How strong is your brand? It’s a simple question, but one you’d probably struggle to answer. Once you recognize that a brand isn’t your logo, you realize it’s an abstraction—an idea in people’s heads.
How do you even measure something like that?
Often, the best way to approach a seemingly difficult task is to break it down into its component parts. Then—just maybe—you can figure out how to measure each one. But after you’ve removed the screws and disassembled your brand, exactly what pieces are lying there on your workbench?
Before we get to that, you need to understand the buying process–and how firms like yours make it onto “the list.”
How Buying Services Works
When a buyer sets out to find a service provider they are ultimately looking for one thing: the firm they believe is most qualified to solve their problem. How do they know which is most qualified? In large part, they rely on external signals—what they have heard and read about the firm. For example, a buyer may receive a referral, or they may read that the firm is a recognized leader in their area of expertise. Buyers also consider internal signals, such as who else the firm has worked with, the qualifications of their team and whether they have handled similar problems in the past. Many of these internal signals can be found on the firm’s website. Let’s call all of these factors the firm’s “reputation.”
Of course, to even consider a firm, a buyer needs to know they exist. The better known a firm is, the more likely it is to be considered. And if it is less well known, it needs to be findable. Let’s call this factor a firm’s “visibility.”
Brand Strength = Reputation X Visibility
At Hinge, we use this formula to gauge the relative strength of a firm’s brand. To do the calculation, however, we first have to determine values for reputation and visibility.
We collect this information by asking a firm’s clients to rate each factor on a 1–10 scale. Since clients have been through the buying process and evaluated a range of candidates before they selected you, they are in a very good position to judge a firm’s reputation and visibility compared to others in the field. Once we have collected this data, it’s a simple matter to average the ratings for each factor and multiply the two numbers. The result is a score between 1 and 100. This is the firm’s brand strength.
But we’re not done yet. Hinge has researched over 50,000 firms and buyers of their services, so we have compiled reputation, visibility and brand strength benchmarks for each professional services industry. We can compare a firm’s scores to our benchmarks, allowing firm leadership to see how they stack up against their competitors—and start addressing any deficiencies. Do they have a strong reputation but low visibility? They can take tangible steps to build awareness in the markets they serve.
Other Ways to Measure
If research isn’t an option, you could use a different methodology to determine these values. For instance, for reputation you might capture the number of times your brand is mentioned online. To quantify your visibility you might develop an index based on web search impressions and social media followers. The key is to be consistent so that you can measure your progress over time.
Our team prefers to ask real people for this information because it involves actual buyers of services—and is therefore more likely to reflect the way real people perceive the marketplace. Of course, brand strength, and the factors that go into it, are inherently subjective. And that’s perfectly okay because the process of selecting a firm is equally subjective. However you decide to quantify reputation and visibility, you now have a simple, easy-to-understand process to put into practice.
Repeat the process at regular intervals, and you can measure your progress over time. That’s powerful!
