A brand audit is imperative to understanding how well your brand strategy is resonating with the target audience. The audit breaks down your brand into all of the components (small and large) that make your brand what it is today. Ultimately, every company needs an insightful brand audit to guarantee that they are outcompeting their rivals with a dynamic brand strategy.
Brand audits do not need to be conducted daily, weekly or monthly, but a responsible business owner and marketing team should understand the value of thorough audits. If your sales have slid for a quarter or two and leads never come to fruition, a brand audit should be one of the first things that come to mind. The audit may reveal a foundational element of your brand that may be outdated, targeting the wrong audience, or distracts from your brand positioning.
Your business has a significant reliance on your brand so that you can pull sales in, rather than having to push to get leads. In addition, it is much less expensive to have a returning customer buy more products or services from you than for you to find more clients. Here are the reasons why every company needs an insightful brand audit:
A Brand Audit Reveals Inconsistencies
We must all understand that no brand is foolproof; every company has faults in their brand that may not be apparent during the branding process, but will expose when the industry shifts or when business is slow. We live in a dynamic world where very few things are static entities, and we must be enterprising to keep up with the changing economic climate. However, if a brand audit is never conducted, these faults will be buried beneath all of the components of the brand, and identify the piece(s) that disturb the harmony of the brand positioning. Your company may not be performing up to your standards, and it may not be your sales team or social media presence that is preventing you from beating your budget. The difficult part is arriving at the realization that a motionless and dormant part of your company is the reason behind slow sales. Even if you are uncertain of the reasoning behind a revenue drop, a brand audit can be the first step in the identification process.
To Identify the Core Components of Your Brand
All brands have core components that are absolutely necessary to their brand strategy, and plenty of brands have components that are unnecessary to their brand and disrupt the business’s positioning. Let’s conduct a brief brand audit of a restaurant that can make this point more clear: McDonald’s has core components of their branding in the likes of their logo and color scheme. However, McDonald’s understands that if their supposed low-pricing is in their brand strategy, it devalues their food in the mind’s of the consumer, which will lead to less sales. Their slogan “I’m lovin’ it” is great in that it evokes positive emotions in our minds and makes you go to their restaurant without even thinking of the price.
Your company’s brand has core components– it may be your naming, logo, color scheme, tagline, web design, content and/or typography. But how do you identify the peripheral components that detract from the branding, resulting in lower sales and client acquisition? A branding agency with experience in various industries can conduct a brand audit for you, outlining the core and peripheral fragments, and identifying which of them are necessary.
Mad Mind Studios is a trusted and professional branding agency that specializes in brand audits and has performed them for a variety of companies. A brand audit is often necessary for a rebranding campaign, which may have been on your mind if you are curious about brand auditing. Please feel free to reach out to Mad Mind Studios (310.402.1613) and we can give you a free consultation on how we can best help your firm achieve success.