Brand Resonance Scanning, April 2009

Brand Amplitude 

Brand Resonance Scanning: 
 
How to Find & Activate Overlooked Gems 
 
in Your Brand Portfolio 
 

April, 2009 

BrandAmplitude, LLC  
Brand Amplitude, LLC All Rights Reserved 
All Rights Reserved  0 
2009

Goals: Stronger Brands, Better Odds 

To maximize brand value, leading companies take 
a disciplined approach to identifying the elements 
of their offerings that resonate with customers 
and use those insights to brand strategic offerings 
so as to increase their likelihood of success.  

These companies also take a systematic approach 
to identifying and pruning the ineffective, 
meaningless or irrelevant names, trademarks, or 
other creations that accumulate over time. 

1 
2009

Brand Resonance Scanning 

Brand Resonance Scanning is a diagnostic approach to determining the 
most meaningful assets in a company’s brand portfolio that have the 
greatest customer appeal and the greatest potential for profitable growth.  

Keep &  Eliminate or 
Nurture?  Deemphasize? 

Clarifies which brand assets are meaningful to customers and suggests where 
to increase and decrease investments by providing a snapshot of resonance 
relative to the category, offering and competition.  
2 
2009

What’s Different? 

1)  Outside‐in 
  Most approaches to assessing brand asset resonance are not informed by 
any external perspective.  They rely on internal records and opinions about 
what matters to their customers. 

2)  Qualitative Perspective 
  Ordinary tracking studies and focus groups rarely explore beyond the master 
brand.  They are not structured to qualitatively assess what customer think 
about the relevance and extendability of a company’s portfolio of brands, 
names, trademarks, etc. 

3 
2009

Laddering Research
What Are the Steps? 

I. Inventory Baseline  II. Explore Customer 
III. Ideation  IV. Alignment 
Brand Information  Perspectives  

Survey existing  Interview loyalists and  Use qualitative  Engage key decision 
information on  other customers about   insights to determine  makers in findings 
customers and  brand asset appeal  go‐forward brand  and  implications, 
competitors to assess  and relevance.  assets.  and agree on go‐
brand assets/ forward brand 
strengths.   Identify areas of  Develop alternative  framework. 
competitive strength  frameworks for 
Identify gaps and  and weakness, and  structuring remaining  Build tool for basing 
generate hypotheses  determine which  assets to increase  future naming 
about how current  assets add value.  clarity and best  decisions on agreed 
brands can best be  support growth  brand framework. 
leveraged to support  initiatives. 
growth initiatives. 
4 
2009 

4

I. Inventory Baseline Brand Information 


Key Questions:
 Do we understand the needs of current and potential customers?
 Do we need new offerings or are existing offerings underleveraged? 
 Does the brand strategy support the growth strategy? 
 What brand assets exist today?
 What is known about how brand assets are perceived? 
 What is the competition doing we can learn from?
 What is the brand’s frame of reference? 
 What is the value proposition? 

Optional Research:  
Customer, category, competitive and assessment from primary or secondary 
sources   Brand Amplitude, LLC All Rights Reserved 
5 
2009

II. Explore Customer Perspectives 


Key Questions: 
 How do customers think about the category and competitors? 
.
 What do they know about our offering? 
 What do they see as our strengths relative to their needs? 
 What do our brand assets to mean to them? 
 How aware are customers of the breadth of our offering? 
 What do they see as the relationships between our brand assets?   
 How do they organize our brand assets in their own minds? 

Required Research:  
Online focus groups/bulletin board/journaling exercises with customers from 
key segments 
6 
2009

III. Ideation 


Key Questions:
 Which brand assets deserve greater attention and investment? 
 Which should be eliminated? 
 Which parts of the portfolio require clarification?  
 What is our best approach to organizing the portfolio of brand assets in 
light of our growth objectives? 
 What should we do about the gaps in our branded offering relative to 
the competition? 

7 
2009

IV. Alignment 


Key questions:
 What are the implications of the organizing framework for future 
naming decisions? 
 How can we best codify them into a naming decision tool? 
 How should we consider and evaluate exceptions to the names 
suggested by the naming decision tool? 

8 
2009

Laddering Research
Outdoor Apparel Case: The Steps 

I. Inventory  II. Explore 
Baseline Brand  Customer  III. Ideation  IV. Alignment 
Information  Perspectives 

Previous research  Focus groups with brand  Alternative new brand  Worksession with 
focused on loyal brand  loyalists gauged  structures combine  Demand Generation 
users and the  awareness and  benefits‐, weather‐, and  team to create new 
company’s core apparel  perceptions of portfolio  target user‐based  solution from 
offering.  brands and product  frameworks. New  alternatives presented. 
offerings outside the  subbrands and  Landed on hybrid 
Limited information  core.   ingredient brands for  solution. 
about perceptions of  strategic growth drivers 
brand in categories   Special attention to  were identified. Relative 
determined to be  branding requirements  advantages and 
drivers of future growth.  of strategic growth  disadvantages were 
drivers.  assessed.  

9 
2009

Top of Mind Perceptions                 
   Apparel Case Findings: Brand Baseline 
General Themes from Open Ends
 

Shared qualities Unique qualities

Shared Qualities Unique Qualities

Warm wear
Durable/ Long
Client Brand lasting
Top of mind impressions 
Jeans/ Denim
revealed that 
competitors stand for 
Competitor Brand 1 Moisture wicking wear similar qualities.
Customers see little  
Rugged/
Tough
distinction for any brand 
Athletic
Competitor Brand 2
at the item, attribute or 
performance level.
Work wear
Good brand /
Competitor Brand 3 Good quality
Jeans/ Denim

10 
2009 

10

Apparel Case Findings:  
  Customer Perspectives 


Brand Roles
.
All equity found to reside in master brand 
• 
–  Product descriptions function as subbrands but are undifferentiated beyond master brand 
Little recognition of branded ingredients or distinguishers  
• 
–  “Brand‐ness” for client is determined by style, color, durability, warmth 
–  Some equity in natural fabric, ‘generous’ fit, ease of movement, but not in other materials 
or construction techniques 
–  All existing distinguishing trademarks unrecognized and not meaningful  

Conclusion: Little upside in continuing to reinforce existing equities; must extend/
expand into new equities to grow. 

11 
2009

Summary: Brand Resonance Scanning 

I. Inventory  II. Explore 
Baseline Brand  Customer  III. Ideation  IV. Alignment 
Information  Perspectives 

Brand Resonance Scanning helps companies put their best brands 
forward, increasing the likelihood of success of new initiatives and 
simplifying naming decisions. 

Shows companies where to invest in brand building and where to 
stop wasting time and effort. 

12 
2009

To Learn More…. 

www.brandamplitude.com

www.brandamplitude.blogspot.com

Contacts:  
Carol Phillips  Judy Hopelain 
carol@brandamplitude.com  judy@brandamplitude.com 
269‐429‐6526  415‐810‐8268 

13 
2009

Brand Resonance Scanning, April 2009

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