The definitive 100 question Brand Audit checklist for brand success

The ultimate B2B brand audit checklist – 100 questions to ask of your brand, your employees and your customers.

What is a brand audit?

It’s an evaluation of your brands performance, identity and positioning. A B2B brand audit looks at how a business’s brand stands with the marketplace and its customers and clients – either through a product or a service.

Why is a brand audit important?

In business, where perception often becomes reality, your brand is your most valuable asset. A company’s brand represents who it is, how it is perceived by the world, and the unspoken promises it makes to its customers. Have you ever wondered how effectively your brand conveys its promise? A brand audit is the ultimate diagnostic tool for dissecting, scrutinising, and revitalising the beating heart of your brand. Our journey through brand audits will take us into a world where perception meets strategy, where your brand’s true potential awaits discovery. Here’s where the road to brand brilliance begins.

The purpose of a brand audit is to provide insights that can be used to improve the brand’s performance. A brand audit can be conducted for a variety of reasons, such as:

• To assess the brand’s current health and identify areas for improvement.
• To gather the ingredients for a new brand strategy.
• To benchmark the brand against its competitors.
• To prepare for a rebranding exercise.
• To measure the effectiveness of a brand marketing campaign.

Where do you start with a brand audit?

You ask questions! Lots of them! So, we’ve listed our top 100 questions to ask in a brand audit checklist. Some of them may not be pertinent to your business, so it’s best you choose the ones that best suit you.

What happens after a brand audit?

Generally, we’d do a brand audit before doing a brand strategy. The audit identifies the strengths and weaknesses, then the strategy creates the plan that addresses them and how to proceed.

Let’s get started with the ultimate Brand Audit checklist!

Section 1: Substance
Your brand substance.

It is important to understand what is the substance behind your brand – if it were a person, this would be the essence of their values, personality and who they are. Normally, we would ask these questions to the company’s leadership team.

1. Do you have company values, and do you know what they are?
2. Who are the key stakeholders?
3. How would you describe your brand?
4. What does your brand stand for?
5. What makes your brand memorable?
6. What problems does your brand solve?
7. What is your brand’s value proposition?
8. What is the brand’s USP (Unique Selling Proposition)?
9. Is there a story or history behind your brand?
10. Do you have a vision and mission? Do you know them?
11. Describe your position in the marketplace?
12. What are the brand attributes?
13. Which of these is most important?
14. Does the company deliver on its brand promise?
15. What does the company do that is not in keeping with the brand vision?

Section 2: Audience
Who is your customer?

Your customers are your reason for being. Without them, you have no business. So it stands to reason that to audit your brand, you need to find out what their perception and experience is with your brand.

16. Where do customers and clients come from?
17. How do they find you?
18. Have you identified your brand’s customer personas?
19. Describe a typical customer. Why do they need your brand?
20. How would your brand solve their problems?
21. How does your brand impact your customer’s life?
22. What else do customers want from your brand?
23. How is your brand priced compared to the market?
24. Is your brand priced according to the needs of your customers?

Section 3: Competitors
Your competitors

Even the most highly specialised product or service will have competitors. By looking at your competitors we can see the gaps of where you need to improve, or where you can stand out.

25. Who are your top 3 competitors?
26. How do competitors define their brands?
27. How do their brands differ from yours?
28. Are there any areas where your brand excels, and the competition fails?
29. How are your competitors brands better than yours?
30. Or how are your competitors brands worse than yours?
31. Is there a difference between your customers and those of your competitor?
32. What could you learn from the competition and introduce to your brand?

Section 4: Experience
What is your customer’s brand experience?

Your company may have a few key clients or thousands of customers. It’s important to find out their experience of working with your brand, or with your competitors, so that you can identify the gaps.

33. Why did you choose this brand or company?
34. Can you describe the brand?
35. What words best describe this brand?
36. What is the brand’s promise (what does it promise to do for you)?
37. Why did you choose to work with them, or buy their product?
38. Would you do it again?
39. If so, why do you continue to buy this brand?
40. Do you have a problem that this brand solves? What is it?
41. How do you feel when you use this brand?
42. How do you feel when this brand is unavailable?
43. How well does the brand deliver on its promise?
44. Does it ever fail to deliver on its promise?
45. Have you seen the brands advertising? Where?
46. What message did the advertising communicate?
47. Do you like or dislike what you saw?
48. Where did you encounter this brand the first time?
49. Where would you expect to find this brand?
50. Is there anywhere you feel they should be where they currently aren’t?
51. Do you get a fair value from this brand?
52. If the brand was suddenly hard to find, would you pay more to guarantee you got enough of it?
53. If the brand were less expensive, would you buy more of it?
54. Would you recommend this brand to your friends?
55. What message does the logo convey about the brand?
56. What do you think of when you see the logo?
57. How responsive is their customer support?
58. Describe your best experience with the brand.
59. What would make you like this brand more?

Section 5: Identity
Your brand’s visual identity

This is the visual elements of your brand that you can see. It starts with your logo and brand elements, and continues to all aspects of your brand. Apply the questions to any brand touchpoint eg. your social media, advertising, even your signage.

60. Do you have a written brand guidelines?
61. Does your brand have a specific color scheme, graphic, or image?
62. Is your brand known for any particular words or thoughts?
63. Are all instances of your brand usage consistent in colours, images and tones?
64. Does your visual identity match your positioning and your customers?
65. Do you have a brand custodian who actively monitors your brand usage?
66. Do you have a brand hub or library that you can use to ensure you are always using the latest versions of your templates and brand assets?

Section 6: Marketing
Your marketing activity

Let’s look at how your brand stands in the marketplace. It’s important to look at how you position yourself, the channels you use, and the messaging you put out. If you choose channels not well suited to your customer, or to your positioning, then you may be diluting your efforts. By evaluating your marketing activity against the backdrop of your brand and positioning, you’ll increase the chances of success.

67. What marketing channels does your company use?
68. What marketing channels does the customer use? Is there a difference between the two?
69. What is your most effective marketing activity?
70. What is your least effective marketing activity?
71. If you could start your brand afresh, what would you change?
72. If you could start it again, what would you keep?
73. Does your current marketing add or detract from your brand?
74. What is the key message of your marketing?
75. Should the brand marketing include ideas that it doesn’t today?
76. What do you think of the brand’s logo?
77. What messages does the logo communicate?
78. How well do the visual elements of your marketing support the brand’s values?
79. How well does the brand’s marketing appeal to your customer?
80. Are there messages your customer expects but doesn’t get?
81. Does your marketing communicate messages that are not an important part of the brand’s promise?
82. What is your brand’s presence like in social media? Is it relevant, authentic and impactful?

Section 7: Employees
Your employees and contractors

The pulse of your brand are your people. How do they feel about your brand – have you ever asked them? Asking your team these questions will help you to understand your brand’s strengths and weaknesses from inside-out.

83. Why did you choose to work for this company?
84. Would you recommend this brand (as an employer) to your friends?
85. Would you recommend this brand (as a product or service) to your friends?
86. How would you describe the brand?
87. Is there a brand vision? What is it?
88. Is there a brand promise?
89. How do you deliver on the brand’s promise?
90. Are there things that keep you from delivering on the brand’s promise?
91. What are they?
92. Why do you think your customers choose this brand over the competition?
93. What do customers love about this brand?
94. Do customers get a good value when they buy this brand? Why or why not?
95. What do customers say is the key selling point of the brand?
96. Does the company’s leadership live up to the brand’s values?
97. Do other employees live up to the brand’s values?
98. What do you like most about working for this brand?
99. What do you like least about working for this brand?
100. If you could do one thing to improve the brand, what would it be?

Phew, you made it to the end of our 100 ultimate brand checklist questions. Are there any you’d add?

It’s an intimidating process but if you break it into bite size pieces you can work through a brand audit. Once the first audit is done, then it’s time to go into an experiential brand audit where you analyse the brand experience, from the outside signage through to what happens when you click submit on the website contact form.

How is a brand audit done?

A brand audit can be conducted by a company’s internal team or by an external specialist consultant. The process typically involves gathering data from a variety of sources, such as workshops, employee and customer surveys, market research, and social media analytics. The data is then analysed to identify the brand’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

The results of a brand audit can be used to develop a plan for improving the brand’s performance. This plan may include changes to the brand’s identity, positioning, marketing, or other aspects. A brand audit is a valuable tool for any company that wants to ensure that its brand is effective and successful.

Why bring in a brand audit specialist?

You could conduct your brand audit yourself. Whilst this can be done internally, there is a benefit to working with an outside brand auditor. These benefits include:

• A fresh set of eyes:
  
  An external brand auditor can bring an unbiased approach, meaning we look at your brand as a fresh canvas
• Skill and experience:
  
  A skilled brand audit team have the skills, experience and tools to conduct evaluations, workshops and, most importantly, interpret the output of your brand audit.
• Time-saving:
  
  Conducting a brand audit is time-consuming. Most marketers, brand custodians and C-Suite team members don’t have the time available to do an impactful brand audit.
• Results focused: By having it outsourced, they can rather focus on the results and the actions as opposed to learning and managing the process.

Why choose Halo for your Brand Audit

As a B2B Brand Agency, we specialise in creating and maintaining successful brands. We’re experienced in Brand Audits and designing strategies that take your brand from meh to magnificent.

If conducting an audit on your brand seems too complex or daunting, we can help. Just reach out to us for a free Discovery call and we’ll tackle your brand journey together!