D2C Brand Playbook - Part 8 - How to set up your Brand Health Track without spending 15 lacs/mth?

 

No budget for a traditional brand tracker?

👇 Here’s a D2C guide to measure brand health:

What do you measure in a brand health tracker done ny likes of Neilsen or Kantar?

-You track mind map funnel of target consumer:

From Awareness to Consideration to Preference to Recommendation.

-You track brand perception on a set of functional and emotional statements

-You track trigger/barriers on the category and the brand

Here is your answer without spending 10-15 lacs/month:

A. Your funnel:

🔍 1. Awareness → Share of Search (Google Trends)

-Tracks relative search interest vs competition.

- If people aren’t Googling you, they aren’t thinking of you.

🛒 2. Consideration → Branded Search Clicks + Marketplace Search Share

- Searches like “xyz brand + category” or “xyz review” signal mid-funnel intent.

- Marketplace search rank + click share gives you category-level visibility.

❤️ 3. Preference → Repeat Rate + Social Listening

-Low CAC but high repeat = chosen brand.

-Mine reviews on Google Business Pages, Reddit, YouTube comments to hear why they’re coming back (or not).

📣 4. Recommendation → NPS + Organic Referral Share

-Run your own NPS via post-purchase email or app like surveymonkey.

-Track what % of your sales come via referrals (“Friend told me”)

B. Your Perception:

💬 Image statements → Review Sentiment clusters for perception

-Scrape 100+ reviews from own website, Amazon, Quora, Google Pages

-Use AI to tag recurring themes: “trustworthy”, “value for money”, “premium vibe”.

C. Your Trigger/Barriers for category:

-Run a survey on leads that are in your funnel (pro considering brand sample)

-Run another on category research portals like say bikedekho (for 2W) for overall category considerers.

So, there you go. Your Brand Tracker without a pricey tag!

Not exact traditional Brand Tracking replacements, but will get you good enough sense on trends.

Have your own hacks to measure brand health? What would you add?

#BrandTrack #Brandstrategy

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I write regularly on #D2C #brand building/ scaling #growth insights.

#RunningMarketer

D2C Brand Playbook - Part 7 - Define your brand name keeping these 8 tips in mind.

 

Starting a new D2C brand, is brand name important? Yes and no!


Yes, it’s important enough.

To be abstract enough to connect to your story.
Mokobara = Moko (tattoo ~your identity) and bara (carry with you) = carry your personality!
Nike = Goddess of victory.

To be abstract enough to be stretchable later across categories.
Lavie, yes. Baggit not so much.

To be connoting your category and yet not commodity.
'Joota' or 'Bag', might not cut thru later in terms of uniqueness.

To be having a zing to it such that it’s relevant enough (unless u intend to be ancient).
Imagine 'MySpace' or 'MySocialNetwork' in today’s times or even then.

To be unique and not misconstrued with another brand.
'Fkart' or 'Slipkart' will be a dangerous territory.

To be associated with positivity (unless intended otherwise).
'Amazon' was chosen from the likes of 'relentless' and 'cadaver'.

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No, not that important to be over you building a product first.

Nike founder have been selling tiger shoes (China) to iterate business model before Nike.

You can always fair it later.
Airbnb worked on identity later to create a meaning of thier name and identity. Standing for belonging.

Not happy with name? You can even change in initial years. But don’t break your head.
Shaadi.com started as Sagai first.

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So, take your time to coin a good enough name, but don’t fret much.

Any other tips on naming? Share
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I share actionable insight around hashtag#brand, hashtag#marketing & hashtag#growth for hashtag#D2C space. hashtag#runningmarketer