When you think of brand tracking, you might
jump to thoughts of large multinational firms. A brand is often seen as
something of value to big market shareholders. However, a brand
tracker can benefit any sized company. It can be a way to seek out
direct competition, show areas of improvement and areas of strength. In this
article, we will look at the different aspects of brand tracking, and reviewing
how different sized companies benefit from certain aspects more than others.

One aspect of brand tracking is brand
recall. This is when members of the public are given a certain
category, for example, something such as ‘electronics brands’ and then asked to
name brands they associate with that category. This is actually a type of brand
recall called unprompted brand recall. It is easy to see how this sort of information
would help larger brands that are more likely to be at the forefront of
someone’s memory.

 A
smaller company may benefit more from brand tracking that uses
prompted brand recall. This is where a list of companies in a given category
are given. Members of the public are then directed to show which of these
brands they know of, and which of these brands they are likely to buy from.
This can show smaller companies, if it’s the product itself or brand awareness
that is the problem. If the list is substantial enough, in terms of how many
brands are listed, then a company can use this information to start to work out
who their direct competition is. In terms of working out brands that have a
similar score to their own.

Purchase intent, another aspect of brand
tracking, is useful for any sized company. As this shows you how likely a consumer
is to buy your product. This information on its own is useful, especially if
there are detailed reasons why or why not there is purchase intent.

Finally, a smaller company wishing to have
higher market penetration can benefit from combining these two different
aspects of brand tracking. In other words, it can reveal very quickly where the
problem lies. High purchase intent but low brand recall shows that the
visibility and awareness of the brand aren’t enough. This is very likely to be
a problem for smaller companies trying to compete with bigger ones.