Conducting online brand audit
Today, I’d like to show you step by step how to conduct a basic online brand audit. Since we are in the middle of the winter, and given that I live in Montreal, I chose “ski resorts in Eastern Townships” as my topic (Mont Sutton, Ski Bromont, Mont Orford and Owl’s Head.) I chose these ski resorts, because they are my favourites. I love them all. My goal is to show the best practices so that other brands can improve themselves. Mind you, this is an online audit; so I am not talking about the actual resorts. Similarly, I am not evaluating to their marketing collaterals either.
Keep in mind that online brand audit is quite a methodical task. You may want to print webpages and create a big collage. Or maybe you use Evernote. The key is to keep a record of everything because we are going to accumulate a lot of information. For every brand, we will check three fundamental things: the brand’s websites, its online footprint and its visuals. This will be fun. Let’s see what we find out!
I always start my audit with the brand’s website. At this point we are trying to understand what the brand currently claims about itself. Highlight the key messages on its landing page. Pay particular attention to the “About Us” section. Most often this page contains facts, meaningless numbers and a soulless narrative. However, this is where your brand should communicate its story to the world! Check if there is a compelling narrative on the About Us section. Your personality, your values, what you stand for should all be reflected. That said, we like it better when those messages are subtle. You want the reader to feel that s/he’s personally addressed. As Chris Grams suggests, print out those pages and highlight key words and themes. If your brand does not have a compelling story here, then it won’t be compelling elsewhere.
Winner: Mont Sutton by a landslide. Here is how the brand describes itself. Doesn’t it make you want to go there? Wow!
Our second stop is Google. Type the name of the brand and see what the first official entry says. Mind you! Most often your brand is not what you say it is. It is what Google says it is! Do you convey a clear message on Google? Be succinct and compelling. Try to capture your core with that short message.
Winner: According to Google, Ski Bromont has the clearest and most complete message.
Next, we will check the brands’ online presence. Look at their Twitter accounts. Go to their Facebook pages. Read the Wikipedia entries about them. Here are a couple of things to pay attention to on Twitter:
- How does the brand describe itself on Twitter? Is it consistent with your existing findings?
- Does it use a colloquial language? Or does it treat Twitter as a channel to push news or sales?
- Is it visually consistent with its website?
Winner: Owl’s Head. The brand is very approachable on Twitter. It responds to messages in an informal way. Feels like it is a member of a close-knit community. Also it does not overuse its Twitter account to promote its offers. As a rule of thumb, 1 in 4 messages should be about your promotions and the rest should be just conversation. Finally, is it possible to dislike that funny Owl?
Next, look at the brand’s Facebook page. Here is what you should pay attention to:
- How does the brand describe itself on Facebook? Is it consistent with your existing findings?
- Does the brand focus on engagement or sales? Does it respond to messages from its fans?
- Does it reward its fans exclusively?
- Is it integrated among all channels?
- Does it offer customer support/service?
Winner: We have two winners: Ski Bromont has the largest community and it responds to its fans punctually. Mont Sutton too, deserves credit because of its Facebook Tree Planting campaign. That said, all of the mountains can learn more from studying the Facebook page of MAC Cosmetics.
Last, check the Wikipedia entry about the brand. Wikipedia is an entirely open, transparent platform and your brand is fairly naked there. That does not mean that you can’t participate though. People check your Wikipedia entry to get detailed information about you. Here is where you should list all the facts that you usually post on your About Us page. Spoil the readers with information. Aim to satisfy the knowledge thrust of your biggest brand advocates. Pay attention to these:
- Is there a Wikipedia page about the brand? How extensive is it?
- Is the content one sided? (Positive or negative) Or is it neutral?
- Can you find absolutely all the information you are looking for?
Winner: None. Although Ski Bromont has the most complete entry, it is far from tapping into its great potential. This is where all four mountains should study Whistler Blackbcomb.
Finally, analyze brand elements such as name, logo, tagline and overall look and feel. Here are our winners:
- Name: We don’t have a winner here, as all ski resorts are understandably named after the respective mountains they are located at. That said, we realize that Ski Bromont has a brand architecture problem: The brand’s name is “Ski Bromont”. That said, the resort is open 4 seasons and even the Aquatic Parc or biking sections are under “Ski Bromont.” That creates confusion.
- Logo: Seems like Owl’s Head really nailed this one. Their iconic owl is ageless. It makes the brand approachable and its simplistic design makes it cool… Actually, very cool. Sutton is the runner up.
- Tagline: Mont Orford and Ski Bromont communicate the size of skiable area. I prefer Mont Orford as “3 mountains” clearly communicates grandeur. Either way, I think these two are better practices compared to Owl’s Head, which lists its services. Sutton does not use a tagline.
- Overall look and feel: Sutton has by far the best website. It is a treat for your eyes. The natural wood concept is consistently applied everywhere. Actually, Sutton has one of the best websites of ALL mountain resorts – not just among the ones in Eastern Townships.
Of course, this is just the online part of our brand audit. Nonetheless, if you follow the above-four steps, you will be able to find many insights about your brand. What do you think? Fire your comments!
2012 Trend Reports
2012 is around the corner! An exciting and challenging year awaits us. I compiled six great trend reports to help your brand navigate stormy waters in 2012. Enjoy the reports and let me know if you know other good ones.
Happy holidays to all!
2012 Global consumer trends by Euromonitor
2012 Consumer trends by Trendwatching
2012 Consumer trends by Trend-Strategy
2012 Retail trends by Retail is Detail
Brand Jordan
NBA lockout is about to end. The hot topic of discussion is what’s the damage to Brand Jordan?
Michael Jordan is arguably the greatest basketball player of all times. But his skills and will are not enough to explain how he became the magnetic person that he is. During his Hall of Fame induction speech, Michael Jordan said: “There won’t be a new Michael Jordan.” This is a false statement, because who we knew and adored as “Michael Jordan” was actually not an individual. The magnet was the “Warrior/Hero archetype.” Read the rest of this entry
2012 Colour Forecast by bvcolorstrategy
Jack Bredenfoerder, who is a seasoned color design and marketing professional issued his colour forecast for 2012. Mr. Bredenfoerder is specialized in color strategy, trends and forecasting. So his predictions are always bang on. Click the below picture, read his report and share it with your colleagues. It is full of insights, not only on colour strategy, but on socio-cultural trends.
Key to customer loyalty
There are some brands that I find so successful. I call them magnetic. One of those brands is Maui Jim, the sunglass company. The brand is best known for its high quality, reasonably priced and fashionable polarized sunglasses. I bought my first Maui Jim sunglass in 2008. Since then, I bought two more. As rational consumers, we often think we are loyal to a particular brand because it offers the best value for money, often quality being the key pillar of value. Well, quality is necessary, but not sufficient to create loyalty… According to Dr. Clotaire Rapaille, the key to loyalty is not quality. It is the quality of “relationship”.
Branding through Collaboration
Today, I’d like to share a wonderful presentation with you. The presenter’s name is Mrs. M.J. Braide. She is a renowned brand strategist from Toronto, Canada. I watched her webinar about a week ago. Then I said to myself: “Maybe I should make all my clients watch this video at the beginning of every new project.” It is full of insights, and actionable ideas. But most importantly, M.J. shows us the future of branding. A brand is not a logo and branding is not simply design. She talks about how the process of branding can be used to build bridges within an organization… Maybe even heal some wounds. Why don’t you watch the video and tell me what you think?
You and me: The Brand Relationship Theory
I love the TV series “the Office”. In one of the episodes Michael Scott has herpes and wants to know who gave him the disease. He starts working backwards through his partners, chronologically. Michael Scott being the person he is, instead of informing his past partners of his infection, he asks them relationship-related questions such as: “What went wrong? Did I make more of what we had than was really there?” What does Michael Scott have to do with branding? Everything, according to Dr. Susan Fournier’s brand relationship theory. Read the rest of this entry
Segmentation in B2B markets
B2C companies often use segmentation analysis, which is a complex tool that divides the market into distinguishable segments, separated by consumer behaviour or need. The beauty of segmentation analysis is that you can look at the size, value and performance of these segments and decide whom to concentrate your efforts. Although segmentation analysis is a technique more frequently used by B2C companies, B2B firms can use a similar approach too. Read the rest of this entry
Life. Simplified.
All of a sudden, the earth has started to spin too fast. So much going on in the world. We are all overloaded with information and choices. It is not a surprise that brands that simplify our lives are very successful these days. Googles and Apples strive by actually giving their customers less! About a year ago, we talked about “paradox of choice”. The more you give to your customers, the less happy they become. Sounds weird eh? I recently read a great article about this topic and wanted to write a follow up to my previous article. Read the rest of this entry
Branding Through Storytelling
I recently read a well-written book named “Branding Through Storytelling.” As you know “storytelling” is a buzzword in brand strategy. Unfortunately, it is an often-used yet seldom-understood concept. “Branding Through Storytelling” is a nice “how to” guide to finding, unlocking and leveraging corporate stories to support brand strategy. Read the rest of this entry
