Brand vs Growth KPIs

Hi there 👋,

Brand and growth are not the same thing.

This may seem surprising.

Brand awareness is another form of growth to many people. But that simple and understandable mistake is holding you back.

It is setting up your brand campaigns to fail. It is causing you to misdirect your budget.

So let’s talk about why this is holding you back, and what you can do about it.

Why can’t we just group brand and growth together?

It’s just semantics, right? They’re essentially the same thing, but mean Daphne is just trying to be difficult, right?

I truly wish this was the case!

But if I have learned anything in my eight years in this industry, it’s that this easy mistake will cost you in the long run. Sometimes even in the short run.

This is what happens when we approach brand the same way as growth:

❌ We underestimate the value of brand

❌ We end up putting brand budget into conversion campaigns because as those appear to bring more

❌ We incorrectly measure the effectiveness of brand

Brand awareness is vital for the future of your company.

Just think of Airbnb. We now use this company name as a noun. It’s not “Let’s book on Airbnb”, but rather, “Let’s get an Airbnb”.

They made up this term, a name for their company, and now it’s cemented in our language. Not only that, but all languages!

“zullen we een airbnb boeken?”

“Prenotiamo un airbnb?”

So brand is important, just like growth; we just need to create the space for both of them.

How can we balance brand and growth?

First, it’s about recognising what brand drives and what growth drives.

Brand is focused on driving:

• Awareness KPIs

• Engagement KPIs

Growth is focused on driving:

• Conversion KPIs

• Retention KPIs

• Referral KPIs

Already, you can see how different the two are. Brand focuses on the early stages while growth picks up a few stops in to the road trip.

What does this NOT mean?

That brand doesn’t care about growth’s KPIs or vice versa.

Instead, this suggests that growth gives brand the room to focus on long-term brand building and awareness.

Both relate all activities back to the company’s North Star Metric.

They want the same thing, but they’ll get there in different ways. So we need to allow this and not measure them by the same ruler.

How to avoid getting caught up on vanity metrics

When it comes to brand, it’s easy to veer off-track and focus on vanity metrics, such as likes on social media. While this is a part of brand awareness, it’s not consistent or indicative of brand success.

Instead, you need a long-term metric of brand. This will allow you to keep focusing on building up the brand, and proving the budget is helping.

The first measure of this is brand search divided by product category search - thank you, Dominik Singer, for recommending this KPI. This allows you to compare your ratio to that of your competitors.

For long-term brand loyalty, a great measure of this is the Customer Loyalty Index.

The Customer Loyalty Index (CLI) measures the strength of your connection with a brand.

This is done by asking three questions:

1. How likely are you to recommend us to your friends or contacts?

2. How likely are you to buy from us again in the future?

3. How likely are you to try out our other products/services?

You then score each of the three questions per individual response and calculate the average based on the figures below:

E.g. an average of 25 indicates there isn’t a strong connection or attachment.

I’ve written a whole article that covers in more depth how to balance the two.

Recommendation

In every newsletter, I will also share a related resource to check out related to the topic of the week.

It’s an exciting week, because I have two book recommendations around brand building!

Firstly, check out What Great Brands Do by Denise Lee Yohn which share the seven principles of what makes an incredible brand.

She draws upon twenty-five years of consulting work with such top brands as Frito-Lay, Sony, Nautica, and Burger King.

Secondly, take a look at Building a Story Brand by Donald Miller. With all the noise out there, how can you make sure that your voice is heard?

This book teaches us how to use the seven universal elements of powerful stories to connect with customers and grow our businesses.

Now I need a recommendation from you!

Who are the best people to follow on LinkedIn that talk about D2C branding, both creating awareness and building loyalty?

I’m eager to continue on this brand appreciation journey so give me any tips you have!

I will gladly hold my hands up and admit that I used to be quick to underestimate what I couldn't measure.

I believed in purely data-driven growth, and this won’t get you as far with brand.

But along the way, brand has proved its worth to me time and time again.

Brand may be harder to measure and operate on a different timeline, but that doesn’t minimise its impact.

I’m also quick to admit to brands that I’m not the right person to help with brand awareness, but that isn’t because it lacks value.

Rather, it’s so valuable that it deserves an expert who can give brand awareness and building brand loyalty the full attention it deserves.

So find that person and keep brand / growth KPIs separate,

Daphne