TLDR: The marketing landscape is constantly changing and brand monitoring is the secret weapon to stay on top of your target audience’s behavior changes. Here's our POV on what data you should be monitoring, how often you should be doing research, and all that jazz.

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What is brand monitoring? Wondering how your target audience is perceiving and interacting with your brand? There's a good way to study this information. Brand monitoring is a holistic look at what is being said out there in the world about you, but also the industry and your competition. This approach includes online reputation management, addressing customer feedback, tracking competitors, analyzing sentiments, monitoring influencer activity etc.

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What does effective research look like? Effective research is the validation or change in thinking of our assumptions about our audience, our industry, and how they intersect. The better we can understand how our target audience wants to interact with the brand, the better the experiences we are able to create. By meeting them where they are, we make it easier to be the brand of choice.

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How often should you be seeking business and consumer data? The frequency depends on your specific goals. Many brands continuously monitor high-level information and will do a more in-depth pull of research monthly or quarterly. Benchmarking for key insights monthly can help provide insight into seasonality, changes in consumer behavior, and shifts in customer spending patterns, even if you are looking at the data with granularity quarterly.

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How does this strategy drive outcomes? When performing research, keeping your eyes on the KPIs is important. The amount of data can be overwhelming—we recommend starting with the following three.

• Campaign performance: Monitor the reach and engagement rate to assess your brand’s visibility and ability to appeal to your consumer’s needs.
• Sentiment: Identify positive, negative, or neutral sentiments to gauge how consumer perceive your content and if there are areas for improvement.
• Trends: Look for current trends to tap into and further the conversation. Keep in mind that trends go beyond social media. Look at consumer behavior changes, such as shopping habits, media consumption, and lifestyle preferences. Pro Tip: Aim to identify trends in their early stages.

By keeping a close watch on these data points, you're staying one step ahead of the consumer game, making moves that best position your brand to appeal to your target audience. Remember, research is the key to identifying insights and unlocking them.

Here are some brand monitoring case studies that caught our attention:

• Samsung: Samsung seeks to measure campaign performance.
• Peloton: Social media conversations helped identify and satisfy the needs of drivers and users.
• Uber: Consumer sentiment guided the rebalance of their public image.

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Striking Stats

76% of consumers value how quickly a brand can respond to their needs. (Source: Sprout Social)

️93% of business leaders say measuring brand health has helped them develop and track the success of products. (Source: Hanover Research)

️82% of customers are willing to share some type of personal data for more personalized service. (Source: PWC)

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Lightning Round: Team Updates

️️Ammunition welcomes four new team members this month. We’re thrilled to welcome Jeanna Welday, Ashlee Lowe, Naomi Trad, and Madeline Robinson.

️️Bohler Featherson (4), Sandy Hall (3), Dave Gordon (2), and Armand Ercoli (1) celebrated their Ammunition anniversaries. We are thankful for each of your contributions.

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