Management Questions

• Why do customers choose you over competing brands?
  Knowing this enables you to focus on the skills that help you make and keep your promise to the customer.
• Are you competing in the right category?
  To be clear, an example of a category is laptop computers. A brand in that category is Dell. Knowing in which category you compete in the mind of your most profitable customer enables you to strengthen your position in that category. You can strengthen that position by better delivering the benefits your customer receives when they choose you.
• What specific new products and services can you offer?
  Old Coke will not travel to new coke. Yet Virgin can travel from the entertainment industry to the travel industry to the soft drink industry. Brand research will identify the current state of your brand in the minds of your customers and what specific steps are required to move your brand to the desired future state.
• What are the sources of trust employed by a customer when choosing a company like yours?
  When making a buying decision, customers seek out trusted sources, such as colleagues, experts, the Internet or advertising. Brand research can identify those sources and the ways in which your customer prefers to interact with these sources.
• What are the key messages that resonate with your most profitable customers?
  Brand research will provide the specific messages that influence customers. These messages should create differentiation and describe the benefits of ownership.

Source:
Use Market Research to Understand Your Markets. Use Brand Research to Understand Your Customers
by Joseph Benson
The CEO Refresher, October 2005

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• Can everyone define what the brand stands for?
• Is there consistency in what everyone says the brand stands for?
• Is there consistency between what insiders and outsiders are saying?
• Are the words people use to describe what the brand stands for likely to inspire advocacy?
• Do the things that they say support your brand promise really support it?

Source:
Keeping the Brand Healthy: The Annual Brand Checkup
by Mark Shipley
MarketingProfs.com, March 13, 2007

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Do you have a strong brand? Here are some revealing questions that we put our own clients through as we work to understand who they are, and who their customers are, before building a direct marketing strategy.

• If you masked your logo, would customers be able to tell you from the competition by the experience you, your product or your service creates? Could customers tell they were in your facility by the feel, the décor and the way they were treated? A yes indicates a strong brand. A no indicates you have work to do.
• Would your customers readily jilt you for a lower-priced look-alike? A no indicates a strong brand. A yes indicates you have work to do.
• Does your brand pass the “oh come on” test–that is, do people believe your claims, or do they pass them off as empty corporate boasting? A yes, they believe, indicates a strong brand. A no indicates you have work to do.
• If you wrote and framed a summary of your values as you see them, could competitors get away with hanging the same document in their own halls? A no indicates a strong brand. A yes indicates you have work to do.
• Do your employees know, get behind, and help deliver what you stand for? (For that matter, do you?) Don’t let yourself off easy by reassuring yourself that they’ve read the mission statement and can recite your slogan. The question is whether your values have become part of their behavior on the job. A yes indicates a strong brand. A no indicates you have work to do.

Source:
A Direct Marketer Looks at Branding
by Steve Cuno
MarketingProfs.com, November 2, 2004

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