A new word in the vocabulary: how to measure what a newly launched brand comes to mean
- Segment
- Infrastructure
- Topic
- Brand launch and campaign evaluation
- Method
- Nationwide online quantitative survey
new brand new brand n.
Usage: not yet recorded.
Every new brand starts as a made-up word
- 1Knowing it exists
- 2Recognizing it
- 3Understanding what it means
- 4Deciding whether you like it
First, people need to know it exists. Then they learn to recognize it. Only then do they start to understand what it stands for and, gradually, decide whether they like it.
A large Brazilian company with a well-known track record asked us to measure this process. It had launched a new brand along with a campaign to introduce it. The media plan showed how many people might have seen the ads. It didn’t show whether the new word was entering people’s vocabulary, or what it meant to them.
The risk of starting from scratch
An established brand carries years of trust. A new brand can only avoid starting from scratch if it manages to bring that trust along. Measuring campaign recall alone wouldn’t show whether that was happening.
Four questions, in the order in which a brand takes hold
- 1
Do people know the change happened?
- 2
Do they recognize the new brand?
- 3
Do they understand why the company changed?
- 4
What ideas do they associate with it?
Each step depends on the one before it. Where the answers stopped showed where the communication needed reinforcing.
Those who saw it and those who didn’t
- 1Unaided recallwith no prompts
- 2Showing the filmrecognition and attention
- 3Comparisonexposed × not exposed
First, we measured unaided recall of the campaign, with no prompts. Then respondents watched the film, so we could assess recognition and how well it held their attention.
Next, we compared people who had already seen the campaign with people who hadn’t. That comparison helps separate what the campaign contributed from perceptions people already had. The question shifts from “Was the campaign seen?” to “Did the campaign change anything?”
The first meaning
The new brand was rated on attributes tied to three ideas: strength and trust, innovation and readiness for the future, and sustainability. The survey also captured what came to people’s minds, unprompted, when they heard the new name. That was the new word’s first meaning, in the public’s own words.
new brand new brand n.
- 1. strength and trust
- 2. innovation and readiness for the future
- 3. sustainability
- 4. what comes to mind, in the public’s own words
Listening to discomfort as well
It’s common to judge a campaign by its positive signals alone. Here, we looked for the negative ones too: what doubts and concerns the change raised. In a rebrand, that discomfort is where the risk lies of losing what took years to build. Knowing where it shows up lets you address it before it takes hold.
What changed for the customer
- Now
Adjustments to the running campaign, to its messages and to the points that needed more clarity.
- Next phases
Planning for the next phases: which messages to highlight, which attributes to reinforce and how each channel could contribute.
- From here on
The start of regular tracking: the first wave became the benchmark for measuring the brand’s progress.
A new word only truly enters the vocabulary when people start using it without thinking.
Brands work the same way, and knowing whether one has gotten there means measuring more than once.
- 1st measurement
benchmark - 2ª
- 3ª
- …