Brand benchmarking is a great way to decipher and understand data. Why? Because receiving a data dump doesn’t mean anything for a brand if they don’t know what it tells them or what it means for their brand.
Brand benchmarking not only allows you to see if you’re ahead of the competition, but it also allows you to compare your brand's progress with previous months; it is vital for your brand to know if what it is doing is actually worth it.
So, what exactly is brand benchmarking?
Brand benchmarking is a comparison of your media coverage to that of your competitors. It also includes comparing different time periods of your brand’s coverage by looking at previous months and how much your brand was mentioned in editorial media.
This data shows how a brand’s media coverage has changed over a particular time period, and offers insight into why the coverage changed.
Why is brand benchmarking vital for a brand?
Brand benchmarking analysis is considered a high-level report containing vital information for any brand. It doesn’t just tell a brand if they did better or worse than a previous month — it also tells them why this spike or drop happened.
The analysis report helps you to:
1. Compare your brand’s share of voice in the media
This is how much exposure a brand receives in editorial media. This data is compared to that of the brand’s competitors.
The reason why this is vital for a company to take into consideration is because the report will show if another brand is receiving more media coverage than they are.
For example, if your brand is KFC and you see that your competitor, Nando’s, is receiving a higher amount of coverage, you will know that you need to adjust your strategies to ensure your brand gets more share of voice.
2. Receive competitor insights
Brand benchmarking allows your brand to receive insight as to what is happening with your competitors’ media coverage. It shows if they have increased or decreased coverage, helping you to understand where they are going wrong or right.
Why would your brand want to know this? Well, this information can help you stay one step ahead of your competitors, as you’ll be able to learn from their mistakes, and their victories.
3. Be proactive with your strategies
When you see a pattern in the brand benchmarking report, you will be able to become proactive and focus on where changes need to be applied. This report will allow brands to become aware of occurring situations or missed opportunities that need their attention.
Once a brand is aware of certain issues they can look at adjusting their content strategies, making sure that the same issue won’t arise again. And, if it does, they will have the right steps in place to make sure that they can handle it with 100% confidence.
4. Look out for media opportunities
Knowing where, when and how many times your competitors’ brands are being mentioned will allow you to move into that space and try to occupy it, which will allow for a higher reach of media coverage for your brand.
If you are also aware which media titles mention your brand often will allow you to understand your target audience better and might also lead to identifying new opportunities for your brand’s media coverage.