What metrics matter in brand health tracking

Once an organisation commits to tracking brand health, the next question is often what to measure.

Brand health tracking can help teams measure and understand how a brand is showing up in people’s lives and how that presence is shifting – including whether it’s meaningful, distinctive, and chosen when it matters.

In markets such as the US and Australia, where categories are mature and highly competitive, these metrics carry particular weight. Long-term growth comes from strengthening mental availability and emotional connection, rather than relying on short-term advertising bursts or price-led activity.

The same principles apply in smaller markets like New Zealand, where high brand familiarity means sustained brand signals are often even more important than short-term activity.

In this article, we outline common metrics used in brand health tracking alongside those measures that are unique when you work with The Research Agency (TRA). We explain the value in measuring what matters, balancing consistency of reporting with new diagnostic frameworks such as Brand Edge and Creative Edge to uncover distinct brand advantage.  

‍What do brand health metrics really tell you?

In simple terms, brand health metrics measure how well a brand is known, understood, chosen, and experienced as conditions change.

At a high level, they track three interconnected dimensions:

Mental availability – is the brand coming to mind easily in the moments that drive choice?
Meaning – what does the brand represent to people, emotionally and functionally?
Behaviour – does that meaning translate into choice, use, and repeat behaviour?

Understood together, these metrics show whether a brand is compounding strength or giving it away.

Common metrics used in brand health tracking

Brand awareness

Brand awareness captures whether people know a brand exists and can recall or recognise it. It’s usually measured through unprompted awareness (spontaneous brand recall in relation to a category) and prompted awareness (brands recognised from a list). At TRA, we also measure mental availability at Category Entry Points (CEPs) to understand if brands are coming to mind at moments that matter, not just when the category is mentioned. An example of a CEP could be craving something refreshing such as an ice block, a cold beer or a bottle of water (different categories with overlapping entry points).  

Why it matters
Awareness is the top of funnel entry point to all brand growth. If a brand isn’t mentally available, it won’t enter the decision set.

How to interpret it
Unprompted awareness is especially important because it reflects how easily a brand comes to mind in real situations. A large gap between prompted and unprompted awareness can indicate exposure without strong memory structures in place. ‍

Brand consideration

Brand consideration measures whether people research and engage with a brand when they’re actively weighing options in a category.

Why it matters
As a middle-funnel metric, consideration is a useful indicator of whether awareness is translating into relevance. And, looking downstream, consideration is a necessary prerequisite to purchase or usage. The challenge for many brands is that people are overwhelmed by too many options, and they have a cognitive bias toward familiarity. This means that for many categories, very few brands make it through to the ‘consideration’ phase. Understanding your brand’s consideration metrics can be the difference between purchase or not.

How to interpret it
Consideration, like many of these metrics, is complex and rarely indicative of one clear action. At a basic level though, we might say that if awareness grows but consideration does not, it may suggest the brand is visible without being clearly positioned or meaningfully connected to category needs.  

Brand preference

Brand preference reflects whether people would choose one brand over another if all options were available.

Why it matters
Preference signals competitive strength, perceived value, and it can also be an important indicator of loyalty if gained through consistency and familiarity.

How to interpret it
High consideration paired with low preference may point to weak differentiation. Preference tends to move more slowly and usually reflects consistency in brand signals built through repeated exposure (this is known as the mere exposure effect).  

Brand perception and positioning

Brand perception captures how your brand makes people feel. It helps us understand what they think your brand, your products and your services represent. Brand positioning is a combination of many metrics, including perception. Positioning considers the role a brand plays in people’s lives and what makes it distinctive. These are typically measured through survey-based research and may be supported by social signals and generative AI monitoring.

Why it matters
Perceptions provide early insight into trust, affinity, and emotional connection. Strong brand positioning gives you greater pricing power and ensures your brand occupies a distinct place in your audience minds.  

How to interpret it
Shifts in perception often appear before changes in behaviour. A decline can flag emerging issues even when usage remains steady.

Brand usage and penetration

Brand usage looks at whether people have used the brand, while penetration measures how many category buyers the brand reaches overall.

Why it matters
These metrics connect perception to behaviour and help distinguish between brands that are well liked and brands that are really growing.

How to interpret it
High awareness with low usage may point to barriers such as price, availability, or experience. Penetration trends are particularly useful for understanding long-term growth potential.

Customer loyalty and advocacy

Loyalty and advocacy metrics assess repeat behaviour, intention to repurchase, and likelihood to recommend.  

Why it matters
Loyalty, retention, advocacy, and commitment aren't just rational metrics. They're human experiences that happen in people’s minds, often without them even realising it. It matters because real loyalty results in actions that favour your brand, providing stability through reliable revenue streams and reduced reliance on new customer acquisition.

How to interpret it
Building and retaining loyalty has a lot to do with understanding and effectively applying behavioural principles. Strong loyalty among a small base can signal a good experience but limited reach. Broad usage with weak loyalty may suggest relationships that are functional rather than brand-led.  

Brand differentiation and equity

Brand differentiation measures how distinct a brand is compared to competitors, while brand equity reflects the value people associate with the brand beyond functional performance.

Why it matters
Differentiation supports memorability, pricing power, and long-term resilience.

How to interpret it
Brands that rely mainly on functional equity are often more exposed to competitive pressure – emotional and symbolic equity tends to provide greater protection.

Measuring your brand’s persuasive power

While marketing funnel metrics provide visibility of where to engage people with your brand, you also need visibility of the persuasive power your brand has at an emotional level.

Brand Edge is TRA’s emotional brand equity model. It measures the persuasive power a brand has relative to competitors. Focusing on three key pillars – Fit, Energy and Purpose – the framework guides focus to high-impact areas that drive competitive advantage. For example, if your Energy score is lower than competitors, this is an opportunity to focus on creating a buzz around new innovations, product offerings, or store openings that signal momentum behind your brand.  

Measuring creative and campaign effectiveness  

These metrics relate to campaigns and communications activity. While not strictly brand tracking metrics, they are important indicators of brand performance and arguably the area that marketers have the most control over.

Our Creative Edge framework has been developed to assess the strength of a creative execution, taking into consideration how the human brain processes and classifies communication through the three R’s of creative effectiveness – Remarkable (uniqueness and virality), Rewarding (entertainment value), Remembered (brand fit and ease of recall). Creative Edge focuses on how creative expression and brand assets contribute to distinctiveness, memorability, and emotional impact.

Brand health as a connected system

Together, Brand Edge and Creative Edge help teams read brand health metrics as part of a connected system, rather than reacting to individual data points or trends in isolation. Here’s how they’re applied in brand health tracking:

Mental availability
Brand Edge is used to interpret changes in awareness and consideration by examining how easily a brand comes to mind in real buying situations. When unaided awareness or consideration shifts, this lens helps teams understand whether the brand is becoming more or less mentally available, and whether it’s being reinforced consistently enough to be recalled when it matters.

Distinctiveness
Creative Edge helps diagnose whether brand preference and differentiation are being supported by recognisable, distinctive brand assets and creative execution.
When preference stalls or differentiation weakens, this lens focuses attention on whether the brand’s cues, messaging, and creative are cutting through or blending into the category.

Emotional connection
Brand Edge and Creative Edge are used together to interpret perception and loyalty by examining the emotional signals the brand sends and how they’re experienced. This includes understanding whether the brand still feels relevant, trusted, and emotionally resonant, or whether those connections are starting to erode.

Competitive context
Brand Edge places brand health metrics within the broader category and competitive environment. Shifts in usage or penetration may reflect competitor activity, category disruption, or changing expectations rather than brand failure alone. This lens helps teams separate internal brand issues from external market effects.

Common challenges in brand health measurement

Even well-designed tracking programmes can lose impact when:

– Too many metrics are tracked without a clear purpose
– Short-term fluctuations are over-interpreted
– Sentiment is viewed without behavioural context
– Category and competitive effects are overlooked
– Consistency of metrics isn’t maintained

Addressing these challenges helps ensure brand health data remains useful, not just informative.

Building long-term brand value

Brand health metrics create a shared language for understanding brand performance and momentum. When interpreted through a structured lens like Brand Edge and Creative Edge, they help teams make clearer decisions, invest with confidence, and build brands that last.

If you’re tracking brand health but struggling to translate the data into clear decisions, we help teams make sense of what the signals are really saying. Get in touch to talk it through.

FAQ

What is brand tracking?

Brand tracking is the ongoing measurement of brand awareness, perception, and behaviour to understand brand performance.

How often should brand health be measured?

Most organisations track brand health quarterly or continuously, depending on category dynamics and decision needs.

What’s the difference between brand tracking and campaign measurement?

Brand tracking focuses on long-term brand strength, while campaign measurement looks at short-term activity and response.

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