What is a Brand Audit?
So you got a logo and you scrambled your way through WIX tutorials to make a ‘pretty good website’ yourself…
Well done, it’s probably a good start, but how do you know if you’re standing out from your competitors? Is your logo giving people the right first impression?
As a team, when we chatted about this article, we recognised a trend. As soon as we tell people that we own a south coast branding agency, the conversation almost always steers towards a variation on the question: So you design logos and websites?
The answer is “Yes, but…”. A branding agency isn’t just there to set people up with a logo. In fact, a larger part of the work we do with new, small and medium-sized clients is brand auditing and maintenance, followed by visual identity and brand communications updates, typically delivered over a period of a few months.
What worked for your brand last year isn’t guaranteed to work for your brand now. That’s why a brand audit is a pretty smart way to get some perspective. Let’s be honest, you (like most business owners, ever) are usually too involved in the day-to-day operations to understand the customer’s perspective.
What is a Brand Audit?
The purpose of a brand audit is to show you how your brand identity is seen in your market. It has 3 major components (plus 1 extra that we add in):
Current brand position: How well does your brand communicate your product and message?
Competitive position: Who is in your market, and how do you relate to or rise above them?
Optimised position: Recommended updates to your visual identity and communications, according to your business goals for growth.
Impact: As a Certified B Corp and Social Traders business, we offer some quick wins and longer-term strategies to help you reduce your impact along the way.
How much is a brand audit?
To conduct a brand audit, we work through a tried-and-tested sequence of meetings, research, internal ideation sessions, and secret surf meetings with our Dolphin brains trust (that we can’t talk about here… Ever) all wrapped up in a tidy report with recommendations for you, us or anyone else to work through. It takes time, and our time is billed per hour. You’d expect a minimum of AUD$750 for a basic version.
So how do you do a brand audit?
At Green Island Creative, we believe that you shouldn’t audit your own brand. It’s like pointing out flaws in your own children. It’s hard to do objectively for your own business because emotions and ego also exist (as they should!)
If you think your brand needs an audit, get in touch with us. We’re more than happy to organise a free estimate, show you an example of a previous audit from an existing client (with their details removed of course) or just tell you more about it.
For a more comprehensive package, check out our 7 Step Branding Bootcamp