by listing sub-brand names (“Are you aware of Nike Air Force basketball shoes? Nike Sphere React tennis apparel? Nike Air Max running shoes?”). To better understand the dynamics between the brand and its corresponding products, also ask consumers about their relationship between them (“There are many different products associated with Nike. Which ones are most important to you in formulating your opinion about the brand?”).

If your tracking covers diverse geographic markets—especially in both developing and developed countries—then you may need a broader set of background measures to

put the brand development in those markets in the right perspective. You would not need to collect them frequently, but they could provide useful explanatory information (see Figure 8-6 for some representative measures).

Tracking often concentrates on current customers, but it can also be rewarding to monitor nonusers of the brand or even of the product category as a whole, for example, to suggest potential segmentation strategies. Marketers can track those customers loyal to the brand against those loyal to other brands, or against those who switch brands. Among current customers, marketers can distinguish between heavy and light users of the brand. Dividing up the market typically requires different questionnaires (or at least sections of a basic questionnaire) to better capture the specific issues of each segment.

It’s often useful to closely track other types of customers, too, such as channel members and other intermediaries, to understand their perceptions and actions toward the brand. Of particular interest is their image of the brand and how they feel they can help or hurt its equity. Retailers can answer direct questions such as, “Do you feel that products in your store sell faster if they have [the brand name] on them? Why or why not?” Marketers might also want to track employees such as salespeople, to better understand their beliefs about the brand and how they feel they’re contributing to its equity now or could do so in the future. Such tracking may be especially important with service organizations, where employees play profound roles in affecting brand equity.

How often should you collect tracking information? One useful approach for monitoring brand associations is continuous tracking studies, which collect information from consumers continually over time. The advantage of continuous tracking is that it smoothes out aberrations or unusual marketing activities or events like a high profile new digital campaign or an unlikely occurrence in the marketing environment to provide a more representative set of baseline measures.

The frequency of such tracking studies, in general, depends on the frequency of product purchase (marketers typically track durable goods less frequently because they are purchased less

often), and on the consumer behavior and marketing activity in the product category. Many companies conduct a certain number of interviews of different consumers every week—or even every day—and assemble the results on a rolling or moving average basis for monthly or quarterly reports.

When the brand has more stable and enduring associations, tracking on a less frequent basis can be enough. Nevertheless, even if the marketing of a brand does not appreciably change over time, competitive entries can change consumer perceptions of the dynamics within the market, making tracking critical. Finally, the stage of the product or brand life cycle will affect your decision about the frequency of tracking: Opinions of consumers in mature markets may not change much, whereas emerging markets may shift quickly and perhaps unpredictably.

The brand equity report should describe what is happening with the brand as well as why it is happening. It should include all relevant internal measures of operational efficiency and effectiveness and external measures of brand performance and sources and outcomes of brand equity.15

In particular, one section of the report should summarize consumers’ perceptions of key attribute or benefit associations, preferences, and reported behavior as revealed by the tracking study. Another section of the report should include more descriptive market-level information such as the following:

• Product shipments and movement through channels of distribution

• Retail category trends

• Relevant cost breakdowns

• Price and discount schedules where appropriate

• Sales and market share information broken down by relevant factors (such as geographic region, type of retail account, or customer)

• Profit assessments

These measures can provide insight into the market performance component of the brand value chain. Management can compare them to various frames of reference—performance last month/quarter/year—and color code them green, yellow, or red, depending on whether the trends are positive, neutral, or negative, respectively. Internal measures might focus on how much time, money, and labor was being spent on various marketing activities.16

As important as the information making up the brand equity report is the way the information is presented. Thus firms are now also exploring how best to display the right data to influence marketing decision makers. Top digital agency R/GA, for example, has created a data-visualization department to reflect the growing importance of presenting information to its clients.17

A number of firms have implemented marketing dashboards to provide comprehensive but actionable summaries of brand-related information. A marketing dashboard functions just like the dashboard of a car. Although they can be valuable tools for companies, if not designed and implemented properly dashboards also can be a big waste of time and money. An early leader on the subject, Pat LaPointe has identified four success factors in developing a successful dashboard:18

1. Senior-level executives must devote the necessary resources to its development and stay actively involved—delegating the task to lower levels of the organization rarely pays off.

2. The investment in resources doesn’t stop with launch. Additional resources are required to gather, align, and properly interpret the right information.

3. Graphics and analytics matter. Excel may be cheap and easy to use, but it can also constrain thinking.

4. Executives should focus on what can be measured today but also learn more about how to improve the dashboard in the future.

IT company Unisys successfully developed a dashboard that covered all its geographical areas and applied to all its divisions and business units. Data was collected from a variety of sources—brand tracking, CRM programs, tradeshows, media reports, satisfaction studies, and Web logs—offering views for all levels right up to the CMO.19

To provide feedback on marketing performance to boards of directors, former Harvard Business School faculty Gail McGovern and John Quelch advocate quarterly tracking reports of the three or four marketing or customer-related metrics that truly drive and predict the company’s

business performance—the behavioral measures specific to a company’s business model.20 As an example, they note how the board of casino operator Harrah’s focuses on three metrics: share of its customer’s gaming dollars (share of wallet), loyalty program updates (an indicator of increased concentration of a customer’s gaming at Harrah’s), and percent of revenue from customers visiting more than one of Harrah’s 30 casinos (an indicator of cross-selling). To support its tracking, Harrah’s has spent $50 million annually on a customer information system.

Similarly, Ambler and Clark offer three recommendations.21 First, marketers must work with their CFO to develop marketing dashboards and to shift metrics and forecasting responsibilities to the finance department. Second, marketers should develop with each agency a detailed brief with measurable objectives and a results-driven compensation component (for agencies). Third, marketers need to dedicate extra time to securing buy-in from colleagues on their business model, strategy, and metrics.

In terms of choosing specific metrics for a brand equity report or dashboard, Ambler and Clark offer three additional guidelines.22 First, marketers must select metrics that suit their business model and strategy. Two, they need to balance their metrics portfolio across audiences, comprehensiveness, efficiency, and other considerations. Three, marketers should review and modify their metrics portfolio as their needs change.

With advances in computer technology, it will be increasingly easy for firms to place the information that makes up the brand equity report online, so managers can access it through the firm’s intranet or some other means. For example, early research pioneer NFO MarketMind developed a brand management database system that integrated continuous consumer tracking survey data, media weight (or cost) data, warehouse sales and retail scan data, and PR and editorial content.

To provide central coordination, the firm should establish a position responsible for overseeing the implementation of the brand charter and brand equity reports, to ensure that product and marketing actions across divisions and geographic boundaries reflect their spirit as closely as possible and maximize the long-term equity of the brand. A natural place to house such oversight duties and responsibilities is in a corporate marketing group that has a senior management reporting relationship.

Scott Bedbury, who helped direct the Nike and Starbucks brands during some of their most successful years, is emphatic about the need for “top-down brand leadership.”23 He advocates the addition of a chief brand officer (CBO) who reports directly to the CEO of the company and who:

• Is an omnipresent conscience whose job is to champion and protect the brand—the way it looks and feels—both inside and outside the company. The CBO recognizes that the brand is the sum total of everything a company does and strives to ensure that all employees understand the brand and its values, creating “brand disciples” in the process.

• Is an architect and not only helps build the brand but also plans, anticipates, re searches, probes, listens, and informs. Working with senior leadership, the CBO helps envision not just what works best for the brand today but also what can help drive it forward in the future.

• Determines and protects the voice of the brand over time by taking a long-term (two to three years) perspective. The CBO can be accountable for brand-critical and corporate-wide activities such as advertising, positioning, corporate design, corporate communications, and consumer or market insights.

Bedbury also advocates periodic brand development reviews (full-day meetings quarterly, or even half-day meetings monthly) for brands in difficult circumstances. As part of a brand development review, he suggests the following topics and activities:24

• Review brand-sensitive material: For example, review brand strength monitors or tracking studies, brand audits, and focus groups, as well as less formal personal observations or “gut feelings.”

• Review the status of key brand initiatives: Because brand initiatives include strategic thrusts to either strengthen a weakness in the brand or exploit an opportunity to grow the brand in a new direction, customer perceptions may change and marketers therefore need to assess them.

• Review brand-sensitive projects: For example, evaluate advertising campaigns, corporate communications, sales meeting agendas, and important human resources programs (recruitment, training, and retention that profoundly affect the organization’s ability to embrace and project brand values).

• Review new product and distribution strategies with respect to core brand values: For example, evaluate licensing the brand to penetrate new markets, forming joint ventures to develop new products or brands, and expanding distribution to nontraditional platforms such as large-scale discount retailers.

• Resolve brand positioning conflicts: Identify and resolve any inconsistencies in positioning across channels, business units, or markets.

Even strong brands need careful watching to prevent managers from assuming it’s acceptable to “make one little mistake” with brand equity or to “let it slide.” A number of top companies like Colgate-Palmolive, Canada Dry, Quaker Oats, Pillsbury, Coca-Cola, and Nestlé Foods have created brand equity gatekeepers for some or all their brands at one time.25 Branding Brief 8-3 contains a checklist by which firms can assess their marketing skills and performance.

One of senior management’s important roles is to determine marketing budgets and decide where and how to allocate company resources within the organization. The brand equity management system must be able to inform and provide input to decision makers so that they can recognize the short-term and long-term ramifications of their decisions for brand equity. Decisions about which brands to invest in, and whether to implement brand-building marketing programs or leverage brand equity through brand extensions instead, should reflect the current and desired state of the brand as revealed through brand tracking and other measures.

The firm should organize its marketing function to optimize brand equity. Several trends have emerged in organizational design and structure

that reflect the growing recognition of the importance of the brand and the challenges of managing brand equity carefully. For example, an increasing number of firms are embracing brand management. Firms from more and more industries—such as the automobile, health care, pharmaceutical, and computer software and hardware industries—are introducing brand managers into their organizations. Often, they have hired managers from top packaged-goods companies, adopting some of the same brand marketing practices as a result.

Interestingly, packaged-goods companies, such as Procter & Gamble, continue to evolve the brand management system. With category management, manufacturers offer retailers advice about how to best stock their shelves. An increasing number of retailers are also adopting category management principles. Although manufacturers functioning as category captains can improve sales, experts caution retailers to exercise their own insights and values to retain their distinctiveness in the marketplace.

Many firms are thus attempting to redesign their marketing organizations to better reflect the challenges faced by their brands. At the same time, because of changing job requirements and duties, the traditional marketing department is disappearing from a number of companies that are exploring other ways to conduct their marketing functions through business groups, multidisciplinary teams, and so on.26

The goal in these new organizational schemes is to improve internal coordination and efficiencies as well as external focus on retailers and consumers. Although these are laudable goals, clearly one of the challenges with these new designs is to ensure that brand equity is preserved and nurtured, and not neglected due to a lack of oversight.

With a multiple-product, multiple-market organization, the difficulty often lies in making sure that both product and place are in balance. As in many marketing and branding activities, achieving the proper balance is the goal, in order to maximize the advantages and minimize the disadvantages of both approaches.

Because the performance of a brand also depends on the actions taken by outside suppliers and marketing partners, firms must manage these relationships carefully. Increasingly, firms have been consolidating their marketing partnerships and reducing the number of their outside suppliers.

This trend has been especially apparent with global advertising accounts, where a number of firms have placed most, if not all, their business with one agency. For example, Colgate-Palmolive has worked largely with just Young & Rubicam, and American Express and IBM with Ogilvy & Mather.

Factors like cost efficiencies, organizational leverage, and creative diversification affect the number of outside suppliers the firm will hire in any one area. From a branding perspective, one advantage of dealing with a single major supplier such as an ad agency is the greater consistency in understanding and treatment of a brand that can result.

Other marketing partners can also play an important role. For example, Chapter 5 described the importance of channel members and retailers in enhancing brand equity and the need for cleverly designed push programs. One important function of having a brand charter or bible is to inform and educate marketing partners so that they can provide more brand-consistent support.