The trouble with averages: what your brand tracking is missing

What if your brand tracking is telling you everything is fine, while your customers are telling a completely different story?

It's an uncomfortable thought, particularly when awareness is up, consideration is holding steady and the latest report is giving everyone plenty to feel good about. But here's the catch. Your brand could be winning over one audience while quietly losing another, and the overall numbers might barely budge.

That's the trouble with averages. They can make a lot of movement look like nothing is happening at all. And when you're making decisions about where to invest, who to target and how to grow, that's an important part of the story to be missing.

At The Research Agency (TRA), we're seeing how bringing our Aussie Minds framework into brand tracking can change the conversation. Instead of asking how a brand is performing, marketers can start asking who's driving that performance, what's influencing it and where the next opportunity for growth might lie.

Why brand tracking averages don’t tell the whole story

Most marketers already segment their tracking data by factors such as age, gender, location or customer status. These are useful ways to understand audiences, but they only tell us so much about the people we're trying to reach.

After all, two people can share an age, income and postcode without sharing much else. They might even shop at the same supermarket, watch the same shows and drive the same car. But that doesn't mean they're making those choices for the same reasons.

They might be equally aware of a brand, for example, but have completely different reasons for considering it. One might be drawn to its established reputation and reliability, while the other is looking for something more distinctive or progressive.

On a spreadsheet, they might look like the same customer, but winning their business could require two very different approaches.  

This is where audience segmentation adds another dimension to brand tracking, helping marketers understand the motivations behind the metrics, rather than assuming the same score means the same thing to everyone.

How Aussie Minds segmentation adds depth to brand tracking

Incorporating Aussie Minds into brand tracking allows marketers to examine familiar measures such as awareness, consideration, preference and loyalty through the lens of these six MindSets.

Rather than relying on a single market-level score, marketers can see who their brand is winning over, who they're losing ground with and where the greatest opportunities for growth lie.

That means making more informed decisions about where to invest, which audiences to prioritise and how to reach them with messages that matter, rather than spending time and money trying to appeal to everyone.

For example, a brand's overall performance might appear steady, while underneath the averages, it's gaining ground with people who value innovation and progress and losing relevance among those who prioritise familiarity and consistency.

Without that deeper understanding, those shifts could go unnoticed, along with the opportunities to act on them.

How different MindSets influence brand perceptions

To see why this matters, consider two audiences who approach brands in very different ways: Keepers and Chasers.  

Keepers represent 26% of Australians and are the most brand-loyal MindSet. Around eight in ten prefer to stick with brands and products they know work for them, valuing familiarity, reliability and the reassurance that comes from making a choice they trust.  

Chasers, who represent 22% of Australians, tend to be more open to new experiences, products and brands. They're motivated by discovery and progress, with 54% enjoying finding brands or products that feel new or different.

For Keepers, sticking with what works makes perfect sense. For Chasers, sticking with what works might mean missing out on something better. Put them in front of the same shelf of products and one might reach straight for the familiar favourite, while the other is already scanning for something new. Same shopping trip, but two very different ways of making a decision.

Now consider what that means for a brand trying to appeal to both

An established brand with a long history in its category might have strong loyalty among Keepers, who appreciate its consistency and reputation, while finding it harder to attract Chasers looking for something fresh or exciting. The reverse could be true for a newer brand that has built momentum through innovation but has yet to establish the familiarity and trust that some audiences value.

The interesting thing is that both groups could give a brand the same consideration score, but for completely different reasons. What reassures one audience might leave another feeling uninspired, while what excites one might make another hesitate.

Examining these differences through brand tracking can help marketers understand where their brand has an advantage, which audiences offer potential for growth and what they may need to do differently to strengthen those relationships.

How brands are using MindSets to inform strategy and innovation

Of course, nobody needs another interesting chart to admire in a presentation. The real value of insight lies in what a business does with it, and whether it changes the decisions being made.

While Aussie Minds is TRA's Australian framework, our experience applying MindSets in New Zealand shows how this deeper understanding of audiences can inform business decisions.

Take financial services. One organisation uses MindSets to identify its target audience, then draws on TRA's wider research to understand what motivates those people, what they value and what they expect from brands.

That gives the team a much richer starting point for developing products and communications. Rather than relying on demographic profiles alone, they can make decisions informed by a deeper understanding of the people they're trying to reach.

In telecommunications, the opportunity looks a little different. Rather than just trying to understand today’s customers, one organisation is using MindSets to get a better sense of tomorrow's.

By identifying people at the leading edge of technology adoption and understanding their needs and expectations, the business can develop products and services with those early adopters in mind, instead of waiting for emerging needs to become mainstream.

One organisation is using MindSets to understand the customers it wants to reach. The other is using them to anticipate what customers might want next – it's the same principle applied to two very different business challenges.

The value doesn't stop at product strategy; it can also influence where and how brands show up. Aussie Minds research shows that Chasers are particularly active across social media, streaming and YouTube, while Keepers have a stronger relationship with established channels such as free-to-air TV.

When you know which MindSets are driving consideration or preference, you can connect those insights with how and where those audiences consume media. It's an opportunity to make communications more relevant, rather than simply reaching more people.

And when it comes to investment, MindSets can help marketers investigate the reasons behind changes in performance. If an audience has high consideration but low usage, what's preventing conversion? If preference is declining among an important customer group, have their expectations changed, or is a competitor offering something more compelling?

These are the questions worth asking, because the most useful insight isn't always the one that tells you something new. Sometimes it's the one that makes you reconsider what you thought you already knew.

What happens when you connect MindSets with brand equity?

Knowing which audiences are connecting with your brand is valuable. Understanding what makes those connections strong adds another layer to the picture.

TRA's Brand Edge framework examines brand equity through three dimensions: Energy, Fit and Purpose. Looking at these dimensions across Aussie Minds segments could reveal differences that an overall brand equity score might otherwise conceal.

A brand might demonstrate strong Fit among Keepers, who appreciate its reliability and established reputation, while showing greater Energy among Chasers, who see it as progressive and moving forward.

The same brand can be a safe pair of hands to one audience and an exciting prospect to another. Neither perception tells the whole story on its own, but together they give marketers a much clearer picture of what they're working with.

It's another way of getting closer to the why behind brand performance, building on the thinking explored in our Brand Edge series about what makes brands distinctive, relevant and compelling.

Better brand tracking isn’t always about more data  

Sometimes the most valuable thing you can do with your brand tracking isn't collect more data but look at what you already have differently.

Brand tracking can tell you whether awareness is growing, consideration is shifting or loyalty is strengthening. Adding Aussie Minds helps you understand which audiences are driving those changes, what matters to them and where your next opportunity might lie.

While the numbers might tell you your brand is doing just fine, the people behind them might have a rather different story to tell.

Want to understand what Aussie Minds could reveal about your brand? Explore the Aussie Minds research or learn more about TRA's approach to brand tracking.