The seemingly untouchable ‘Strictly’ brand is going through a bit of a crisis at the moment. It’s in the news for all the wrong reasons, and there’s no doubt that its brand reputation will have been damaged at least to some extent by recent events.
For me, it really highlights the importance of monitoring the health of your brand and never taking anything for granted. I wonder if ‘The X Factor’ would have survived longer had TV executives been monitoring brand perceptions. Would they have picked up on the negativities that started to creep in and been able to respond quicker to protect the health of the brand and ensure its continued success? I guess we’ll never know.
We faced a similar predicament almost 10 years ago. We were a few years into monitoring the health of the Alton Towers Resort brand, which was going from strength to strength. Then, out of the blue, tragedy struck. Two carriages collided on the Smiler ride, trapping 16 people and seriously injuring four. The theme park was closed, and its reputation was seriously damaged, with Merlin Entertainments subsequently admitting fault for the accident.
Following this, we worked closely with Alton Towers to refine their brand tracking programme, adding metrics to monitor post-accident perceptions towards the brand over time amongst key target segments. The findings were used to inform actions to address consumer concerns, assess the impact on Merlin’s other theme parks and wider leisure attraction brands, and manage and reassure shareholders through the difficult period.
It certainly helped having a brand health tracker in place already so we could assess the impact and then continue to monitor perceptions. But what if you haven’t? Here’s our top tips on what to do:
- Surveys or polls – You can get these up and running very quickly now to quantify how your target audience feels about your brand.
- Qualitative research – Conducting depth interviews or focus groups will provide a more in-depth view on how your target audience is feeling and pick up on any nuanced sentiments.
- Community engagement – If you’re fortunate to have access to an online community or forum then this can provide a quick and easy route to the answers you need. Alternatively, you could consider setting up a pop-up online community for a limited period to track perceptions and dig deep to understand why people feel the way they do.
- Social media monitoring – There are a range of tools out there to monitor conversations and mentions of your brand on social media platforms.
- Sentiment analysis – We have access to AI driven analysis tools that can help to gauge the tone of conversations around your brand.
- Brand health trackers – This could actually be the trigger for you to set up a brand tracker to monitor health and perceptions over a longer period.
Doing some or all of the above will only help to track, understand and manage brand health and perceptions, address any negative sentiments and work towards rebuilding a positive reputation. ‘Strictly’ speaking, you should be doing this consistently so you can navigate through any reputational challenges.
Feel free to email me at colin.auton@mustard-research.com for any help or advice on brand health and reputation tracking.