By Jacob Holst Mouritzen, Partner, Holst Mouritzen – part of Obsidian
Most companies that run a brand tracker get a report a few times a year with awareness figures, a funnel and a handful of image statements. The numbers go up a little or down a little, and the report is filed. The real question is rarely asked: did the tracker help anyone make a better decision?
In this guide we explain what a brand tracker is, what it should measure, and how you design one that shows where your growth can come from – and whether the strategy you have chosen is actually moving you there.
What a brand tracker is – and what it is not
A brand tracker is a recurring survey that follows how your brand is positioned in the market over time, compared with your competitors. The same core questions are asked of the same type of respondents at fixed intervals, so changes can be compared from one wave to the next.
A good brand tracking study typically follows awareness, the associations people have with the brand, consideration, the barriers that stop people choosing you, and reported behaviour. It shows the position of the brand in people's minds.
What a brand tracker is not: a sales report or a campaign effect study. A tracker tells you how your position develops. It cannot on its own tell you what a specific campaign caused. We return to that point below, because it is where many trackers are misread.
Start with the strategy, not the questionnaire
The most common mistake is to start with a standard questionnaire. The result is a tracker that measures everything a little and answers nothing in particular.
We turn it around and ask one question first: what should be different in the market if the strategy succeeds?
From there the design work is concrete:
- Go through the growth targets and the strategic choices you have made.
- Specify who needs to change behaviour – for example more of the category's buyers, not just your existing customers.
- Decide what the brand should be known and remembered for.
- Give every central metric a job: either to follow a desired change or to support a specific decision.
- Agree who uses the answer, and when you follow up.
When a metric has no owner and no decision attached to it, it is usually a candidate for removal.
Awareness is not the same as being remembered
Knowing a brand and thinking of it when the need arises are two different things. Many people may recognise your logo, but the question that matters commercially is whether you come to mind in the situations where the category is bought.
That is why modern brand tracking increasingly measures the link between the brand and concrete buying situations, often called Category Entry Points. A buying situation contains a need, a time and a reason to buy – for instance "I need to find something easy for dinner on the way home".
We go deeper into this method, including how to calculate mental penetration and mental market share, in our article on Category Entry Points and mental market share.
The core metrics in a brand tracker
Which questions belong in your tracker depends on your category and strategy. Most good trackers cover four perspectives:
- Memory: Do people know you, and do they think of you in the relevant buying situations? This covers awareness and the associations to buying situations, and it shows where the brand stands mentally against competitors.
- Evaluation: What speaks for and against you? What buyers emphasise, how they rate you, and which barriers – price, availability, trust – they experience.
- Recognition: Can people see that it is you? Whether your colours, symbols and other distinctive assets are recognised and linked to your brand. That helps decide which elements you should use consistently – a natural input to your creative strategy.
- Word of mouth: What do buyers hear about you? Positive and negative mentions and the buyers' own experiences.
It also matters how a question is asked. If respondents see a list of brands, you measure aided awareness or associations. Without a list you measure spontaneous recall. Both are useful, but they answer different questions, so the method should be chosen and described so the results are read correctly.
Ask the right part of the market
A tracker that only surveys your own customers tells you very little about growth. To see where you can grow, you need to include the buyers you could win – including people who rarely or never buy from you today.
The sample should fit the growth task and provide a useful basis for comparison against competitors. In B2B and membership markets it is especially important to define who buys, who influences and who makes the decision. Recruiting respondents can be harder there, so the level of ambition must match the data that can realistically be collected. If B2B is your world, see how we work with B2B marketing.
How often to measure – and how many responses you need
There is no universal answer. Frequency depends on how fast your market moves and how often you need to make decisions.
Three principles help:
- A fixed core: Keep a stable core of questions so development is comparable. New strategic questions can be added as modules.
- Visible method changes: If you change wording, sample or method, make it visible – otherwise you risk reading a method change as a market change.
- Enough responses: Frequent measurements require enough answers to separate real development from random fluctuation. Sample size and frequency should match the changes you want to be able to detect and act on.
Agree a baseline, a target and a time horizon up front. Then everyone knows what "good" looks like before the first results arrive.
Read the tracker together with sales and customer data
An uplift in the tracker can be a good sign. But to judge its commercial meaning, you also need to look at customers, sales, prices and availability.
- The brand tracker follows the position: development in awareness, associations, consideration and reported behaviour.
- Sales and customer data follow the business: whether you gain new customers, more purchases or different earnings.
- Effect measurement examines the cause: if the question is what an activity created, you may need control groups, geographic tests or sales modelling such as marketing mix modelling.
A change in the tracker cannot on its own be attributed to a specific campaign. And if more people link you to the relevant buying situations but customer acquisition stands still, the next step is to examine distribution and buying barriers – a concrete task for sales and marketing.
Checklist: does your current tracker help you decide?
If you already have a brand tracker, these questions are a quick health check:
- Can you name the strategic choice each core metric follows?
- Does the sample include the buyers you want to win, not just current customers?
- Do you measure the brand in concrete buying situations, not only general awareness?
- Is it clear whether results are aided or spontaneous?
- Are method changes documented?
- Is there an agreed follow-up: who acts on the results, and when?
If several answers are "no", the tracker is probably producing numbers rather than decisions. An existing design can often be reviewed and linked more closely to the strategy – also when the data comes from your current research partner. Strategy and measurement belong together; read more about our work with digital strategy and strategic planning.
Talk to us about your brand tracking
Jacob Holst Mouritzen and Holst Mouritzen – part of Obsidian – have more than 10 years of experience with brand tracking across markets. The same team works with design, analysis and advice, and goes through the results with the people who will use them. Our dedicated brand tracker site is currently in Danish, so the easiest way in is to contact us and ask for Jacob Holst Mouritzen as your expert.
FAQ about brand trackers
What does a brand tracker cost?
The price mainly depends on markets, target groups, number of responses and measurement frequency, as well as how much analysis and advice you need. A concrete proposal is possible once those questions are clarified.
How often should we run brand tracking?
It depends on how fast your market moves and how often you make decisions. Frequent waves require enough responses to separate real development from random fluctuation.
Can you track B2B and membership brands?
Yes. It is especially important to define who buys, influences and decides, and to adjust the ambition to the data that can be collected in small or hard-to-reach target groups.
What is the difference between aided and unaided awareness?
Aided awareness is measured with a list of brands in front of the respondent. Unaided (spontaneous) awareness is measured without a list and shows which brands people recall on their own.
Is brand tracking the same as measuring campaign effect?
No. A tracker follows the brand's position over time. To establish what a specific activity caused, you need methods such as control groups, geographic tests or marketing mix modelling.
What do we get delivered?
A full process typically includes design, data collection, analysis, a presentation of conclusions and recommendations, and a meeting about what they mean for you. A dashboard and ongoing advice can be included.
