How to Conduct a Brand Health Check for Your Business

Your brand is more than just a logo or a product—it’s the essence of your business and the perception that consumers have of it. Just like regular check-ups are essential for maintaining good physical health, conducting a brand health check is crucial for ensuring the long-term success and vitality of your business.

Whether, like some of partners, you are all across this or even if this is all new to you, it’s a good reminder to set aside essential time to health check your brand.

Here are some of the key steps involved in evaluating your brand’s health and diagnosing areas for improvement.

1. Define Your Brand Objectives and Metrics: Start by clearly defining what success looks like for your brand. Establish specific objectives, such as increasing brand awareness, improving customer loyalty, or expanding into new markets. Identify measurable metrics that align with these objectives, such as brand sentiment, customer satisfaction scores, or market share.

2. Assess Brand Perception: Gather feedback from key stakeholders, including customers, employees, and industry experts, to understand how your brand is perceived. Conduct surveys, interviews, and focus groups to gauge brand awareness, perception, and associations. Analyse online reviews, social media mentions, and customer feedback to identify strengths and weaknesses in brand perception.

3. Evaluate Brand Identity and Visual Assets: Review your brand’s visual elements, including logos, color palettes, typography, and imagery, to ensure consistency and alignment with your brand values and positioning. Assess how well these elements reflect your brand personality and resonate with your target audience. Consider conducting a brand audit to identify inconsistencies or areas for improvement.

4. Examine Brand Messaging and Communication: Evaluate the clarity, consistency, and relevance of your brand messaging across all touchpoints, including marketing materials, website content, social media posts, and customer communications. Assess whether your messaging effectively communicates your brand values, benefits, and unique selling proposition. Repetition and simplicity in your messaging is key to your target audience hearing you. Identify any messaging gaps or opportunities for refinement.

5. Analyse Brand Engagement and Customer Experience: Assess the quality of the customer experience at every touchpoint, from initial brand interaction to post-purchase support. Measure customer satisfaction, loyalty, and advocacy through metrics such as Net Promoter Score (NPS) and customer retention rates. Identify pain points in the customer journey and opportunities to enhance brand engagement and loyalty.

6. Aligning with Partners of Shared Values: Evaluate partnerships and collaborations with organisations that share your brand values and contribute positively to your brand image. For example, aligning with a charity like Sydney Dogs & Cats Home not only demonstrates your commitment to social responsibility and will attract and retain engaged staff, but also enhances brand perception among consumers who value animal welfare. Assess the effectiveness of these partnerships in reinforcing your brand values and reaching your target audience.

7. Benchmark Against Competitors: Compare your brand performance against competitors within your industry to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Analyse competitor positioning, messaging, visual identity, and customer perceptions to identify areas where your brand can differentiate and improve.

8. Develop an Action Plan: Based on your brand health assessment, prioritise areas for improvement and develop a comprehensive action plan. Set specific goals, strategies, and tactics for addressing identified weaknesses and capitalising on strengths. Assign responsibilities, allocate resources, and establish timelines for implementation.

I know this is topline and it’s simply meant to be food for thought. Think of it as a reminder to not let your brand health needs become overwhelming. Simply make a start in looking at some of the above. Conducting a brand health check is essential for ensuring that your brand remains relevant, competitive, and resilient in today’s marketplace.

By regularly evaluating key aspects of your brand, identifying areas for improvement, and taking proactive steps to enhance brand health, you can strengthen customer relationships, drive business growth, and position your brand for long-term success. Remember, a healthy brand is a valuable asset that requires ongoing care and attention.

Hope this helps! If you have ideas or steps you’ve taken that have helped your brand, then please share and we can include them in the next newsletter. Email me on karen.kalpage@sdch.org.au

Thank you,

Karen

Karen Kalpage

Head of Fundraising and Marketing

Sydney Dogs & Cats Home

Sydney Dogs & Cats Home partner Benny Button kicks off our Partner Perspective Series with an article on mindfulness to help your staff start their year right:

Being Mindful when ‘Busyness’ is back!

Most of us are coming out of what has hopefully been a restful and replenishing holiday season. But now it’s back to work and the resumption of the ‘norm’ where our modern lives and workplaces are busier than ever.

Before we know it demanding workloads and numerous responsibilities will be filling our calendars and to-do lists to the brink of bursting. The constant flow of information, email, and media competing for our attention at all hours of the day resumes. It’s not hard to see that we can become so busy being busy that we lose sight of what is most important to us, or even lose our sense of self and connection with others.

Our brains do their best to cope with these demands by setting habits of thinking, feeling, deciding and behaving that aim to help us handle our workloads and the high expectations we place on ourselves. It’s like having ‘default settings’ in our brains that guide us to navigate our daily experiences as if we are on autopilot mode.

We can all benefit from making time to slow down and tune into what’s important. We can reawaken our awareness and focus our attention on what matters – taking action mindfully. What’s more, we can practise doing this – even train this capability – because ‘busyness’ has become the default setting and our brains are switching into autopilot mode in an attempt to cope with the demand. This process is mindfulness, and it is something research shows us is incredibly valuable.

While the above context is serious stuff, we can have some fun learning ways to practice mindful awareness and building our attention skills. We can enjoy the process of firing, wiring, and rewiring our brain’s default settings and switching off our autopilot – all while experiencing novel and interesting experiences.

Here are five practical ways to practice mindfulness, each with clear action steps:

1. Mindful Breathing Breaks:

Action: Schedule short breaks (1 to 5 minutes) throughout your workday. During these breaks, focus solely on your breathing. Sit comfortably, close your eyes, and take deep, slow breaths. Concentrate on the sensation of air entering and leaving your nostrils, and the rise and fall of your chest. If your mind wanders, gently bring your focus back to your breath. If you would like an example of a practice watch this instructional video from Dr. Adrian Medhurst. Take a mindful breather

2. Mindful Eating:

Action: Choose one meal or snack each day to eat mindfully. Turn off all distractions like TV or smartphones. Pay attention to the colors, textures, smells, and flavors of your food. Chew slowly, savoring each bite and noticing the sensations and tastes. If you’re up for it take some time to reflect on the journey of the food – from where it was grown to how it was prepared.

3. Mindful Walking:

Action: Dedicate 10-15 minutes a day to go for a mindful walk. This can be done during a break at work or in your neighborhood. Walk slowly and deliberately, noticing each step and the sensations in your feet and legs. Observe your surroundings – the sights, sounds, and smells. Use this time to connect with the environment, allowing your mind to focus on the present moment. Did you know ‘Awe Walking is a thing? Curious? Take a look at this article.

4. Gratitude Journaling:

Action: Each evening, spend a few minutes writing down three things you are grateful for that day. These can be simple things like a sunny day, a productive meeting, or a kind gesture from a colleague. This practice helps to shift focus from the day’s stresses and cultivate a mindset of appreciation and positivity.

5. Mindful Listening:

Action: During conversations, practice fully focusing on the person talking. Put away any distractions, maintain eye contact, and listen without planning your response. Notice the person’s expressions and tone. Be present in the conversation, acknowledging the other person’s feelings and perspectives. This not only enhances your mindfulness but also strengthens your relationships.

Incorporating these practices into your daily routine can help in managing stress, enhancing focus, and maintaining a connection with the present moment as ‘busyness’ kicks back into gear.

Troy Mansell

Co-Founder & Director

Benny Button

www.bennybutton.com

Want to learn more? Talk to Troy at hello@bennybutton.com 

**Benny Button partners with Sydney Dogs & Cats Home to assist staff with wellbeing as well as donating to help lost and unwanted pets.