Additional Measurement Concepts

Measure what moves your brand forward.

In a world where brand decisions must be data-driven and future-focused, understanding the right metrics is essential. This section explores the tools that help marketers and strategists quantify brand power, customer experience, and market momentum – from the Brand Strength Index and Customer Effort Score to brand preference, purchase intent, and ongoing tracking studies. These insights go beyond vanity metrics to reveal what truly drives loyalty, conversion, and competitive edge – empowering smarter decisions and stronger brand performance.

95. Brand Strength Index
Brand Strength Index creates composite scores measuring overall brand power by combining multiple performance dimensions weighted by strategic importance. Typical components include market position (share, growth), customer metrics (awareness, preference, loyalty), financial performance (premium, profitability), and competitive dynamics (differentiation, momentum). Methodologies vary but share multidimensional assessment, category-specific weighting, competitive indexing, and predictive validation. Applications encompass portfolio prioritisation, resource allocation, acquisition targeting, and executive dashboards. Challenges include metric selection, weight determination, cross-category comparison, and gaming prevention. Leading indices correlate with future financial performance, validating brand investment. Evolution incorporates digital metrics, sustainability factors, and predictive analytics whilst maintaining longitudinal consistency for trend analysis. Source: Millward Brown (2022). BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands Methodology. Kantar.

96. Customer Effort Score (CES)
Customer Effort Score measures experience friction by asking “How easy was it to handle your issue?” on scales from “Very Difficult” to “Very Easy.” Research demonstrates effort reduction drives loyalty more than delight creation, as customers penalise difficult experiences more than rewarding exceptional ones. Low effort experiences reduce service costs, increase repurchase, decrease negative word-of-mouth, and improve customer lifetime value. Implementation requires journey mapping for effort points, systematic measurement post-interaction, root cause analysis, and friction elimination programs. CES complements NPS and CSAT by focusing on operational improvement rather than relationship or satisfaction. Digital transformation enables effort reduction through self- service, personalisation, and predictive support. Success requires organisational commitment to simplification over impressive but complex experiences. Source: Dixon, M., Freeman, K., & Toman, N. (2010). “Stop trying to delight your customers.” Harvard Business Review, 88(7/8).

97. Brand Preference
Brand preference measures consumer inclination to choose one brand over available alternatives when category need arises, indicating competitive strength beyond awareness. Preference formation involves functional superiority perception, emotional connection strength, social influence integration, and habitual behaviour development. Measurement approaches include stated preference surveys, choice modelling experiments, purchase data analysis, and neuroscience techniques. Building preference requires differentiation on valued attributes, consistent experience delivery, emotional bond creation, and friction reduction. Digital environments complicate preference as algorithms influence choice presentation and infinite shelf space reduces habitual selection. Strong preference creates pricing power, competitive resilience, and efficient customer acquisition. Evolution from product preference to ecosystem preference reflects platform economy dynamics where switching costs increase through service integration. Source: Day, G.S. (1969). “A two-dimensional concept of brand loyalty.” Journal of Advertising Research, 9(3).

98. Purchase Intent
Purchase intent quantifies likelihood of future brand purchase, serving as leading indicator of sales performance and campaign effectiveness. Measurement scales from “Definitely will not buy” to “Definitely will buy” capture consideration strength. Intent formation involves need recognition, information search, alternative evaluation, and pre-purchase conviction. Factors influencing intent include brand attitude, social norms, situational factors, and perceived behavioural control. The intent- behaviour gap reflects that stated intention imperfectly predicts actual purchase due to competitive actions, situational changes, and measurement biases. Improving prediction requires behavioural commitment measures, contextual specificity, temporal proximity, and past behaviour integration. Digital tracking enables intent signal capture through search behaviour, content engagement, and cart abandonment, improving targeting precision. Source: Morwitz, V.G., Steckel, J.H., & Gupta, A. (2007). “When do purchase intentions predict sales?” International Journal of Forecasting, 23(3).

99. Brand Tracking Studies
Brand tracking studies continuously monitor brand health metrics over time to assess strategy effectiveness, competitive dynamics, and market evolution. Core metrics typically include awareness levels, brand perceptions, purchase behaviour, loyalty indicators, and competitive positioning. Methodology considerations encompass sample consistency, questionnaire stability, frequency optimization, and channel coverage. Modern tracking leverages online panels, mobile surveys, passive data collection, and real-time dashboards. Analysis focuses on trend identification, driver analysis, competitive gaps, and predictive modelling. Challenges include survey fatigue, sample representativeness, attribution complexity, and cost management. Best practices involve integrated data sources, action-oriented reporting, stakeholder engagement, and continuous methodology evolution. Tracking provides early warning systems for brand health deterioration and validation for marketing investments. Source: Farris, P.W., et al. (2015). Marketing Metrics (3rd ed.). Pearson FT Press.

Looking to the future let’s turn to Emerging Brand Concepts