Brand Health Research
Brand health measurement with BrandVision: eight metrics and one brand health score
What is brand health?
Brand health measures how well a brand performs in people’s minds: how many know it, how they feel about it, and whether they would choose it again. Brand health research measures those things in a survey of your market and tracks them over time, so you see the brand getting stronger or weaker before sales move.
At Vision One, we measure brand health with BrandVision, the framework behind our brand tracking services. It scores a brand on eight metrics and combines them into one Brand Equity Score. One of the eight is the Brand Health metric itself: eight brand image attributes, built from two decades of brand and marketing communication evaluation, that transcend markets.
The 8 components of the Brand Health metric
- Brand Identity – Is your brand identity clear?
- Brand Noise – Is your brand grabbing people’s Attention?
- Newsworthy – Is your brand worth talking about?
- Outstanding – Do you offer exceptional Quality or Value?
- Variety – Is your brand Flexible, with more than one use or benefit?
- Accessible – Is your brand readily available and Convenient?
- On Trend – Is your brand Topical and current?
- Ethical – Is your brand seen as doing the right things?
Brand health metrics: the measures that matter
Every brand is unique, so there are countless things you could measure. Not all of them matter. Years of brand tracking data come down to eight brand health metrics on the Brand Equity Wheel, grouped into four themes:
- Salience: Mindshare (spontaneous and prompted awareness) and Brand Magnetism (appeal and interest)
- Energy: brand momentum (growth potential) and Brand Health (the eight image attributes above)
- Delight: Brand Emotion and Brand Love (relevance, need and trust)
- Status: Net Promoter Score and Brand Fame (uniqueness and leadership)
The eight combine into the Brand Equity Score, the single brand health score we track from wave to wave. Alongside them sits the brand funnel: awareness, interest, trial, satisfaction and loyalty, which shows where people drop out.
A brand that is recognisable and memorable, stands out, and is seen to do the right thing scores well on all four themes. That is what a healthy brand looks like in the numbers.
How do you measure brand health? The brand health survey in five steps
Brand health is measured by a survey of your target market, not your customers, so people who don’t know you or have stopped choosing you are counted.
The same questions, asked the same way, wave after wave. That consistency is what turns a brand health survey into brand health measurement.
One survey. Eight metrics. One score.
Define the market and the competitors
Who should be choosing you, and who else they choose. The sample is drawn from that market, and the competitor set is measured on the same questions, so every score has a benchmark.
Ask the eight metrics, in the right order
Start with spontaneous and prompted awareness, then appeal, momentum, image attributes, emotion, recommendation and leadership. Unprompted questions come before prompted ones so the answers stay clean.
Add the funnel and the diagnostics
Interest, trial, satisfaction and loyalty, plus the brand image statements, so you know not only how healthy the brand is but why.
Set the sample and the frequency
A sample sized for the segments you need to report on. Quarterly or continuous tracking for brands with ongoing media, a pre and post wave around a campaign, an annual benchmark for smaller brands.
Score and report
The eight metrics roll up into the Brand Equity Score. Results go into a brand health dashboard with trend lines, competitor and segment comparisons, and the metric to fix first.
Brand health analysis: from scorecard to revenue
The scores are the start. Brand health analysis is about what moves them and what they move: which metric explains the sales trend, which segment is slipping, which competitor is taking the momentum.
Two questions come up in almost every debrief: which brand health metrics prove the brand is contributing to growth, and how do you connect brand health to revenue. Both have answers.
One page per wave: the Brand Equity Score, the eight metrics with movement since the last wave, the funnel conversion rates, and the same for each competitor. A brand health report that needs twenty pages to find the point is not doing its job.
Brand Momentum and the awareness-to-interest conversion. Momentum is a better indicator of growth than virtually any other consumer metric, including Net Promoter Score, because it measures whether people see the brand rising or declining. When momentum and interest move before sales do, the brand is doing the work.
Attach spend to the funnel. Each stage holds a number of people and an average spend, so moving a share of satisfied customers into loyal ones has a cash value. Then read the brand health metrics as the drivers of that movement. In our tracking data, Relevance, part of Brand Love, is the metric most closely correlated with behaviour.
Awareness tells you how many people have heard of you, not how many want you. The measures most trackers skip are Magnetism (appeal), Brand Love (relevance, need and trust), Fame (uniqueness and leadership) and the eight image attributes. They explain why a known brand is not chosen.
Brand health research vs brand health tracking: which do you need?
Brand health research is a study: one wave that shows how healthy the brand is now, against competitors and by segment. Brand health tracking repeats it, so you can see the direction. A brand health assessment usually starts with the first; brands with ongoing media move to the second.
Brand health research
A one-off brand health study or assessment: baseline scores, competitor benchmark, segment gaps and the metric to work on first. Quoted fixed before work begins.
Brand health tracking
The same survey in waves or continuously, reported in a live dashboard, so every campaign and every competitor move shows up in the next wave.
Brand equity measurement
Brand health is one lens on brand equity. The full Brand Equity Wheel, the score and every metric page sit on the brand equity measurement page.
How the framework came together: BrandVision and brand health.
How Vision One reports brand health
Every BrandVision brand health report includes:
- The Brand Equity Score and the eight metrics, with movement since the last wave
- The brand funnel with conversion rates between stages
- Competitor benchmarks on the same questions, in the same wave
- Segment scores: region, age, customer and non-customer, buyer type
- The eight image attributes behind the Brand Health metric
- A live dashboard, a written debrief and the two or three actions that matter
- ISO 20252:2012 accredited, MRS Company Partners, rated 9.4 out of 10 by UK research buyers
Brand health research starts from £8,000 as part of brand tracking; we quote a fixed prices before work begins. Download the brand tracking guide for the questions, sample sizes and reporting to expect.
Essential Brand Metrics – part of our BrandVision framework
Running brand tracking surveys over time will help you spot trends and act faster. But you’ll need to measure more than brand metrics if you want truly actionable research, so welcome to BrandVision.
Tab Contents
Welcome to BrandVision
Metrics to Turbo Charge any Brand Strategy
BrandVision is our flexible brand evaluation system, customised to your needs. From self-serve to fully managed, BrandVision offers tracking for brands of all shapes and sizes.
Brand Momentum
Discover the power of Brand Velocity.
Brand Velocity is part of Brand Momentum theory and refers to the growth potential for your brand and its likely future trajectory. Velocity measures the extent to which your brand is seen to be growing or declining.
Brand Momentum is a KPI driven by your marketing investment, product availability, brand image and your brand proposition and positioning.
Brand Momentum is a better indicator of growth than virtually any other consumer metric. Its role is far more important than the highly regarded Net Promoter Score because it is a better predictor of growth and growth potential than any other brand metric.
Brand Magnetism
Awareness alone is pointless if your brand doesn’t possess Brand Magnetism.
Part of the Brand Funnel, Magnetism refers to the attraction your brand has with the target market.
There are two aspects to brand Magnetism. Firstly, the strength of the brand’s appeal and interest. Secondly, it is about the segments and groups interested in the brand. Understanding who is and isn’t interested in your brand is the first step in creating a strong marketing and brand strategy.
Brand Magnetism is the holy grail for many brands, as it is often associated with some of the best and most iconic brands in history.
Brand Fame
What is Brand Fame?
Brand Fame (also known as brand leadership) is one of the key metrics that indicate whether or not your brand has a USP and is seen by consumers as a ‘Leader’, ‘Different’ or ‘Characterless’.
There are two very important aspects to Brand Fame: Uniqueness & Leadership. Brands that lack either of these attributes tend to struggle, with little to set them apart from competitors.
A great example of this is people’s desire to own the Apple brand. The high levels of Fame (Distinctiveness and Leadership) correlate strongly with Brand Love and Consumer Loyalty, which have ultimately helped drive Apple’s dominant position in the market.
Brand Love
The Power of Love
The concept of Love in brand relationships has been receiving immense and escalating attention. It is considered by many experts as the essential ingredient for capitalising in today’s new order.
Brand Love underpins the consumer-brand relationship. It’s not an emotional or fluffy metric, but rather the holy trinity of brand metrics, combining three powerful metrics: Relevance, Need, and Trust.
Evaluation of brand tracking data has taught us, time and time again, that Relevance is arguably the most important metric of all – and is highly correlated with consumer behaviour.
Net Promoter Score
The Recommended Metric
Net Promoter Score was initially developed in 2003 by Bain & Co to help companies earn customer loyalty and inspire employees.
NPS is an important part of consumer research for many companies, as it is a measure used to gauge customer loyalty, satisfaction, and enthusiasm for a company
Further research by Nielsen has supported the metric, confirming that word of mouth is the most influential factor in consumers’ purchasing decisions.
Awareness & Mindshare
The Battle for the Mind
Many marketers believe Brand Awareness is a single metric – in truth, it’s a lot more complex than that! As experts in brand awareness measurement, we’d like to explain why.
Behavioural Economics has shown the importance of Availability Bias and that winning customers’ choices means being front of mind. Brand Awareness metrics include: Prompted Brand Awareness, Brand Recognition and Brand Recall. Together, we call it Mindshare.
Brand Health
8 Secrets to a Healthy Brand
- The 8 Essential brand image metrics are:
2. Ethical – Are you seen to be doing the right things?
3. Brand Identity -Does your Brand identity have Clarity?
4. Brand Noise – Is your brand grabbing people’s Attention?
5. Newsworthy – Is your brand worth talking about?
6. Outstanding – Do you offer exceptional Quality or Value?
7. Variety – Is your brand flexible and has multiple uses or benefits?
8. Accessible – Is your brand Readily Available and Convenient?
On Trend – Is your brand Topical & Current?
Latest Client Testimonials
Salcombe Gin (Alcoholic Drinks)
Vision One were excellent to work with throughout the process. They understood our brand and its needs and took on feedback to make changes where necessary. We’re very happy with the level of insight gained.
Silentnight (Beds, Mattresses and Sleep)
Vision One’s BrandVision has given us new and powerful insights – helping us understand our brand health and shape our strategic decisions going forward.
Vision One were an absolute pleasure to work with and I would highly recommend them to anyone looking for a strategic thinking market research agency. They had great client relations, they bought creative ideas to the table, and delivered on the strategic insight we needed.
I just want to say thank you so much for the brilliant presentation yesterday. The work you’ve done has really hit home, which will make a massive difference to our work. We’re really grateful!
They are methodical in their approach, always looking for the best way to approach a particular area, and genuinely go the extra mile for their clients. I have recommended them to other businesses seeking their expertise
From enquiring about our research project they sought to really understand our questions and needs. Results were delivered really quickly, managers were friendly, professional & always on hand.
I have thoroughly enjoyed working with Vision One. They are very helpful, knowledgeable and approachable. I would definitely recommend their services.
Brand case studies
A range of our brand and branding market research case studies
Recent Case Studies
Can we help?
Brand health is one of the core brand metrics we use in BrandVision – our market-leading brand health tracking tool.
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Q&A Vision One’s brand health research solutions
Brand health is how well a brand is doing in people’s minds: whether they know it, how they feel about it and whether they would choose it over the alternatives. It is measured by survey among the market, not only customers, and compared with competitors. A healthy brand is known, wanted and recommended, and the numbers hold up wave after wave.
A brand health score is a single number that summarises the brand’s standing across several metrics. At Vision One it is the Brand Equity Score, which combines the eight metrics on the Brand Equity Wheel: Mindshare, Magnetism, Momentum, Brand Health, Emotion, Love, Net Promoter Score and Fame. The value of the score is the trend and the comparison with competitors, not the number on its own.
In BrandVision, eight: Mindshare and Magnetism (Salience), Momentum and Brand Health (Energy), Emotion and Love (Delight), Net Promoter Score and Fame (Status). The Brand Health metric itself scores eight image attributes: identity, noise, newsworthy, outstanding, variety, accessible, on trend and ethical. The brand funnel sits alongside, showing conversion from awareness to loyalty.
With a survey of a representative sample of your target market, asked the same questions in the same order each wave, with your main competitors measured alongside. Unprompted questions come first, then prompted, then the diagnostic and image questions. The metrics are scored, combined into a brand health score and reported with trend lines, competitor benchmarks and segment comparisons.
Quarterly or continuously for brands with ongoing media spend, so a change in the numbers can be connected to what caused it. A pre and post wave around a campaign shows what the activity bought. For smaller brands an annual brand health assessment is the minimum, and the method must not change between waves or the trend is lost.
Brand equity is the value a brand adds: how much more people prefer it, pay for it and stay with it than they would an unbranded alternative. Brand health is the condition of the brand in people’s minds that produces that value. Vision One measures both with the same eight metrics; brand health is the diagnosis, brand equity is the result.
A brand health index is the single score; a scorecard is the one-page view of the score, the metrics behind it and their movement since the last wave, with the competitors on the same page. Together they let a marketing director see in a minute whether the brand is strengthening, where it is leaking and which metric to work on first.
Yes, through the funnel and the drivers. Each funnel stage holds a number of people and an average spend, so moving people from satisfied to loyal has a cash value. Brand Momentum predicts growth better than any other consumer metric in our data, and Relevance, part of Brand Love, is the metric most closely correlated with buying behaviour.
Yes. B2B brand health research surveys decision-makers and influencers in the buying centre rather than consumers, with samples drawn from business panels and customer lists. The eight metrics are the same, the categories are narrower and the samples smaller, so we size the study to the segments you need to report on and add corporate reputation measures where they matter.
Brand health monitoring usually means continuous signals such as social listening, reviews and search trends, read between survey waves. Brand health research is the survey itself: a representative sample, consistent questions and competitor benchmarks. Monitoring shows the conversation; research shows the market. Vision One uses both, with monitoring filling the gaps between waves.
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