Here Is Why Your Business Needs a Perception Audit
Is your business experiencing a downslide lately? Are you losing your customers to your rivals? Is there a sudden dip in your sales and revenue? If so, then you need to perform a perception audit right away, as often the image that you project to your stakeholders may not be the same one being perceived by them.
Our world is changing every day, and your audience is changing with it. The bitter reality of today’s world is that the competition among the various brands is cutthroat, and the only way you can survive and stand out in this competitive business world is through ‘differentiation’. However, what is it that one thing that differentiates your business from others in the market? Your brand image or perception!
For this purpose, businesses should often perform perception audits and have a look at their image or perception from every angle.
Why Is A Perception Audit Important?
Perception audits help you to ascertain how your business is performing in the eyes of your customers and potential customers. It enables you to recognize its strengths and weaknesses, create opportunities for improvement, and find new ways for it to stay relevant and updated. It also helps to determine how you can sharpen your image so that you stand out in the crowd.
It offers you and your business the following benefits:
It helps you to determine your brand positioning and to plan corrective strategies if required.
It empowers you to discover the strengths and weaknesses of your business.
Guides you to align your products or services more accurately with the expectations of your customers.
It enables you to get up to speed with the perceptions (positive or negative) about your brand.
Hence, regular perception audits are the key for businesses to know if their brand is on track or if they need to redefine or improve perceptions.
How to Conduct a Perception Audit of Your Business
Before a communication strategy is formulated for a brand, it is essential to understand the mind-set of the audience - find out what they think about your organization and its products & services, discover their attitudes, misconceptions, hostilities, prejudices, apathy or ignorance towards your organization. Perception audits help understand current perceptions about your company - positive, negative or indifferent.
Here is how you can conduct a perception audit of your business:
1. Create a brand summary and framework
The first step of performing a perception audit is to create a brand summary and the framework that consists of both the intrinsic factors (such as values, objectives, the tone of voice, logo, tagline, and others) and the extrinsic factors (such as marketing collaterals, sales figures, marketing plans, and others).
2. Determine the survey methods
It is very important to determine and select the survey methods to be used while conducting the perception audit. Various methods such as email surveys, telephonic surveys, one-to-one meetings, and social media surveys with the existing and prospective customers along with the crucial members of the industry related to the brand, can be used to perform the same.
3. Competition check
Having a closer look at the competition by figuring out what they are offering, their target audience, their customers, marketing and sales strategies, brand values, fundamentals, and objectives is also a crucial step of the perception audit.
4. Analyse the results
Once the audit is completed with the measurable results in hand, it is important to analyse the results without being biased. It is important to work on the facets of the brand image that are inconsistent and needs improvement.
The Bottom Line
Having a perception audit performed by someone who is not a part of the organization is always a better option, as it is much easier for an outsider to notice the competition and see both sides with an unbiased opinion, leading to better decision-making.
At Turiya Communications LLP, we understand the need for and the process of experienced perception auditing. Our in-house PR team conducts perception audits for various companies, which are then analysed. The results help develop strategies to dispel misleading and untrue perceptions, if any, and help build a positive image of your company.
Contact Turiya Communications LLP today to know more about our perception audit services!