Not Every Brand Strategy is Created Equal.
Matt Bowen • October 15, 2020
Research-based brand positioning, personas and messaging is the difference between top performing brands…and all the rest.
We live in a world where content drives everything. Most marketing efforts are centered on content-driven campaigns, and the investment into marketing automation and sales enablement to drive this content is staggering.
But is it really working?
Every new product, every website, every campaign, every press release and every sales pitch should have one, singular purpose: deliver a compelling reason why people should choose your brand over others.
And while your in-house marketing team may be good at execution, if they don’t have a clear understanding of the nuanced needs of your target market, and more specifically, the unique needs that your brand addresses, they are likely wasting time and money with off-base messaging.
The intersection of robust data, insights and creative is where the magic happens, and this should be where organizations make their greatest brand investment to actualize results.
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According to the Harvard Business Review
only 54% of salespeople can clearly explain how their
solution impacts the buyer’s business.
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We’re Brandigo.
Using research and insights to develop brand positioning and creative strategies is nothing new to Brandigo. We were on the forefront, and while other agencies now claim to do it with promises of proprietary approaches, none of them deliver the depth of brand-focused data and insights-inspired creative that we do.
Because when it comes to your brand, left-brained data and insights are only as good as the right-brained strategy and creative they produce. That’s what makes Brandigo different. We call this data-conscious brand strategy.
Data-conscious brand strategy requires a unique approach to gathering the perceptions of your target audiences. We go out and talk to hundreds of your prospects and personas to really get inside their heads. We focus not on the tactical delivery of your products and service or customer satisfaction metrics for your brand, but on the needs of your customers and the emotional value that your products and services deliver. We use this research to create meaningful, audience-specific value narratives for your brand. Our research-based personas are built around rigorous qualitative and quantitative data – not just a handful of conversations. We know that your prospects respond best when you tell them how you’ll make their lives better. We make it emotional.
Why data-conscious brand strategy?
First, primary data is a critical piece of this answer. Why?
- It’s unique. Proprietary, primary data that you have commissioned isn’t available to anyone else. That means unlike market reports and analyst data, you have access to insights that no one else does, and this gives you an advantage when it comes to positioning your brand. When brands use the same reports to build strategy, everyone starts to sound the same. Makes sense, right? If everyone is building their brands from the same 3rd party information, you would expect the same conclusions to be drawn when it comes to what prospects want.
- It gives you a competitive advantage. Proprietary data allows you to measure the health of your brand versus a set of competitors. Using these insights, you can identify competitive advantages in key value driver areas in the eyes of the market. You can then use this information to develop messaging points that clearly articulate your value proposition, but also where your brand outperforms your competition.
- 99% of the time, it’s data you don’t already have. Customer satisfaction metrics can be great. Your Net Promoter Score is a nice talking point. But when it comes to data for building a clearly differentiated brand, you need to understand the value drivers of the market – the critical drivers and delighters that are most likely to drive a purchase decision.
Brandigo takes that one step further. We help clients understand the difference between the most important drivers of purchase decisions (values) and the types of messages that are most likely to inspire prospects to take a closer look at your brand.
Next, the shopping behaviors of humans can be a tricky thing. What they say is important is often much different from what their actions show us. By looking at the difference between their stated importance (what they say) and their derived importance (what they actually do), Brandigo is able to build positioning and messaging strategies that tap into both the conscious and subconscious needs of your customers and prospects.
This isn’t as easy as pulling out a data point and calling it a value proposition. It takes a creative approach to interpret your data in order to craft a unique story that ties back to your brand’s most important value drivers.
Brandigo delivers the left-brained expertise of a seasoned research firm with the right-brained creativity of an inspired strategy and communications agency.
The bottom line.
At the end of the day, you want your brand to be, not just different, but valuable to your target audiences.
Find your unique place in the market and the value you deliver to customers and build a creative strategy for messaging it and create a visual identity that sets you apart in your market.
(primary data) + (strategic insights) + (creative inspiration) = brand differentiation
This is the essence of data conscious brand strategy.
Volvo has safety.
Apple thinks different.
BMW has the ultimate driving machine.
And Brandigo is data conscious brand strategy.
Data conscious brand strategy is a critical driver for moving your brand forward. The strategic direction delivered will serve as strategic guardrails for executive teams, sales, human resources, operations, R&D, and of course, marketing.
We’d love to tell you more.
Tesla's recent struggles show how controversies can damage a brand. CEO Elon Musk's recent controvercial decisions have alienated a significant portion of Tesla's eco-conscious customer base. The fallout has been severe: Stock Decline: Tesla's stock dropped 36% in Q1 2025, erasing $460B in market cap. Sales Impact: Vehicle deliveries fell 13% year-over-year in Q1 2025, with market share in Europe and Germany plummeting. Customer Trust: Favorability among Democrats dropped 23% from January to July 2024, while Tesla's brand consideration score halved since 2021. This highlights a key lesson: brands risk fallout when taking sides on divisive issues, and this is particularly true in politics. It highlights how important it for brands to remain focused on their core mission, establish authenticity, and earn trust from the market. You may be asking yourself, well hold on, how is this any different that what other brands like Ben and Jerry’s have done over the years. The key difference is that even though they may express views that some may find divisive, these views didn’t counter their core brand essence, in fact it enhanced it. Conflicts Hurting Brand Performance Brand Value Losses Tesla experienced a hit to its brand value following statements from its CEO that many perceived to be divisive or off-brand. Survey results showed that 45% of respondents viewed the impact as "negative," while 40% described it as "extremely negative" [2] . Customer Trust Breakdown Tesla's favorability ratings have sharply declined, particularly across political affiliations:
B2B marketing is a high-stakes game, data is everywhere—but insight is rare. One of the most powerful yet underutilized sources of marketing intelligence is a clear view of your brand’s health. Not vanity metrics, but a deep, diagnostic look at how your brand is perceived at every stage of the buyer’s journey. With perceived being the key word here. This kind of insight doesn’t come from your CRM or website analytics. It comes from targeted audience research that maps how each buyer persona perceives your brand at every key touchpoint in the funnel: awareness, familiarity, consideration, usage, and loyalty. When done right, it’s like getting an X-ray of your entire marketing engine—and your competitors’ too. Think how useful this is for a marketing and revenue team. Defining Brand Health: Perceptions Across the Funnel Brand health isn’t a single number. It’s the sum of how well your brand is performing in the minds of your target audiences—at every step of the funnel: Awareness – Do your ideal customers even know your brand exists? Familiarity – Can they describe what you do and how you’re different? Consideration – Would they include you in their shortlist when making a purchase decision? Usage – Are they choosing you and experiencing the value you promise? Loyalty – Do they stay, recommend, and grow with your brand? When you understand how each of your target personas perceives your brand at these stages, you can pinpoint the exact points where your marketing is working—or where it’s leaking leads and losing revenue. Why You Can’t Rely on Internal Data Alone Here’s the reality: most internal dashboards can only tell you what people do. But they can’t tell you what people think. And what they think determines whether or not they’ll engage with you in the first place. The only way to measure brand health accurately is through targeted audience research—surveys and qualitative insights gathered from your actual buying personas (or those of your competitors). This research reveals how each group perceives you at every stage of the funnel, uncovering blind spots and opportunities that performance data alone can’t provide. The Strategic Power of a Brand Health X-Ray When you can see brand health perceptions by funnel stage and by persona, you unlock powerful advantages for both marketing and revenue teams: Focused Strategy If awareness is high but familiarity is low, you know your messaging isn’t landing. If consideration is weak, you may need to clarify your value proposition or address trust barriers. This enables marketing to focus efforts where the funnel is breaking down—no guesswork. Smarter Budget Allocation Instead of spreading your budget evenly or betting on assumptions, brand health insights show you exactly where to invest to get the highest return. No more overspending at the top of the funnel when the real issue is mid-funnel conversion. Competitive Benchmarking When you include competitor data in your brand health assessment, you can see how buyers perceive your rivals at each stage of the funnel. Are they winning on awareness but losing on loyalty? Are you the most considered, but not the most chosen? This is the kind of clarity that drives smart positioning. The Business Case: Stats That Matter Companies that monitor brand health regularly are 60% more likely to exceed revenue goals. Consistent brand presentation can increase revenue by up to 20%. Brands with strong funnel-wide perception outperform competitors by up to 3X in customer retention and advocacy. To get started, B2B marketers should: Identify Key Personas – Who are your target buyers? Define them clearly. Map the Funnel Stages – Customize the funnel stages to match your sales cycle. Launch Targeted Research – Use surveys, interviews, or brand assessment tools to gather perception data. Analyze and Benchmark – Compare across personas and against competitors. Act on Insights – Use findings to adjust messaging, content, media spend, and sales enablement. Marketing teams are under more pressure than ever to prove impact. By measuring brand health through the lens of funnel-stage perceptions across key personas, you equip your team with the clarity to act with precision—and avoid wasting time and budget on the wrong problems. It’s not just about knowing how your brand is doing. It’s about knowing why—and what to do next. Want help setting up a brand health assessment for your organization? DM me and let's talk about how to build your own X-ray view of your brand and your competitors.