Our Customized (and Predictive) Brand Knowledge and Metrics

Brand Keys assessments can help to reduce risk and guarantee success for your brand. We can provide solutions to virtually any marketing or branding problem and can even optimize knowledge and insights by "overlaying" loyalty and engagement measures onto research you currently have in place.

Our areas of specialization include:

Brand Equity and Brand Strategy

Brand Keys provides customized and predictive solutions to develop, launch, and grow brands. Working closely with clients, we design research programs to position brands for immediate consumer engagement, short-term improvements, and long-term value.

Every Brand Keys study identifies real-world Category Drivers that precisely describe how consumers will view a category, how they will compare offerings, and, ultimately, how they will buy (and buy again).

Whatever your immediate needs, these assessments provide the underpinnings for you to position your brand to meet or exceed consumers' expectations in your category – which is the true definition of "brand equity." Our insights provide an accurate view of the current state of your brand plus a predictive rationale for decision-making. Specific services include:

• Brand equity measures
• Brand strategy development
• Marketing strategy optimization
• Brand audits
• Brand positioning
• Brand strategy development
• Brand implementation
• Brand architectures
• Co-branding activities
 

Brand Messaging and Communication Development

Recent marketing history is littered with failed "Field of Dreams" messaging and communication programs built on the conviction that "if we build it, they will buy it." Well, in many instances they built it… and nobody came.

With Brand Keys assessments, you'll know in advance which messages will work and which will not; in addition to identifying which messages will differentiate your brand from the competition, we'll also identify what consumers are willing to believe about the brand, and where the brand might be profitably taken. These insights and assessments can be applied to both external and internal constituencies to guarantee engagement, understanding, and motivation. Specific services include:

• Message development
• Brand differentiation
• Brand extensions
• Brand innovation
• Brand projection into "white space"
• Internal brand alignment
 

Media and Touch Point Optimization

Today there are more media touch points than any single brand can invest in. Wouldn't it save your organization time and money if you could identify in advance those touch points with the highest likelihood of engaging your customers and potential customers?

Brand Keys has developed a best-in-class, leading-edge and leading-indicator media/touch-point optimization process we call Brand-to-Media Engagement, or B2ME. It's a quantitatively rigorous, empirical system that charts the precise effects on awareness, brand image, brand equity, and purchase behavior that are directly attributable to a brand's placement/appearance in a particular media vehicle.

The B2ME assessment provides you with the ability to plan to strategy, optimize brand implementation strategies, and measure current – and future – performance of your brand and marketing investments. B2ME assessments are available for:

• Traditional above- and below-the-line media
• New media and technologies (including Buzz, Word-of-Mouth, and Experiential Branding)
• Internet
• Sponsorship and brand entertainment
• Celebrity spokespersons
• Licensing opportunities
• Co-branding activities
• In-store promotions & sampling
• Cross-media usage
• Integrated marketing
• Internal marketing
 

Tracking and Marketplace Metrics

Brand Keys measures are different from traditional research methodologies in that they accurately predict the direction and velocity of category and customer values 12 to 18 months ahead of traditional market measures. However, when you employ our metrics you do not have to deconstruct or reinvent your current approach. Our assessments can be seamlessly inserted into your existing measurement programs to provide predictive insights that optimize and extend your evaluations; in some instances we can even streamline existing research efforts.

Using Brand Keys' metrics in conjunction with your traditional research approaches gives you the tools to comprehensively and efficiently evaluate the effectiveness of your marketing programs. We can address or help optimize any of the following:

• Tracking studies
• Segmentation studies
• Media and communication tracking
• Customer brand experience
• Trend identification
• Strategic dashboard design and implementation
• Strategic score-card design and implementation
• Customer satisfaction
 

Marketing Accountability and ROI

In a tougher, more-commoditized, less-differentiated marketplace, the Executive Suite, CFOs, and shareholders are all demanding that marketers demonstrate respectable returns from branding and marketing investments.

The Brand Keys methodology provides marketers with the most accurate and predictive measures available.

A study by Aquetong Capital Advisors, an independent business equity firm, examined Brand Keys assessments in 10 product and service categories and found correlations with company value that ranged from .830 to .901. For additional in-market verification, see these additional in-market validity studies in our Brand-to Media Engagement section of our web site.

Employing truly predictive assessments allows you to calculate your return on (brand) equity, or ROE. It's a parallel measure to your company's price/earnings ratio, or P/E, which links share capital with net profits. As every marketer knows, a high P/E ratio signals a high confidence in increased future benefits. The same can be determined for a brand's equity:

For clients with a passion for diagnostics, the Brand Keys brand equity measures can be configured not only by category drivers but also by individual category or brand values.

Bottom line: Evaluations of your customers' nontransactional-but-highly-correlated-to-sales reactions via loyalty and engagement metrics can be precisely applied to:

• Marketing accountability
• Overall brand equity measures
• Return on investment (roi)
• Return on equity (roe)
• Maximizing brand value
• Creating new revenue streams
• Integration of loyalty and engagement assessments with transaction data