Your Brand Metrics look great, so why are consumers leaving?
- Jun 25
- 4 min read
Brands are drowning in data and somehow starving for insight. Impressions are up, engagement is healthy, but the bottom line is suffering; what gives? The problem is the brand metrics you trust the most are telling you the least.
Tell us if this sounds like a situation you’ve been in before.
It’s the end of the campaign your brand has been working on for months. Now a week later your team, or agency, is gearing up to deliver a wrap report, showing all the reasons it worked and achieved your goals. After dozens of slides with metrics such as impressions, share of voice, and follower growth you still have the same exact questions you started with: Was this successful and will it bring our audience closer to the brand?
The problem is easy to identify, hard to solve: Your measurement today based on vanity, not value. These are the top 3 pitfalls we see when it comes to establishing and measuring project success:
The metrics being reported are too often being chosen because they look good on paper or are easy to measure, but don’t drive actual measurable business outcomes. Too easy = no growth. Too hard = demotivation and excuses.
Objectives chosen at the start of a project are vague and unmeasurable such as “Improve Brand Perception” that result in no complete story or have no actionable plan.
Too heavy of a focus on leading vs trailing indicators. Leading indicators showcase future potential performance, but fail to translate that through the purchase journey. For instance, Impressions is a leading indicator that shows potential eyeballs but it is only as useful as the remainder of the story that shows intent such as Clicks, Engagement, Sales, etc.
The metrics we are currently seeing in brand awareness initiatives such as UVM, EMV, and Impressions measure output, not connection. You are creating programs that get your brand seen, but not felt. In a world of overwhelming marketing noise, message overload, and unheard of distractions, you need to be measuring your Brand Relationships. Most organizations recognize they need to form lasting, value-based relationships with their most important audiences. Very few create programs or measurement frameworks to actually show that they aren’t just talking the talk.
First…why Brand Relationships?
To answer this we need to take a journey back to 1950s and introduce you to George Homans. In 1958, George Homans is credited as the founder of Social Exchange Theory where he argued that relationships between people are akin to economic or financial transactions. All social interaction involves an exchange of rewards and costs and people act in ways that maximize rewards and minimize costs. Behaviors that are rewarded are more likely to be repeated and if an interaction is “profitable” people will continue it. In short, Homans saw people as rational, self-interested actors constantly calculating where a relationship or interaction was “worth it.” Key aspects of Social Exchange Theory became:
Cost vs Reward – People weigh the benefits (emotional, resources, status) against the costs (time, effort, stress) of a relationship or interaction
Reciprocity – The best relationships thrive when exchanges feel balance and mutual. If one party gives more than they receive, the relationship deteriorates
Comparison Level – People evaluate relationships against their expectations based on past experiences
Comparison Level for Alternatives – People ALSO evaluate their current relationship to available alternatives. If an alternative seems better, they may exit the relationship.
Ok, enough neuroscience. In present day, we all talk about brands as being more human, then corporate, and how you need to emphasize that to relate to consumers and build trust. Watch what happens when I replace the above categories with Brand & Consumers.
Cost vs Reward – Consumers weigh the benefits against the costs or effort needed to interact with your brand. They look at every brand interaction as a transaction: What am I giving? What am I getting?
Reciprocity – Are we giving enough value to consumers for interacting with our brand or are we asking too much of them? When the exchange feels unbalanced – trust erodes and loyalty disappears
Comparison Level – Based on your category, how does this value exchange stack up based on consumers past experiences? Are we making it easier or harder compared for their expectations?
Comparison Level of Alternatives – How does our value exchange stack up to competitors
SET has been quietly explaining consumer behavior for decades, but brand measurement hasn’t caught up yet.
Humans haven’t changed all that much since 1958. We still look at the interactions around us and invest in the ones that provide value, pushing away the ones that don’t. So why are brands not measuring Brand Relationships? Well…there is no way to measure it and it seems hard! The honest answer is most don’t measure relationships directly, they measure proximity to a relationship and call it relationship health. Sure, we have certain foundational approaches like Net Promoter Score (NPS) , Brand Scorecards, Customer Lifetime Value but they all measure the output of a relationship, not the relationship itself. Is the exchange between your brand and consumer balanced? Does the consumer feel seen, valued, and reciprocated? How resilient is this relationship under pressure such as inflation?
How can I begin measuring Brand Relationships?
If you’ve made it this far, you’re probably ready to start asking the difficult questions. At EvolveMKD, we’re constantly developing our proprietary methodology that shows not only the current-day relationship you have with your customers but also the actions and touchpoints that you must implement to increase (or avoid) your relationship with your most trusted audience.
We’re not saying abandon all your current metrics. They are useful in measuring context, point-in-time results, and leading indicators of success. It’s about adding more thorough measurement that actually predicts long-term brand health. If this sounds like a challenge you’re willing to take on, reach on out.
