When was the last time you sat down and evaluated your brand’s health? I don’t mean just looking at sales numbers and net profits, I mean analyzing every aspect of your brand to ensure it’s reaching its full potential. I call this process a Brand Check-up, and it’s an essential part of your ongoing brand strategy.
Conducting a Brand Check-up isn’t difficult. The simplest way is to use a classic SWOT Analysis and analyze your brand’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Many marketers these days devalue a SWOT Analysis, but I truly believe there is no better way to get all the details of your brand’s current position and to determine areas for improvement, concentration and growth than with a simple SWOT Analysis.
A one-time SWOT Analysis does not make a Brand Health Strategy though. To maintain your brand’s health, you need to do preventative maintenance on it. A Brand Check-up should be done at least quarterly where you create a detailed SWOT Analysis and compare it to prior SWOT Analyses to determine where your brand was, where it is now and where it needs to go. Doing so will allow you to make the necessary strategic and tactical changes to achieve your goals for that brand.
In the 21st century, the marketplace, brands, consumer opinions and behaviors, and products change at lightening speed. Don’t get left behind. Conduct Brand Check-ups so you are ahead of the curve.
Photo: Flickr
Susan Gunelius is the author of 10 marketing, social media, branding, copywriting, and technology books, and she is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company. She also owns Women on Business, an award-wining blog for business women. She is a featured columnist for Entrepreneur.com and Forbes.com, and her marketing-related articles have appeared on websites such as MSNBC.com, BusinessWeek.com, TodayShow.com, and more.
She has over 20 years of experience in the marketing field having spent the first decade of her career directing marketing programs for some of the largest companies in the world, including divisions of AT&T and HSBC. Today, her clients include large and small companies around the world and household brands like Citigroup, Cox Communications, Intuit, and more. Susan is frequently interviewed about marketing and branding by television, radio, print, and online media organizations, and she speaks about these topics at events around the world. You can connect with her on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Google+.
