Our favorite model for identifying brand strengths and weaknesses – the 3-Circle Model – is stunningly simple, too. It involves just three overlapping circles representing the brand, customers and competitors. Mapping the intersections of customer desires, brand capabilities and competitive strengths allows strategists to classify and prioritize different types of ‘value’.

Why It Works
 

The 3-Circle analysis is powerful in three ways:

1. Broader Look At Potential Differentiators
A typical brand analysis appropriately focuses most attention on points of difference as potential sources of competitive advantage. In addition to identifying points of difference, a 3-Circle Analysis highlights potentially leverageable points of parity as well as unaddressed customer needs. If these are important to customers and if no one else is talking about them, or if your brand can talk about or deliver them uniquely, they may be more relevant and potentially more differentiating than so-called ‘points of difference.’ Countless brands have achieved success by focusing on category benefits (Raid Kills Bugs Dead, Lysol Kills 99.9% of germs, Foster Farms chickens California-grown) or creating a point of difference that lies outside of the product (Keebler Cookies are the only ones made by elves in a hollow tree, a gecko assures Geico customers they will save money).

2. Keeps Customer Needs In Focus
The 3-Circle Model also provides a “final resting place” (pun intended) for a brand’s areas of ‘non-value’ –features that may be differentiating or important to keeping up with competitors but that are simply unimportant to customers. The average supermarket now carries over 38,000 items, many of which are minor flavor or size variations. In the technology category, the features arms race continues unabated. According to Harvard professor, Youngme Moon, “There comes a point beyond which we are hard to impress…beyond which additional improvement ceases to add value.” At that point, it’s time to take a closer look at what customers truly value.

3. Forces Clear Thinking About Competitive Differences
Finally, the 3-Circle Model ensures a close look at potential points of vulnerability. The competitive landscape is dynamic, meaning today’s advantage can be leapfrogged at any moment. Competitive intelligence is not the same as competitive insight. Brands need to keep a keen eye on competitors’ points of difference as well as their own, lest they find themselves in the position of Kodak or Blockbuster, outflanked by companies with a better sense of what customers truly want.

Putting The Model To The Test



Marketing Professor Joe Urbany and former Professor James H. Davis, both of University of Notre Dame Mendoza School of Business, developed the 3-Circle Model. It has been the foundation of the Mendoza MBA marketing curriculum for over 10 years. The resulting map looks simple, but it incorporates hours of digging, discussion and debate.

To learn more about the 3-Circle Analysis and how it can be applied to brands, check out these resources:

Grow by Focusing on What Matters: Strategy in 3-Circles by Joel E. Urbany and James H. Davis

Contributed to Branding Strategy Insider by: Carol Phillips and Judy Hopelain of Brand Amplitude

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When brands reach the inflection point where revenues begin to slide because customers no longer resonate with the brand’s value proposition, it’s time to put your finger on the pulse of your brand and determine the long-term outlook for brand health.

Conducting a comprehensive brand audit is how brand owners determine the health of their brand. Yet for some brand owners and managers, the insights gathered from brand audits can be much like reading tealeaves or making faces out of cloud formations. The results of such an effort are extremely insightful, often surprising, even difficult to accept.

The value of a brand audit is not in the data collected, but in the action taken as a result of the insight gained. Like any navigational device, to have a sense of where the brand fits into what’s happening around it, brand audits require a triangulation of the brand’s original purpose, relevance, and resonance. A brand audit is a diagnostic process that informs a current location rather than a particular direction for brand strategy and marketing tactics. To get real value from the process, it must be a rigorous, objective and engaging process involving every discipline within the business organization.

That’s why it’s a good idea to conduct a brand audit in collaboration with an experienced brand consultancy. This specialized collaboration will bring a lot more objectivity to the process, and the most effective method for communicating and integrating the insights into the various disciplines within the brand owner organization.

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Brands have life cycles. They begin with excitement and promise, enter their growth phase, reach a plateau, and then slowly lose relevance as customers move on to the latest and greatest new thing. This is as natural as life itself. That’s why it’s a good idea to monitor brand health along the way–before sales slip.

Brand managers these days are heads down managing the urgent daily business of the brand. Rarely are they offered the opportunity to step back and make an informed high altitude assessment of brand health.

Completing a brand audit is a chance to take a fresh and objective look at your brand from a number of critical perspectives.

A comprehensive brand audit will often reveal new grow opportunities for your brands, and new ways to make your brand resonate with a new generation of target customers who will represent your brand’s bigger future.

If you believe your brand could use a check up, take the time to make a close examination of the strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats facing brand health. A comprehensive brand audit will include a thoughtful examination of the following:

External Partners and Customers
This includes your distribution channel partners, independent sales reps, strategic supplier partners and — most importantly — your customers. Using social media tools is a very effective way to monitor brand health with partners and customers.

Internal Stakeholders
Gaining deep insight and understanding of how all stakeholders within your organization perceive the brand’s value proposition and meaning is important because they’re in direct contact with customers; and it’s equally important for management, product development, manufacturing and other groups within the organization to have a clear picture of what the brand stands for.

Competitors
Since your brand doesn’t live in a vacuum, it’s often instructive to compare its image, message and product or service scope within the competitive landscape. Take a deep, long look into their new product initiatives, programs and value-added services. The key is not to benchmark, but to differentiate your brand.

Brand Positioning
What does your brand promise? Is this promise still important to customers? Does your brand matter to the high value customer that represents the brands bigger future? Does it reflect a highly-valued competitive advantage not in abundant supply elsewhere?

Brand Identity
Do customers know what your brand stands for? The brand audit provides the reality check on just how well the essence or personality of the brand is resonating.

Brand Equities
It’s critical to gain quantifiable insight on important metrics like brand awareness, purchase behaviors, attitudes, values, market share, customer life value.

Brand Architecture
Brand architectures can get out of completely out of alignment over time. Take the time to reflect on how your brand is portrayed at the Master Brand level, and if it confuses or encourages clarity at the Product or Sub-Brand level. Also check that there is no confusion between the Corporate Brand or other attribute brands or branded features.

Communications/Messaging
When brand managers think about consistency in marketing communications, they often think only about visual consistency. And while visual consistency is critical, it’s also the most obvious. Go one step deeper: what does your brand actually say? What are the primary and secondary messaging platforms that guide consistent marketing communications? If you reviewed several communication pieces carefully, would they portray a consistent message?

Budgeting/Resource Allocation
Does your brand receive the resources it needs to grow and prosper? Do you know what you should be spending your resources on? Are there more effective methods and tactics that will yield the desired results in your marketing activities?

It’s vital for an organization to deliver a consistent brand strategy across all points of consumer contact, it’s equally important to have a precise and detailed understanding of how that policy is progressing. Brand Owners (from time to time) must step back and review how their brand is holding up. It is invariably an energizing experience, and all those involved will find the process illuminating.

Email us for more about how The Blake Project’s brand audit can benefit your organization.

Branding Strategy Insider is a service of The Blake Project: A strategic brand consultancy specializing in Brand Research, Brand Strategy, Brand Growth and Brand Education

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• Its leaders
• Its official documents
• Its internal and external communications
• Its marketers
• Its salespeople
• Its customer service employees
• Its other employees
• Its business partners
• Each and every point of contact the brand makes with its clients/customers

Ideally, the company performing the audit has broad and deep experience (as line managers and as consultants) in each of the following areas:

• Brand research
• Brand strategy & positioning
• Brand identity standards and systems
• Brand advertising
• Organization design

Audits will vary from company to company based upon the company’s unique needs, organizational complexity, marketing competency and other factors. Given the large amount of work, to complete the audit in a reasonable period of time, the audit team should consist of at least three people. The more marketing experience each team member has, the better.

Audit costs may vary from a low of $150,000 to more than $1,000,000 depending on the global reach of the business, complexity of the brand and product structure, amount of proprietary research required, project’s duration, number of people assigned, audit firm’s profit margin and billing rate, etc. If an audit company provides an estimate much lower than that, it indicates a lack of understanding of the scope and complexity of this type of project.

The project may last anywhere from a month (fast track with concentrated interviews and little to no additional research) to six months.

Weaknesses to look out for in self-proclaimed brand auditors:

• Strong in other areas of marketing (advertising, promotion, etc.), but not brand management
• Primary foci are brand research, strategy and positioning, but little knowledge of how to design an organization to deliver upon the brand promise
• Strong knowledge of brand management but little understanding of organization design
• Lack brand research experience

A brand audit should identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in the following areas:

• Brand strategy and positioning
• Brand equity
• Leveraging the brand for business growth
• Capacity of the organization to manage and market the brand effectively
• Alignment of the organization’s structure and systems to deliver upon the brand’s promise

Bottom line questions (that a strong brand auditor will attempt to answer):

• Does this company have a profound understanding of its consumers?
• Is the brand well positioned in its marketplace? Does it own a relevant and compelling point of difference?
• Do the leaders of this company have a vision for their brand(s)?
• Is this company’s marketing staff competent?
• Is the organization mobilized to deliver upon its brand’s promise?
• Does the corporate culture reinforce the brand essence, promise and personality?
• Are the brand identity standards and systems simple, robust and powerful?
• Does this organization accurately and consistently reinforce its brand’s identity and positioning in internal and external communication?
• Does the brand create an emotional connection with its consumers?

Email us for more about how The Blake Project’s brand audit can benefit your organization.

Branding Strategy Insider is a service of The Blake Project: A strategic brand consultancy specializing in Brand Research, Brand Strategy, Brand Growth and Brand Education

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Brand Research

• Does this company have a deep understanding of its consumers’ values, attitudes, needs, desires, hopes, aspirations, fears and concerns?
• Has this company rigorously analyzed its competition?
• Which of the following types of brand research has the company conducted: brand positioning qualitative and quantitative, brand asset studies, brand equity measurement and monitoring, brand extension, logo recall, and recognition?
• How robust is each of these research studies?
• How are the company and each of its competitors positioned in the marketplace?

Brand Strategy

• Is there a marketing plan?
• Is there a brand plan?
• Are those plans aligned with and integrated into company business plans?
• Does the company have a future vision and a well thought out plan to get there?
• Is it clear which marketing objectives, actions, and vehicles will provide the greatest leverage in achieving the long-term vision?

Brand Positioning

• Is there a brand positioning statement? Does it include the following: target consumer, differentiating brand benefit, brand essence, brand personality?
• Do most employees know the brand’s positioning (verbatim or paraphrased)?
• Was the brand’s key differentiating benefit based on an analysis of consumer needs, organizational strengths (core competencies), and competitive weaknesses?
• Does the brand own a benefit that is highly differentiated, compelling, and believable?
• What are the brand’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats?

Brand Identity Standards & Systems

• How robust is the company’s brand identity system?
• How easy is it for the company’s employees and business partners to use?
• What brand identity controls does the company have in place?
• Is the company’s brand architecture simple and understandable?
• Which of the following brand identity components does the company use in its system: name, logo, icon, tag line, type style, colors, shapes, symbols, visual style, mnemonic (sound) device, brand voice, music, animation, etc.?
• Does the company have co-branding standards?
• How accurately and consistently have these standards been applied across all internal and external communications?

Brand Advertising

• Do the ads break through the marketplace clutter?
• Do they powerfully communicate the brand’s promise and personality?
• Do they include the “reasons why” (differentiating benefit proof points)?
• Do they connect with the target consumer on an emotional level?
• Do they tap into the consumers’ beliefs, values, aspirations, hopes and fears?
• Do they include components that are “ownable”?

Organization Design and Internal Brand Building

• Is the company market driven or does it have a traditional manufacturing company design?
• Does the company’s culture support the brand’s essence, promise, and personality?
• Is the company’s marketing function centralized or distributed?
• What mechanisms has the company put in place to integrate its marketing?
• Are all of the required marketing functions present?
• Are brand objectives integrated into company and common objectives?
• Do the company’s recruiting, training, performance management, compensation, succession planning, business planning, budgeting, resource allocation, and other systems support brand building? Are they designed to help the company deliver upon its brand’s promise?
• Does the company screen job applicants for their alignment with the brand’s essence, promise and personality?
• Is the organization a “learning organization”?

Brand Extension

• What are the brand’s assets?
• Is the brand over or under-extended (or both)?
• What are the most promising areas for brand extension?
• What processes does the organization have in place for brand extension? How does it safeguard against inappropriate extension?

Marketing Employee Competency

• How competent are the company’s marketers?
• Which skill sets do they possess and which ones are missing?
• Has the company augmented missing internal skill sets by augmenting them with external sources?
• What are its external marketing vendors’ strengths and weaknesses?
• Do the company’s marketing employees (and it senior managers and all of its employees) exhibit a marketing mindset? That is, do they profoundly understand its customers and sincerely and passionately strive to meet their wants and needs?

You can find more on brand audits here.

Email us for more about how The Blake Project’s brand audit can benefit your organization.

Branding Strategy Insider is a service of The Blake Project: A strategic brand consultancy specializing in Brand Research, Brand Strategy, Brand Growth and Brand Education

FREE Publications And Resources For Marketers