You scored as a
Rising to Radically Relevant brand.

(001)

Although your brand offerings are pretty clear to most–do you sometimes feel like certain audiences don’t get you? Or like some of your services or products are an afterthought in their minds? Your clarity score suggests you have an average baseline of clarity, but there could be room for improvement. It may indicate complicated relationships between your sub-brands or products, or perhaps you’ve expanded your offerings beyond the core you’re known for.

Action Items:

• Look at your noun–how do you describe your business or category? Don’t sacrifice clarity on the altar of distinction. Is there an opportunity to add more clarity by how you describe the organization?
• Review your brand’s visuals and messaging. Does it connect with modern audience’s needs and understanding of your service?
• Sketch out your current brand architecture. Are the relationships between your sub-brands or products creating more confusion than clarity? Hint: Don’t brand your org chart.

(002)

Do you feel like you are simply blending in? Your distinction score suggests your brand may be expressing considerable sameness in your industry or category. Low-distinction brands are often forgettable, usually due to playing it safe by looking and sounding a lot like others in their space.

Action Items:

• Revisit your brand’s position in the market–is your competitive advantage distinct? Or does it sound like what most offer in the space?
• Look at your competition’s brands against your own–what repeated trends do you see that create a sea of sameness? How can you break through the noise? For example–if everyone is a blue, serious-sounding brand, you shouldn’t be.

(003)

Your control score suggests your brand might be semi-consistent in your brand communications, but lacks the brand system tools to maintain consistency without draining your teams. For example, you may be inconsistent with your use of color, type, and photography, and your team struggles with brand voice without heavy direction. This can result in an inefficient internal brand process, duplicate work, creative frustration, and general wheel spinning.

Action Items:

• Take a look at your brand toolkit–do you have what your marketing teams need to create consistent communications? Or are they limited by an outdated or shallow brand system?
• Consider how you manage your brand. Do you have a role that can act as brand quality control?

(004)

Is your brand creating more blank stares than sparks? Your attraction score suggests the brand is not instantly connecting with your audience. This could be due to an outdated or unappealing message and look, or simply one that isn’t speaking to the full value you provide. Low-attraction brands are often legacy organizations that have long relied on relationships and word-of-mouth for new business. Consumers may describe them as dated or irrelevant.

Action Items:

• Do audience research to understand better what your audience wants or needs. Then retool your brand accordingly.
• Revisit your brand’s value proposition–is your message relevant and aligned?
• With your research in mind, what are other brands that are relevant to your target audience? What visual cues can you take from leading brands that inspire a refresh for yours?

(005)

Do you feel like you spend more time responding to customer complaints than promoting your brand? Your devotion score suggests a lack of brand loyalty and a high churn rate, often due to customer expectations not being met. Low-devotion brands struggle to establish long-term value in the minds of their customers and face intense price pressure from competitors. We highly recommend low-devotion brands revisit and fix the operations and delivery of your product or service, before approaching the brand.

Action Items:

• List your customer’s needs and expectations. How can you realign your offering and/or promise to deliver what they expect?
• Gather customer feedback. Where are those expectations consistently falling flat?

(006)

Your alignment score suggests your leadership has successfully defined and socialized a compelling brand strategy. They’ve made it clear how each area of the organization is expected to deliver on the brand, and with buy-in from higher-ups, those teams are held accountable through related performance indicators. High-alignment brands respect and understand the power of brand in today’s marketplace, and thereby benefit from an emotional connection to the brand internally that impacts culture.

Keep it up! And don’t forget:

• Check your recruitment and onboarding touch points–do they accurately reflect your brand vision and organization’s culture?
• Keep internal alignment top of mind when considering any future brand changes.