Audit Your Brand for Growth and Evolution
Introduction: Can Your Brand Keep Up with Market Changes?
When was the last time you evaluated your brand’s performance? With 86% of UK consumers willing to switch brands after a single bad experience, businesses can’t afford to stand still. In today’s competitive market, staying relevant isn’t just about delivering great products—it’s about ensuring your brand identity reflects your values and ambitions.
For UK businesses in retail, and professional services, a brand that doesn’t align with evolving market trends and customer expectations risks losing relevance. A brand audit offers a comprehensive way to assess your brand’s health and unlock growth opportunities. Our recent work with Builders demonstrates how a strategic brand audit can transform your business and secure long-term success.
How a Brand Audit Boosts Growth and Market Positioning
A brand audit evaluates your identity, messaging, and performance to ensure that every aspect of your brand reflects your current goals and growth ambitions. It identifies gaps, highlights strengths, and reveals the steps needed to align your brand with customer expectations and market trends.
Explore how Builders conducted a 360-degree brand audit to unlock growth opportunities.
Problem: Builders realized that their price-driven identity was limiting their ability to attract new customers.
Solution: Through a brand audit, Builders repositioned their brand to emphasize value, expertise, and choice, becoming a trusted leader in DIY and Lifestyle.
A rigorous, qualitative brand audit looks to uncover current and new opportunities to inform a single-minded and consistent brand experience focussing on brand visibility, visual consistency, key messaging, and positioning alignment in order to inform insights and appending strategic recommendations.
Learn how our expert-led services can help you evaluate brand performance and uncover growth opportunities.
See how Builders built a future-focused brand through strategic rebranding.
Key takeaway: Builders’ rebranding efforts provided the strategic insights needed to strengthen its market presence and attract a broader group of consumer segments with different needs, aligning the brand with evolving consumer trends.
Brand Perception and Customer Engagement
Today’s UK consumers expect seamless, personalized experiences—whether they’re engaging with a brand online or in-store. A brand audit reveals how customers perceive your brand and helps ensure a consistent customer experience across touchpoints.
Discover how Builders shifted from a price-driven identity to one emphasizing value and expertise. One that understands that a customer has limited time and many choices.
Retail stores need to be experiences, they need to inspire and inform. We used video and infographic design, along with storytelling and clear messaging, to assist the customer in-store, even if a staff member was not available. There was a constant opportunity to move online, even when in-store, to enable the customer to understand stock extensions and availability, which may have been limited in-store.
Explore how Builders leveraged customer-centric strategy to improve engagement and retention.
3 Key Signs It’s Time to Audit Your Brand
If your business is experiencing any of the following challenges, it may be time for a brand audit.
Declining engagement or visibility
If fewer people are interacting with your social media, website, or store, it’s a sign your brand no longer resonates. Your brand strategy, brand purpose and brand delivery has not kept up with the changing consumer.
Outdated visual identity
A dated logo or website makes your brand look tired and old fashioned. A brand that has grown exponentially often has developed multiple permutations of the brand identity (logo), additions/changes to original colour palette, a proliferation of typefaces, and an image library that does not spark excitement or reflect the brand purpose. The communication has evolved to become inconsistent and not reflective of the brand strategy and personality.
Solution: Builders refreshed its visual identity, appealing to new audiences and becoming relevant in broader product categories.Expansion into new markets or services
As your business grows, your brand must be able to accommodate and reflect the changing consumer, and the cultural nuances of the time.
Partner with Hitchcock Michalski to Unlock Your Brand’s Potential
At Hitchcock Michalski, we specialize in brand audits and rebranding services that uncover growth opportunities and align your business with current category and consumer trends.
Learn more about our tailored brand strategy solutions for evolving businesses.
Don’t let your brand fall behind. Contact us today to unlock your brand’s full potential through a strategic audit.
Conclusion: Take the First Step Toward Growth
A brand audit is more than just an evaluation—it’s an opportunity to align your business with future goals and stay ahead of market trends. If your brand feels outdated or disconnected from your audience, now is the time to act.
Ready to unlock your brand’s potential? Contact us today to discover how Hitchcock Michalski can help you grow and evolve through a strategic brand audit
FAQs on Brand Audits and Rebranding
-
If your engagement is dropping because your brand no longer reflects the trends in the marketplace and the changing consumer.
-
To be clear, they can be seen as one and the same. A brand refresh or a rebrand will take your existing brand, understand the changing consumer and market landscape and acknowledge the brand equity that resides within your brand. We will look to modernise and refresh your brand, retaining important equity where appropriate, and apply across all consumer touchpoints, verbal or design, physical or digital. A comprehensive style guide will ensure the accuracy and consistency of future brand application.
-
Depending on the scope, a brand audit typically takes between 6 weeks and 3 months.
-
Most businesses benefit from conducting a brand audit every 3 to 5 years, especially if they are growing or entering new markets.
-
Yes, even small businesses can benefit by identifying areas to align their brand with customer needs and stay competitive.
-
A brand audit on a smaller scale will ensure that your new logo is strategically informed and acknowledges current consumer and category insights.
Author Information:
Fiona Hitchcock - Managing Director at Hitchcock Michalski
With 28 years of experience in the print industry, advertising, marketing, and brand strategy and design, Fiona Hitchcock leads Hitchcock Michalski with a deep understanding of diverse consumer landscapes. A thought leader in brand management, Fiona is dedicated to creating impactful work that resonates with audiences and stands the test of time. Her approach is rooted in integrity, excellence, and creativity, driving her passion for transforming brands and challenging the status quo. Connect with Fiona Hitchcock on LinkedIn