By Filip Lau and Katy Osborn

It's long been common practice for brands to assess themselves against industry competitors. But what happens when a company asks consumers to assess their brand?

A year ago, ReD Associates teamed up with one of the world’s most renowned consumer-facing brands to answer this question. We came to understand that consumers often compare and bucket brands across, rather than within, industries. They furnish their homes, wardrobes, smartphones, and days with the help of iconic, global ‘big brands;’ refreshing and novel ‘small brands;’ and a third category of both big and small brands whose engagement models are reshaping standards around consumer experience — what the authors of this piece have termed ‘connected brands.’ Understanding these three categories is key for marketeers, because consumers have clear expectations about how the brands within each one should behave.

To help organizations ensure they’re meeting consumer expectations and comparing favorably to other ‘big,’ ‘small,’ and ‘connected’ brands, we've devised a consumer-centric diagnostic tool called the Outside-In Brand Audit. It guides teams through the three core characteristics consumers expect from each category of brand, and prompts them to self-assess how well the brand is delivering on each.

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[Banner image by Kier In Sight, via Unsplash]