Brand tracking: How strong are our local brands compared to our European brands?

The Complication

A leading supplier of door hardware and entrance systems, and a major player in access and security solutions is active in Europe with multiple pan-European brands, as well as numerous local brands. These local brands often have a long history and are therefore strong brands in terms of awareness and sales. HQ wanted to limit the number of local brands in the portfolio and grow the pan-European brands, which had a low awareness in many European countries and would need extensive development & promotion. To start with any development and promotion actions, our client wanted to support the pan-European brand’s development by understanding the competitive position of the existing brands and setting a benchmark measurement against which the brand development could be tracked over time. The research needed to be robust enough to use a base for brand development and to set KPIs whilst providing coverage across key ₁ markets and industry sectors.

The Solution

The research started with a workshop where the current branding strategy of multiple brands, both local & pan-European, was discussed. A quantitative online approach was used to effectively and efficiently reach a broad sample of potential customers. We focused our questions on the current brand position (brand awareness, preference) and reasons for having a preference across relevant product categories, and then looked at the brand attributes (such as reliability, quality, design, etc). Insights were also provided for segments of the potential customer base to see among whom our client’s brands had a strong position.

The Insight

Research findings were reported at the overall level to provide a clear view of brand performance and highlight areas of focus, followed by further analyses at country-level to ensure local teams had access to data that could be used to drive actions and identify key areas to address.

Aside from setting benchmark scores for brand performance, the research also looked at factors that have the greatest impact on the brand. Using these results, our client was able to identify key brand strengths of the local brands as well as the pan-European brands, and decide if and when to discontinue the local brands and only offer the pan-European brands.

USP will keep measuring the brand position and performance for this client, so they can keep making fact-based decisions about their brand portfolio.