What Is Brand Research?

 

Brand development research is the process and strategies used to identify how your brand is presenting itself to the world. You might assume you already know the answer to this question, but often, such assumptions are more grounded in how you want to be seen than feedback from your consumers.

 

Your brand is different to every individual who chooses to do business with you. Do you know what is driving their perception and, by proxy, their buying choices? And furthermore, do you know how to apply that understanding in a way that optimizes profitability? If you think you know, how do you know? Did you ask them? Actionable, data-backed insights are the purpose of true brand research.

 

If you’ve been in branding or marketing for a while, your understanding of brand research might have become conflated with brand research projects. It’s true that benchmarking your pricing or a new market study is research for your brand, but it isn’t research about your brand. True brand research is a deep and sometimes painful exploration. The purpose is to pinpoint how and why the messaging you need to convey isn’t being received by your target customers. There’s no one brand research template that will help you get there, but there are some characteristics that all brand development research has in common.