16 Questions to Ask Before You Launch Your Brand Initiative

Looking to reinvigorate your brand? The questions you ask may be more important than the answers you seek. 

These questions should help you determine the state of your organization and its brand today. Having a clear understanding of where you are, can help you map your brand journey.

Here are 16 questions to ask your organization's leaders, employees, customers, other key audiences -- and yourself. The responses may help you uncover important truths about where your brand is today and how you need to advance it going forward. 

16 Questions to Ask Before You Launch Your Brand Initiative

1. How would you define your organization? Not your mission, but rather a definition of your company's role in the marketplace today.
2. Now, define your market: Where is your market today? Where is it headed?
3. Next, identify your customers. Who are your customers today? Who will they be tomorrow? Rank them by importance, influence, and market share.
4. Who are your greatest competitors right now? Who are tomorrow's competitors?
5. How are these competitors addressing the current market situation? New programs? Flexible offerings? Brand positioning? Ad messages?
6. What do your customers think about your competitors?
7. What has made your organization successful to date?
8. What are your organization's greatest external threats?
9. What are your organization's greatest internal threats?
10. What do you want to achieve? Come on now, be specific.
11. How do you believe your company is perceived by your most coveted customers?
12. How must your organization be perceived in order to achieve success?
13. What attributes of your organization do you seek to have more widely known and understood?
14. If your customers recalled one idea about your organization today, what would you like it to be?
15. In five years what will make you unique in the marketplace? What would you like to be best known for at that time?
16. If your organization could take one step today to help you arrive at that destination in five years, what would that step be?

Do you need to answer all 16 questions? No. And as you work your way through this list, new questions will suggest themselves. The more you answer and the more specific your responses, the more clarity you bring to your brand journey.