This annual review can take a number of forms. There’s the full-blown brand audit that, in many cases, is complete overkill. Unless there are obvious signs that your brand is under-performing, we recommend a quick check-up before committing to a more comprehensive brand audit.

A great way for top management to get a quick read on how well the brand is performing is a simple exercise we call The Annual Brand Check Up. It’s easy to do, doesn’t require much of a time commitment on the part of your staff, and it’s relatively inexpensive.

Here’s how it works:

Approximately ten people are chosen at random for an informal conversation. Some are from your company, others are customers, end users and, if you can identify them, non-users of your brand but users in the category. Internally, we recommend including one person from sales and one person from marketing – but not the directors.