You don’t know how to answer. On one hand, you’re happy about having seen your favorite artist live, but overall, it wasn’t a good experience. 

This is a great example of when using a Likert scale comes in handy. It’s one of the simplest, yet most effective tools for capturing people’s opinions, behaviors, or attitudes when answers are more nuanced than a binary yes or no. 

In this article, we’ll get into what a Likert scale is, its benefits and limitations, examples from real surveys, and tips for designing effective scale-based questions. Let’s get started.

What is a Likert scale?

A Likert scale is a type of closed-ended question that allows respondents to answer by choosing an option from a rating scale. These questions usually contain four to eleven answer options. 

For example: 

• Very unlikely
• Unlikely
• Neutral
• Likely
• Very likely 

Here is an example of Likert scales you have likely seen before :

Who created the Likert scale?

The Likert scale was created by Rensis Likert, an American socialist, economist and psychologist, in 1932. He first introduced this concept in an article called: “А Technique for the Measurement of Attitudes.” 

He continued expanding on this idea in 1934 in an article published by the Journal of Social Psychology titled “A Simple and Reliable Method of Scoring the Thurstone Attitude Scales.”

According to Likert, the biggest problem with research was that people can have an infinite number of attitudes, but these can be grouped together in a range. Therefore, he created the Likert scale. 

Why is the Likert scale controversial?

The Likert scale is controversial because the data can be compromised by assumptions, biases and misuses, especially during analysis. Reasons include:

Assuming equal intervals

Some people see Likert scale responses as interval data when they’re actually ordinal. This means assuming the gap between “Agree” and “Strongly agree” is equal to the one between “Neutral” and “Disagree”. 

In reality, people’s interpretations of these points can vary significantly. So, instead of viewing this scale as intervals, consider each response as a unique ordinal value. 

Falling into biases

Likert scales can contribute to central tendency and acquiescence biases. The first one happens when people avoid extreme response categories and gravitate toward the middle (e.g., choosing “Neutral” or “Somewhat agree”). 

The acquiescence bias, on the other hand, happens when people agree with statements regardless of their content. These factors make Likert scales controversial since biases can mask true opinions, skew data and create the illusion of consensus or positivity where none exists.

Cultural and language interpretations

If you’re surveying a global audience, consider explaining the meaning of each answer beforehand, as the perception of certain words (e.g., “neutral”) can vary across cultures or languages. This makes cross-cultural or multilingual comparisons tricky, and relying on a Likert scale without proper explanation could skew your data.

The pros and cons of Likert scales

Likert scales are a great technique to understand slight differences in people’s sentiments, but aren’t the right choice for all cases. Let’s explore the benefits and drawbacks of using Likert scales in questions.

Benefits of using Likert scale questions

Using Likert scale questions in your surveys is beneficial because these are:

Easy to understand and complete

According to Pew Research, respondents give more honest answers when they easily understand the question. 

Likert scale survey questions require little cognitive load for people to choose an option. They also offer a clear structure, help reduce survey fatigue and limit acquiescence bias.

Ideal for focused surveys

Likert scales allow you to measure one concept at a time by asking diverse questions with scale-based answers. 

For instance, if you want to measure how satisfied your users are with a new feature, you can ask different questions using Likert scales to gauge their true opinion on this particular topic. 

Versatile

Present these types of questions in multiple formats, such as site intercepts, pop-ups, long-form surveys or email-based questionnaires. Respondents can simply pick an option and share their opinion from wherever they’re interacting with the survey. You can also adopt different scales depending on your research goals (more on this below!)

Non-polarizing

Unlike yes-or-no questions, Likert scales allow respondents to express degrees of opinion, making feedback more detailed and less forced. For example, if you want to know if respondents care about sustainability, a yes or no question doesn’t give you enough information. A person can say yes because they only buy cruelty-free brands, but they only drink mineral water. Likert scales give color to these types of nuanced answers.

Good for trend and sentiment analysis

Scale-based answers are easier to quantify and analyze, especially over time. For instance, you can compare last quarter’s customer satisfaction vs. this one without hassle.

Limitations of using Likert scale questions

While Likert scales are easy to complete and analyze, they come with some limitations. We’ll discuss these below.

Lack of “why”

Scale-based questions alone don’t reveal what’s driving a sentiment. Pair them with open-ended follow-ups to get context.

Subjectivity and bias

People interpret scale points differently depending on culture and background, which introduces bias. That said, Likert type questions can reduce other types of survey bias, such as:

• Binary thinking: Forcing respondents into overly simplistic yes/no answers.
• Cognitive overload: Asking too much from respondents, tiring them out, and getting random answers.
• Interviewer influence: Swaying the respondents through the interviewer’s tone, body language, or wording.

💡Pro-tip: For more on how to avoid misleading responses and overclaiming in surveys, check out this guide on five common survey mistakes.

Neutral answers can skew results

 Some respondents overuse the midpoint to avoid taking a stance. To balance this, try rephrasing the same question in different ways and include open-ended follow-ups.

Survey fatigue and patterns

In long surveys, people may fall into response patterns without reading carefully, e.g., choosing “Strongly agree” repeatedly. Mix up the wording or order of questions to keep them engaged.

Not for multi-topic questions

Likert scales work best for single-focus questions. Avoid using them to assess multiple ideas at once, or the data will be muddled.

Types of Likert scales

Now that you’re familiar with the pros and cons of Likert scales, let’s explore the reasons why these questions are so versatile: their length and format. Here are different scales you can choose from based on your needs:

4-point Likert scale 

4-point Likert scale questions present the respondent with four different options to choose from on a point scale. These questions tend to skip the middle option so respondents are compelled to give a positive or negative response. For example:

How satisfied are you with our customer service?

• Not at all satisfied
• Dissatisfied
• Satisfied
• Very satisfied

However, forced choices (i.e., skipping the middle option) could lead to false responses, especially from those who genuinely feel neutral.

5-point Likert scale 

A 5-point Likert scale includes two positive, two negative, and one neutral option. Unlike the previous example, it allows people to feel neutral about a question. Here’s an example:

How satisfied are you with the onboarding program?

• Not at all satisfied
• Dissatisfied
• Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied
• Satisfied
• Very satisfied

A 5-point Likert scale enables people to choose from a balanced range of responses. This helps capture more accurate attitudes and reduce respondent frustration. However, it can contribute to central tendency bias (i.e., preference for neutral response options) as people may overuse the middle option.

6-point Likert scale

A 6-point Likert scale gives respondents even more options to choose from, but like in the four-point scale, it doesn’t give a neutral option. An example of a 6-point Likert scale is: 

Rate your agreement with this statement: The customer service at Attest is quick to respond.

• Fully disagree
• Disagree
• Somewhat disagree
• Somewhat agree
• Agree
• Fully agree

Similar to the 4-point one, but a 6-point Likert scale gives more chances for people to express how they truly feel. However, it may force respondents to choose a side when they genuinely feel neutral about a question.

 7-point Likert scale 

Like with the 5-point Likert scale, this offers seven options for respondents to choose from, with the middle one being neutral. Here’s an example: 

How easy was it to navigate the new feature? 

• Very difficult
• Difficult
• Somewhat difficult
• Neither difficult nor easy
• Somewhat easy
• Easy
• Very easy

A 7-point Likert scale provides greater nuance than 5- or 6-point versions, allowing respondents to choose an option that more accurately reflects their views. This can lead to more precise data and improved scale reliability. However, the added options can increase cognitive load.

10-point Likert scale 

The 10-point Likert scale gives respondents 10 different options to choose from, increasing the precision of each answer. In this case, the scale is mostly based on numbers and not descriptors.  

Here’s an example:

How likely are you to recommend our product to others?

• 1 = Not at all likely 
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5 
• 6
• 7
• 8
• 9
• 10 = Extremely likely

A 10-point Likert scale offers a highly granular view of respondents’ attitudes, often preferred in quantitative research or finer statistical analysis. 

On the downside, the increased range can overwhelm participants, making it harder to choose a precise option. Also, without clear anchors or labels for each point, people may interpret numbers differently, which can compromise the consistency and validity of the data.

Frequency Likert scale 

This is a regular Likert scale, but instead of using qualifiers, it uses time measures. 

Frequency scales are useful for capturing how often a behavior or event occurs, offering broader context than agreement scales. For example: 

How often do you go to the gym?

• Never
• A couple of times per year
• Once a month
• Every week
• Every day

These questions help quantify habits or usage patterns, making them ideal for behavioral research. However, vague or unevenly spaced options can be interpreted inconsistently across survey respondents, causing the data to lack reliability or comparability.

💡Remember: Likert scale questions are ordinal, not nominal. This means the answers help classify people in response categories based on a meaningful order, for example: Satisfied customers. Whereas nominal data groups people based on categories that don’t have an inherent order such as gender or race.

When to use each type of scale (plus Likert scale examples)

Different types of Likert scales can be used for different goals. For example, to address how strongly someone feels about something (intensity), how often they attempt to do it (frequency), or how likely they are to do it (likelihood). Here are examples for you to get inspired when building your next survey.

Net Promoter Score (NPS) 

When assessing your customer loyalty, use an 11-point Likert scale ranging from 0-10. Use it to measure how likely it is for a customer to recommend you to others.

ℹ️ Example: “How likely are you to recommend our product to a friend?”

➡️ Answers: 0 (Not at all likely) – 10 (Extremely likely)

[H3] Customer satisfaction score (CSAT)

Use a five or seven-point Likert scale to measure customer satisfaction with your general product, a particular feature or the performance of your customer support team.

ℹ️ Example: “How satisfied were you with your recent support experience?”

➡️ Answers: Not at all satisfied, dissatisfied, neither satisfied nor dissatisfied, satisfied, very satisfied.

[H3] Employee engagement survey 

Capture how your employees feel about the company by asking them to rate different factors that add up to overall engagement. Use a 7-point Likert scale to gain more in-depth insights. 

ℹ️ Example: “I feel valued by my team.” Or, “I feel supported by the company.”

➡️ Answers: Extremely disagree, disagree, somewhat disagree, neither agree nor disagree, somewhat agree, agree, extremely agree.

Consumer profiling 

Ask questions to understand your customer habits or behaviors for segmentation purposes. You can then use the data to tailor offers to their desires. Use a frequency response scale in this case. 

ℹ️ Example: “How often do you shop online in a typical week?”

➡️ Answer: Never, rarely, sometimes, often, always.

Brand sentiment survey

Gauge your customers’ opinion towards your brand. Since you want to identify whether they have a positive or negative opinion, use a 6-point Likert scale with no neutral option. 

ℹ️ Example: “This brand aligns with my values.”

➡️ Answers: Extremely disagree, disagree, somewhat disagree, somewhat agree, agree, extremely agree.

Designing effective Likert-scale questions

Here are some best practices to follow to write a customer survey and get actionable insights.

1. Determine the scale 

Likert scales are flexible and there’s not a single right choice. However, there are some things to keep in mind before choosing your response scale: 

• Pick a scale that you can apply to most of your survey questions. Having a consistent scale makes it easier for respondents to answer without making mistakes.
• Consider that less answer options are easier to analyze and also easier for your respondents to answer (less survey fatigue). However, these also have less nuance. So, consider the length of your scale depending on the amount of detail you need from each question.
• Using larger scales with more points gives you more granularity, but a higher cognitive load. So, stick to these when you have short surveys.
• Determine if you want to include a neutral midpoint. Odd scales allow respondents to neither agree nor disagree with your statement, but even point scales help avoid fence-sitting and force people to take a stance. We recommend removing the neutral option in opinion-based questions. However, the choice is ultimately yours. 

2. Write specific questions

As with any survey question, focus is key. Asking about two things at once is confusing and unhelpful.

For example, if you want feedback on your support team’s speed and politeness, don’t ask: “Rate your agreement with this statement: The customer support team was fast and polite.” What if they were fast but rude?

Instead, stick to one idea per question and use clear, neutral wording to avoid leading your respondents. For example:

❌ “Was the onboarding process quick and helpful?”

✔️ “Was the onboarding process easy to follow?”

3. Use clear and balanced response options

When creating your scales, ensure they use simple language and are symmetric to avoid skewing the data. Here are some recommendations:

• Start with extremes like “Not at all” or “Extremely” to anchor responses and build a full, clear range.
• Borrow from others and use the language you see in popular surveys. Move away from using jargon or novel scales. If your customers are used to certain ratings or qualifiers, stick to what they know to avoid confusion. 
• If your scale has a midpoint, make sure it reflects true neutrality (e.g., “Somewhat”, “Neither agree nor disagree”, “Neutral”).
• Avoid vague or overlapping terms like “a little” vs. “somewhat”, or “sometimes” vs. “a few times.” These can confuse respondents, and remember: Confused respondents give unreliable answers.
• Keep both ends of the scale symmetrical so each side carries equal weight. For example: “Completely agree,” ⇄ “Completely disagree,” or “Extremely satisfied” ⇄ “Extremely dissatisfied.”

4. Choose between bipolar and unipolar scales

Bipolar scales measure a person’s attitude or opinion across two opposing ends, such as good vs. bad. For example: “Strongly disagree” to “Strongly agree.” They capture both direction and intensity of opinion.

Unipolar scales, on the other hand, measure the intensity of a single attribute without an opposite end. For example: “Not at all helpful” to “Extremely helpful.” These show degrees of an attribute, like interest or satisfaction.

Usually, the question signals which type to use, but here’s a quick decision guide:

• Use bipolar scales when you need to measure direction and intensity (e.g., how positive or negative someone feels).
• Use unipolar scales when you’re measuring intensity only (e.g., how helpful or clear something was).

5. Ask questions rather than making statements

To write better survey questions and avoid getting biased answers, frame items as questions, not declarative statements. This invites people to think about how they truly feel about your question, rather than quickly agree or disagree with a statement. 

For example:

❌ “The customer support was helpful.”
✔️ “How helpful was the customer support?”

Want to improve your Likert-scale questions?

Learn how to write clear, bias-free survey questions that get better results. Our step-by-step guide covers wording, structure, and common mistakes to avoid.

Read the guide

Analyzing Likert-scale data

People filled out your Likert scale questionnaire; it’s now time to analyze the responses. Before you jump in, take some time to refresh your research goals. This will guide the type of insights you look for in your data and give you a blueprint on how to analyze survey results.

Then, interpret and present Likert scale ordinal data by following these tips: 

Avoid using the averages

Circling back to why Likert scales are controversial, it comes down to how people do data analysis. 

As we mentioned above, likert responses are ordinal, not nominal or interval. Meaning that the options have a meaningful order, but the distance between points isn’t necessarily equal. 

Therefore, using the average (mean) to analyze Likert scale survey question data isn’t reliable because it assumes equal spacing between responses. Instead, focus on the mode (most common response) or median (middle response) to understand the overall trend.

For example, let’s say this is your data set: 

This makes:

• Mean: 2.83 (skewed)
• Mode: Extremely satisfied
• Median: Satisfied  

Calculate the percentage of each response

Whenever you’re analyzing data, count how many respondents chose each answer option, and convert that into percentages. For example, using the same previous data set, we can say:

• Extremely dissatisfied: 5 [(5/42)*100)] = 11,9%
• Dissatisfied: 12 [(12/42)*100)] = 28,57%
• Satisfied: 10 [(10/42)*100)] = 23,8%
• Extremely satisfied: 15 [(15/42)*100)] = 35,71%

This makes it easier to spot patterns, like how many people agreed vs. disagreed. Comparing those percentages helps teams spot trends or gaps, such as users who are satisfied but not strongly satisfied. From there, you can dig deeper to understand what would move those users toward a more positive experience.

Group similar responses

If you’re looking to gain broader insights about your respondents’ feelings, try combining scale point answers into bigger categories. For example, you can group “somewhat satisfied,” “satisfied” and “very satisfied” together to show total positive sentiment. 

This kind of grouping gives a high-level view that’s much easier for you to act on, especially in an employee feedback or customer satisfaction survey. Sometimes, understanding that 40% of customers are unhappy is more powerful than analyzing each group individually.

Use charts to visualize the data

We recommend using bar or pie charts to show the data distribution. Bar charts are great for comparing categories side-by-side. For instance, if you want to see customer satisfaction across attributes, such as: Satisfaction with onboarding, customer support, new features or the overall product. 

This example below shows public opinion on three climate-related policies, broken down by level of support or opposition: 

Source

Pie charts, on the other hand, help you view proportions at a glance and make quick, broader comparisons. For example, gauging what percentage of your total users are satisfied with your product: 

Source

The goal of using charts is to make the data clear and accessible, especially for presentations, stakeholder updates or reports. Also, data visualization simplifies decision-making. 

In fact, according to a study by the International Journal of Research Publication and Reviews (IJRPR), “Visual representation transforms numerical data into comprehensible and meaningful insights, leveraging the human brain’s ability to process visuals faster than text.”

Be aware of response bias

Remind respondents throughout the survey that their answers are anonymous and that there are no right or wrong responses. This helps reduce social desirability bias, where people respond in ways they think are more socially acceptable.

By encouraging honesty, you’re more likely to avoid inflated neutral or positive scores, especially on sensitive topics. Still, even with those reminders, be mindful of bias when interpreting results that lean heavily toward the middle or positive end of the scale. 

To get a fuller picture, complement your survey findings with additional research, such as industry benchmarks, behavioral data or one-on-one customer interviews. You can also add open-ended questions in your survey to identify the “why” behind rating-based answers.

Ready to create your own Likert-scale questions?

Likert scales are powerful tools for gathering quantitative data and understanding customer attitudes. However, like all other research methods, these need to be used and analyzed thoughtfully, considering potential biases that may have affected the data.

Be mindful of how you design your scales. Choose between unipolar or bipolar formats and analyze the results using appropriate statistical methods (remember this is an ordinal scale and answers represent an order!) Avoid relying on averages and instead focus on patterns, medians, and modes to uncover meaningful insights. 

When done right, Likert scale data can guide smarter, more empathetic decisions. Need help building your Likert scale questionnaires? Explore and get inspired by Attest’s survey template library.

The post What is a Likert scale and how should you use it in surveys? appeared first on Attest.

But what is brand development? Don’t mistake it for next month’s content marketing strategy. It is all about your overall brand message. Developing a brand is finding a way to differentiate your business without looking at your products, and instead focusing on your identity, values and positioning.

And there are a lot of reasons to invest in brand tracking and development. But you don’t need to outsource it or jump through hoops. In this guide, we’ll walk you through how you can do it yourself and get maximum value out of it. 

Let’s look at what brand building is and isn’t, and how you can get started with your brand development process ASAP.

What you’ll find in this guide:

• A clear definition of what brand development actually is
• The difference between branding and brand development, because it can get a bit confusing.
• Seven really good reasons why you should invest in a brand development strategy
• An explanation on when you should go for rebranding (first) instead
• What the brand development process looks like in 8 steps

What is brand development, and where do you start?

If you want to develop a brand without going brandless, you need more than a website, logo, colours and even a tone of voice. A brand goes beyond what people can see, it’s about what it makes them feel. Brand development is working on that. It’s aligning your brand with your objectives and values and strengthening your brand.

The brand development process is a long, ongoing one, of expressing your values and working according to your mission and vision. Let’s put it this way: If you would sell exactly the same products to exactly the same customers as your competitor, brand development is what could make them pick you – consciously.

Developing a brand is a creative process, but also an exploration of the principles you want to make standard in your business. And brand development, real brand development, doesn’t just happen on paper or screen. The implementation of it is what makes it real.

Besides that, brand building is also closely linked to customer experience and your company culture. Start by asking yourselves these questions to find the first building blocks for your brand identity.

1. What are my brand’s core values and how do they resonate with my target audience?

Reflect on the fundamental beliefs and principles that define your brand. Consider how these values align with the needs, preferences, and expectations of your target audience.

2. How does my brand differentiate itself from competitors?

Don’t think about price or features here. Think about the value you add and the story you tell. Think about how you fit into your customers’ lives.

3. What is the current perception of my brand among customers and the broader market?

Evaluate how customers and the general public currently perceive your brand. Be ready to dig deep into your reputation and the image others have of your brand.

4. How consistently is my brand’s message and visual identity conveyed across different channels?

Start assessing  your brand’s messaging and visual elements across various platforms, including social media, your website, advertising, and physical marketing materials – even internally used messages.

5. What are the long-term goals for my brand, and how does my current brand strategy support these objectives?

Consider your long-term business and branding objectives. Think about how your current brand development strategy supports these goals and what changes or improvements might be needed to align with your vision for the future.

Read how MOMA measured the success of their first big oat milk campaign with brand tracking. 

While we’ve done sporadic topline brand awareness surveys in the past, this is a much more insightful, detailed way of understanding the impact of our marketing over time. And it’s been brilliant to know that we’ve got a dedicated team at Attest if we need any help or advice.

Natasha Thompson, Marketing Director, MOMA Foods

How to stay ahead with brand tracking

Find out how Attest can help you stay on track with brand tracking.

Take a look

Why is brand development important?

Building a business that stands the test if time means you can not neglect your brand. Developing a brand means unifying all aspects of your business – from your mission and vision to your sales pitch and SEO – into one unbreakable brand identity.

Brand development goes miles beyond having a sleek logo or a catchy headline. It’s about giving meaning to every element of your business and making sure this is based on what resonates with your target audience. The key benefits of a well-thought-through brand are:

• You carve out a unique spot in your market that sets you apart
• It makes sure every part of your business works together perfectly
• Creating a brand that people love and trust keeps them coming back
• You get ahead of the competition and stay top-of-mind
• It sets you up for long-term success and builds your brand’s legacy

The 8-Step process to create your brand development strategy

Okay, but how do you actually work on brand development? Even though it’s an ongoing process, there are some crucial steps to follow. We’ll show you how to get started and develop an effective brand development strategy in seven steps.

Step 0: Find out where your brand is now

We’ll start the brand development process by looking at the state of things as they are.

If you want to develop and grow your brand, you’ll have to put a mark on the wall to see where your starting point is. If you’ve been working on your brand and branding here and there, we recommend you start with brand measurement.

The benchmarks you get are a foundational piece of the puzzle. They will help you make well-informed decisions about making the right adjustments that actually solve problems in your brand, rather than just piling on creative ideas that aren’t aligned with your goals and vision.

With brand measurement, you can define the key areas in which you need to work on successful brand development.

Step 1: Define your target audience

Don’t roll your eyes and sigh, ‘ugh, again?’ just yet.

Yes, the target audience is part of, well, every X-step process to creating anything for your brand. The reason it keeps coming up, however, is that many businesses still get it (slightly) wrong.

Instead of mapping out who their customers are, they draw up personas of their ideal customers.

A little ambition is great, but you will need to be realistic. Do those fantasy, ideal customers even exist? And while you are targeting them, what about the people who are actually interested in buying from you?

If you are happy with the target market you are reaching now, talk to the people in it to make more accurate personas. You can do this with a customer survey.

Why do new customers choose you, and how do current customers feel about you? The only way to really learn all this, is by speaking directly to your customers and prospects. Even the smartest marketing minds can’t read minds. The most valuable information about your customers comes from your customers.

You can launch surveys, but also look into reviews and research forums to find out what your target audiences are talking about when it comes to your brand and market. That way, you’ll really learn what they value and are looking for.

Step 2: Define your true brand mission and vision

If you haven’t yet, define your brand mission – the right way. Formulate a mission that actually resonates with you and the people in the company. That way it’s more authentic, and you can actually reach it.

A mission statement is not just a bunch of words on your About page. It’s why you came in to work this morning, and why you’ll be back tomorrow.

Part of this is also your brand vision. As a quick reminder: your mission is what you want to reach. Your vision is how you believe this should be done – not in a practical way, but with what values. On to the next step!

Step 3: Pick values that really fit your brand

You should derive these from your mission to make sure it’s a match (or use a brand perception template.) Why have both? Because it makes it even easier to identify what actions come from your ideas and ”what you stand for”. Plus, they will make it easier to make brand development visual and tangible. You can show the values, and know what words to communicate.

Step 4: Formulate a brand promise

Now, this is a big one. Promises always are. Your brand promise, or value propositions, will affect your team (how they work) and your customers (what they expect from you). Better pick one carefully.

A brand promise is not a tag line or slogan. It’s a value you add. It’s what customers experience when they interact with you. And that’s not just when they buy from you.

Why does a brand promise matter for your brand development? Because it’s a daily reminder of what you’re working towards. The more you develop a brand, the easier it will become to deliver what you promise.

Step 5: Develop brand guidelines and create content accordingly

This is where (for a lot of people) the fun starts. You create the visual elements based on your values. That means you will not pick colours just because they look good, but because of what they stand for, what emotions they spark in people.

This is how your entire design process will look like: you’ll always look back at your values to see if it’s a match.

Apart from your visual identity, your tone of voice and communication guidelines are also important brand assets. You could create a style guide that every employee has to follow, so your brand is recognizable – not just in what it conveys, but also in what it looks like.

Step 6: Pick brand development and growth strategies that match your brand

Managing brand growth isn’t something like a marketing campaign. There are no sprints that will help you boost revenue or grow your customer base directly. It’s a long-term journey to grow and strengthen your brand.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t any KPIs. Check out our article on 13 brand health metrics you should know about, and keep an eye on those as your brand develops.

Sentiment, brand equity and brand awareness are just a few that give you a great overview on how you’re doing in terms of brand development.

That being said, your brand development strategy has to be aligned with your value proposition and mission statement.

It’s not about reaching as many people as possible. We’ve mapped out how to create an effective brand strategy, but here is some more inspiration on brand growth strategies from brands we love:

Calm, a meditation app, knew just when to launch a brand growth strategy – during the 2020 presidential election. In a stressful time for everyone, they were seen on CNN offering free coping and calming tools to help stressed out Americans – perfectly aligned with what they stand for.

Gymshark helped both gym-goers and personal trainers during the pandemic, with free resources to train from home, and even the option for PTs to host workouts online. With this, they really doubled-down on taking care of the physical and mental health of their customers.

Papa John’s also knows what brand growth is all about: delivering meaning. Instead of an expensive Christmas episode telling people about the importance of giving, they actually gave the money reserved for that commercial to a charity. In a simple, fun video, they explained what they did.

Step 7: Implement your new brand developments and be consistent

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, brand development is all about being consistent. It’s crucial that you include all aspects of your business in this, internally and externally.

From your packaging materials to your customer service and from your website to your meetings: your brand is being built everywhere where people can see it – customers and employees.

Step 8: Keep measuring and improve

And just like that, we’ve come full circle. We recommend you to keep measuring your brand health metrics to see if your strategy is paying off.

Having set moments to look at these metrics will also help you stay on top of it and make brand development a priority – which it should be.

7 ways the brand development process will help your business

Brand development will affect different aspects of your business. Your marketing efforts might shift. Your customers will notice, but so will your team. So, what are the benefits of brand building and development?

It will be easier to develop relevant content for your target customers

Is filling up your content calendar a monthly struggle? If you work on brand building, you’ll never be lost for words ever again. Once you know your values and what you want to radiate to your target audience, you will always have something relevant to talk about, besides your products.

It gives you a competitive edge

It’s easy to recognize the brands that have invested in brand building. They’re the ones we reach for automatically in the supermarket, the ones we browse first. Brand awareness is built by brand development.

It helps you make sure you are always top-of-mind, leaving little space for your competitors, and helps build consumer loyalty.

Brand development makes you more authentic

”Brand is just a perception, and perception will match reality over time.” – Elon Musk.

We couldn’t have said it better. 86 percent of people name authenticity as a key factor in deciding what brands they like and support – or buy from, in other words. Real authenticity comes from matching your actions to your words, over and over again.

Brand building helps build trust for new brands

An important part of the brand development process is working in alignment with your values. If people can relate to those values, and you work according to them time and time again, you’ll inevitably build trust. The more your target market trusts your brand, the longer the queues when you launch a new product.

A brand development strategy helps you create a high-value business

How can you expect a customer to value your business if you don’t? Businesses that are too product-centered will see the effects of that in the long run. Consumers will spot a well-developed brand from miles away and recommend it to others, increasing the value even more.

Brand development makes you more resilient when the going gets tough

A strong brand promise will increase brand loyalty. Whenever you get into rough waters, but you stay true to your brand, your target audience will know exactly what they can get from you — even if you slightly alter the product or service itself. It’s the values and quality that stay the same.

Brand development is a great framework for your company culture

Your company culture influences how your brand is perceived, and your goals for your brand development affect your company culture. The two are inseparable. Ultimately, it’s your staff who needs to make the brand development happen.

Not just in big strategic moves, but also smaller, day-to-day actions and interactions. Having a plan for your brand development in place will steer them in the right direction (or you can use a brand tracking company to streamline the process.)

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The difference between ‘brand development’ and ‘branding’

Brand identity, brand strategy, branding – are we just mixing up words here? Not at all: brand development and branding are two different things. Connected, yes, but not the same.

Branding is promotion. It’s how you advertise your company or products with ads and visuals. It’s design-oriented, and focused on execution. It’s websites, brochures, ads, colours, logos, and tone of voice.

Brand development is building a reputation. It’s basically personality development for businesses, not focused on promotion, but rather on connection. It’s more strategic and long-term, more conceptual. It’s how you as a brand distinguish yourself from your competitors, if all your products and prices were the same.

Now, branding is a part of brand development. But both require different experts.

When done right, branding contributes to brand development, and the two make each other stronger. What a team!

Should you go for rebranding or brand development?

We’ve covered the difference between branding and brand development, but brand development isn’t always the right choice right away. Sometimes you’ll first need to do a (full) rebranding before you start further developing your brand.

Rebranding isn’t something you should take lightly. It’s a big investment – time and money-wise. And you shouldn’t do it just because you feel like your company needs a new look.

Rebranding is often done to battle a bad reputation or update an outdated image. Sometimes it’s necessary to rebrand if you want to expand internationally and your current branding doesn’t fit into the markets of other countries.

Many brands opt for a rebranding process when they find their current branding isn’t working, when in reality they are simply not using it right.

So, when do you start with brand development? Brand development is the right choice when you want to build on what you already have, or after you’ve completed your rebranding.

Rebranding is only right if there is really a need for change and your current branding is harming you and standing in the way of your business objectives.

‘But business is going well! Why should we invest in brand development?”

There are plenty of big brands that are slowly but surely losing market share. They were household names for new generations, who then stopped bothering with establishing a strong brand under the young kids. Their target audiences from several years ago still love them, but what about their kids?

New brands enter the market rapidly, and the consumer’s attention is more divided than ever. Brands that are still deciding on what personality they want to have and what they stand for, will be cancelled quickly by the younger generations who are looking for connection more than ever.

No brand is immortal. If you feel like you’ve exhausted all the possibilities of improving your product or service, focus on something a little more long-lasting: your brand.

If in ten years, your product isn’t in demand anymore and you want to introduce something new, you better have a strong brand in place that people will recognize and trust right off the bat.

Ways to promote your brand

If you feel like you have an awesome brand but it’s not getting noticed, or you’re revving up for that big rebrand launch, you are probably looking for ways to promote your brand. And we don’t mean any of the run-of-the-mill tactics – a static 9 grid on Instagram isn’t going to cut it. We’re here to give you some fresh ideas on promoting your brand (not your products!).

1. Bring your brand to the real world

Maybe we should say ‘’offline world’’, but you get the picture. Tons of brands go through revolutionary rebrands and end up with great websites and stunning social media content – but they don’t seem to get the recognition they deserve. That might be because they forgot that your brand shouldn’t just exist on a screen.

Create merch for your employees (or customers) that they actually want to wear. Attend conferences to show off your new rebrand in your own booth. Put the best copy you developed during the rebranding on a billboard. Make sure your product packaging matches your brand to a tee. There are (still) countless ways to be noticed in the offline space.

2. Partner up with a cause

Many brands are driven by a clear mission, but it’s highly unlikely that they’re the only ones who are passionate about it. If it matches your brand, find a charity, local cause or other organizations that resonate with your brand value and find ways to contribute to their success with your brand. A collaboration for a campaign or product could be a great way to do that. Just make sure it’s sincere and not a marketing gimmick.

3. Diversify your content

It’s challenging to give a brand a clear personality if you solely stick to TikTok and Instagram. But what about a podcast? Or a zine? If you feel like your brand has more to say than traditional formats allow for, find new places to say it.

4. Think about your brand as an employer

Carry out your brand everywhere – even when communicating to your employees. They can – and should – be aligned with your mission, vision and story and communicate it to the rest of the world. Make sure they have the assets they need to do that on LinkedIn, but take it further than that. 

• Implement onboarding programs for new hires that immerse them in your brand story, mission, and vision – not just in the work they are expected to do.
• Ensure that all internal communication, whether it’s newsletters, intranet, emails, or team meetings, reflects the brand’s voice and values. This will make it easier to always communicate like that as a company.
• If your employees come to the office, ensure there’s a branded work environment. Make sure that the workspace visually and culturally matches your brand.

These are just a couple of things you can do to promote your brand, rather than promoting your products. What mix of tactics you should use depends on the industry you’re in and, of course, also what matches your brand identity.

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Where your brand stands today is crucial knowledge to inform tomorrow’s strategy. Yet, a lot of businesses tend to not take stock, launching campaigns left and right without creating a benchmark.

If you want to do things differently—i.e. better—you’ve come to the right place. Here we’ll walk you through the essentials of running brand tracking studies.

What is a brand tracking study?

A brand tracking study is a research method used to track the perception of a particular brand over time. This type of study can be used to assess how well a brand is performing, identify any changes in perception that need to be addressed, and determine what factors might be influencing the public’s perception of the brand.

How to track your brand with Attest

Learn what people REALLY think about your brand—and how this affects their likelihood to buy—with a brand tracking study

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Why are brand tracking studies so vital?

Would you want to know what people are thinking of you at all times? Personally, probably not.

But for businesses, things are a little different. You can and should ask consumers how they feel about them, because ultimately, you create a brand, product, or service for them—your target audience.

That’s why it’s incredibly important to measure things like brand awareness, brand perception and other brand health metrics. Not just once, but over time, regularly, to figure out if you’re on the right path to charming your consumers.

Brand tracking will shine a light on which actions and campaigns have contributed in a positive way to your brand health, and which ones were not such great ideas. This will serve as incredible fuel for your future decisions.

What brand health metrics should you be tracking?

Brand tracking metrics are super important to measure because they can provide insights into how customers view a company and its products, over time.

Measuring brand health can help businesses track the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns and identify any areas where they may need to improve their brand strategy.

Additionally, tracking brand health can help you spot any potential problems early and take corrective action. Here’s which key metrics from brand tracking studies we encourage you to track to make sure you’re on top of your overall brand health.

Brand reputation

A brand’s reputation is an important aspect to track in your market research, as it can have a big impact on whether people trust your brand enough to spend their money with you.

There are a number of factors that can influence a brand’s reputation, including the quality of the product or service, customer service, marketing and advertising efforts, and the company’s overall ethical and social responsibility.

Brand perception

Brand perception refers to the way your brand makes people think and feel. Much like reputation, it can be affected by a variety of factors, such as the quality of the product or service, the company’s reputation, marketing and advertising efforts, and customer service.

When tracking brand perception, it’s important to measure ALL perceptions—positive, negative and everything in between.

Brand awareness

Brand awareness is one of the most important metrics to measure in your brand tracking research. It measures how well the public is aware of a particular brand and can be used to gauge the success of marketing campaigns and other promotional activities.

Measuring brand awareness over time can help you identify any changes in perception and determine what factors might be influencing the level of awareness people have of your brand.

Brand recall

Recall is a metric used in market research to measure how often a customer remembers a brand. This can be done through surveys, where customers are asked if they remember a certain brand. This is often used to measure the effect of a marketing campaign. Bear in mind: recall is not the same as brand recognition. Learn more about the difference between recall and recognition.

Brand equity

Brand equity measures the value of a brand, in the context of your market and competitors.

There are four main elements that make up brand equity:

• Brand awareness
• Loyalty to your brand
• Perceived quality
• Brand association

When you bring together all of these elements, you’ll begin to understand how much of your market belongs to you and how much your brand is worth.

Brand loyalty

Loyalty to your brand is a key measure of brand health, as it indicates how likely customers are to stick with a particular brand, which is especially important if you’re trying to increase your customer lifetime value (CLV).

There are a number of factors that can influence loyalty, including the quality of your product or service, your brand’s reputation, marketing and advertising efforts, and customer service.

Branding linkage

Would you be able to tell which advertisement is from our business? What about if we remove any logos or slogans in order for the audience?

Branding linkage = Brand association after a ‘non-branded’ content effort

If a viewer can associate an unbranded marketing effort from your business as being connected to your business, you’re on the right track. If not, you need to reconsider some creative decisions.

Branded searches

Branded searches are when a person searches for a specific product or company on the internet. They are usually looking for information about the company, such as the address or phone number, or they are looking to buy a product from the company. Branded searches can also be used to track how well a company is doing online. For instance, people googling ‘Nike running shoes’ shows their branding success: they’re not simply looking for ‘running shoes’.

NPS (Net Promoter Score)

The net promoter score (NPS) is a metric used to measure customer loyalty and is calculated by asking customers how likely they are to recommend a brand to others. Your NPS number is based on the answer to the question “how likely are you to recommend our company/product/service to a friend or colleague?” Respondents then give their answer on a range from 1 to 10. It’s a classic when it comes to brand tracking.

Brand favorability

A brand’s favorability is a measure of whether people favor your brand over another or not. Bear in mind: this doesn’t necessarily show whether they love you. They might favor your brand over your arch enemy—but it’s still possible they don’t like either of you. Combine it with purchase intent and market share to learn more.

Want to know more about brand health metrics before starting your brand tracking survey? Here are the 14 most important brand health metrics!

Why are these brand health metrics so important?

Businesses traditionally look at metrics such as customer retention, sales, profit and market share. But combining these numbers over time with the knowledge you gather from your brand tracking study, will show you what has affected those retention, sales and profit numbers.

Different types of brand tracking studies

We have some bad news—you can’t just throw a few metrics in the blender and call it a brand tracking survey. Your brand tracking studies should inform the long-term brand strategy you’ve laid out for your business. Here are some examples of brand tracking studies.

Tracking marketing efforts and campaign effectiveness

The metrics you’ll be using: brand awareness/perception/reputation (depending on the goal of the campaign), brand linking, branded searches.

Next time you launch a big advertising campaign, set up a brand tracking study alongside it. You’ll be measuring right before the campaign, right after and an X amount of months after the campaign to see its long-term impact on your brand. Depending on the goal of the campaign, you can focus on awareness, perception, or reputation.

Tracking customer satisfaction/feedback

The metrics you’ll be using: brand’s loyalty, brand favorability, brand reputation.

How is the relationship with your current customers evolving over time? How can you increase customer loyalty, and turn existing customers into advocates for organic brand growth? This is what you’ll be measuring if you focus on this type of brand tracking study. You can track changes in the relationship, and see what effect price changes, new products, new competing brands and other events in your product category have.

Tracking your brand’s health among non-customers

The metrics you’ll be using: brand awareness, branded searches, brand perception.

It’s crucial to also keep an eye on people who aren’t your customers—yet… Are they becoming at least more aware of your brand? What misconceptions do they have about you? What’s your general reputation? But make sure you balance your target audiences right: there’s no use in collecting data from people who will never be your customers; however don’t forget about the influence non-customers might have over the purchasing decisions your actual customers might make.

Tracking your brand amongst (possible) employees

The metrics you’ll be using: brand awareness, brand perception and brand reputation

It’s not just potential customers you want to impress—it’s future employees, too. A great way to keep your hiring process sharp is by infusing it with a brand tracking study that revolves around your reputation amongst jobseekers.

Tracking your brand alongside other brands

The metrics you’ll be using: brand awareness, NPS, branding linkage

Market research is incredibly versatile, so find something that fits your goals! If you want to get more insights in how you’re performing in your target market, track brand health against competition. You can check what new competitors, consumer behavior and other unexpected events do to performance metrics such as business growth, market penetration and brand usage.

How to conduct a brand tracking study in 7 steps

Now you’ve seen that there are different types of brand tracking studies, you understand that there is not just one road that leads there. But in general, there are some steps you simply can’t miss if you want to make your brand tracking study the success it deserves to be.

Step 1: Set a goal and corresponding metrics

Choosing the right metrics for your brand tracking study can be tricky. You want to make sure you’re measuring the things that are important to your business, but you also need to make sure they’re relevant to your customers.

Follow your strategy: what are you focusing on in the next 5 years? Is it building stronger relationships with current customers? Gathering more customers? Let this lead the way to choosing the right metrics.

Step 2: Select an audience

When selecting your target audience for a brand tracking study, it’s important to be as specific as possible. Trying to measure the awareness and perception of a brand among the general public is a daunting task, and you’ll likely get more useful information by narrowing down your focus.

Will you be focusing on current customers who’ve been with you for a while? New customers? Or do you want to learn the purchase intent for the ones whose heart you have yet to conquer? Make sure it makes sense with the metrics you choose.

Step 3: Ask the right questions

You’re in luck! We’ve written several guides about which survey questions you can ask for certain metrics. We’ll just leave them here:

• 100 Great Survey Questions and Examples
• Brand Perception Survey: Questions, Examples and Template
• 16 Brand positioning survey questions that work
• 24 brand image survey questions for real insights
• And we have a whole learning hub, with loads of guides on brand tracking—head over to our Consumer Research Academy!

Step 4: Collect that data!

When it comes to data collection for your brand tracking study, there are a few different ways to go about it. The most common way is through surveys, but you can also look at other numbers such as customer retention rates, profit and loss statements, and social media analytics. No matter how you collect the data, make sure they match periods and audiences.

Track your brand with Attest

Set up a regular brand tracker to see how your awareness and perception are changing over time—and spot trends before they become an issue!

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Step 5: Analyze, analyze, analyze

Once you’ve gathered all your data, it’s time to start analyzing it. This is where you’ll see what trends are emerging with your brand—the good, the bad and the neutral.

Are people becoming more aware of your brand? What do they think of your products? How does customer satisfaction change over time?

There are a million questions you can get answered in the data you get, but make sure to stay focused on the goal of your research.

Step 6: And then… Action!

Once you’ve gathered all your data, it’s time to start acting on it. Which campaigns do more harm than good? What is attracting customers to your competitors? How can you become more proactive to keep them on board?

Step 7: Repeat regularly

This is where the tracking part comes in. Brand tracking isn’t something you should do once and forget thereafter. How often you will conduct these studies depends on the length of them. You can also choose to run smaller surveys more often that focus on specific parts of your larger brand tracking study.

Bonus step: Create context with competitors

With this step you’re going the extra mile in your brand tracking study. Let’s say your NPS is a big part of your brand tracking study, because your long-term goal is to grow your brand from the inside out, gathering more customers organically.

A handy trick to give more context in your study, is to not only measure your own metrics, but compare yourself to a competitor. So, if you ask respondents for your own NPS, also ask about another brand. This will put the number in perspective and will guide your decisions a whole lot better.

Brand tracking made easy with Attest

Alright, what else do you need for your first brand tracking study? Is it templates? Brand tracking software? Help from an expert researcher? More resources for the true DIYers?

We’ve got it all! Attest is here for all levels of brand trackers. We’ve created some handy templates that will have your online survey up and running in no time. Have a look and play around with it to make it yours!

If you are keen to get started but want to ask an expert for their opinion, let’s chat. All our users get access to brand tracking researchers who have done this rodeo over and over, and are eager to put their latest insights to use in your survey.

The Experts’ Guide to Brand Tracking

How to look at the impact of things like audience reach, panel diversity, and survey design to help you decide whether your current brand tracker is up to scratch.

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What would your brand and products look like if your customers were the CEO? It might sound like a ridiculous fantasy, but having their needs and wishes at the forefront of your strategy will be what make you their go-to brand. Every. Single. Time.

Brand preference is a complex concept, because you can often not predict whether trends or friends are more important when choosing who to shop with. But how do you learn about your customers’ preferences? Most importantly, how do you develop your brand to match them?

Time to launch a brand preference survey and find out what makes them tick and what would make them stick. In this article, we’ll specifically focus on brand preference questions that revolve around customer loyalty. Ready to launch a kick-ass brand perception survey for your market research?

Why are brand preference surveys important?

If you know why customers choose your brand—or any brand—you can use that knowledge, get one step ahead and become their first choice. 

It’s crucial that you know their motives for choosing a brand: it’s rarely random. A brand preference survey reveals what could bind consumers to your brand.

Brand preference and customer loyalty are obviously closely knit: knowing what people prefer, will help you create a brand they want to be loyal to.

But can you even measure customer loyalty through a brand perception survey?

Of course you can, with the right questions—and by combining the answers with the right metrics.

With a brand preference survey, you can measure the non-quantifiable part of customer loyalty—their motives, their thoughts, their wishes. If you combine this with the metrics below, you get a full picture of customer loyalty around your brand.

The Experts’ Guide to Brand Tracking

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Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

One of the most widely known customer loyalty metrics is the CVL. It’s the sum of how much value a customer will bring to your brand in the entire time they shop with you. In other words: how much money they’ll spend on you. 

Consider how important this is for car brands, for instance. If someone can be converted into a hyper-loyal Mercedes-Benz driver, it will guarantee the business a big CVL, with a very high ROI.

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

How likely are you to recommend us to friends, family, colleagues? It’s one of the most-asked questions by businesses, and it’s an important one. 

Your NPS goes beyond loyalty and lets you find out whether people are willing to be brand ambassadors, recommending you to others. Who wouldn’t want some free salespeople?

On the other side of the scale, however, you find out if there are people who could harm your brand by badmouthing you to their nearest and dearest. It’s essential to find out the motives of both. 

Repeat Purchase Rate

How many people buy from you more than once? This is an important one, especially for goods that people are meant to buy more often. 

If you get a lot of new business, but rarely anyone sticks around for a second purchase, it could mean that your product or service, or your marketing messaging or overall customer experience aren’t a match and people are disappointed. 

Upsell ratio

Let’s close the list with an important metric in advanced customer loyalty, the upsell ratio. 

Picture Apple users for a second. If you have an iPhone, it’s likely that you have AirPods, and not some other brands of headphones. You might work from a MacBook, because well, it simply works better with your phone, right? That Apple TV is just the next logical step. 

And so, the list goes on. The upsell ratio is all about selling customers not more of the same product, but additional products or services. 

When combining these metrics with data on reasons people buy from you, you get a goldmine of information that will help you improve marketing, products, customer service and so on. 

How do you get that other data? With a survey. Let’s move on to the survey questions that you could be asking to identify what loyal customers are really thinking about your brand image and product features. 

Brand perception survey questions

The brand perception survey questions below will give you valuable insights into how consumers perceive your brand and how well consumers connect to it, but it’s not a matter of copying and pasting this list in a survey. 

It’s important that you choose and add questions that are specific to your market research goals, that match the place in the customer journey your target audience is in, and that you use your own words to stay on brand—because a survey is just another opportunity to show off your brand qualities. 

Now that we’ve got that out the way, here are some brand perception survey questions for your next brand preference or brand perception survey. 

1. For how long have you been aware of X Brand?

Let’s start at the beginning. If your brand has been around for a long time, and someone has only recently learned about you—what has changed in your branding? Or was it simply that they didn’t fit in your target group before? What is at the core of that vital brand awareness?

Give your respondents options here, and make clear it’s an approximate. You could even remind them of specific campaigns or product launches from the past.

Asking this question can be interesting if your brand has a longer track record, and you want to investigate how any changes in either your marketing or products have influenced your customers’ loyalty. But for that, you need to know if they knew about the changes, about the ‘old’ you. 

2. When was the first time you bought from X Brand?

This question is connected to the first one and a useful follow up. If someone knew about your brand for a long time but it took them a while to buy from you, it can be interesting to dive into that period between first locking eyes and sealing the deal. Were they simply not convinced by your brand? Did their needs change? Did your brand change?

3. Why did you decide to buy from X Brand?

If you’ve finally convinced someone to buy from your brand, it’s good to know what gave them the last push. 

Note that their first reason might not be the same as the reason they are still buying from you, so you could follow up with a question about that.

4. Thinking about X Brand, name all the types of products it sells.

With an open-text question like this you’ll find out what people think your brand actually sells when they aren’t prompted with cues. You’ll learn about certain products or product categories that are valuable to your brand, and you’ll also find out whether that big specific product campaign you’ve published has had any effect. 

5. What would make you switch to a competitor?

Is someone’s loyalty simply based on price? You can give respondents multiple options here, such as proximity, or certain features, to gauge what makes them loyal to a brand, and find out what you should be competing on.  

6. Which of the following statements do you associate with X Brand?

How does your brand make people feel? By offering a list of emotive responses here you’ll get an understanding of the vibe customers get from your brand. And with that you’ll know whether your marketing and branding strategies are working or whether you need to give them a rethink.

Here are some possible answer options you could use for a question on brand perception like this:

• It offers quality products
• It’s trustworthy
• It’s good value
• It’s expensive
• It’s innovative 

7. On a scale of 1-10 how do you rate X Brand’s customer service?

For this question, you want to pick a few competitors who sell similar products, and have a little competition. That’s right: have them rate competitors as well, using the same question format. You can include a scale that measures different aspects, from customer service to price-quality. 

8. Which of the following, if any, have you purchased in the past 12 months?

Present respondents with a list of options here, of products that are relevant: it doesn’t have to be the exact same products, but also substitutes or complementary products.

9. How likely would you be to recommend X Brand’s products to others?

Ah, there’s the NPS! 

We had to include it in this list, because it’s a must-have in any brand preference or brand perception survey. The NPS divides your respondents into three levels of loyalty: 

• Detractors, the ones who would recommend others not to buy from you 
• Passives, who don’t say anything about your brand at all
• Promoters, who want to recommend your brand to others. 

It’s unrealistic to expect everyone to be a promoter for your brand (although that shouldn’t mean you don’t strive for promoters), so it’s important to find out why some people wouldn’t recommend your brand to others. Don’t just focus on the positives!

10. How likely are you to continue using the services from X Brand?

Maybe someone was loyal up to the point they last bought from you, but now something has changed. Or they happily continue being your customer. Both scenarios are important to investigate, and this question kicks it off perfectly. 

11. How interested would you be in checking out other products or services from X Brand?

Is someone loyal to your brand because of one specific product, or do they trust that your brand could fulfil other needs as well? Think back to those Apple fans for this question, and you see how essential it is to build brand trust. 

12. Complete the following sentence: I think X Brand is…

If you ask people how they feel about a brand, they’re probably lost for words. So for this question, present them with a list of adjectives, both positive, neutral and negative, to find out what people think about your brand. 

13. What are the top three features that are most valuable to you in [specific product]?

This is not just for flattery—asking your respondents this will show you what you have to double down on and, more importantly, what not to change. Give them a list of features to choose from that your product team can also work with and understands what it is: you want to avoid people naming features that you don’t recognize or aren’t sure about what they mean. 

14. If you could change just one thing about [specific product], what would it be?

Don’t assume customer loyalty lasts forever—also ask questions that investigate what they don’t like about your product. This style of survey question keeps the negative connotation out but can give you a clear picture of what they don’t like or what you’re lacking. 

15. How often do you use X Brand’s products or services?

Are they seemingly loyal to you, but also mix it up with other brands? Do they religiously only use your product? Or was this just a one-time thing? This type of question should give you some answers. Give them several options to choose from to categorize your users.

16. How would you feel if you could no longer use X Brand’s product or service?

We know for a fact that some people would have a minor meltdown if Apple’s next radical move would be to simply stop selling any products. 

This question will help you gauge the intensity of customer loyalty to your brand. If you’re leaving the market and that would leave them feeling indifferent, it’s time to step up your game. 

17. What makes you feel valued as a customer?

We’re finishing the list off with this banger: how could you make your customers feel more valued, thus making them more loyal?

In some cases, people want to receive rewards, or can be incentivized into being loyal. Other times, they just want customer service to be attentive, or to have a say in how your products or services are shaped. 

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How to write a brand preference survey

Before you start crafting your very own brand preference survey, take a step back and look at these tips to make your market research a success. 

Mix things up

The questions we showed above are a mix of open, closed and scale questions, and it’s important that you mix things up in your survey as well. It might be tempting to only ask open-ended questions, thinking you’ll get a lot of valuable insight, but people might get bored or tired after a long list of open-ended questions. 

Keep people interested with a genuinely interesting survey experience. 

Add something to reward loyalty and assistance

For branded surveys, it could be fun to reward respondents for participating. This is another way of thanking them for their loyalty, which is completely in line with the survey. 

Learn about what your customers don’t like

Don’t just focus your questions on what your customers prefer, also find out what they don’t like. After all, it’s easier to break loyalty than to build it, so be wary of what might ruin your relationships.

Combine brand perception with other data

Your survey should match the metrics you already have or want clarified about customer loyalty. 

For instance, if you compare your CLV data and upsell ratio and see that a certain audience group spends more than others, a brand preference survey can give you some interesting information on that. 

Who to send your brand preference survey to?

How do you select the right audience for your brand perception survey? With the focus on loyalty here, it’s important that you survey people who’ve bought from you at least twice. 

Your target customers have experience with your brand and their customer satisfaction isn’t based on a one-time experience. 

Depending on your market research, for instance, if you’re thinking of launching a new product or brand, you could also be interested in people’s loyalty to competitor brands in the current market. This means you can find current customers in a specific product category and find out if they’re too loyal, or if you could steal them from the competition. 

For these kinds of brand perception surveys, it’s less valuable to target non customers who have no experience within your own product category or a particular product. Luckily, Attest lets you hyper-specialize when it comes to selecting the right audience for your survey. 

Before you go: here’s what will make your brand preference survey even better

Finding out what your target market wants is easier said than done—but it all starts by simply asking, and using online consumer surveys is the easiest way to do that. 

Attest comes with all the brand management tools you need to start the conversation, and analyze the results of your brand perception survey. Start with tweaking our brand tracking templates and see how easy it is to measure brand preference and customer loyalty!

And to give you the perfect intro, here’s our quick summary of brand tracking and how you can use it to properly understand what consumers think about your brand over time.

See our brand tracking case studies to learn how your brand can also benefit.

FAQs about brand perception survey

Learn more about how to build awareness of your brand.

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What is a product demand analysis?

With a product demand analysis, you try to get an accurate estimate of future sales of your product. It’s a way of understanding how competition, seasons and other relevant events affect the sales of a certain product. 

Product demand analysis can be done at various times – even for products that aren’t for sale yet. It’s not only based on past sales, demand can also be predicted based on changes in society, technological advancements and environmental changes. 

So yes, there are a lot of factors weighing in, and nobody can predict the future down to the last chocolate bar being sold. But gauging product demand is crucial for building a future-proof business. Here’s why.

Why conduct a product demand analysis?

The goals of your product demand analysis depend very much on at what stage your business or product is in. 

Validating ideas and financial planning

You could be doing exploratory market research and trying to find out if there’s a big enough market for you to enter with your product. And if there is, could you enter at a price point high enough to make your idea worth pursuing? 

Buying materials from suppliers

Product demand analysis is also important for businesses who heavily rely on secondary manufacturers or resources from external sources. Will you be able to get the necessary materials in time? 

Save money and work more efficiently

Saving money could also be one of the goals of performing a product demand analysis. Knowing when your product will be popular will help you better allocate your budget and manpower.

Knowing when demand will be higher will help you plan the budget and timing for marketing campaigns, but also make sure you have enough employees on the work floor to handle the extra orders. 

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What are the types of product demand?

Product demand isn’t as straightforward as you’d think. Products and categories are connected to each other, and sometimes demand comes from where you were least expecting it.

Here are the most important types of product demand with examples. 

• Direct demand: the simplest form of product demand is the demand for a final product. For instance, how many people are planning to buy a new smart TV.
• Indirect Demand: this is the demand for a product that is used to produce another product. Are you still following? A simple example is the rising demand for, let’s say, standing desks. The wood of the table would be the product that is in higher indirect demand, due to the popularity of the end product.
• Joint demand: Joint demand occurs when two products have a direct and positive correlation in demand. If people start buying more paint, they will start buying more canvases.
• Composite demand: this is the demand for products that can be used in more ways than one. For materials like the wood earlier, it’s important to know that it’s not just in demand for stand-up desks. It could also be used for millions of other products.
• Latent demand: this is the demand for a product that consumers can’t satisfy. There are three scenarios in which this happens:

When conducting your product demand analysis, it’s important to distinguish between these types of demand, but also to see the connections where possible.

How to conduct a product demand analysis in 5 steps

Product demand analysis shouldn’t be wild guessing: it’s building a solid foundation of knowledge and structuring your research on top of that- and it’s a fundamental part of market research for new product development. Here are the steps:

1. Define your market
2. Assess the maturity of the market business cycle
3. Identify your market niche
4. Calculate market growth potential
5. Evaluate the competition 

1. Define your market 

Who could you be selling to, how much do those people have to spend, and who are they currently giving their money to? Those are crucial questions to ask when defining your market. 

Defining your market shouldn’t just be done in words, by explaining personas or target audiences – the numbers are crucial to this. 

Depending on the goal of your product demand analysis, you could also look at secondary markets for this part of your research. There might be some ground you could cover in markets where your product would be used by people who are not in your primary target audience. 

2. Assess the maturity of the market and business cycle

Some products seem to have an endless life cycle. The oldest beer brewery has been around since 1040, and we’re still drinking it – even though many other alternatives have entered the market. But there are also breweries that have gone bankrupt. What’s up with that?

The market and business life cycle are two important things to analyse. First of all, you want to get an idea of how steady the market is. Will you be entering a market that is in the growth phase, is it mature and stable, or is it heading towards decline?

The same should be done for your business: how mature is it? It’s important to make this a part of your product demand analysis. If your market is growing but you can’t keep up, how will you deliver enough products to actually be profitable?

3. Identify your market niche

Your market niche is the sweet spot of where there’s potential to enter and where you would be able to deliver. Not only in terms of physical products or practical services, it should also be a match when it comes to values and USPs. Consumers aren’t just looking for products, they are looking for brands they connect with. 

When doing a product market analysis, it’s important that you are specific and don’t paint a better picture by looking at the entire market, or too large a part of it. Eventually, you will have to choose a targeted message that will not speak to everyone in the market: keep this in mind when defining the real size of your market.

4. Calculate market growth potential

Now you have the data on the current situation: time to look into the future. To do that, we’ll start by going to the past. 

How has the market share been divided among your competitors ever since the market came to exist? What events and products affected these changes in the division? What was happening in related or similar markets in the same time period? 

Based on this information you can try to pinpoint patterns and find opportunities for growth in the future. Also keep societal factors in mind, like wages and costs of other possibly related products, and changes in tax.

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5. Evaluate the competition

Chances are, your competitors are also performing some kind of product demand analysis while you are too. Maybe they also have a new product in mind that they want to launch, or they’re trying to increase their market share another way. 

Look at how they went about their previous product launches and how this was received by your target market. How were the sales numbers? What could you learn from them?

You can keep an eye on what’s being said by and about your competitors using smart competitor tracking tools. 

Product demand analysis examples

Is it magic? Is it witchcraft? Is it espionage? No, it’s artificial intelligence. 

One of the kings in product demand analysis is undoubtedly Amazon. How do they have that tiny screw in the right colour available for next day delivery, when all hardware stores in your area are out of stock?

A lot of it is thanks to artificial intelligence, and an exquisite product demand analysis. Amazon has mastered the craft of balancing human intelligence with human tasks. Product demand analysis on the scale they are doing would simply take too long to do manually, so where possible they let AI do the heavy lifting. In the background, their team is figuring out the details that make their supply chain so impressive. 

The team knows not only what products to have in stock, but also where. In 2013, they got a patent for ‘anticipatory shipping’. This technique helped them to get a product to the closest warehouse to you, even before you actually hit ‘buy now’.

Other parts of their product demand analysis are more common sense. Certain local products will only get stocked in relevant regions, and they look beyond the obvious seasonal changes. Sunscreen is important in summer, yes, but also in winter in places where, for example, families go on skiing holidays. 

Product demand analysis best practices

How do you actually gather all that information we mentioned above? Let’s look at some tools and best practices that will help you get the most relevant and actionable insights regarding product demand predictions. 

Product demand surveys

To accurately estimate the demand for your product through a survey, it’s crucial that you ask the right questions. Think about how precise you would want people to answer, what data you need. Is it just numbers, or also about days or months? Will you ask them about alternative buying reasons for your product? 

Set a clear goal for your product demand survey and build the questions based on that, so you won’t miss a single piece of information. 

Another crucial element is defining quality respondents. Your product demand analysis survey should only be sent to people who match the criteria of actual buyers. This way you prevent getting data on latent demand, from people who would buy, but don’t actually have the money. 

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Experiments with price and offer

Some markets are unpredictable, mostly because they are new. If after your initial product demand analysis you find that the numbers are a tiny bit lower than you’d hoped for, try analysing what happens if you tweak your offer.

You can experiment with different price points, package deals or bundles, or other types of promotions. You can also try finding partnerships or products that go well with yours to create more demand, even if it’s just secondary. This could be especially helpful if you are just entering a new market, and you want to ride on the success of another product.

Consumer trends

To identify consumer trends, you can use tools such as Google Trends, look into frequent Amazon searches and keep an eye on trending topics on social media. 

With social listening tools, you can keep track of what people are saying about a certain product or brand, which will help you get data on what’s trending. Joining online communities or Facebook groups that are relevant to your market is also a great way to stay up to date on what’s happening. 

Don’t forget to also look into popular topics in specific regions if that’s relevant for you. When looking at specific keywords, you can get incredibly precise data that will drive your decision-making process forward. 

Picking the right market research tools

Still feel like product demand analysis is just a guessing game? With the right market research tools, you’ll see that getting accurate data is more a science than an art. Here are three of our favourite tools for market research that could help you getting your product demand analysis right:

1. Attest: we had to! With our quick, easy-to-use market research platform you can find those hyper-relevant consumers and ask them those burning questions about their buying behaviour.
2. Social Mention: to keep an eye on consumer trends, we highly recommend using social mention. This is a social listening tool that will give you first-hand data on what’s being said about your market across different platforms, without you having to monitor them manually. 
3. Heartbeat.ai: if you know that people are talking about your market, it’s also important to know what they’re saying. Just because a lot of people are talking about Blockbuster, doesn’t mean DVD rental is back in the picture. They’re just making memes. With heartbeat.ai, you can automatically analyse the tone of online conversations. 

Love these tools? So do we. If you’re looking for more of this, check out our entire article with 6 of our favourite tools for market research. 

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The post A step-by-step guide to product demand analysis in 2025 appeared first on Attest.

Many researchers struggle with formulating open-ended questions that actually generate useful responses (and enough of them!).

Too often, these questions result in vague answers like “It’s fine” or lengthy responses that are difficult to analyze at scale. Or, people simply don’t feel like answering them at all. So the challenge isn’t just asking the right questions—it’s knowing when to use them, how to phrase them, and then also what to do with the qualitative data you collect.

In this guide, you’ll learn the art of open-ended questions: how to write better open-ended survey questions, when to use them instead of closed-ended alternatives, and practical methods for analyzing the responses you receive. If you’re looking for meaningful answers and more context from your potential customers, consider this article your launching pad!

What are open-ended questions?

Open questions are those that allow respondents to answer in their own words, in a free form answer, without being limited to predefined response options, aka multiple choice questions. Open ended ones give participants complete freedom to express their thoughts, feelings, and opinions in whatever detail they choose. You’ll often get longer answers, more like having a conversation, but since it’s in the format of a survey, it remains easy to digest and analyze.

Open-ended vs close-ended questions: how are they different?

Unlike multiple-choice or rating scale questions, open-ended questions don’t provide answer choices. Instead, they typically include a text box where respondents can type their response. But that’s not the only difference. Here are the differences, beyond the obvious formatting. You’ll see the way close-ended questions are formatted, and what their open-ended ”counterpart” could look like.

Both being different, means they also both have different pros and cons. Here is how each format can benefit you, or be a disadvantage to your research.

Open-Ended Questions

Close-Ended Questions

When to use open vs close -ended questions

Use open-ended questions when you want to:

Here are some key examples of when you can use open-ended questions. 

Explore unknown territory

• Discovering what customers think about your brand without prompting specific attributes
• Understanding unprompted brand awareness: “Thinking about [category], what brands come to mind?”
• Exploring new market opportunities or unmet customer needs

Understand the “why” behind behaviors

• Following up rating questions: “You rated our customer service as poor. What happened during your last interaction?”
• Exploring decision-making processes: “What factors influenced your choice to switch to our competitor?”

Generate ideas and insights

• New product development: “If you could design the perfect [product category], what features would it have?”
• Content creation: “What questions do you have about [topic] that we haven’t addressed?”

Capture authentic customer language

• Understanding how customers describe your products for marketing copy
• Learning the terminology and pain points your audience actually uses

Use close-ended questions when you want to:

Measure and compare

• Tracking satisfaction scores over time
• Comparing different customer segments or products
• Measuring Net Promoter Score (NPS) or other standardized metrics

Make quick decisions

• A/B testing creative concepts with clear preferences
• Screening respondents based on specific criteria
• Gathering demographic information for segmentation

Reduce respondent burden

• Long surveys that need to remain engaging
• Mobile surveys where typing is more difficult
• Research with time-sensitive participants

Best practice: Combine both question types

The most effective surveys often combine open-ended and close-ended questions strategically:

1. Start with closed-ended questions to qualify respondents and ease them into the survey
2. Follow ratings with open-ended follow-ups to understand the reasoning
3. Use open-ended questions for exploration, then validate findings with closed-ended questions in future research
4. End with open-ended questions to capture anything you might have missed

Example combination:

• Close-ended: “How likely are you to recommend our product? (0-10 scale)”
• Open-ended follow-up: “What’s the main reason for your score?”

56 open-ended survey question examples

The type of open-ended questions you’ll ask depends heavily on your research objectives. Use these examples as inspiration, adapting the wording to fit your specific context and brand voice.

Branding survey questions

These questions help you understand brand perception and awareness without leading respondents toward specific attributes:

• Thinking about [category], what brands, if any, are you aware of? Please type in all the brands that you can think of.
• How would you describe [brand] to a friend?
• When you think of [brand], what words or phrases come to mind?
• If you had to describe [brand] in three words, what would they be?
• What initially attracted you to [brand]?
• What was your initial reaction to [brand]?
• How have your feelings towards [brand] changed over time?
• How did you become aware of [brand] and the products/services they offer?
• Who do you think [brand] is made for?
• Complete the following sentence: I think [brand] is…
• In the past year, what have you heard about [brand]?

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Customer feedback survey questions

Use these questions to gather detailed insights about customer experience and satisfaction:

• Please describe your last encounter with [brand]’s customer service department.
• How can [brand] provide a better service to you?
• Why do you buy from [brand]?
• How does buying/using [brand] make you feel?
• What elements do you consider when shopping for [product category]?
• What did you like best about your experience with [brand]?
• What did you like least about your experience with [brand]?
• What is your favorite feature of [product]?
• What surprised you about using [product]?
• What annoys you about [product]?
• What problem does [product] solve for you?
• How well does [brand] product solve your problem?
• What were the main struggles you had when using [product]?
• If you could change one thing about [product], what would it be?
• What additional features would you like to see on [product]?
• In which situations do you commonly use [brand] products?
• Describe your purchasing process for [product].

Pricing survey questions

These questions help you understand price sensitivity and value perception:

• How much would you expect [product] to cost?
• What factors do you keep in mind when deciding how much you’d pay for [product]?

Market analysis survey questions

Use these questions to understand competitive positioning and market dynamics:

• What brands, if any, are you aware of in this product category? Please type in all the brands you can think of.
• What other brands have you considered?
• What would you say is the most significant difference between [brand] and [competitor brand]?
• Where did you look before coming to [brand]?
• Why did you choose [brand] products rather than a competitor’s?
• What does [brand] do better than other companies in this field?
• What product would you use as an alternative if [brand] was no longer available?
• What’s your overall opinion of [brand]?
• Is there anything else you’d like to share with us about [brand]?

Customer profiling survey questions

These questions help you build detailed customer personas and understand user journeys:

• What other products did you try before using our product?
• What makes you feel valued as a customer?
• What websites and sources do you use to find new [category] products?
• What do you find the most difficult when shopping for this type of product?
• Where exactly did you first hear about [brand]?
• What type of content do you like to consume revolving [product]?
• What types of channels do you use when shopping for products?

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New product development and concept testing survey questions

Use these questions to gather insights for product innovation and improvement:

• Please describe your ideal product for this category.
• If you could change just one thing about [specific product], what would it be?
• What is your least favorite aspect of [product feature]?
• Why don’t you like that [product feature]?
• If you could add anything you wanted to this product, what would it be?
• Why would you add this?
• If you could get rid of anything in this product, what would it be?
• Why would you get rid of that?

💡Pro tip: Open-ended questions are powerful — but only if they’re asked the right way. Check out our guide to writing better survey questions to learn how to phrase them clearly, avoid bias, and get more honest, useful responses.

Best practices for asking open-ended questions

Asking open-ended questions sounds easy: just let the survey respondents do the talking, right?

Wrong. Asking open-ended questions is more complicated than it sounds, because you’re relying on your respondents to give you meaningful open-text answers. It’s therefore SUPER IMPORTANT that you structure your market research well so that you give respondents the best chance of understanding what you’re asking and that you carry out genuinely useful qualitative research. Follow these best practices to improve response quality and analysis efficiency.

1. Keep the structure of your survey in mind

We recommend not kicking your survey off with an open-ended question. Normally it helps to start with some closed ended questions to qualify your survey respondents and as a way to ease your respondents into the context of your survey, before you ask those open-ended questions.

2. Ask only the essential open-ended questions

When you are designing a survey, it is important to only ask for information that you will actually use. Open-ended questions can be helpful for getting detailed feedback, but they can also be more difficult to analyze because you don’t end up with the more typical quantitative data you can more easily gather through close-ended questions.

Also keep in mind that for respondents, answering open-ended questions takes a lot more time and effort than selecting from predefined lists. Make sure you are not exploiting their willingness to answer your survey, and keep answers of high quality by limiting the amount of open-ended questions you are asking. Nobody started your survey because they wanted to write an essay!

3. Ask one question at a time

We’re often inclined to cover multiple subjects in one sentence, but this can blur your answers and confuse respondents. Don’t ask who their favorite actor is and why in one question, but split questions up as much as you can. This will make it a lot easier to analyze the results in the end, and you will make sure every single question gets fully answered.

4. Be specific

When asking an open-ended question you’ll want to be super-specific.

Asking someone what they like about your product can give you a full range of answers that might be hard to categorize and analyze. Instead, split it up in smaller pieces. So instead of

What do you like about our product?

Ask questions such as:

• What do you think about the design of our product?
• What do you think about the usability of our product?
• What do you think about the durability of our product?

If you need these questions answered with detail and therefore choose open-ended questions, you will at least be able to categorize the answers.

5. Avoid leading questions

Leading, your honor!

Leading questions push respondents in a certain direction. They already contain information that you are either trying to confirm or deny. This means you won’t get a true unbiased answer from most respondents.

Here are some examples of open-ended questions that are leading, so don’t use these!

• How much did you enjoy our last event?
• Most people hate having to drive to the cinema for more than half an hour. What about you?
• What did you find most user-friendly in our new app?

The risk with leading questions isn’t just that you get answers that don’t add any value, it’s also a slippery slope towards getting a single word answer. Formulate your question in such a way (and test it on yourself and others if in doubt) to see what the instinctive response is.

6. Avoid closed-ended questions in disguise

Closed-ended questions can be answered with a simple “yes” or “no” and do not provide respondents with an opportunity to speak up. But sometimes we ask closed ended questions, thinking they’re open-ended. But unfortunately, having a text field ready for respondents, doesn’t necessarily mean your question is open-ended. For instance:

• Were you happy with our latest product update?

Sure, a respondent might be able to say no and expand on that, but it would be better to ask a closed-ended question using the Likert scale and follow it up with an open-ended question for added context:

• Thinking about [brand]’s latest product update, which of the following statements applies to you?
  • I loved it
  • I quite liked it
  • I neither liked or disliked it
  • I didn’t like it
  • I hated it
• What made you feel this way?

[open-text response]

How to increase your survey response rate

Getting high-quality responses to open-ended questions starts with encouraging participation in your survey. Use these strategies to improve response rates and data quality.

Keep surveys short and focused

Longer surveys have dramatically lower completion rates. Aim for surveys that take 5-7 minutes maximum to complete, including time for thoughtful open-ended responses.

Make questions easy to answer

Even within open-ended formats, you can reduce the effort required:

• Use conversational language rather than formal or technical terms
• Ask about recent experiences that are fresh in respondents’ minds
• Provide examples when helpful (without leading the response)

Offer appropriate incentives

Consider providing incentives that match your audience and survey length. This could include:

• Gift cards or cash incentives for longer research studies
• Access to survey results or industry insights
• Entry into prize drawings for shorter surveys

How to analyze the results of open-ended questions

The real value of open-ended questions emerges during analysis. Here’s a systematic approach to extracting insights from qualitative responses.

Step 1: Group responses by themes or topics (thematic analysis)

Start by reading through all responses to get a sense of the overall patterns. Then group similar responses into themes:

Example themes for “What do you like least about our product?”:

• User interface/design issues
• Performance/speed problems
• Missing features
• Customer support experiences
• Pricing concerns

Use spreadsheets or qualitative analysis software to organize responses into these categories.

Step 2: Tag or categorize responses to quantify themes

Once you’ve identified themes, tag each response with relevant categories. This allows you to:

• Count how frequently each theme appears
• Identify the most common issues or preferences
• Compare themes across different customer segments

Example tagging:

• Response: “The app is slow and crashes frequently”
• Tags: Performance, Reliability, Mobile app

Step 3: Summarize insights with supporting quotes or examples

Create a summary that includes:

• Quantified themes: “32% of responses mentioned performance issues”
• Representative quotes: Direct quotes that illustrate each theme
• Actionable insights: Specific recommendations based on the feedback

Tools that can help:

• Attest’s built-in text analysis features for automatic theme detection
• Excel or Google Sheets for manual coding and counting
• Specialized qualitative analysis software like NVivo or Atlas.ti for complex studies

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A lot of businesses don’t prioritize brand tracking, focusing on other metrics and projects. 

That’s a real shame. Because brand tracking studies are where a lot of knowledge about your brand’s perception, reputation and loyalty comes together. It’s a way of refining your brand using insight from real consumers. You bring it together to identify what really matters to your target customers, and go beyond vanity metrics.

A brand tracking study sounds a whole lot more attractive now, doesn’t it?. 

Now, we know you’re busy. Maybe you’re a CEO focused on brand equity. Maybe you’re a marketer explaining the value of branding to your C-suite. Maybe you don’t have access to your very own research department. That’s understandable, but no longer an excuse. Here’s a list of 15 brand tracking companies that you can turn to.

No time to lose? These are the companies we’re comparing here:

If you want to keep things in-house without the help of an agency, see our list of top brand tracking tools.

The benefits of brand health tracking research

Why bother with brand tracking?

Brand tracking is putting your brand in the perspective of the market, looking through the eyes of the consumer and measuring your other projects, like marketing campaigns, all at once. 

Here’s what that will bring you:

• Tangible improvements to what you offer and how you market it: a customer feedback survey and market research walk into a bar. They have a great night together, and what comes out is an actionable plan to make improvements in your business. Through brand tracking research you learn crucial consumer insights about a whole range of your business’s functions—marketing, product, sales…
• Stronger marketing messages that will actually resonate with your ICP: a lot of brands churn out campaigns based on a lot of creativity and a buyer’s persona. Turns out, it’s often a hit or miss. If you want to create better campaigns and messages, check in on your brand health to find out how people really perceive you, and adjust your content accordingly. 
• It makes it easier to identify growth strategies: are you lacking in a certain area of your business? People aren’t buying as much of your product as you had hoped? Before you adjust your prices, check in on your brand tracking metrics. The price might not be the issue: maybe people have a perception of you that keeps them from buying, or you’re simply not top of mind. Changing your price wouldn’t change that. Changing your strategy would, and sales will follow. 

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The 15 best brand tracking companies

We’ve compiled a list of top brand tracking tools that all have their own strengths and methods, allowing you to choose one that fits your needs. 

1. Attest

We’re at the top of our own list. With Attest, you get brand tracking software that is easy to use but makes sure the insights you receive are super high quality. 

And you’re not on your own with Attest! Our team of dedicated research experts is always available to help you create a brand tracking survey that gets to the heart of things. If you’d rather venture out on your own, our team has created brand tracker survey templates that will help you hit the ground running. 

You get access to 150+ million consumers across 59 countries, who will give you relevant responses in no time. That data is instantly available in a dashboard that shows exactly where you’re standing when it comes to your brand’s health. 

And we triple-check your data with a mixture of AI and human processes to make sure your insights are top notch. 

Attest shows us what the ROI of brand work truly is.

Phil Denington, Creative Lead at Wise

Learn more about how Attest can help you build your brand when you use the brand tracker.

How much does Attest cost?

Our plans start at $0.50 per response for up to 50,000 responses. You also get a dedicated research expert to support your research needs.

Get quality brand insights in days, not weeks or months

With Attest’s brand tracking you get triple-checked insights from 150+ million consumers in 59 countries—and expert on-demand support from our Customer Research Team.

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2. Latana

Next up is Latana, a brand tracking tool that prides itself in its ease of use—both for brands and consumers. They help you gather insights by mobile-optimized surveys and their ability to reach niche audiences.

Latana features advanced audience segmentation for hyper-specific surveys but is limited to mobile users. You can send mobile-optimized surveys to reach 4 billion mobile users in over 100 countries.

How much does Latana cost?

Latana does not mention pricing or plans on their website, so reach out to their sales team for more information.

3. SurveyMonkey Brand Tracker Tool

SurveyMonkey has a dedicated Brand Tracker tool that will help you measure your brand performance and see how your brand evolves over time. 

The SurveyMonkey tool helps you get real-time insights into industry trends and specific metrics from awareness to preference and purchase intent.

SurveyMonkey’s tool adds a competitor analysis to the mix. It also comes with reporting tools that visualize how brand perception evolves. You get access to integrated panels accessing 144M+ people in over 130 countries. 

How much does SurveyMonkey cost?

Reach out to their sales team for information on pricing and plans.

4. Qualtrics brand tracking

Qualtrics‘ brand management software lets you link your brand metrics to the business KPIs like revenue and loyalty. This way, you can learn to understand which touchpoints have the most impact on your brand’s health and see where you have to take action.

Qualtrics brand tracking sends you automatic alerts for crisis management to act on trends immediately. You can share dynamic role-based dashboards across the organization with built-in filters to deep dive into any subgroup.

How much does Qualtrics cost?

Reach out to their sales team for information on pricing and plans.

5. Suzy

A brand tracking company that specializes in the US market is Suzy, with 50k monthly active users. 

They offer several types of brand tracking research methods, some of which are more tailored to experienced researchers. 

Their competitive analysis tools allow you to talk to your competitors’ customers, which is a great way to gauge your space in the market.

How much does Suzy cost?

Suzy doesn’t mention any pricing on their website, but it’s not a free tool. For a quote, you can book a demo and talk to their sales team. Keep in mind that Suzy does charge for onboarding and access costs extra for every user who wants to use the platform.

6. Brand24

If you want your brand tracking research to be more focused on social mentions, consider using Brand24. 

With sentiment analysis, you can make sense of the popularity of your brand. After all, it’s not just about how many people are talking about your brand, but what they’re saying as well. 

Brand24 enables you to specifically monitor the impact of campaigns, and compare yourself to your competitors. 

How much does Brand24 cost?

Pricing starts at $49 per month. 

7. Brandwatch

Monitoring online mentions of your brand is incredibly easy using Brandwatch. Apart from tracking certain keywords and brand mentions, you can also perform a sentiment analysis on the spot. 

Brandwatch also helps you conduct multi-year studies to uncover strategic insights for long-term plans. 

How much does Brandwatch cost?

Reach out to their sales team for information on pricing and plans.

8. SEMrush

SEMrush does a whole lot more than just SEO. Dive in their Brand Monitoring Dashboard and find great insights in your brand’s health, such as mentions and sentiment. Don’t worry about trolls, it also takes care of tracking resource authority.

Add to this the options to analyze your competitors and you have a solid base for a brand tracking study at your fingertips. 

How much does SEMrush cost?

SEMrush has various plans available. The brand monitoring feature is part of their content marketing platform, which is only available in the Guru and Business plans, for $229.95 or $449.95 per month depending on the plan you choose.

9. Ahrefs

The second SEO tool on our list that also helps with your brand tracking study is Ahrefs. The tool packs a neat competitor analysis tool, and shows you what consumers are saying about you and more. By comparing this to your ranking progress over time, you see the direct impact brand health has on factors like ranking. 

How much does Ahrefs cost?

The Ahrefs Lite plan starts at $99, going up to $179 for the Standard plan and $399 for Advanced.

10. BuzzSumo

BuzzSumo lets you monitor your own brand mentions, but also those of your competitors. Another great addition in their toolkit is the fact that you can enable notifications on industry happenings, making more sense of your brand health metrics measured over time: what events have had an impact on your brand associations and other metrics?

How much does BuzzSumo cost?

The Pro plan starts at only $79 a month, going up to a Plus plan for $139 and Large for $239 when billed yearly. 

11. NetBase Quid

NetBase Quid lets you track your brand health setting historical benchmarks, so you can see how it evolves—and why. If you want to up your game even more, use their AI tools that notify you when your brand shows up in pictures online. This is the future of monitoring mentions, because sometimes a picture says a lot more than words!

How much does NetBase Quid cost?

Reach out to their sales team for information on pricing and plans.

12. Awario

Awario focuses on social listening and other mentions on the web. They set themselves apart from the rest by not relying on a single third-party data provider. Their tool crawls over 13 billion web pages daily, in addition to APIs. 

Sentiment analysis, location-based monitoring and Boolean search are all included and make this a powerful tool for your brand tracking research!

How much does Awario cost?

Awario plans start at €24 per month. For more keywords, choose pro for €74 or the Enterprise plan for €249.

13. Mentionlytics

If you could hear what everyone’s been saying about you, would you want to know? Mentionlytics lets you do so, although it does that only for brands. The social listening tool has a smart sentiment analysis function, and a neat competitor tracking tool if you upgrade from the Basic plan.

How much does Mentionlytics cost?

The Mentionlytics basic plan starts at $49. Their essential plan comes at $99, Advanced costs $199, and Pro is $299. There is also a plan for Agencies starting at $450 a month.

14. Google Trends

Simple, free brand tracking can be done using Google Trends. Simply type in your brand name and you can see how popular it has been in the search engine over time. You can also add another brand’s name to compare how often either gets searched for. 

Google Trends is free and simple, but by combining it with tools and knowledge from other tools like Google Analytics, you can certainly get great insights.

How much does Google Trends cost?

Absolutely nothing!

15. Blue Ocean Brand Navigator

Combining audience signals, marketing content and business plus financial content, the algorithm of Blue Ocean’s brand navigator gives you an unique perspective of your brand’s health. 

Because it’s based on an algorithm, it’s always up-to-date and gives results instantly, which is a perfect addition to your market research.

How much does the Blue Ocean brand navigator cost?

Reach out to their sales team for information on pricing and plans.

What to look for in a brand tracking agency

What are you looking for in a brand tracking partner? Not every brand tracking agency is the same, yet it can be incredibly confusing once you start researching which ones are right for you. 

You’re looking for more than a market research firm, but a provider that’s specifically experienced with brand tracking studies specifically. Whether you are looking for a full service agency, traditional brand tracking solutions or something more high-tech, keep these factors in mind:

• Research types: Look at what type of research services a brand tracking tool is offering, after you’ve identified which ones you need. That should significantly shorten the list. 
• Relevance: Then look at what their existing customers look like. Are they brands like yours? Do their results give you input for your marketing activities and brand strategies?
• Data quality, Audience and research methods: How do they gather responses and input? Is their audience relevant to yours? Does their way of gathering data resonate with you? Is their data good quality? Take the time to dig into how they collect and deliver your insights.
• Research companies vs. social listening tools: there are many roads that lead to Rome, and brand tracking comes in all shapes and sizes. Define whether you want market research, social mentions, or both. And think about whether social listening is the kind of insight that’s valuable to you. 
• Recurrence: brand tracking should be repeated regularly—otherwise you’re not tracking anything. Choose a market analysis tool that allows you to gather and compare data over time, within a budget that works for you.
• Support: you might not want to do all the heavy lifting when it comes to setting up the research, but you do want the results. In that case, look for a tool that gives you access to experts that can help you nail the fundamentals of brand tracking and market research.

Key brand tracking metrics to consider

So, what could you be measuring using the tools and companies we talk about here? Here’s some inspiration to help you identify the right brand metrics for your market research.

Key metrics, according to Attest:

• Brand awareness: how many people know about your brand, and know what you have to offer? What are consumer perceptions within this brand awareness? When do you pop up in the customer journey, and how do people receive marketing communications? Do they stick?
• Brand usage: how are existing customers using your brand? What do they buy from you, when, and why? What does your customer satisfaction look like?  Brand usage is a focused way of researching consumer behavior revolving around your brand.
• Brand attributes: what makes your brand stand out from the crowd?
• Brand loyalty: take customer loyalty a bit further and compare why people are loyal to your brand, and how you can keep them away from the competition.
• Social media marketing metrics: from mentions to impressions and from sentiment analysis to tags, there’s a lot to be found in your social media dashboard.
• Market share: a brand is only relevant in the market it operates in. Compare yourself to your competitors and see how big the chunk is that you’re taking up in the market to identify growth.
• Share of voice: how many people think of your brand when they think about buying in your brand category? How visible are you compared to others in your industry?

Mix and match to include these in your brand study. Not sure which ones are relevant to your business? Talk to our experts!

Track your brand health with Attest

Are you looking for a brand tracker that is easy to use, gives valuable insights and most importantly, has a clear ROI? We’ve got you covered. Get started with our brand tracker and all our templates to start your market research.

Track your brand awareness with Attest

Track brand perception with granular data separated into the demographics that matter most.

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FAQs about brand tracking research

The Experts’ Guide to Brand Tracking

How to look at the impact of things like audience reach, panel diversity, and survey design to help you decide whether your current brand tracker is up to scratch.

Get your copy now!

The post 15 Brand image tracking companies that track consumer perception appeared first on Attest.

Often, we believe that we know exactly how to cater to consumers’ needs. But in reality, there turns out to be a slight (read: huge) mismatch in what consumers really want and get from brands.

The solution? Not just giving your customers a voice, but actively listening to it—and implementing what they say (and even don’t say).

Here we’ll look at tools that help you collect and analyze the voices of your customers. 

But before we go into details, let’s dive into what we mean by the voice of the customer—it might not be what you think.

What are VoC tools?

Voice of Customer (VoC) tools help businesses collect and interpret customer feedback to improve products, services, and overall experience. They come in various shapes and sizes, including:

• Survey-based tools: Collect structured feedback via questionnaires.
• Social listening tools: Monitor online conversations and brand mentions across platforms.
• AI-driven tools: Analyze unstructured data like support tickets or call transcripts.
• Multi-channel platforms: Aggregate data from web, mobile, support, and CRM channels.

What is the ‘voice of the customer’?

In marketing we speak of the voice of customer (VoC) as the summary of their needs, expectations and preferences. It also crucially includes their aversions—what turns them off. 

It’s everything your customers say—through customer feedback. It’s also what they think and feel about the customer experience—even when they might not put that into words as clearly. 

That means you sometimes will have to read between the lines, or go looking for information in different places. It could be that you’re picking up on a specific preference or aversion in website behavior, which you’ll then further investigate using surveys—combining data for more context.

Tools that help you get insight into the voice of customer for your brand are useful for:

• Feedback collection: from surveys to online reviews
• Data analytics and reporting: get your voice of customer clear in a dashboard that shows what’s being said—and what’s being meant
• Tracking progress: there’s no point in listening to your customers if you’re not willing to implement their suggestions

Want to really understand your customers? Let’s look at some of the tools we recommend. 

The 9 best voice of customer (VoC) tools

Alright, we’ve been pretty picky with selecting voice of customer tools. 

We know that every organization uses different channels, has different types of customers (hello B2B readers!) and different needs. 

We’ve compiled a list of tools that cover voice of customer data collection all in their own way. 

Whether you’re a small business owner, a large B2B corporation or a startup looking to improve your business processes—we’re sure there’s something in here for you!

1. Attest

Attest makes it easy to understand what consumers really think. With access to 150+ million people in 59 countries, their consumer profiling and segmentation tools help you deeply understand target audiences.

Key features:

• Powerful custom research features
• One platform for panel and own customer research
• Robust combination of AI and human data quality checks
• Easily compare markets and consumer segments side-by-side
• Dedicated Customer Research Manager

Pricing: Available upon request – learn about Attest packages

G2 rating: 4.5 out of 5

Hear your customers’ voice with the #1 consumer insights tool

Quickly gather quality data with our easy-to-use consumer research platform coupled with on-demand support from our research experts.

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2. XM Discover by Qualtrics (former Clarabridge Studio)

This tool specializes in automatic text and speech analytics, detecting emotion, intent, and effort across multiple channels.

Key features:

• Sentiment analysis with 150+ NLP models
• Pre-built industry-specific improvement drivers
• Automated customer follow-up actions

Pricing: Available on request

Gartner rating: 4.4 out of 5

3. Forsta

Forsta turns feedback into compelling visual reports. It supports complex VoC programs across multiple touchpoints.

Key features:

• Multichannel survey distribution (web, mobile, CATI, CAPI)
• Custom dashboards
• Multilingual support

Pricing: Available on request

G2 rating: 4.2 out of 5

4. CustomerGauge

Designed for B2B businesses, CustomerGauge focuses on “Voice of the Account.”

Key features:

• NPS score analysis with financial links
• Account-based reporting
• Advanced survey builder

Pricing: Available on request

G2 rating: 4.7 out of 5

5. MonkeyLearn

A no-code AI platform that analyzes customer feedback and turns it into visual dashboards.

Key features:

• Build custom machine learning models
• Data visualizations (graphs, word clouds)
• Agent performance tracking

Pricing: Starts at $299/month

G2 rating: 5 out of 5 (only 1 review)

6. Medallia

A robust experience management tool that makes VoC accessible to every department.

Key features:

• Analyzes speech, SMS, and survey data
• Real-time alerts and personalization
• Action Intelligence to predict customer needs

Pricing: Available on request

G2 rating: 4.5 out of 5

7. SentiSum

SentiSum specializes in support ticket and conversation analysis, tagging them by meaning and sentiment.

Key features:

• AI tagging in 100+ languages
• Integrates with Zendesk, Freshdesk, etc.
• Voice call transcription and analysis

Pricing: Starts at $2,000/month

G2 rating: 4.8 out of 5

8. Verint ForeSEE

ForeSEE brings together behavior, attitude, and inferred feedback in one dashboard.

Key features:

• Real-time alerts
• Multichannel input (site, app, contact center)
• AI-based sentiment analysis

Pricing: Available on request

G2 rating: 4.2 out of 5

9. Hotjar

Great for behavioral VoC insights, Hotjar lets you see what users do on your site.

Key features:

• Heatmaps and session recordings
• Surveys and feedback widgets
• Funnel and behavior analytics

Pricing: Free plan available; paid from €39/month

G2 rating: 4.3 out of 5

10. Sprinklr

A unified customer experience platform with strong VoC and social listening capabilities.

Key features:

• AI-powered insights from social, messaging, and review channels
• Sentiment and emotion detection
• Custom reporting dashboards

Pricing: Available on request

G2 rating: 4.3 out of 5

How to choose the right VoC tool for your business

The ideal Voice of Customer tool don’t just collecting feedback—they create a system that holds your organization accountable. Here’s what to look for when evaluating VoC solutions:

1. Accountability features, not just data collection

The right VoC tool doesn’t just amplify the voice of the customer—it shows you what’s being done with those insights. Look for platforms that include:

• Action tracking capabilities to assign feedback-based tasks
• Implementation timelines with clear ownership
• Progress dashboards that reveal how customer insights translate to business changes
• Closed-loop reporting to measure the impact of improvements

Remember: a tool that only collects feedback without tracking follow-through will ultimately lead to customer frustration when nothing changes.

2. Multi-channel data collection

Customer feedback comes from everywhere—your website, social media, support interactions, and direct surveys. Effective VoC tools should:

• Integrate with your existing tech stack
• Pull insights from multiple touchpoints
• Combine structured and unstructured feedback
• Present a unified view of customer sentiment

3. Real-time analysis capabilities

Waiting weeks to understand customer sentiment can mean missed opportunities. Look for:

• Live dashboards that update as feedback arrives
• Trend analysis that spots emerging issues
• Prioritization algorithms that highlight critical concerns
• Alert systems for immediate attention items

4. Segmentation and filtering options

Not all customer feedback carries equal weight for every department. Powerful VoC tools allow you to:

• Filter insights by customer value, segment, or journey stage
• Customize views for different teams and stakeholders
• Compare sentiment across different customer groups
• Track feedback by product, feature, or service

5. Democratized access with role-based permissions

For VoC insights to create organizational change, they need to reach the right people:

• Look for tools with straightforward sharing capabilities
• Ensure customizable permissions for different roles
• Choose platforms with executive-friendly summary views
• Consider tools that make insights accessible to customer-facing teams

6. Implementation support and expert guidance

The best VoC platforms offer more than technology—they provide expertise:

• Training resources for maximizing tool effectiveness
• Best practices for survey design and feedback collection
• Consulting services for program development
• Benchmark data to contextualize your results

How can VoC tools improve your marketing strategy?

What’s the place of VoC in your marketing strategy? 

It’s important to understand that a VoC tool collects feedback that you can directly incorporate in your day-to-day business processes, but also in your overall marketing strategy. 

Everyone in your organization will benefit when you implement VoC tools: 

• Insights teams would use a Voice of the Customer (VoC) tool for turning raw customer feedback into actionable insights. It allows you to continuously monitor sentiment across channels, spot emerging trends, and quickly identify pain points or unmet needs. This real-time understanding helps shape product development, improve customer experience, and inform strategic decisions—ensuring your brand stays aligned with what truly matters to your customers.
• Marketing professionals can use the VoC to make their messaging more unique and tailored to your specific business and its audience. It also helps them in their timing, where to put the emphasis and connection to customers, creating a better customer experience. 
• Product development teams can use the knowledge emerging from VoC tools to build better products and design better services. Ideally, the use of a VoC tool is aligned with how they are usually gathering feedback in the product development process, so they don’t have to capture feedback across different channels. 
• Sales can seal the deal even faster if they know what the preferences and turn-offs of the customers are. In after-sales, they can even learn to optimize their timing with up- and cross-selling based on the outcome of the VoC tools on existing customers. 

Let’s look at some of the benefits you reap by implementing VoC tools in your marketing setup. 

7 ways VoC tools can transform your marketing strategy

1. Turn feedback into action with better tracking

Ideally, if you listen to customer feedback, your VoC will become stronger and more impactful over time.

These tools will help you combine the best of both worlds and see how customer experience evolves.

Because customer experience is a whole lot more than just customer satisfaction. Voice of the customer data unveils not just what is being said and done in customer service interactions, but more importantly how customers feel about all that.

2. Build stronger relationships inside and outside your organization

Building trusting customer relationships means that you listen to the voice of the customer, and then act on what they said.

Making the Voice of the Customer an integrated part of your business will make your employees feel more connected to the customers—by focusing on what they feel and think, instead of just showing sales numbers.

This can also help improve internal collaboration, because there’s a central focus point: customers.

3. Craft more authentic messaging that resonates

Is your copywriter struggling to find the right words? Did the marketing department run out of ideas for the next campaign? Why not ask your customers?

Of course, this shouldn’t be taken too literally—they’re not on your payroll after all—but there’s a lot of useful data to be found in the voice of the customer.

Customer insights shouldn’t only be used to confirm whether your marketing campaign matches your audience, you can also use it as a source of inspiration to create a better customer experience.

It can go as far as incorporating actual customer feedback in your marketing materials. What this will do, is that people will recognize themselves in the voice of the customer, quite literally, because they use the same words and have the same train of thought.

So next time you’re scrambling for inspiration, ditch the internal brainstorm and dive into the customer insights in your VoC tools!

4. Develop products and services people actually want

Even the best Product Designer can’t come up with a hit on their own—they all need customers to test, improve and ultimately tailor their ideas.

VoC tools are incredibly useful in the product development process, and will also give you direct and indirect feedback on existing products and services, by analyzing customer sentiment in reviews and customer support tickets.

You can use them to get insights into the Customer Effort Score, or to learn more about customer behavior related to using your previous products.

5. Optimize your channel strategy and findability

If you know what your customers are looking for, you know where to put it.

Channels are an important part of the overall customer experience. If your customers think your products and services are great, but are struggling to engage or resonate with the channels you are using, the right VoC solution will give you insight in that, helping you pick other tools that fit the customer journey better.

6. Spot churn signals before customers leave

If you gather enough customer data and unveil what their interests and behavioral patterns are, VoC data can help you prevent churn.

Real-time customer feedback can spot early warning signs of a crisis. If you are noticing survey data is worsening or your Net Promoter Score is dropping like it’s hot, it’s time to take a deep dive in your customer data.

7. Boost both customer loyalty and employee engagement

You don’t just want to avoid disaster, you want to steer directly towards success.

With VoC tools, you can uncover whether there are opportunities for implementing customer programs to improve loyalty and increase customer retention.

Knowing who their customers are, what they feel and think and how to connect with them helps employee engagement. Instead of just dealing with tickets and numbers, give your customer service reps, marketing people and top sales staff access to the data from your VoC tools to show them how they directly impact how customers feel.

Understand the voice of the customer with direct feedback

Getting deeper insights into what your customers are saying—and thinking—could be the missing piece of the puzzle for your marketing strategy.

There’s a lot of information hidden in the interactions with your customers and in multichannel feedback.

Now’s the time to start uncovering it!

If you’re looking for an easy way to collect VoC data through targeted surveys, Attest is the way to go. 

Choose the right VoC tool for you

Understand global consumer preferences and improve your VoC score with Attest’s intuitive survey builder and dashboard.

Schedule a demo

FAQs about the voice of customer tools

The post 10 voice of customer tools to improve your consumer experience strategy appeared first on Attest.

Great questions to ask yourself when you’re looking into survey methods for your brand.

There are many different types of surveys, and each one has its own advantages and disadvantages. In this guide, we will discuss eight different types of surveys and provide examples of how consumer businesses like yours can use them. We will also discuss the benefits and drawbacks of each type of survey.

To whet your appetite, here are the 8 survey types we’ll talk about:

1. Online surveys
2. Interviews
3. Face-to-face surveys
4. Phone surveys
5. Panel surveys
6. Paper surveys
7. Kiosk surveys
8. Pop-up surveys

How to choose the right survey method

Ultimately, the best way to choose the right survey method for your research is to consider your goals and objectives. Let’s look at how you can identify which types of surveys you should consider.

Your goal

There are many different objectives for consumer research. Some common objectives include understanding customer needs, gauging customer satisfaction, tracking customer behavior, informing new product development and measuring brand awareness.

If you want high data quality for your research make sure you choose survey research methods that match your objectives.

Here’s an example: Mail surveys are not great for collecting large amounts of data—all those envelopes to fill!—but can help if you want to ask questions to consumers in a specific zip code.

Resources

Your available resources play a major role in determining the type of survey that is right for your market research.

If you don’t have the budget or people power to conduct a telephone survey or in-person interviews, you might want to choose online surveys. And even within that spectrum, there are countless survey methods depending on your budget.

Time

Interviews, for example, require more time than online surveys, but they provide more accurate, qualitative results.

It’s crucial you don’t just look at the time it takes to conduct your surveys, but also keep in mind how long it takes to analyze the results. Transcribing interviews can be a lot of work, and you might need some external or even AI help to analyze sentiment.

Your audience

You might be leaning towards conducting research using online surveys, because it’s quick and relatively easy to analyze.

But what if your audience is on average 85 years old—and not the kind that knows how to work an iPad better than the average millennial? Take into account how your audience will respond to the survey method you use.

8 types of surveys

There’s a survey for every occasion, but which one is right for you? Let’s dive into eight different survey methods and look at which one will help you collect data for your research the best way possible.

1. Online surveys

Online surveys offer a number of benefits for market research. They are fast, cheap, and easy to distribute, and they provide large sample sizes.

There can be drawbacks with online surveys too. Different survey platforms gather insights in different ways, so make sure the platform you use gathers responses in a way that maximizes honesty and quality, but minimizes respondent frustration and rushed answers.

When you use survey software well, online surveys can help you reach a very specific demographic, fairly easily.

It’s a good point to mention that with Attest’s survey software, you get everything you need for a successful research project. You get an easy-to-use survey platform, designated research support from our in-house research team, and data that’s triple-checked for quality.

Triple-checked data and designated research support with Attest

With Attest you get designated research support from our in-house experts plus triple-checked data—all to make sure the insights you get are as valuable as possible

See how Attest works!

It’s crucial to approach your online surveys with care: choose a tool that helps you get in front of the people you need, in a way that will help respondents understand and fill in the survey correctly and honestly.

2. Interviews

Talking to people one-on-one is the oldest survey method in the book, but is it right for you?

The benefits of using interviews for market research are that they allow businesses to get detailed feedback from customers, and they can help businesses to understand customer attitudes and behaviors with a bit more flavor than you might get from a paper or screen: you can ask follow-up questions, and clarify questions that might seem confusing to respondents.

The drawbacks of using interviews for market research are that they can be expensive and time-consuming, and they may not be suitable for all types of businesses. And while the qualitative insights you get are super useful, it’d take you a really long time to gather as much data as you would with, for example, online survey tools.

3. Face-to-face survey

A face-to-face survey is different from an interview, in that you follow a specific set of questions. It’s therefore a lot quicker than interviews, and does not necessarily require experienced surveyors.

This is useful if you want to target a specific audience in a certain location, for instance in a supermarket or shopping mall.

4. Phone surveys

Phone surveys can be a great way to get feedback from customers for market research.

They have several benefits: they’re personal, they reach a wide audience, and they can be tailored to collect specific information.

However, there are also some drawbacks: response rates tend to be low, people may not be honest on the phone, and it’s expensive to conduct a survey this way. Not to mention the time it takes: sometimes you’ll have to call people back, and collecting and analyzing all the data can be a time-consuming activity.

5. Panel surveys

Panel surveys are a type of survey where the respondents are chosen beforehand because they fit certain criteria. For example, they might own a certain product or live in a specific area. Panel surveys can be carried out online, by telephone or face-to-face.

One example of a panel survey is the American National Election Study, which interviews the same group of people every presidential election year to track voting patterns and opinions.
Panel surveys are often part of longitudinal surveys, combined with trend surveys and cohort surveys.

A longitudinal survey is a type of research survey that is administered to the same group of people over a period of time. This type of survey allows researchers to track changes in attitudes or behaviors over time. Longitudinal surveys are often used in social science research, but can also be used for consumer and market research.

6. Paper surveys

Yes, even with the internet being integrated with every part of our day, there are still some reasons to choose paper surveys for your market research.

For instance, perhaps you need to survey people who don’t have smartphones and might all be in one location—remember those 85-year-olds who aren’t the savviest with technology? Now imagine they live in residential care—a paper survey is ideal.

7. Kiosk surveys

Kiosk surveys are conducted on-location, often in stores or public spaces, to gather people’s opinions right where they are.

Kiosk surveys offer a number of benefits for businesses and consumers. For businesses, they provide a way to collect feedback from customers in a quick and easy manner. Kiosks can be used to survey customers about their experience at a particular location or about a product or service that they’ve purchased. This feedback can help businesses improve the quality of their products and services.

For consumers, kiosk surveys provide a convenient way to provide feedback about their experience in the moment. They can also be used to enter contests or sweepstakes, or to receive discounts on products or services.

8. Pop-up surveys

Pop-up surveys are a type of survey that can be found on many websites. They allow businesses to collect data from website visitors in real-time, and they are easy to deploy.

However, there are some drawbacks to using pop-up surveys, including the fact that they can be intrusive and annoying to website visitors. They might click at random or fill in complete gibberish just to get rid of the pop-up.

That means you have to take timing and placement into account, and consider incentives for people to motivate them to take a second longer to fill in the survey.

Survey research examples in action

We’re not going to lie: we’re big fans of online surveys.

They’re versatile, valuable and continue to give businesses insights that can turn their brand upside down—in a good way. Let’s look at some use cases for surveys and how our consumer brands have used Attest to gather insights that are truly valuable to them.

Market research surveys

Market research surveys are a type of survey used to gather information about a particular market. This type of survey is often used by businesses to understand customer needs and preferences, track market trends and identify potential areas for growth. It can also be used to get to know how people feel about competitors, or to understand differences between different markets on a national level.

And that’s exactly what Baby Brezza did. They used Attest to carry out market analysis among mothers in France, Germany, Italy, the UK, Australia, Korea and Taiwan.

We wanted to cover some of the big markets in Europe, and some big markets in Asia and understand consumer habits and practices in those markets. Because even though babies are the same around the world, parents’ behaviors and approaches are different.

David Contract, Marketing Team Lead, Baby Brezza (Betesh Group)

This is exactly something you can clarify using a market research survey. Extra points for doing this with an online survey, because traveling to all those countries and interviewing mothers on the spot is unrealistic.

What was great was that within less than a week, we got the results back. I was able to go through it all and then I realized that there’s actually a lot more similarity than difference in terms of this new product opportunity around the world.

David Contract, Marketing Team Lead, Baby Brezza (Betesh Group)

Read about what Baby Brezza did with their insights.

Brand tracking surveys

You can track different brand metrics using surveys, such as brand awareness, brand perception and brand recall. There are a few different types of brand research:

Brand awareness surveys are used to measure how familiar consumers are with a given brand. This type of survey can help businesses determine which marketing campaigns are most effective at increasing brand awareness. Additionally, brand awareness surveys can help businesses track their progress over time and make sure that their branding efforts are paying off.

Brand perception surveys are a type of survey that businesses can use to measure how their customers perceive their brand. This type of survey can help businesses identify any areas where they may need to improve their branding, and it can also help them track the progress of their branding projects over time.

Brand recall surveys are a type of survey used to measure how well a consumer remembers a particular brand. Brands will often want to know whether consumers can think of the brand name without being prompted, and then present a list to see how many people recognise their brand name in a list of competitors. This type of survey is often used by businesses to measure the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns.

But how do you track something like ‘awareness’ in a survey? How realistic is ‘recall’ as a metric? And what do you do with opinions and brand perception? Here are some guides that explain it all in detail:

• 10 simple ways to measure brand awareness
• How to do a brand recall survey
• Brand perception survey: questions, examples and templates
• Brand tracker survey template – written by Attest’s in-house research experts

Consumer profiling surveys

Consumer profiling surveys are a type of survey that is used to build an organization’s understanding of their ideal customers.

This type of survey can be used to determine things such as what products or services a customer might be interested in, what their spending habits are, or what kind of customer they are.

You can use this information to create an ideal customer profile (ICP) or a buyer persona, which will help you create better products, and campaigns that speak to your ideal customers.

Creating buyers personas or consumer profiles without actually talking to your target group, is simply a guessing game.

It’s important you first identify what it is you really want to know about your target audience. Asking about spending behaviors, opinions, or even their hopes and dreams has to be relevant to your research, and you need to do it in the right context.

New product development surveys

A new product development survey or concept testing survey is a type of survey that businesses can use to gather feedback about potential new products. You can use this type of survey to gauge interest in a product, collect ideas about features or design and track satisfaction with prototypes.

Which is what cult entertainment experience Secret Cinema did when they got hit by the consequences of Covid-19, and their signature live immersive movie events were put on hold. Instead of waiting for things to pick back up again, they grabbed the bull by the horns and developed a new global digital offering.

Secret Cinema’s live shows usually take place in London or Los Angeles, but the brand’s new ‘virtual live’ offering is designed to be enjoyed from anywhere. And they won’t stop doing those, because the world has been changing. They use Attest to figure out exactly what their audience wants to see.

With the gradual reopening of the world, we have had to pivot and we have had to learn new behaviors, some of which are here to stay. Connecting with people online has become part of our behavior now, and it’s going to continue as people work from home and find it a lot easier to connect online.

Ayomi Rupasinghe, Marketing Director, Secret Cinema

See how Secret Cinema pivoted their business successfully despite all the challenges the industry faced.

Creative testing surveys

You can also test creative concepts with surveys. For instance, when creating new marketing material, fine-tuning your brand’s tone of voice of other branding choices.

You can—should!—even use it for redesigning your website, like The Big Prawn Co. did.

They found that visitors to their website actually didn’t want to see plates of juicy prawns and shellfish—which is what they sell—they wanted imagery of people and fishing. The discovery came about when Claire Evans, Category Manager at The Big Prawn Co. surveyed consumers leading up to a redesign of their website.

“There are consumers that come to the website to look at recipe content, but we also try to explain our position as a company and how we’re sustainably sourcing and all of the CSR we do. Basically, we weren’t speaking to anybody because we’d become too confused. We’d ended up with a website that was trying to be everything to everyone and that was a recipe for disaster.”

Ultimately, all this consumer data helped them redesign their website in a way that helps their business.

It was really invaluable insight that we were able to draw on, and it came from a huge pool of people rather than just being something internal where we all have our own ideas and it’s hard to set those aside. It gave us a really clear understanding of how to make a fit-for-purpose website. 

Claire Evans, Category Manager, The Big Prawn Company

Hungry for more info on what The Big Prawn Company learned and how they did it?

When’s the last time you conducted a survey?

Now’s the time to talk to your customers or target audience again to gather fresh insights and make decisions for your business that give you the upper hand.

Our team of research experts is on standby to help you create the perfect survey. Like to give it a go yourself? Check out all our survey templates!

Learn attitudes and behaviors of your ideal customers

Create surveys yourself—with expert research guidance when you need it—and get consumer insights about your perfect customers

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Survey FAQs

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Unlike social listening tools, which focus mainly on social media presence, brand tracking software gives you a fuller picture. It helps you understand not just what people are saying but how they feel and how that changes over time. 

With more businesses linking brand equity to long-term growth, tracking your brand health is becoming just as important as tracking revenue. The right tool lets you quantify brand performance, explain its value to stakeholders and even calculate ROI on your brand-building efforts.

In this guide, we’ll walk through 11 of the best brand tracking tools available today and what to look for when choosing the right one for your team.

11 best brand monitoring and tracking tools for detailed brand measurement

Now let’s take a look at the tools. Below, we break down 11 leading brand monitoring platforms, and highlight their key features and who they’re best suited for, so you can find the right fit for your team.  

1. Attest

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TL;DR: Attest helps you run fast, flexible brand trackers with high-quality data from your exact target audience, so you can turn responses into actionable insights without the typical survey stress.

Overview 

Unsurprisingly, we’re kicking off the list with our own brand tracking software. The Attest platform helps marketers track brand performance over time across awareness, perception, positioning and more. 

It all starts with flexible, ready-to-go brand tracker survey templates you can customise in minutes. Once built, your study can be sent to any audience within our 150+ million-strong global panel to help you gather high-quality, hyper-relevant data, fast. 

Attest is built for teams who need clarity without complexity. Whether you’re running a one-off brand project or tracking trends across multiple markets, we make it easy to stay in tune with how people really see your brand and how that’s changing.

Attest key features

• Flat pricing across all countries and demographics: With Attest you don’t pay more for certain regions or demographics – all markets and segments have the same flat pricing. This means you can more reliably predict your research spend.
• Track brand changes over time: Set up consistent brand tracking surveys and monitor shifts in awareness, consideration and customer sentiment. All results are visualized in clear, comparative dashboards.
• Target and compare specific segments: Reach your exact target audience using our global panel, then slice responses by demographic or behavior to see what’s driving differences in perception.
• Get help from real brand experts: Need to pressure-test your survey logic or turn data into a story? Our research team is here to help and their support is included in every plan.
• Trust your data quality: Responses are triple-checked using a mix of machine learning and human review, so you can be confident your insights reflect real opinions.

See how your brand stacks up

Track brand awareness, perception and competitor performance all in one place. Get tailored insights and expert support to guide your next move.

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2. Suzy

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TL;DR: Suzy brings together live consumer feedback, cultural signals and AI tools to help brands track perception in real time.

Overview

Suzy gives you a fast, flexible way to track what people think about your brand. With access to a re-contactable panel, AI tools that cut down analysis time and a built-in trends layer, Suzy makes it easier to turn brand tracking into action, not just reporting

Suzy key features 

• Suzy Audiences: Build and re-engage specific segments over time to track how brand perception shifts across key consumer groups. It’s ideal for understanding how different audiences respond to your brand, campaign by campaign.
  
• Suzy Signals: Track emerging trends and cultural shifts that could be impacting your brand. This solution helps put your brand tracking data into context, so you can separate meaningful change from momentary noise.
  
• AI Suite: The Suzy platform offers a range of AI tools to take the manual work out of analysis, from writing screener questions to summarizing survey results. It’s a useful way to scale your brand tracking without slowing down.

3. Latana

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TL;DR: Latana uses non-incentivized mobile surveys to deliver accurate brand tracking and consumer insights.

Overview 

Latana is a brand tracking solution that offers deep insights into brand performance and consumer perceptions. The tool enables this by running brand tracking surveys through mobile apps to reach consumers where they naturally spend time. 

Behind the scenes, Latana applies advanced data modelling to clean and calibrate the results, so the insights you get are both accurate and representative. Everything’s delivered in a clear dashboard that makes it easy to track brand perception across segments, regions and time.

That said, Latana’s strength is laser-focused brand tracking. If you’re looking for a broader picture, like how your customers think and act, you may need a more comprehensive market research tool.

Lantana key features 

• Mobile-first micro surveys: Uses real-time, ad-based sampling to reach a broad and precise audience without relying on traditional research panels.
  
• Advanced data processing: Machine learning algorithms enable precise audience targeting and data collection.
  
• Audience segmentation: Break down brand perception by age, gender, location and more. Helpful for identifying where your brand is resonating or falling short, across specific customer groups.

4. Google Alerts

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TL;DR: Google Alerts is a free tool to monitor brand mentions across the web.

Overview

Google Alerts lets you track when new content is published online that mentions your brand or any other keyword you care about. It works by scanning blogs, news sites and webpages for your chosen terms, then sends you a digest of new mentions straight to your inbox. 

While it’s basic, it’s a helpful add-on to your brand tracking stack, especially for smaller teams or early-stage brands that want a free way to stay informed.

Google Alerts key features

• Monitor brand mentions: Get notified whenever your brand is mentioned online. It’s super helpful for spotting earned media, influencer shoutouts or even potential PR issues early.
  
• Track competitors: Set alerts for competitor names to see how often and where they’re being talked about online to give you a sense of their brand’s image compared to yours.
  
• Follow industry conversations: Track broader category or product-related keywords to keep tabs on what people are saying in your space and spot emerging trends or sentiment shifts.

5. Brandwatch

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TL;DR: Brandwatch is a visual-first social listening tool that captures how people see and speak about your brand across every channel.

Overview

Brandwatch goes beyond traditional mention tracking by combining text and visual recognition to help you understand how your brand shows up online, even when your name isn’t tagged. 

It scans everything from news sites and blogs to social media and images, then layers in AI to analyse sentiment, track trends and break down audience insights. It’s especially useful for visual-first brands or teams managing brand reputation at scale.

Brandwatch key features 

• Visual brand monitoring: Brandwatch picks up on where your logos or products appear in visual content. Ideal for brands where recognition happens based on sight, instead of via text.
  
• Trend detection and sentiment analysis: The platform uses AI to surface new conversations and shifts in sentiment as they emerge — helping you respond to what’s happening in real time.
  
• Audience and demographic insights: Break down brand mentions by location, gender, sentiment and more to get a clearer picture of who’s engaging with your brand and how they feel about it.

6. SEMrush

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TL;DR: With SEMrush, you can track brand mentions, analyze competitor presence and find new PR and link-building opportunities.

Overview

SEMrush is best known for SEO, but it also offers a surprisingly robust set of tools for tracking brand presence across platforms. From monitoring branded search volume to analyzing how often you’re mentioned in online media and how that compares to competitors. 

SEMrush’s brand monitoring dashboard also helps you track the sentiment and the authority of the sites referencing your brand. It’s especially useful for teams that want to connect brand awareness with digital performance.

Semrush key features

• Track brand mentions and sentiment: See where your brand is being mentioned online and whether the sentiment is positive, negative or neutral. Useful for flagging potential PR issues or gauging the impact of campaigns.
  
• Monitor competitor brand activity: Keep tabs on which outlets are covering your competitors, what’s being said and how their visibility is shifting over time. Helpful for spotting gaps or areas where you can gain ground.
  
• Spot PR and link-building opportunities: Get notified when someone mentions your brand without linking to you and then follow up with a soft pitch or thank you. Also useful for discovering relevant blogs and media in your space.

7. Ahrefs

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TL;DR Ahrefs is an SEO-driven brand tracking with insights into how your brand shows up in search and AI-generated content.

Overview

Ahrefs has long been a go-to for SEO professionals, but its brand tracking features have evolved to offer deeper insights. 

With tools like Brand Radar, you can now monitor how your brand appears not only across the web but also within AI-generated content, such as Google’s AI Overviews. This allows for a more comprehensive understanding of your brand’s online presence and how it compares to competitors.

Ahrefs key features

• Monitor brand mentions and backlinks: Set up alerts to track new mentions of your brand across the web, whether they include a backlink or not. This helps in identifying opportunities for outreach and understanding how your brand is being discussed online.
  
• Benchmark AI visibility with Brand Radar: Utilize Brand Radar to see how often your brand is mentioned in AI-generated content compared to competitors. This feature provides insights into your brand’s presence in emerging AI-driven search results.
  
• Analyze branded search performance: Track the performance of branded keywords to understand how search interest in your brand is evolving over time. This can inform your marketing strategies and content creation efforts.

8. BuzzSumo

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TL;DR: Use BuzzSumo to track who’s talking about your brand and which mentions are getting shared the most.

Overview

BuzzSumo is best known for content discovery, which helps marketers spark ideas by surfacing trending topics, viral posts and rising conversations. But beyond ideation, it’s also a handy tool for brand tracking. 

You can monitor brand mentions across the web and social, see which stories are getting shared and identify who’s helping to amplify your brand. If you’re focused on earned media and engagement, BuzzSumo gives you a front-row seat.

BuzzSumo key features

• Track brand mentions and media coverage: Monitor brand mentions across blogs, news, forums and more. BuzzSumo highlights the most shared content, helping you understand which brand stories are gaining traction.
  
• Spot influencers and amplifiers: See who’s sharing or linking to your brand content, whether it’s journalists, bloggers or creators to identify potential partners or press contacts.
  
• Compare share performance with competitors: Benchmark your brand’s coverage and engagement against competitors to see whose stories are resonating most and why.

9. Quid

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TL;DR: Quid is an AI-powered brand intelligence that connects sentiment, market shifts and competitive signals.

Overview

Quid is a consumer and market intelligence platform that uses AI to help brands understand how they’re perceived, where conversations are happening and how sentiment is evolving. 

It pulls from a wide range of data sources — including social media, news, forums and customer feedback — to surface patterns, risks and opportunities. 

With tools like Quid Monitor and Quid Compete, it’s especially useful for brands that want to leverage AI to track brand health, benchmark competitors and stay ahead of emerging trends.

Quid key features

• Audience and influencer insights: Identify key voices shaping your brand narrative from advocates to detractors, to understand which audiences are driving conversations. 
• Real-time brand health monitoring: Quid Monitor tracks brand sentiment, passion and key themes across channels, helping you stay on top of how your brand is perceived and when shifts occur.
  
• Trend and crisis detection: The Quid Complete solution uses AI models to detect emerging topics and sentiment spikes, alerting you to potential crises or opportunities before they escalate.
  

10. Blue Ocean

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TL;DR: BlueOcean delivers instant brand insights powered by AI, built to guide strategic decision making.

Overview 

BlueOcean is a predictive insights platform designed to help marketers make faster, data-driven decisions. Its flagship tool, Track™, analyzes over 3,000 data points across your brand and competitors to provide always-on insights into brand health, competitive positioning and market opportunities. 

By eliminating the need for traditional surveys and integrations, BlueOcean offers a streamlined approach to brand tracking, enabling teams to respond swiftly to market changes and make informed decisions.

BlueOcean key features

• Real-time brand health monitoring: Track™ offers continuous analysis of brand performance metrics, allowing you to monitor shifts in awareness, sentiment and engagement without delays.
  
• Competitive benchmarking across brand and creative drivers: See how your brand stacks up against competitors in areas like distinctiveness, clarity, consistency and sentiment. BlueOcean identifies which brand elements are working (and where you’re falling behind), so you can sharpen your position and message more effectively.
  
• Narrative development with Stories™: This feature provides an instant window into the themes, topics and keywords shaping your market. It helps you uncover what’s resonating across your brand and competitors, so you can craft brand stories that set you apart.

11. Awario

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TL;DR: Awario offers real-time brand tracking with deep web coverage and instant alerts, so no mention goes unnoticed.

Overview 

Don’t wanna miss a thing? Then Awario could be the brand monitoring tool to go for. It focuses on social listening and web mentions and while that scope is narrower than some market research platforms, it’s impressively thorough. 

Awario doesn’t rely on a single third-party data provider; instead, it crawls over 13 billion web pages daily, plus APIs, to make sure no mention slips through the cracks. 

Add in its competitive tracking and real-time alerts and you’ve got a solid setup for staying on top of your brand’s online reputation, especially if you’re a smaller team that needs affordability without sacrificing coverage.

Awario key features

• Real-time brand monitoring: Stay updated with instant alerts on brand mentions across various channels, ensuring timely responses to customer feedback and new trends.
  
• Sentiment analysis: Gauge public perception by analyzing the sentiment of mentions, helping you understand audience attitudes and adjust your messaging accordingly.
  
• Lead generation baked in: Awario includes a feature called Awario Leads, which isn’t just for brand tracking; it proactively finds potential customers based on what people are saying online. That’s something most brand monitoring tools don’t do.

Why use brand monitoring software?

Think that by regularly checking reviews you’ve got a clear view of how your brand is being perceived? Think again. 

Brand tracking looks beyond the obvious and gives you real insights into your brand’s identity and brand reputation.

✅ It’s cheaper than hiring an agency

Many businesses hand this work off to external agencies, but that can get expensive fast. Agencies often charge high fees, and the insights they deliver aren’t fully yours. Plus, you have to wait for reports — and in a fast-moving market, that delay can mean missed opportunities.

Brand tracking tools let you move faster and keep full control of your data. They’re more cost-effective and many offer flexible pricing, so you only pay for the features you actually use. You’ll also build valuable in-house expertise that helps your team make smarter decisions long-term.

💡Pro-tip: If you’re curious to see if working with an agency could be right for you? See our lists of US market research companies and London market research agencies.

✅ Brand tracking software delivers results in real-time

Having brand tracking software with built-in dashboards and reporting gives you instant access to real-time insights on brand performance.

That means you can act in the moment. Agility and speed are key to gaining (and keeping!) a competitive edge.

Track your brand with Attest

Run regular brand tracker surveys and get high quality results in days, not weeks or months.

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✅ Monitor brand awareness metrics & competitors

Using brand tracking software is like going to the dentist every six months, just for a check-up: there (probably) won’t be any unexpected and unpleasant surprises if you keep an eye on your brand health. 

The right tracker puts your brand metrics in context by scanning the wider market, so you never miss early warning signs.

What should you look for in brand monitoring platform?

Brand monitoring tools are one of the aspects in life where it is totally okay — advised even — to show up with a list of wishes and demands. After all, it’s a pretty big investment and it can make or break your brand and success. 

Here’s what we’d be looking for if we were browsing for a brand tracking tool.

Look for more than a social mention tool

Many tools claim to offer brand tracking but only monitor social media mentions. While social listening is useful, it’s just one piece of the puzzle.

For a complete picture, look for more comprehensive brand management software that lets you engage with a broad, representative audience and not just passive social media signals. Knowing what people say is important, but knowing why they say it is even more powerful.

Look for a tool that includes continuous brand tracking

Brand tracking isn’t a once-in-a-blue-moon activity. Choose a platform that lets you track your brand regularly, ideally several times a year, and shows how your key metrics change over time.

Look for a tool that comes with real experts 

Chances are you’ll have some questions when using your brand-new brand tracking tool. 

While an FAQ page is great, sometimes you just want to get expert guidance from a real person who knows brand monitoring and market research inside out. 

We advise you to go for a tool that comes with human experts who you can reach out to to perfect your brand tracking skills.

Get expert research support at every step

Want access to quality insights without the fuss? Our team of experts is here to help get the most out of your research and save time at every step of the journey.

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Look for a platform that helps to gather a really relevant audience

You could have the fanciest tool with the most dazzling features, but if the audience it works with is not relevant to your business, there’s really no point. 

Look into how the tool you have your eye on gathers its audience and find out if it is suitable for your business.

Look for a brand measurement software that measures all the metrics that matter to you

Some brand trackers specialize in specific brand health metrics. Some are pros in reputation management, others in brand awareness. 

Find out what metrics you want to measure first and then start looking for a tool that covers that.

Look for a platform that also allows you to track competitors

Tracking your own brand is vital, but your own brand health metrics don’t mean much if you don’t also keep an eye on your competitors. 

A competitive analysis and competitor monitoring should always be a part of your brand monitoring and market research.

Tips for using brand tracking software

So, you’ve found a tool that seems to tick all the boxes. Now what? Here are some extra tips to get the most out of your brand-new brand tracking software.

Tip 1: Use it consistently

Tracking is not something you do only once. Make the tool an essential part of your workflows, from designing and evaluating marketing campaigns to doing research for a new product launch. 

These tools shouldn’t be something extra in your toolbox, but should be used to lay a solid foundation for your business and brand decisions.

Tip 2: Choose your brand tracking metrics carefully

Depending on your current goals, different brand health metrics are important to you at the moment. Define which ones those are first, before choosing a fancy tool. 

You don’t want to be losing time and money with a tool that just doesn’t cut it and needs additional research on top of that to get the full picture. Wondering what metrics you should be looking at for your brand tracking? Here’s our video guide on how to measure your brand health.

Tip 3: Make the most of expert support 

If you have chosen a brand monitoring software that has real experts ready to give you research guidance (like Attest!), use them! These types of tools are often ever-evolving and people who work with them directly know them inside out and can add extra value to the tool. 

Tip 4: Evaluate regularly

Is your brand tracking software serving you right year after year? Just because you chose it once, doesn’t mean it remains the right choice. Regularly check in with the people using the data from the tools to see if there are any gaps that need to be filled with other tools.

Tip 5: Make results accessible to everyone who needs it

Think your sales or customer service team doesn’t need to know your brand health metrics? Think again. They’re on the front lines, and their day-to-day actions directly shape how people perceive your brand, from reputation to reviews.

Sharing these insights helps them understand the real impact of their work and motivates them to raise the bar. Even better, tie brand-related goals to incentives to encourage brand-building behavior across the team.

Make smarter brand decisions with the right tracking software 

Whether you’re refreshing your positioning, launching into new markets or keeping tabs on awareness, brand tracking helps you stay close to how people actually see your brand — and act on it.

The right tool helps you:

➡️ Monitor brand perception over time

➡️ Compare awareness, sentiment and consideration across audiences

➡️ Benchmark against competitors and spot new growth opportunities

Curious how other brands use Attest?

Sustainable fruit and veg brand Oddbox used Attest to uncover how awareness and consideration varied by city. This helped them optimize campaign spend and sharpen their messaging.

Meanwhile, oat drink company MOMA ran regular brand trackers to understand how their positioning was resonating with key consumer groups to guide brand strategy during a critical growth phase.

Schedule a demo and see how Attest can help you turn insight into impact.

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The post <strong>11 brand tracking tools for marketers (and how to use them to monitor brand awareness)</strong> appeared first on Attest.