If you are preparing to launch a new brand, or have an established company that needs a bit of brand polish, it’s a smart idea to get a professional brand audit and strategic assessment.

Does that sound really serious? Well, it is. No matter your brand (look/feel/sound/etc.), having a set of objective eyes on your marketing tactics can make all the difference.

Let’s start with what you should expect from a brand audit.

Getting to know you

No matter who you choose to work with, the process must begin with a deep dive into your company. This includes your target audience, business goals, strengths, challenges, desired personality of brand, resources for marketing, current practices, etc. This is where your company’s core values and mission are uncovered and incorporated. The deep dive helps the brand consultant to capture a good sense of who your business is—and who you want it to become. Every question you answer is a piece of your brand puzzle.

The good and the not-so-great

Whether you are just starting a new brand or revisiting an existing one, a brand audit will uncover what’s working and what’s not. Your role in this process is to remain open-minded, because resistance to truth and/or change can hurt your brand. So approach the audit with the goal of elevating your brand and eliminating anything that is holding it back.

 

Know your competition

You may already be aware of the companies that are providing similar products or services. A brand audit will not only identify them, but will shine a light on how you can do it better, and differently. It’s important to know what the competition is doing, so that you can create a brand that really stands out.

Finding your voice

Along with helping you see what needs to be improved upon or changed, a good brand audit will also help you begin to form your brand’s voice. From the initial deep dive, your brand consultants will provide you with direction for your brand’s personality. This will include how you communicate via messaging, website/online content, and the aesthetics that will best represent your brand to connect with your audience.

Finding your people

Identifying and developing personas for your target audiences is a vital part of building your brand. After all, you have to know who you’re talking to before you can determine how you’re talking to them. Your brand audit can (and should) include clear, actionable personas that provide insight for messaging, platforms to reach each target (e.g., social media, email, blog posts), and the mindset of each persona.

Discovering your style

One of the most fun parts of a brand audit is discovering the look and feel of your brand. Whether starting from scratch or working with what you’ve got, a brand audit can help you determine how you want your brand to look; from photography of products to color palettes and fonts. Though design doesn’t come into play until the next steps of branding, this is where you find out what resonates with you and feels most authentic to your business. After all, you must love your brand!

 

What happens after the audit?

Once you’ve received your brand audit and strategy deck, your branding team should go over it with you to answer questions, hear your feedback, and tweak anything that needs tweaking. From there, you can determine a plan to incorporate the learnings and strategies, prioritizing according to your resources and desired goals.

While a lot of businesses may skip this initial brand assessment, and dive right into design work without planned purpose, we believe it’s a valuable tool for your success. This approach will help put your company in the right spotlight, attract the customer base you want, and create the loyalty that leads to a bigger and better brand.

 

We’d love to help you

The Think Baseline team of branding experts is here to help you. If you have any questions about branding audits, or would like to chat with us about your specific brand needs, please get in touch.

Take a look at what we do

Want to see how we’ve helped brands get off the ground or get more polish? Take a look at some of our past client projects: