The Law of Brand Surveys: Because their perception is Your reality...
Whether you’re defining a new brand, revitalizing a stale brand, or simply expanding an existing brand, there is an important ingredient to success—Customer Perception. “Sure," you say. "That’s obvious.” But is it?
How many of you have recently conducted a customer survey to establish the REAL reasons your customers buy from you? How they REALLY perceive your brand? What is most RELEVANT about your offer?
We’ve heard it before…”you know your customers.” But do you? Go-To-Market Strategies has seen it over and over again. The two monster mistakes to brand strategy 1) defining and promoting a brand identity you can’t, or don’t, deliver on or 2) defining and promoting a brand you deliver on, but isn’t RELEVANT. This last issue can be solved simply—Ask.
It can be tricky, however, so to get the best results, follow these five steps to a successful brand perception survey effort:
1. Don’t lead the witness. Make sure you pose questions that will solicit real answers, not just what you want to hear. We’ve found that having a ranking question, followed by an open “comments” box, allows for the best results.
2. Make response easy. Web-based surveys work best for this purpose, due to the ease-of-use. However if your customers are largely mail-order, you may need to notify those customers of the survey by both email and mail to increase response. For your top customers, be sure to have their delegated sales rep also send an invite.
3. Protect the innocent. Anonymous surveys work best for real feedback. Be prepared for the good, bad, and ugly though. When your respondent can provide feedback anonymously, they’ll use this vehicle to be very candid…and sometimes the truth hurts.
4. Keep it short and sweet. We’re all busy. We want to help, but we don’t have a lot of “free” time. So keep each survey to 6 questions. Even if that means you roll out multiple surveys over time. Each survey should take no longer than 5-minutes to complete and you should let your audience know the time commitment in your invite. Focus on the key questions you MUST answer to identify brand perceptions. Don’t use this vehicle as a catch all, or you dilute the results substantially.
5. Be thankful. Not only should you thank the participants in advance (you can’t do it later, since their identities are protected), you should consider a pre-thank you give as incentive. Especially for the customers you most want to participate. Consider sending an invitation with an e-gift certificate. They’ll feel more obligated and inclined to help you with this “no strings attached” gesture.
There is no better way to measure brand perception than the Brand Perception Survey. And, aside from these key elements, make the most of your survey by using our tried and true Brand Perception Survey Templates. Share This Page!
The Sales and Marketing Toolkits BUNDLED contains:
-
Over 60 sales and marketing templates (DOC, XLS, PPT, and PDFs)
-
Loads of "how-to" articles and examples
-
8 Training sessions (MP3 audio files) for your computer or iPod
|
