Brands rarely go from invisible to irresistible overnight. Long before sales increase, market share shifts or quarterly reports show meaningful movement, something starts changing in the way people talk about them, notice them and respond to them.

The reverse is also true. Brands rarely lose momentum overnight. The signals often appear well before commercial performance starts to decline.

This is the dynamic Brand Edge is designed to capture. We call it Energy.
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Energy is often the first sign that something is changing

Traditional brand measures tell us how a brand is performing today. What they don't always reveal is where that brand is heading next.

We've all seen brands that feel a bit like a band still playing the greatest hits. We've also seen challenger brands build excitement and relevance long before that growth appears in sales or market share data.

Energy helps make those early signals visible. Rather than waiting for changes to appear in sales or market share, it provides a way of understanding whether momentum is already building or beginning to fade.

When a brand is described as innovative, leading or being on the way up they are often describing aspects of Energy. They are responding to signals that suggest the brand is participating in the market, adapting to changing expectations and continuing to evolve.
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Energy is not the same thing as awareness

A brand can be highly aware but have relatively low Energy. Many legacy brands find themselves in this position. Customers know who they are, recognise their assets and understand what they offer, but the brand no longer feels like they are making particular progress forward.

We've seen the opposite happen too.

A newer challenger brand may have significantly lower awareness while generating strong Energy for their  size. It may be encountered less frequently, but those interactions feel more meaningful with the brand appearing more active.

Momentum often shifts before commercial performance does. People start noticing a brand differently before consideration moves. Consideration often moves before market share.  

That makes Energy valuable because it helps marketers identify change while there's still time to act on it.
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What creates Energy?

Energy isn't created by a single factor. It emerges from the collection of signals people receive about a brand over time.  

Innovation plays an important role. People often interpret innovation as evidence that a brand is evolving. This does not necessarily mean breakthrough products or category disruption. Improvements to experiences, services, propositions or customer journeys can all contribute to stronger perceptions of momentum.

Visibility matters too. Brands that act bigger than they are also signals popularity and Energy¹. They are present in culture, visible in the market and difficult to ignore. But attention alone is rarely enough. The brands that sustain Energy give people a reason to care. They pair visibility with a clear story, a distinctive point of view or a proposition that feels relevant and meaningful.  

Cultural relevance can also contribute significantly to Energy. Brands exist within broader social and cultural contexts. The brands that maintain momentum are often those that understand where they can participate naturally within those conversations, rather than forcing themselves into every trend or headline.

Whittaker’s is an example of a New Zealand brand with strong Energy. This isn’t the result of one thing. This is the result of multiple aspects over time. The brand consistently releases new types and flavours of chocolates, leant in heavily of topical cultural conversations around palm oil and pricing, and have utilised international celebrities like Nigella Lawson to give of a big brand effect.  

For marketers, Energy is often more useful as a clue than a score. If Energy is moving, something underneath it is moving too.

A decline in Energy doesn't automatically point to a media problem. The issue may be innovation or cultural relevance. Understanding which signal is weakening matters because each requires a very different response.
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Why Energy matters for growing brands

One of the reasons Energy matters is that it often shifts before traditional performance measures do. Through tracking, we frequently see movement in Energy before consideration, preference or market share begin to change.

That gives marketers an earlier signal of what's happening beneath the surface. Rather than waiting for performance to decline, they can identify whether momentum is already softening. Rather than waiting for growth to appear, they can see whether momentum is already building.
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Building Energy is not about spending more

One of the most common misconceptions is that building Energy can only be done through more activity. Building Energy is often less about increasing activity and more about creating clarity.

The brands with the strongest Energy tend to create consistent signals about who they are and why they matter, they understand their role within the category – and what buyers expect from them. They continue reinforcing those expectations while demonstrating that they are evolving alongside the people they serve.
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What this means for brands

Energy provides a way of measuring something marketers often sense intuitively. Some brands feel like they're moving forward. Others feel like they're standing still.

The value of Energy lies in understanding whether the signals driving momentum are strengthening or weakening, and whether competitors are creating stronger signals than you are.

Most importantly, it shifts brand tracking from a tool that explains what happened to one that helps anticipate what happens next.

Because while visibility creates opportunity, growth ultimately depends on something else: whether customers see the brand as relevant to their needs and lives.

Explore Brand Edge.

Looking for a way to measure it?

Learn how TRA's approach to brand tracking helps identify shifts in Energy, Fit and Purpose before they appear in traditional performance measures.

Learn more about Brand Tracking here.

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