The Ultimate Brand Audit Checklist For 2023

For the past few years, we have seen many enduring brands with immaculate branding strategies.  
From well-known eatery chains to media-dominating sports brands, they seem to stand the test of time and have a lasting impact on our culture.

However, if you pay close attention, you'll see that small changes, pivots, and rebrandings occur frequently. A corporation that hasn't changed its image at least once will be difficult to find.

Why alter what seems to be true already?

Because nothing—not even your properly thought-out brand—is flawless. And doing routine brand audits is the only way to know when it's time to change things up.
With that in mind, here is the ultimate brand audit checklist formulated by the experts at our branding agency in Dubai.  

But first, let’s see…

What is a Brand Audit?

 

An analysis of a brand's performance in the market and in comparison to its rivals is known as a brand audit. It is an analytical strategy that investigates the components of a brand.

For instance:

• The overall strategy and objectives
  
  
• Visual message and storytelling through marketing efforts   
  
  
• The ideal clientele and the target market  
  
  
• Innovation in the goods and services the brand offers  
  
  
• Website and app user experiences
  
  
• Advertising tactics tied to marketing objectives
  
  
• Brand recognition and placement in the marketplace
  
  
• Customer satisfaction and success
  
  

The Significance of Conducting a Brand Audit In 2023

A brand audit is crucial because it provides you with insightful information about your competitors' market positions, as well as your own.

Understanding the dynamic nature of marketing, especially in this time period, requires in-depth familiarity with a brand's positioning on the market as well as constant monitoring of outside influences like competitors and the web and social scene.
In the digital realm, Millennials and Gen Z will dominate the year 2023. You must weigh their opinions, whether they come from your internal staff, your exterior customers, or both.

Sincerity and genuineness are prized by Millennials and Gen Z. However, they regard social duty the most. They want businesses to support causes greater than their own self-interest.
Although the adaptability of digital content creation has its advantages, keeping up with all the trends can be intimidating.

It's critical to understand your target market, your brand's core principles, and the most effective content marketing techniques for expanding your company.

Two Sides of a Coin—Internal and External Branding

An audit of a brand should look at the customer experience as well as internal and external branding. 
The company's principles, mission, and culture are all a part of internal branding, whereas external branding is concerned with a brand's logo, all promotional materials, a website, public relations, social media, or a marketing strategy.

Client experience focuses on handling customer communications and providing customer support, as well as managing the sales process itself. A special list, also known as a brand audit template, should be made up of all the things that need to be examined.

Your 2023 Brand Audit Checklist 

A creative brand agency can evaluate the success of the branding initiatives and spot any possible areas for improvement by conducting a brand audit.

So, what is on a checklist for a brand audit? Here’s what you need to know:

Values And the Brand Statement

Examine your brand's mission and core principles to determine how and where they are utilized.
Possibility: Do they reflect your brand's personality and connect with your target market? Are your statement's initial perceptions consistent with your values?

Logo 

Review your logo's typography, graphics, colors, and iterations (i.e., stacked, reverse, print vs. web).
Opportunity: Is your logo in line with the mission and values of your company? What emotion does your logo initially evoke in your target audience? Is your logo the same on all platforms?

Brand Website Evaluation

 

You ought to start by looking at your website metrics. You can evaluate the sources of website traffic based on them. 
It is worthwhile to strive to have more of these locations if traffic is only coming from one or two sources because if that source disappears, there won't be any more visitors.

Also, check to see if the proper demographic is drawn to your website. Only traffic that is made up of genuinely interested potential consumers is worthwhile.

Evaluate Your Competitor Brands

Examine the websites, social media presence, marketing, and advertising tactics used by your top competitors. 
You can ask the same questions about your competitors' brands that you asked about your own by asking customers, members of your target market, and even your own staff.

Examining Sales Data

You may fully analyze the customer journey from beginning to end and identify any challenges or triumphs by looking at your sales data.
Additionally, this is an excellent chance to improve the sales playbook for your business. Verify that it genuinely reflects your brand identity and business objectives.  

Does your sales crew accurately represent the ideals of your company? Where are they having success? Where are they lacking?

Social Media

This contains a summary of the social media activity associated with your brand on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and any other social media sites you may be using. 
To determine how your brand is perceived on each channel, take into account the number of followers you have on each network and your overall interaction rate.

Opportunity: Investigate new social media outlets depending on the findings of your audit; examples include YouTube and Snapchat. 
Alternatively, depending on where your audience spends the most time, you could wish to concentrate your efforts and ignore underperforming channels. Your brand and content will be better positioned online if you adjust the frequency and create content pillars.

Related: How social media can make your brand go viral

Analyze Brand Recognition

You can assess brand awareness by looking at users who are not already your customers but are part of your target market. Ask these persons a couple of questions as well using the survey techniques mentioned above.

Start by inquiring about their knowledge of your brand and whether they have ever heard of it. 
Don't forget to ask them about their opinions of your brand, the issues they believe your business is addressing, and their sentiments. You might need to take action to spread the word about your brand.

Take A Customer Survey

To get answers to questions like: What words would you use to characterize this brand? Combine consumer focus groups, email surveys, social media polls, phone surveys, and online surveys.

• What issue does this brand address?
  
  
• How do you feel after using this product?
  
  
• Would you suggest this brand to your family and friends?
  
  
• What comes to mind when you see the company's logo?
  
  
• How good is the customer service for this company?
  
  
• What could this company do to enhance customer service?
  

Action and Monitoring 

With your list of suggestions in hand, think about which would be the quickest and easiest to put into action.
You may have observed, for instance, that the social media profiles you have differ from the domain URL. That could explain why others are having trouble locating you. Change the social media profiles to reflect your brand name or domain for a quick fix.

Perhaps you've found that your blog posts' stock photos are being lost in a sea of similar images. Consider altering the pictures, designing your own graphics, or hiring a photographer.

Why not conduct A/B testing on two options?
Start making improvements, and keep an eye on any changes in ROI, brand recognition, conversions, and customer satisfaction.

What Should Be Included in a Brand Audit Template?

 

A simple-to-use template makes it easy to do a brand audit. To assist you in getting started, we produced this printable brand audit document template.
This brand audit template is completely customizable. You can alter the way your document looks and even upload your own brand's fonts and logos.

Your brand audit template must include the following elements:

• Mind mapping and brand audit framework flowchart
  
  
• SWOT Analysis
  
  
• Goal-setting and brand audit questionnaire
  
  
• Strategy and planning tables
  
  
• Ideation worksheet
  
  
• Survey to ask your customers
  
  
• Checklist to go through with your team
  
  
• Table with links to Google spreadsheets
  
  
• Data visualizations for analyzing results
  
  
• List of strengths and weaknesses
  
  
• Solutions checklist
  

Your brand audit document's final length will rely on how much research you conduct and how many possible solutions you generate.  

How Our Professional Branding Experts Can Help 

To help you identify your brand's strengths and shortcomings and take appropriate action, our branding services in Dubai focus on core brand identity, verbal brand identity, visual brand identity, and brand assessment analysis.

Core Brand Identity

Enter information about your company's goals, core values, rivals, and target market. You should also describe how you see your brand being optimized and perceived in the marketplace.

Visual Identity 

To assess your brand's visual attributes and market presence, provide information on your business's logo, color scheme, typography, graphical differentiation from competitors, and additional brand attributes.

Verbal Identity 

Describe the personality, tone, value proposition, and selling factors of your company. You can also assess your business's messaging here.

Brand Evaluation

Assess the effectiveness of your brand and make a list of any improvements you might make, as well as the key performance indicators (KPIs) you'll use to monitor its success in the market, earned media value (EMV) that is related to the brand, customer research you should conduct, and key takeaways.

Our adaptable, dynamic brand audit will inform all of your findings and eventually identify areas that need to be improved.

What Is the Best Time to Do a Brand Audit?

• A brand audit is a good idea whenever there is a substantial shift inside the organization.
  
  
• When client loyalty is low.
  
  
• When reinventing brand values, when seeing holes in the business's structure.
  
  
• When updating the business's present appearance or rebranding.
  
  
• When brand identity promotion efforts are no longer having an impact on the target market.
  
  
• When marketing initiatives aren't producing the same kind of results they once did.
  
  

It’s Time for A Digital Brand Audit 

With Plan A Agency, experience the benefits of a deep dive into the heart of your brand. Our team of experts brings years of experience and a data-driven approach to uncover the potential of your brand. 
We use a combination of research, analysis, and industry-leading tools to deliver actionable insights that drive growth. With our brand audit, you'll gain a clear understanding of your brand's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.  

You'll also receive a comprehensive brand audit report and personalized recommendations that will help you take your brand to the next level. Trust us to deliver a brand audit that will provide the foundation for long-term success.
So, don't let your brand get left behind. Schedule a brand audit today and stay ahead of the competition.