Brand health tracking: awareness, funnel and image

Questions this report answers

What share of our target group knows the brand unaided, aided and as top of mind?
Where does the funnel leak: between awareness and consideration, or between consideration and purchase?
Which image attributes do people link with us, and with each competitor?
Did the last campaign move awareness, consideration or perceptions, and among whom?
Is our brand equity rising or falling, and what drives it?
Which competitor is gaining ground, and on which attributes?
How do results differ by country, region or age group?

When you need it

A tracker makes sense once a brand spends regularly on media and needs to know whether that spend is building anything beyond short-term sales. Typical moments to start:

Before a major campaign, rebrand or merger, so a baseline exists to measure change against.
When a new competitor enters and you need to see which attributes and which customers it is taking.
When several countries use different KPIs and the board wants one comparable framework.
When attention is more contested. Eurostat reports that 63.6% of EU enterprises with ten or more employees used social media in 2025, and 32.6% paid to advertise on the internet in 2024. More brands are competing for the same audiences.

Tracking is less useful for a brand that is new and barely known; there, ad testing and concept work give clearer guidance than an awareness score close to zero. If you need one snapshot of how you are seen against rivals, a competitor analysis or a single survey wave is enough. And if the budget only allows very small waves, the tracker will report noise rather than movement.

Sample table of contents

Executive summary
brand KPIs, change since the previous wave, implications
Methodology
sample per wave, fieldwork dates, weighting, detectable change
Awareness
top of mind, unaided and aided, for every brand in the set
Brand funnel
conversion from awareness to consideration, preference, purchase and loyalty
Brand image
attribute associations and a perceptual map of the market
Brand equity
composite index and the attributes that drive it
Communication
advertising recall, channel recall and message take-out
Competitor movements
who gained, where and among whom
Segments and regions
KPI differences by audience
Trend charts
wave-on-wave results and rolling averages
Recommendations
what to change in positioning, messaging and media

Methodology and sources

Questionnaire structure

The order matters. Spontaneous questions come first: top of mind, then all brands recalled unaided. Only then are brand names or logos shown for aided brand awareness, followed by the funnel, an image grid of attributes and equity questions. The core stays identical across waves, because any change in wording breaks the trend.

Sample and detectable change

Each wave must be large enough to reveal real movement. With 500 interviews, a result of around 50% carries a margin of error of about ±4.4 points at 95% confidence, and two waves of that size must differ by roughly 6 points before the change is statistically significant. Our margin of error calculator shows how sample size changes these thresholds. Subgroups can be reported on rolling data that pools two or three waves.

Fieldwork model

Continuous tracking spreads interviews evenly over each week, which smooths trends and lines results up with media bursts. Dipstick waves, quarterly or half-yearly, suit brands with steadier communication. We use CAWI on online panels with stable quotas and keep the same panel source, since switching providers can shift levels.

Supporting data

Social listening and search trends from digital market analysis act as early signals between waves, and your sales data helps validate the brand funnel.

What you receive

Wave report with KPI trend charts and commentary
Online dashboard filtered by segment, region and competitor
Excel tables for each wave and cumulative data
Perceptual map of brands on the main image attributes
Brand equity model with driver weights
Review meeting with your marketing and agency teams after each wave

How the project runs

KPI framework, target group and competitor set — 1 week
Questionnaire and pilot — 1 week
Baseline fieldwork — 1–2 weeks
Baseline analysis and report — 1–2 weeks
Further waves monthly, quarterly or continuously, each reported 1–2 weeks after fieldwork closes
Annual review of questionnaire, attributes and competitor set — 1 week

Hypothetical example for illustration

Worked example

Example: a hypothetical insurer selling car and home policies online in three European countries is about to launch its first television campaign. It sets up a quarterly tracker with 600 interviews per country among adults who hold a car or home policy.

The baseline shows high aided awareness among under-35s but weak consideration, and the image grid explains why: the brand scores well on "easy to use" and "modern" but poorly on "pays claims fairly". Competitors with older, more traditional brands lead on trust.

The campaign is rebuilt around claims stories told by staff and a clear explanation of the claims process. Two waves later, consideration among 35–54-year-olds has risen by more than the detectable threshold in two of the three countries, while awareness is flat. The insurer keeps the trust message, shifts budget from awareness formats towards consideration and adds a claims attribute to its customer satisfaction survey.

Common mistakes and how to avoid them

Changing questions between waves. Even small wording edits create false movements; agree the core questionnaire once and protect it.
Showing brand names before asking unaided recall. Prompting contaminates spontaneous awareness, so the question order must be fixed.
Over-reading small changes. Report significance and rolling averages rather than reacting to every one-point move.
Tracking awareness only. High awareness with low consideration is a problem, not a success; measure the whole funnel.
Switching sample provider without a bridge. Run old and new sources in parallel for one wave to calibrate the levels.

Who it suits

Suitable for	Why
Consumer brands with regular media spend	Links campaigns to awareness, consideration and image
Banks, insurers and telecoms in crowded markets	Small image differences decide which brands get considered
Companies after a rebrand or merger	Shows how equity transfers from old names to the new one
Multi-country brands	One KPI framework makes markets comparable
B2B brands with a broad buyer base	Tracks awareness and reputation among decision-makers

Frequently asked questions

How often should a brand tracker run?

It depends on how often you advertise and how fast your category moves. Brands with frequent campaigns usually track continuously and report monthly or quarterly; brands with steadier communication run two to four dipstick waves a year. Fewer, larger waves are better than many small ones.

How long does it take to get the first results?

The baseline wave takes five to seven weeks from briefing to report, including questionnaire design, a pilot and fieldwork. Later waves are faster, because the questionnaire and reporting templates are already in place; results usually follow one to two weeks after fieldwork closes.

What is the difference between aided and unaided awareness?

Unaided awareness counts people who name your brand without any prompt; the first brand mentioned is top of mind. Aided awareness counts those who recognise it from a list or logo. Unaided awareness is harder to achieve and matters most where buyers choose from memory, which is why both are tracked.

What determines the cost of a brand tracker?

The main factors are the number of countries, interviews per wave, wave frequency or continuous fieldwork, the incidence of your target group, the number of brands and attributes measured and the dashboard set-up. Send us your brief and request a quote for the options.

Who sees our results, and how are respondents protected?

Results belong to you and are shared with nobody else; we can sign a non-disclosure agreement before the briefing. Competitor brands are measured only as part of the market picture. Respondents take part anonymously through panels operating under GDPR, and we follow the ICC/ESOMAR International Code throughout.

Can a tracker measure brand equity?

Yes. We combine funnel position, preference, perceived quality and attributes into a composite brand equity index and model which attributes drive it. Because the index uses the same inputs every wave, it shows whether the brand is getting stronger, even in periods without campaigns.

Sources

Updated: 5 Nov 2026

Brand health tracking: measure awareness, image and brand equity over time