Brand audit
We clear the fog out of your brand.
Afterwards you know exactly where your brand falls short, why your customers hear something different from what you say, and what needs to happen first. Not a woolly report. A list you can start on Monday.
What you get
One report nobody disagrees with, and a short list of what needs to happen first.
What is a brand audit?
A brand audit is research into how strong and how consistent a brand comes across to the people who matter. WIT.agency examines five things for this: sharpness, difference, coherence, recognition and proof. We interview customers and staff, put your brand next to your competitors', and walk through every touchpoint, from your website to your sales conversation. You get one report showing what's off, why that is, and what needs to happen first.
It differs from a brand strategy: an audit establishes where you stand, a strategy determines where you're headed. And it differs from a marketing audit: a brand audit is about meaning, a marketing audit about the machine.
Marketing agency based in Belgium · Works locally, nationally and internationally · For businesses and for agencies
This is why they call us.
“Ask three colleagues separately what we do, and you get three different answers.”
You rarely hear this in one conversation. You hear it in four, each slightly different. That's usually the first sign.
What we look at
Five questions. Five honest answers.
A brand isn't one thing. That's why we cut it into five parts you can judge and fix separately. They rarely weigh the same, and where the weight falls, you only find out after the first conversations.
Sharpness
Does anyone know what you stand for after ten seconds?
We put your promise to the test with customers, with your own people, and on your own channels. Three matching answers is the standard. We rarely hit it.
Difference
Could your competitor say your sentence too?
We put your claims literally next to five competitors'. Anything they also write doesn't count. What's left is your brand.
Coherence
Does every touchpoint say the same thing?
Website, quote, LinkedIn, sales conversation, front desk, job posting. We walk through all of them and note where the story shifts.
Recognition
Does anything stick once you're gone?
Name, shape, colour, tone. We check what people would still recognise without your logo, and especially what they wouldn't.
Proof
Do you deliver on what you promise?
The biggest gap is almost always here. We put the promise next to what customers actually experience, and the two are rarely the same.
What it comes down to
From something true to something that sticks.
What's there now
We are an innovative partner in sustainable solutions, with people at the centre.
Four of your five competitors write almost the exact same thing. Nobody reading it remembers a word.
What's there afterwards
We pull the CO2 out of concrete, without the contractor changing a single thing.
One claim nobody else can borrow, backed by proof. That's what the Sharpness and Difference questions deliver.
Illustrative example, not from an actual client.
The deliverable
Here's what it looks like when it's done.
One document, no pile of attachments. We go through it together, and after that it's yours.
- 01The verdict per question, and what it means
- 02Your claims next to five competitors'
- 03What customers and staff literally said
- 04The review of every touchpoint
- 05What needs to happen first, and what can wait
How it usually goes
A fixed way of working. No fixed package.
This is the usual sequence. Where we go deep and where we keep it short gets decided during intake.
Intake
We ask the questions. What sells, what chafes, who you're not reaching yet, and what you already suspect yourself.
at the table
Fieldwork
Conversations with customers, with your own people, and with someone who once didn't buy from you. We stop once nothing new comes up.
share contacts
Analysis
We answer the five questions, put your claims next to five competitors', and walk through every touchpoint.
nothing
Walkthrough
We go through the report together, until you agree or know exactly why not. We end with what needs to happen first.
at the table
Where it varies
If you had customer research done last year, we don't redo it. If your doubt sits entirely with your competitors, the fieldwork goes there and the rest stays shorter.
Where it never varies
We always talk to people outside your company, because a brand lives in their heads and not in yours. We won't write an audit meant to prop up a decision that's already been made.
What it costs
No rate card. One number.
A brand audit for a business with one website is a different job than one for a group with fifteen locations in three languages. That's why there's no fixed price tag.
What there is: once the approach is set, the number is fixed. No hourly billing, no extra costs halfway through.
What determines the scope
How many touchpoints you have.
One site and a LinkedIn, or also stores, trade shows and a sales team.
How many people we talk to.
For a niche player, a handful of conversations is enough. For a broad audience, not so much.
How many competitors go alongside.
Usually five. Sometimes only two matter, sometimes twenty.
One market or several.
Each extra language or country needs its own audit, not a translation of the first.
Honestly
Sometimes you need something else.
You just started and don't have enough customers to interview yet.
Look at Brand strategyYou already know what's wrong and want someone to write it down.
Look at Brand identity and directionThe brand is right, but people drop off between first contact and quote.
Look at Customer journey mappingYou're looking for a report to justify a decision that's already made.
Then we're not the right fitClient quote coming.
Frequently asked questions
What people ask before they start.
What does a brand audit cost?
There's no fixed rate, because scope varies by brand. Price depends on the number of touchpoints, the number of people we talk to, the number of competitors and the number of markets. In a first thirty-minute call we work out what's needed. Once the approach is set, the number is fixed.
Is a brand audit a fixed package?
No. The five questions are fixed, since those are what make it a brand audit. How deep we go on each one isn't. That gets agreed at intake, and adjusted along the way if it turns out to sit elsewhere.
How long does a brand audit take?
A brand audit runs from intake to the report conversation, and that timeline mostly depends on how fast we reach your customers. Smaller projects wrap in a few weeks. With multiple markets it takes longer.
Can we skip or add parts?
Yes. If you had customer research done last year, we build on it instead of redoing it. We look at what already exists at the start, see what gaps that leaves, and only fill those.
How much time does this take from me?
Little, and that's the point. On a brand audit you're at the table at the start and at delivery. In between we only ask for contacts and access to your material.
Who do you talk to?
Customers, your own people, and at least one person who considered buying from you and didn't. You're not present in those conversations, otherwise we get polite answers.
What's the difference with a brand strategy?
A brand audit establishes where you stand today and what's wrong. A brand strategy determines where you want to go and which words belong to that. The audit comes first, unless you're too young to interview customers yet.
Does this work for a small B2B company?
Yes, often even better. With a limited customer base, the same things come up after a handful of conversations, making the audit faster and sharper than for a brand with a broad audience.
Know where you stand first. Then move.
The call where we work out whether a brand audit makes sense for you takes thirty minutes and costs nothing.
Book a 30-minute callWhat you concretely get