Finding Your Brand Core
Strategic tools to reveal your brand’s essence

Every successful brand transformation begins with a crucial first step: gaining a clear, unvarnished understanding of where your brand stands today.

Before you can chart a course forward, you must thoroughly assess your current position, examining both your brand’s explicit and implicit aspects. This foundational analysis will be the cornerstone for the next steps in creating your brand strategy.

Market research and discovery

Market research in brand strategy goes far beyond collecting statistics and data points. It's about developing a nuanced understanding of the ecosystem in which your brand operates and how it fits within that larger context. This understanding helps identify the forces shaping your market and reveals opportunities for meaningful differentiation.

The first step in understanding your brand's position is examining the broader market context. This involves analysing several key areas:

Industry evolution and trends — Your market is constantly evolving, driven by technological advances, cultural shifts, and changing consumer needs. Consider how your industry has transformed over the past five years. What technologies have disrupted traditional business models? How have customer expectations evolved? Understanding these patterns helps predict future market directions and identifies areas your brand might need to adapt.

For example, in the food and beverage industry, we’ve seen a dramatic shift toward plant-based alternatives, not just in specialised products but across entire product categories. This shift reflects more profound changes in consumer values around health, sustainability, and ethical consumption. Brands that recognised these changes early were able to position themselves advantageously.

Distribution channels and touchpoints — Examine how products or services reach end users in your market. Are traditional channels being disrupted by digital alternatives? Are new intermediaries emerging? Understanding channel dynamics reveals opportunities for innovation in how your brand reaches and serves its audience.

Economic factors and market structure — Analyse the financial fundamentals of your market. What drives profitability? How are value chains structured? Understanding these elements helps identify where your brand can create and capture the most value.

Conducting a comprehensive brand audit

A brand audit systematically examines your brand’s current state across multiple dimensions. This thorough assessment reveals strengths to build upon and areas needing attention.

The internal assessment examines how your brand operates within your organisation.

Brand architecture review — Begin by mapping your current brand architecture. Document all your brand's expressions, from product lines to sub-brands. Consider questions like:

• How do different offerings relate to each other?

• Is the hierarchy clear and logical?

• Does the current structure support your business objectives?

Communication audit — Gather all brand communications from the past 12-24 months. This includes:

• Marketing materials and campaigns

• Social media content

• Customer service scripts

• Sales presentations

• Internal communications

Analyse these materials for consistency in messaging, tone, and visual presentation. Look for patterns in how your brand story is told and where inconsistencies might create confusion.

Visual identity assessment — Examine all visual elements of your brand:

• Logo usage and variations

• Color palette implementation

• Typography choices

• Image style and quality

• Design system coherence

Document how these elements are applied across different contexts and platforms. Note any deviations from brand guidelines and assess whether they strengthen or weaken brand recognition.

In our digital-first world, your online presence requires special attention.

Website assessment — Evaluate your website’s effectiveness through multiple lenses:

• User experience and navigation

• Content quality and relevance

• Technical performance

• Brand consistency

• Conversion optimisation

Use analytics data to understand how visitors interact with your site and identify opportunities for improvement.

Social media audit — Analyse your social media presence across platforms:

• Engagement patterns

• Content performance

• Audience demographics

• Response times and quality

• Brand voice consistency

Be sure to look for disconnects between your intended brand positioning and how it manifests in social interactions.

Experience mapping — Document the current customer journey and experience with your brand:

• Map all touchpoints where customers interact with your brand

• Identify moments of truth in the customer journey

• Assess the quality and consistency of experience across touchpoints

• Note gaps between brand promise and delivery

Evaluating your insights

The final step in understanding your current position is synthesising this information into actionable insights. This synthesis should:

• Identify patterns across different data sources

• Highlight key strengths and weaknesses

• Reveal gaps between current position and market opportunities

• Surface inconsistencies in brand expression

• Pinpoint immediate areas for improvement

Create a straightforward document that summarises:

• Current brand perceptions and associations

• Areas of brand strength

• Critical weaknesses or inconsistencies

• Key opportunities for enhancement

• Major risks or challenges

This synthesis becomes the foundation for future strategic planning, ensuring that any brand evolution is grounded in thoroughly understanding your starting point.

Conclusion

Understanding your brand's current position is a complex but essential process. This thorough analysis creates a solid foundation for future brand strategy work. Investing time in this initial assessment ensures that subsequent strategic decisions are based on real insights rather than assumptions.

Remember that this analysis is not about judgment but about clarity. Every brand has areas of strength and opportunity for improvement. The goal is to develop a clear, honest picture of where you stand today, setting the stage for meaningful evolution and growth.