March 26, 2023 2:35PM

Find Out What Your Consumers Think of Your Brand

As a brand owner, it's important to know what your consumers think of your brand. In this guide, we'll explore different methods for gathering feedback and how to use that information to make positive changes for your brand. 

 One of the most effective ways of gathering feedback from your target audience is through brand perception/imagery surveys. Brand perception surveys can provide valuable insights into what your consumers think of your brand, allowing you to make informed decisions about your marketing and branding strategies.  

A brand perception survey is often conducted as part of the Brand Health Tracker, which covers other brand metrics such as Brand Performance. 

 What is Brand Perception? 

​​Brand perception is the way consumers view and interpret your brand. It encompasses everything from your logo, motto, perceived product and service quality, value for money, and many more. It matters because it can impact customer loyalty, sales, and overall success. A positive brand perception can lead to increased customer trust, advocacy and brand equity, while a negative perception can lead to lost sales and a damaged reputation. In today's market, where consumers have access to a wealth of information and options, shaping and maintaining a positive brand perception is more important than ever. 

Brand perception is not just about what you say about your brand, but also about how your customers perceive it. It is shaped by every interaction a customer has with your brand, from the first time they see your logo to the experience they have with your product or service. Positive brand perception can lead to increased customer loyalty, word-of-mouth referrals, and ultimately, increased sales. On the other hand, a negative brand perception can lead to lost customers, negative reviews, and a damaged reputation.  

That's why it's important to consistently deliver on your brand promise and ensure that every touchpoint with your customers is a positive one. By doing so, you can build a strong and positive brand perception that will help you stand out in a crowded market and drive long-term success. 

5 Steps for Conducting a Brand Perception Survey  

Determine your brand imageries 

Before conducting a brand perception survey, it's important to identify which brand imageries that are relevant to your target market. Examples of brand imageries include value for money, premium-ness of your brand, durable products, good service etc.  

If you are unsure of the brand imageries that you should measure, perform qualitative research such as focus groups, in-depth interviews, and social media listening. If you don’t have the budget to conduct qualitative research, you can even interview your friends and family who are target consumers to get an idea of the possible things that they look for when considering your product.  

Determine your closest competitors 

Measuring your own brand imagery score alone will not yield any useful insights unless it is compared against your competitors or the market average. For example, if you were to score 4 out of 5 for brand imagery, but your competitors are scoring more than 4, you are still performing lower than the market average.  

Hence, it is important to also measure your competitor's brand perception to determine the benchmark score. 

Unless you have a large research budget, it is often impossible to compare against all of your competitors in a brand perception survey. Ideally, you should identify 4 – 8 closest competitors that you want to benchmark and compare your brand imagery score against.  

Design your brand perception questionnaire 

After you have determined your list of brand imageries and competitors that you want to compare against, it is time to develop your brand perception questionnaires. There should be a brand perception questionnaire for each brand that you are measuring. For example, if you are measuring against 4 other competitors, you should prepare 5 brand perception questionnaires (1 for your own brand and 4 for your competitors). 

Brand imageries are often measured using Likert scale statements, where we ask consumers their level of agreement towards a statement regarding a brand. For example: “Brand A offers products that have the best value for money”. 

Other than the brand imageries, your questionnaire should include at least one dependent variable to regress against your independent variables (your brand imageries). Regression analysis is often used to determine the correlation between the dependent and the independent variables. The dependent variable is often your overall KPI that determines your overall brand performance, such as the overall satisfaction of your consumers towards a brand, or Net Promoter Score.  

Performing regression analysis allows you to identify the key brand imageries that will most likely affect your overall brand KPI. This will greatly help in developing your brand strategy by focusing on important brand imageries that your brand is weak at. 

Recruit the right participants 

Not everyone is suitable to answer each brand imagery statement. It is important that we recruit the right consumers to answer our brand perception survey to ensure that the data is accurate. To do so, we need to implement a set of screening questions in our questionnaire to screen out respondents who do not qualify for our brand perception surveys. 

The first set of screening questions should be about product category usage to screen out respondents who aren’t our target consumers.  

The second set of screening questions should be about brand awareness to route the appropriate brand perception questionnaire to the respondent. For example, a respondent who is aware of brands A, C, and D should only be asked to answer the brand perception questionnaires for brands A, C, and D. 

The appropriate sample size for the brand perception survey for each brand should be between 80 to 200. 

Analyze and interpret the results 

Once you have collected all the data from your brand perception surveys, it’s time to analyze and interpret the results. Look for patterns and trends in the responses, and identify any areas where your brand may be falling short or excelling. It’s important to not only focus on the overall results but also to break down the data by demographics and behaviours to gain a deeper understanding of your target audience.  

It is important to compare your brand perception score against your competitors to measure your industry’s benchmark for each brand perception and perform a SWOT analysis to identify your brand’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. 

Performing regression analysis on your brand perception data can also help you identify the key brand imageries/traits that will improve your target consumer’s overall satisfaction towards your brand. Prioritize the brand perceptions that are most strongly correlated with overall brand satisfaction when developing your brand strategy. 

Key Tips for Improving Brand Perception 

There are several strategies that businesses can use to improve their brand perception.  

• Consistently deliver high-quality products or services that meet or exceed customer expectations.  
• Actively engage with your customers and respond to their feedback and concerns in a timely and transparent manner.  
• Building a strong online presence through social media and other digital channels can also help to shape and reinforce a positive brand image.  
• Partnering with other reputable brands or organizations can help to enhance your own brand's credibility and reputation. 

By implementing these strategies, businesses can improve their brand perception and build a loyal customer base. 

How can Vodus help you measure your Brand Perception? 

Businesses today are often left wondering what the current health of their brand is. In some cases, marketing campaigns are launched in hope of reviving a brand without fully understanding where a brand is failing or falling behind. At Vodus Research we have developed our own Brand Health Tracking Solution, providing brands with everything they need to know about the current health and performance of their brand, in line with both their competitor's and target audience preferences. 

We help businesses identify what drives consumers to purchase their brand as well as understand areas where a brand can gain more value in the market. 

As one of the leading market research companies in Malaysia, Vodus Research has a wealth of experience and knowledge from working with leading brands across a wide range of industries including FMCG, telecommunications, retail, consumer finance, education, property development and entertainment.   

For more information on how Vodus Research can assist you in your Brand Health Tracking, contact us for a free consultation.