Brand Audit Sprints

I was inspired by a blog by Neal Stewart this week. In short, he did a great job of quick brand audit for Cracker Jack. Based on that, I am going to follow in his footsteps, and do a quick weekly brand audit of a company.

How will this Brand Audit Sprint be different than a regular Brand Audit?

1. First and foremost, where a real Brand Audit would take several weeks to do right, my goal is that these Brand Audits should only take a few hours.
   
2. Also, where a real Brand Audit would include substantial market research, these will rely solely on the social element of the web to provide me user reviews, etc., and consequently give me an indication of the perception of the brand.
   
3. Finally, where a real Brand Audit would require substantial face time with a company's Marketing Department and several of their front-line operations teams, this Brand Audit will only be based on my guesstimates of the company's Marketing Plan and Brand plans.

The outline for the audit will start out as:

• Select a Brand and take or find photos of it in use. Purpose = a Visual "record" of the product.
• Learn about the Company's Strategy by figuring out what I can from publicly available documents (e.g. Annual Reports, etc. from their website). Purpose = a background on what the Brand should reflect.
  
• Analyze Porter's 5 Forces (really briefly). Purpose = A snapshot of Competitors, Substitutes, Suppliers, Customers, Potential for New Entrants
• Research public perception of the Brand & Direct Competitors using the Internet. Purpose = a cheap (and likely poor) substitue for real research
• Review Brand Identity Standards by taking a closer look at the product, it's packaging, it's web-site, and it's advertising. Purpose = a "Guesstimate" at the brand book for the Brand.
• Review Brand Expression at Touch Points: Test out the Brand's 1-800 number, their email, instore, help, etc.. Purpose = Understanding of how Brand is engrained in employees, e-contacts, etc.
• Review Advertising & Promotion including YouTube, Press Releases, any other media campaign I can easily find. In addition I will look for commentary on the Brand's advertising from Marketing and Advertising sites. Purpose = Understanding of how the brand is advertised.
• Evaluate Brand Positioning and Differentiators. Purpose = Understand what "word" the brand owns, and how it supports that differentiation.
• Review brand extensions. Look at how the Brand is used (or misused) on extensions. Purpose = A guess at how and why the company has stretched the Brand assets.
• Summary & Recommendation: After looking at all of that, I will provide my summary and recommendation. Purpose = A bit of satisfaction at a dive into a brand.

"Check this space" frequently to see how the Brand Audit Sprint experiment works out!