Brand tracking

Marcos Richardson
Director at WebtraffIQ

21 October 2002 15:07pm

Hello,

[Would like to open a discussion]

Admittedly, I have a direct motive... WebtraffIQ is planning to move into the 'branding arena' with an innovative Brand Tracking' solution. Also, the WebtraffIQ 'insignia' is IQ as such we are looking to build on this value.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You will all agree that the Internet has revolutionised the measurement of marketing initiatives. You probably also agree that the one thing that still eludes measurement is 'Brand'

We are in the web metrics industry of which the business output/benefit is the measurement of website usability and online marketing initiatives. There is a crossover from traditional above, below and through-the-line (online - offline) marketing measurement techniques. This is mostly from measuring response online to offline marketing initiatives.

The one thing that still eludes definitive measurement due to the personal nature of the interaction is 'Brand Tracking' - Measurement of efficiency, effectiveness and values through perception and feeling is unattainable without direct questions and answers. For us this is where the future discussion on Web metrics lies.

Do you agree - if not why not? If so, How??

Thank you in advance for any responses ...

Marcos
Ashley Friedlein Staff
CEO at Econsultancy

21 October 2002 18:31pm

Hi Marcos

Sounds interesting. A few things spring to mind:

1. How exactly are you planning to do the ‘brand tracking’? You mention “direct questions and answers”. Do you mean online surveys of representative panels? Other people are doing things like tracking mentions of brand’s names, products or services in discussion forums and the like.

2. I think brand tracking is important for the web a) because it is not being done very well at the moment and b) because it ties into ‘traditional’ offline practices which means marketers will understand it and are more likely to make it part of their overall mix (read budget…).

In terms of it being “where the future discussion on Web metrics lies” – yes, it is likely to become an increasingly popular discussion topic but it clearly isn’t ‘the answer’ silver-bullet style. It will be one tool of many at a marketer’s disposal. It is good for some things, less so for others.

3. I’m sure you are aware that “tracking”, “brand tracking” etc. have long been terms in use by market research companies, strategic planning agencies, ad agencies and so on. In my experience people coming from an ‘interactive’ background have a somewhat different understanding of ‘tracking’ to these guys.

Would a marketer come to someone like you for brand tracking (albeit online) or would they stick to their ad agency who has been doing it offline for ages and can now do it online too? I’m interested how you would position yourself here – would you white label your service? How would you compete say with http://www.millwardbrown.com/html/solutions/

Regards

Ashley
Marcos Richardson
Director at WebtraffIQ

22 October 2002 16:36pm

1.) A simple description of how we are going to do it and what you will get...

Once every day (or couple of days) our server asks various powerful search engines to perform a search (spider) for your 'brand name' and WebtraffIQ uses the results to provide the following stats:

- Increase / decrease in listings
- Top key words associated with the brand
- Change in key words associated (e.g. compare with last week)
- The number of links to the Brand’s web site

This provides the Brand Owner with information about:

- The brand’s “weight”
- Word associations
- Brand performance

As a separate initiative we will also display and send out an Online Questionnaire.

Our online questionnaire will not only be asking pertinent questions of brand recognition and asking indirect question to find the underling thought of a brand but also tracking the questionnaire itself and all of its constituent parts.

2.) I agree that it is only one of many areas of interest to marketers. I am suggesting that Brand is the most difficult to track and therefore, should be the definitive area for future development and discussion for Web analytics professionals.

3.) We view all above, below and through-the-line marketing/Ad agencies as potential ‘partners’.

Re: - Competing against Millward Brown… As an open source solution our only constraint is the lack of ideas!

Regards…

Marcos
Janet Grimes
Partner at Janet Grimes Strategy & Planning

25 October 2002 10:29am

Marcus,
I applaud your intentions and understand the hard measures you propose to collect but I'm not sure what you mean by the on-line "brand recognition" questionnaire - my understanding of "brand tracking" is very particular. My assumption would be that you are talking about trying to get a constant measurement of how consumers value the brand in question. Is the questionnaire you propose directed at users, consumers of the brand, customers or brand owners? I would suggest that brand owners are the last people who should be asked to evaluate the performance of their own brand - it should be the consumers of it.

I would be interested to see the questions you propose to use - there are some tried and tested off-line brand tracking methodologies which could inform on-line brand tracking but should not be done in isolation. This in turn is usually added to some harder measures to try and judge brand value on the books as well as to evaluate the communications media used. There are however some massive R&D holes yet to be filled which I refer to later.

As you say it is something that the on-line world has been lax in doing. The massive assumptions that eyeballs, visits and traffic per se automatically lead to sales or responses in that medium only is a very sloppy one. Tracking how the communication impacts on the customer both short AND long term, but more particularly how that relates to on-line AND off-line feelings and behaviour has not really been done well. Many research companies, Millward Brown included, assume that ALL you have to do is apply the same questioning and measuring techniques to each medium. What they fail to do is examine how all the different communications interact and what the cumulative effect is. The only technique that attempts to value each communication is econometric modelling and while this can give clues as to the significance of each channel it adds nothing to understanding.

I think it is critical that any on-line brand measurement technique takes cognisance of how the medium fits within the whole marketing, communications and sales channel scenario and does not simply try to measure what an individual is doing on-line at that moment. The technique should also allow research comparability across these other media, using the brand value and attitude statements that are used in other research studies. This means that a "standard" approach simply won't work. It may produce a nice neat table of comparisons between one brand and another in that medium but it won't give brand owners the answers they really want. That is "has my money been well spent", "what is the change in behaviour and value of my customers as a result" and "what is the opportunity cost of spending my budget in this way".

A very interesting debate.
Regards
Janet Grimes

On 16:36:14 22 October 2002 marcos wrote:
>1.) A simple description of how we are going to do it and
>what you will get...
>
>Once every day (or couple of days) our server asks various
>powerful search engines to perform a search (spider) for
>your 'brand name' and WebtraffIQ uses the results to
>provide the following stats:
>
>- Increase / decrease in listings
>- Top key words associated with the brand
>- Change in key words associated (e.g. compare with last
>week)
>- The number of links to the Brand’s web site
>
>This provides the Brand Owner with information about:
>
>- The brand’s “weight”
>- Word associations
>- Brand performance
>
>As a separate initiative we will also display and send out
>an Online Questionnaire.
>
>Our online questionnaire will not only be asking pertinent
>questions of brand recognition and asking indirect
>question to find the underling thought of a brand but also
>tracking the questionnaire itself and all of its
>constituent parts.
>
>2.) I agree that it is only one of many areas of interest
>to marketers. I am suggesting that Brand is the most
>difficult to track and therefore, should be the definitive
>area for future development and discussion for Web
>analytics professionals.
>
>3.) We view all above, below and through-the-line
>marketing/Ad agencies as potential ‘partners’.
>
>Re: - Competing against Millward Brown… As an open
>source solution our only constraint is the lack of ideas!
>
>Regards…
>
>Marcos
Marcos Richardson
Director at WebtraffIQ

25 October 2002 13:18pm

Thanks for your input Janet,

The questionnaire is to be directed at users, consumers of the brand, customers and brand owners.

I am interested to know why you suggest Brand owners should be at the bottom of the list, is this because you think they can’t be impartial about their own Brand?

I think ‘Branding’ as part of the whole marketing mix should be ingrained within the Brand owner’s organisation (all staff) as well as pushed and measured to external target groups. The stronger the internal understanding of your own Brand objective and the attention given to it the stronger the Brand values and messages sent out to external consumers will be.

Re:- Your points on traditional off-line and new on-line measurement techniques needing to be directly correlated to each other. I agree with you entirely that they ‘should not be looked at in isolation’. WebtraffIQ is primarily an online measurement tool and we hope to bridge this gap in the coming months.

Below is the intended 'Brand' questionnaire, it is meant to be quite comprehensive and at the same time short and simple.

This not only has our Form Tracking built in but will also be correlated to various other reports that we produce. […]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Selectable answers: -
Don’t know, never or seldom true, sometimes true, almost always true, always true
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. We actively investigate what is important to our customers, using research, face to face interviews, questionnaires, suggestion boxes, etc.
2. We understand how our customers feel about our products and services.
3. We judge the effectiveness of our brand in terms of how it looks and feels to our customers – not how it seems to us.
4. We understand the attitudes of our customers and their changing views and needs.
[Historical index Branding reports & Brand performance Reports]
5. We don’t have to discount prices in order to attract and keep our customers.
[Historical e-commerce report]
6. Our customers can state quite clearly and simply what is important about our brand to them and why they think it is different.
We have aligned our organisational structure, operations and culture with our brand values.
7. We understand in our own minds what differentiates our brand from our competitors.
[Search Engine Key word report, The brand’s "weight", Word associations reports]
8. Everyone in our organisation knows what our brand stands for and can articulate that idea simply and clearly.
9. We receive regular internal communications detailing what our brand is about.
[WT admin – permissions function]
10. We protect the company’s brand
[Negative key word associations]
11. Details of our brand and the strategy that drives it are well documented and that information is available to those who need and desire it.
[Historical data]
12. All key stakeholders are involved in our brand creation process.
[WT admin – permissions function]
13. Our company has systems in place for carefully monitoring the appropriateness, timeliness, integration and consistency of our branded communications.
14. Our brand includes not just our core organisation but also our partners and key third party suppliers.
[Partner Referrals report]
15. We regard our brand agency(ies) as our strategic partner(s) and actively involve them in organisational and communications planning and review sessions.
16. Our marketing and communications team have an integrated understanding of our brand and are in constant communication over brand-related activities and issues.
17. The consistency of our brand is paramount. It reaches way beyond just tactical brand campaigns and it is deeper than even key personnel changes.
18. We review our brand and what it stands for with all our agencies at least
19. If our brand did not exist, the vast majority of our customers would notice our absence and really miss having us in their lives.

Do these questions cover the most important areas for achieving a good understanding of user, consumer of the brand, customer and brand owner behavior and perception?

Would on going results from such a survey be of interest to you? Would you pay for it? Do you believe that Brand ROI will be gained from using this data?

Regards…

Marcos
Marcos Richardson
Director at WebtraffIQ

25 October 2002 18:23pm

The below posted questionnaire is targeted to the internal Marketing department of a prospective client for WebtraffIQ. It’s the first step in understanding and comparing internal and external perception of ‘Brand’.

The second questionnaire that I will post on this forum will be similar but tailored/targeted to clients of the company in question.

Regards…

Marcos

On 13:18:38 25 October 2002 marcos wrote:
>Thanks for your input Janet,
>
>The questionnaire is to be directed at users, consumers of
>the brand, customers and brand owners.
>
>I am interested to know why you suggest Brand owners
>should be at the bottom of the list, is this because you
>think they can’t be impartial about their own Brand?
>
>
>I think ‘Branding’ as part of the whole
>marketing mix should be ingrained within the Brand
>owner’s organisation (all staff) as well as pushed
>and measured to external target groups. The stronger the
>internal understanding of your own Brand objective and the
>attention given to it the stronger the Brand values and
>messages sent out to external consumers will be.
>
>Re:- Your points on traditional off-line and new on-line
>measurement techniques needing to be directly correlated
>to each other. I agree with you entirely that they
>‘should not be looked at in isolation’.
>WebtraffIQ is primarily an online measurement tool and we
>hope to bridge this gap in the coming months.
>
>Below is the intended 'Brand' questionnaire, it is meant
>to be quite comprehensive and at the same time short and
>simple.
>
>This not only has our Form Tracking built in but will also
>be correlated to various other reports that we produce.
>[…]
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>Selectable answers: -
>Don’t know, never or seldom true, sometimes true,
>almost always true, always true
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>1. We actively investigate what is important to our
>customers, using research, face to face interviews,
>questionnaires, suggestion boxes, etc.
>2. We understand how our customers feel about our products
>and services.
>3. We judge the effectiveness of our brand in terms of how
>it looks and feels to our customers – not how it
>seems to us.
>4. We understand the attitudes of our customers and their
>changing views and needs.
>[Historical index Branding reports & Brand performance
>Reports]
>5. We don’t have to discount prices in order to
>attract and keep our customers.
>[Historical e-commerce report]
>6. Our customers can state quite clearly and simply what
>is important about our brand to them and why they think it
>is different.
>We have aligned our organisational structure, operations
>and culture with our brand values.
>7. We understand in our own minds what differentiates our
>brand from our competitors.
>[Search Engine Key word report, The brand’s
>"weight", Word associations reports]
>8. Everyone in our organisation knows what our brand
>stands for and can articulate that idea simply and
>clearly.
>9. We receive regular internal communications detailing
>what our brand is about.
>[WT admin – permissions function]
>10. We protect the company’s brand
>[Negative key word associations]
>11. Details of our brand and the strategy that drives it
>are well documented and that information is available to
>those who need and desire it.
>[Historical data]
>12. All key stakeholders are involved in our brand
>creation process.
>[WT admin – permissions function]
>13. Our company has systems in place for carefully
>monitoring the appropriateness, timeliness, integration
>and consistency of our branded communications.
>14. Our brand includes not just our core organisation but
>also our partners and key third party suppliers.
>[Partner Referrals report]
>15. We regard our brand agency(ies) as our strategic
>partner(s) and actively involve them in organisational and
>communications planning and review sessions.
>16. Our marketing and communications team have an
>integrated understanding of our brand and are in constant
>communication over brand-related activities and issues.
>17. The consistency of our brand is paramount. It reaches
>way beyond just tactical brand campaigns and it is deeper
>than even key personnel changes.
>18. We review our brand and what it stands for with all
>our agencies at least
>19. If our brand did not exist, the vast majority of our
>customers would notice our absence and really miss having
>us in their lives.
>
>
>Do these questions cover the most important areas for
>achieving a good understanding of user, consumer of the
>brand, customer and brand owner behavior and perception?
>
>Would on going results from such a survey be of interest
>to you? Would you pay for it? Do you believe that Brand
>ROI will be gained from using this data?
>
>
>Regards…
>
>Marcos
Janet Grimes
Partner at Janet Grimes Strategy & Planning

28 October 2002 10:35am

Marcos,
Its clearer now. In answer to your questions:
Yes I suggest that brand owners are the last people to judge their own brands because they are not objective. This is the primary sin committed by most marketeers and businesses on the web, that is they do not understand that what is "transmitted" is not the same as what is "received". To measure brand effectiveness one should always start with those for whom the communication is intented - its consumer. Brands exist in the mind of the consumer.

Of course it is important that internal company understanding of the brand matches that of the consumer but it is only half the equation. I suppose it all depends on when in the brands history one is operating and what one is trying to measure.

The questionnaire you have posted below which is targeted to the marketing department seems to me a good way for you to understand how the company operates, but because of the way it is phrased it is going to be hard to get objective answers (all too positive!) as to whether the company is successful in its intentions. I would make sure that it is answered by the businesses agency partners as well to test whether the clients view of themselves is accurate!
Cheers
Janet

On 18:23:32 25 October 2002 marcos wrote:
>The below posted questionnaire is targeted to the internal
>Marketing department of a prospective client for
>WebtraffIQ. It’s the first step in understanding and
>comparing internal and external perception of
>‘Brand’.
>
>The second questionnaire that I will post on this forum
>will be similar but tailored/targeted to clients of the
>company in question.
>
>Regards…
>
>Marcos
>
>
>On 13:18:38 25 October 2002 marcos wrote:
>>Thanks for your input Janet,
>>
>>The questionnaire is to be directed at users,
>consumers of
>>the brand, customers and brand owners.
>>
>>I am interested to know why you suggest Brand owners
>>should be at the bottom of the list, is this because
>you
>>think they can’t be impartial about their own
>Brand?
>>
>>
>>I think ‘Branding’ as part of the whole
>>marketing mix should be ingrained within the Brand
>>owner’s organisation (all staff) as well as
>pushed
>>and measured to external target groups. The stronger
>the
>>internal understanding of your own Brand objective and
>the
>>attention given to it the stronger the Brand values
>and
>>messages sent out to external consumers will be.
>>
>>Re:- Your points on traditional off-line and new
>on-line
>>measurement techniques needing to be directly
>correlated
>>to each other. I agree with you entirely that they
>>‘should not be looked at in isolation’.
>>WebtraffIQ is primarily an online measurement tool and
>we
>>hope to bridge this gap in the coming months.
>>
>>Below is the intended 'Brand' questionnaire, it is
>meant
>>to be quite comprehensive and at the same time short
>and
>>simple.
>>
>>This not only has our Form Tracking built in but will
>also
>>be correlated to various other reports that we
>produce.
>>[…]
>>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>Selectable answers: -
>>Don’t know, never or seldom true, sometimes
>true,
>>almost always true, always true
>>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>1. We actively investigate what is important to our
>>customers, using research, face to face interviews,
>>questionnaires, suggestion boxes, etc.
>>2. We understand how our customers feel about our
>products
>>and services.
>>3. We judge the effectiveness of our brand in terms of
>how
>>it looks and feels to our customers – not how it
>>seems to us.
>>4. We understand the attitudes of our customers and
>their
>>changing views and needs.
>>[Historical index Branding reports & Brand
>performance
>>Reports]
>>5. We don’t have to discount prices in order to
>>attract and keep our customers.
>>[Historical e-commerce report]
>>6. Our customers can state quite clearly and simply
>what
>>is important about our brand to them and why they
>think it
>>is different.
>>We have aligned our organisational structure,
>operations
>>and culture with our brand values.
>>7. We understand in our own minds what differentiates
>our
>>brand from our competitors.
>>[Search Engine Key word report, The brand’s
>>"weight", Word associations reports]
>>8. Everyone in our organisation knows what our brand
>>stands for and can articulate that idea simply and
>>clearly.
>>9. We receive regular internal communications
>detailing
>>what our brand is about.
>>[WT admin – permissions function]
>>10. We protect the company’s brand
>>[Negative key word associations]
>>11. Details of our brand and the strategy that drives
>it
>>are well documented and that information is available
>to
>>those who need and desire it.
>>[Historical data]
>>12. All key stakeholders are involved in our brand
>>creation process.
>>[WT admin – permissions function]
>>13. Our company has systems in place for carefully
>>monitoring the appropriateness, timeliness,
>integration
>>and consistency of our branded communications.
>>14. Our brand includes not just our core organisation
>but
>>also our partners and key third party suppliers.
>>[Partner Referrals report]
>>15. We regard our brand agency(ies) as our strategic
>>partner(s) and actively involve them in organisational
>and
>>communications planning and review sessions.
>>16. Our marketing and communications team have an
>>integrated understanding of our brand and are in
>constant
>>communication over brand-related activities and
>issues.
>>17. The consistency of our brand is paramount. It
>reaches
>>way beyond just tactical brand campaigns and it is
>deeper
>>than even key personnel changes.
>>18. We review our brand and what it stands for with
>all
>>our agencies at least
>>19. If our brand did not exist, the vast majority of
>our
>>customers would notice our absence and really miss
>having
>>us in their lives.
>>
>>
>>Do these questions cover the most important areas for
>>achieving a good understanding of user, consumer of
>the
>>brand, customer and brand owner behavior and
>perception?
>>
>>Would on going results from such a survey be of
>interest
>>to you? Would you pay for it? Do you believe that
>Brand
>>ROI will be gained from using this data?
>>
>>
>>Regards…
>>
>>Marcos
Dave Williams Bronze
Marketing Manager at OILspace Inc.

31 October 2002 14:00pm

search engine rankings, keywords and external links.

in terms of pure "branding" i don't see how relevant the keywords or rankings really are. The external links to the brand's website is a very interesting measurement but not one that can be taken at face value, searching for Telewest on google is an interesting case , the further down you delve the more personal sites you find that are in the "not so complimentary to our brand" category.
This could potentially lead to an interesting quandry for brands , brand-hating has become a popular sub-culture even before No Logo hit the shelves, can brands use teh law to protect brand equity from being eroded online ? or would they prefer to shy away from the issue knowing that most surfers wont make it to the 7th page of search results where the most damaging anti-brands messages lurk ? If they can keep the official message sin the top results through SEO then maybe the problem is best ignored as the alternative is a huge can of worms for many !

Dave
Dave Williams Bronze
Marketing Manager at OILspace Inc.

31 October 2002 17:31pm

Marcos, i'm sure your people are already aware of this (and it seems simple to avoid) but the following was posted by John McNamara of Digitalacla , on the uk-usability list earlier today:

" Be careful using any automated queries with Google. It explicitly states in
Google's Webmaster Do's and Dont's that it doesn't want people submitting
automated rank checking requests. As their concern is with bandwidth, I
think this would include automatic checks of PageRank as well as checking
SERPs:

http://www.google.com/webmasters/dos.html

If Google identifies that the automated requests are coming from a
particular IP address, it will block that IP from using Google as a search
engine and may also penalise any web sites hosted on that IP:

http://news.com.com/2100-1023-883558.html "

worth noting i thought,
Dave