Brand Tracking for Startups

The early days of a startup can be scary. You have a great business model, product and staff. But you also have a lot of questions. Are you getting your name out there? Are you uniquely positioned, or just another me-too brand? Is your marketing spending actually helping?

Traditional brand tracking would answer many of your biggest questions. But most traditional tracking approaches are optimized for mature brands, with long surveys, large samples and big price tags. Material has designed brand tracking and advertising tracking for companies of all sizes, so we’ve learned a lot about the kinds of tracking and insights work that fit young companies. Below is a guide on what to prioritize when insight gaps are big and budgets are small.

Brand Tracking on a Shoestring: The Garage Years

In the very early days of a start-up, you might not have the budget for sodas, let alone consumer research. But at this early stage, it’s important to get a handle on who your ideal customer is.

To do this, you can spend a very small amount on a few questions in an omnibus survey – gauging purchase interest based on a description of your product or service. Good omnibus surveys can filter that data by demographics like age and gender, letting you know the type of customer who will engage with your brand first.

Growing a Cult Following: Leveraging Your Brand Advocates

After some early traction, you’ll have a passionate fan base. Send surveys to your current users, as early adopters will often answer these for free. This is a great way to get an understanding of your competitive positioning. How do these first customers see you as better (or worse) than competitors? Is there anything you can improve early on before the word really gets out?

Breaking Into the Big Leagues: Gotta Track to Earn

At some point, you’ll be ready to spend some marketing dollars. This is when it makes the most sense to start a real brand tracking system that can reveal the ROI of your marketing efforts and help you optimize your spending and strategy.

But tracking at this stage doesn’t have to be large and unwieldy. Focus surveys on marketing’s impact on awareness, consideration and brand positioning. You can likely pull that off in a tight 10-minute survey, done one or two times a year, for less money than traditional tracking. To make the most of these short surveys, make sure to connect their results to your in-house data sources like sales, web traffic and social mentions. Material calls this approach Convergent Tracking. It offers a complete picture of your business by combining multiple data streams into one cohesive story.

Brand Tracking Methods to Go Mainstream: Making a Splash

At this point, you’ve made a name for yourself and you’re being noticed by the big guys like this example. This is when tracking should expand to the traditional 15-20 minute survey. This longer survey, done two to four times a year, will offer a more refined view of your brand’s promise, give you a closer read on competitive threats and give you space to explore future strategies to expand your business.

This is also when your tracker should expand to integrate a wider set of insight sources. Go beyond leveraging in-house data sources to include Qualitative Research and Cultural Insights tools. These more exploratory approaches can future proof your tracker, uncovering emerging consumer trends that can inform fresh survey questions and provide helpful context.

Material designs custom tracking systems that span all brands’ shapes and sizes.