How do you budget and allocate resources for a brand audit?

Prioritize audience research and feedback collection as a foundational step in your brand audit. Understanding your target market's perceptions, preferences, and pain points will provide valuable insights for refining your brand messaging and positioning to resonate effectively in the modern media landscape.

When defining the scope of your brand audit, start by clarifying your objectives, outcomes, and deliverables. Consider what specific aspects of your brand you want to evaluate, such as visual identity, messaging, customer perception, and market positioning. Reflect on your past audit experiences, if any, and think about what worked well and what could be improved. This will help you tailor the scope to fit your unique needs and resources.

Defining the scope of your brand audit is crucial for setting clear objectives and expectations. Consider outlining specific goals such as assessing brand consistency, identifying strengths and weaknesses, or evaluating brand perception among stakeholders. Determine the scope's breadth, whether it includes visual identity, messaging, customer experience, or market positioning. Additionally, clarify the depth of analysis, such as reviewing all brand assets or focusing on specific touchpoints. This clarity ensures a comprehensive audit aligned with your brand's needs and resources, facilitating actionable insights for strategic decision-making.

An example of a shallow brand audit would be updating logo colors to a more modern palette. But even that has layers: are you selecting new shades of the same colors so that existing applications of the brand color scheme aren't obviously out of date, or are you selecting entirely new colors? Discovery is paramount to understanding the reasoning behind a brand audit, whether it's a refresh, or an overhaul.

Others will have different perspectives, but to us at Something Familiar, an audit is typically defined by the wider business objectives. Understanding first why we are having the conversation around brand will unravel insights that lead to opportunities. Perhaps we are targeting a new audience, changing the brand's positioning or there's been an acquisition? Each of these will deliver different approach to the depth of engagement we'd recommend. Additionally, an 'audit' typically refers to reviewing what exists, which we try not to dwell on, we want to look forward and make a plan on how to get there. 💪

Engage in collaborative brainstorming sessions with internal stakeholders, such as team members and key decision-makers, to leverage diverse perspectives and generate innovative ideas for strengthening your brand's positioning

In my experience internal branding exercises not overseen or conducted by an outside party don't have the necessary perspective to uncover meaningful insights. Audits conducted solely using internal resources, regardless of good intentions, often become vanity projects. For companies with an identity mismatch or very little identity at all, internal interviews conducted by an outside team can uncover powerful insights and inspirations that have been there all along, lost in the noise.

Evaluate competitors' branding strategies, market positioning, strengths, and weaknesses to identify opportunities and threats and gain insights into industry benchmarks. Analyze existing brand materials, such as brand guidelines, marketing collateral, and internal communications, to assess consistency and alignment with brand values. Use various online tools to analyze website traffic, social media engagement, sentiment analysis, and online brand mentions to understand digital brand presence and perception.

Selecting appropriate methods is pivotal for a comprehensive brand audit. Consider qualitative methods like interviews, focus groups, and observations for in-depth insights into perceptions and experiences. Quantitative methods such as surveys and data analytics provide statistical data on brand performance and market trends. Internal audits assess brand assets, messaging, and culture, while external audits evaluate market positioning and competitor analysis. Utilizing a mix of online tools, social media monitoring, and traditional research approaches ensures a holistic assessment. Collaboration with external specialists can enhance expertise and provide unbiased perspectives for a thorough examination of your brand's landscape.

In practice, the next step is all about choosing the methods and tools that fit your brand audit best. This means deciding on the right mix of qualitative and quantitative approaches, whether you're looking at things internally or externally, and if you're collecting data online or offline. You might need to blend these methods to get insights from different sources like customers, employees, competitors, and industry trends. And don't forget, bringing in outside experts or consultants can offer fresh perspectives and specialized knowledge where needed.

Maximize efficiency by utilizing in-house expertise and resources wherever possible, such as tapping into the skills of your team members or utilizing existing software platforms.

In addition to direct costs, consider indirect expenses such as staff time, training, and opportunity costs associated with diverting resources from other projects. Prioritize spending based on the critical areas identified in the audit scope to maximize the impact of your investment. Furthermore, explore cost-saving measures like leveraging internal resources, negotiating bulk discounts, or utilizing open-source tools where feasible. Regularly review and adjust your budget throughout the audit process to ensure alignment with objectives and avoid overspending.

Depending on the size of the company, implementation may be a potential avalanche of compounding costs. That being said, the work can usually be accomplished in phases to make effective use of manpower and budget. An agency or outside consultant experienced in brand audits will be able to provide a detailed breakdown of their process and the estimated costs associated with each piece. They can help fine tune the project to your organization to ensure that the investment you make it used efficiently and with purpose.

Keep in mind that - Unexpected delays, changes, or issues during the audit process might result in additional unforeseen costs, further inflating the overall expenses.

Consider the skills and expertise required for each task and ensure that team members are adequately trained or supported to fulfill their responsibilities. Utilize project management tools and platforms to streamline communication, document sharing, and task tracking among team members. Foster a collaborative and supportive environment to encourage open communication and knowledge sharing throughout the audit process. Additionally, regularly review resource allocation to address any bottlenecks, reassign tasks as needed, and ensure timely completion of the audit within budget constraints.

Communication is key. The more people on your team can communicate with each other clearly and effectively, the more efficiently time will be spent. Assigning roles is the first step in setting up communication that spans organizations. By agreeing on roles, responsibilities, timeline, and communication schedule up front, everyone can work with clear expectations of what they are to deliver.

Utilize tools such as surveys, interviews, or feedback forms to gather input from stakeholders regarding their satisfaction with the audit process and outcomes. Analyze the data collected to identify trends, patterns, and areas of strength or weakness in your brand identity. Consider conducting follow-up audits at regular intervals to track progress and measure the impact of any changes implemented as a result of the initial audit. This ongoing monitoring and evaluation ensure that your brand remains aligned with its objectives and responsive to evolving market dynamics and stakeholder needs.

While for B2C brands monitoring and evaluating the value of a rebrand comes with some clear KPIs (often sales and/or engagement metrics), for B2B brands identifying KPIs that make sense can be a futile effort. B2C brands are often designed around creating fast trust to enable a transaction to take place. In the B2B world where a sale could be worth $10,000 or $10,000,000, we're not dealing with quantities that we can easily boil down into a KPI. In B2B the focus is on developing relationships, which is far more nuanced and much to everyone's frustration, and is borne out over longer periods of time.

The final step in a brand audit is to implement and follow up on its findings. This involves updating or revising your brand strategy, identity, messaging, and voice, as well as potentially launching or relaunching brand elements like your logo, website, or social media. After implementation, it's crucial to monitor and measure the impact of these changes over time to ensure they meet your objectives and improve brand performance. Regular follow-up ensures continued alignment with your goals and audience expectations.

Break down the audit process into key components such as market research, competitive analysis, customer feedback, and internal evaluation. Assign a budget to each component based on its complexity and importance. Ensure to allocate funds for tools and software required for data collection and analysis. Implement the audit by assembling a team with clear roles and responsibilities. Regularly track spending against the budget and make adjustments as needed. Follow up by reviewing the audit results and identifying areas that need additional resources or further investigation, ensuring continuous improvement and alignment with your brand strategy.

In my experience even though we've lived in a constantly shifting digital world for almost 20 years now, people still act as though everything is printed on paper, in finite supply, and once "finished" cannot be iterated upon. And for some businesses, particular B2C with product packaging and signage and more adverts than your average B2B company, that can still ring true. But for a huge number of people, it simply isn't true, and being able to iterate (making constant small improvements) is a huge asset that goes underutilized. Don't stay stagnant, don't spin your wheels when you could be building traction!

Define the scope: Outline what aspects of your brand will be audited (e.g., identity, messaging, customer perception). Choose the methods: Decide on the tools and techniques (e.g., surveys, focus groups, analytics) you'll use for gathering insights. Estimate the costs: Consider costs for research, tools, and external expertise. Allocate resources: Assign budget, team members, and timeframes. Monitor and evaluate: Track expenses and progress. Implement and follow up: Ensure alignment with your audit goals and adjust based on findings

Conducting a brand audit can be done internally, however it’s a smart move working with an external specialist as they don’t bring preconceptions and assumptions to the table. When we perform audits for clients, we bring an external and neutral perspective allowing us to deliver an unbiased interpretation of strengths and weaknesses. Any good audit will always include the team as a source of direction and input regardless. It also saves time and resource so you can focus on delivering the action plan an audit often results in.