Global Brand Benchmarking: Elevating Competitive Positioning Across Markets

Background and Research Objectives:

Our client, one of the top 10 global audit and accounting firms, wanted to assess its brand across multiple international markets. They specifically wanted to understand its strength relative to its key competitors, in relation to the standards set by the Big 4 global audit and assurance firms, and, overall, across all significant competitors (excluding the Big 4) in each market. The brand assessment included brand strength at various stages of the funnel and brand associations across performance-related desired brand imagery attributes and desired brand personality traits.  

The study covered 16 country markets in two waves – the first focusing on 10 priority markets and the second on 6 markets. The countries included three European markets, two in Latin America, and four Asian markets in the first wave. The second wave covered five Southeast Asian markets and one emerging market in West Africa. The study focused on both users and non-users of the client’s services across three service lines – Audit and Assurance, Tax, and Advisory. While many markets had subsidiary brand names, the study focused on the global parent brand.

Approach:

We used its in-house brand evaluation framework to develop the study's overarching methodological approach. The brand funnel was central to this framework and was looked at in terms of Brand Salience (Awareness plus Familiarity), Favourability, Consideration, and Usage. Phronesis-Partners worked closely with the client to develop a list of thirteen performance-related brand imagery attributes. The client also had a list of desired brand personality traits from its internal brand strategy framework.

A quantitative survey questionnaire was designed, and online surveys were considered the most efficient way of collecting data. We also suggested focusing on the client's specific target market, defined as the mid-market in each country, which was operationalized using a rigorous methodology. The target group for the surveys was defined as decision-makers and influencers in the selection of Audit & Assurance, Tax, and Advisory services in each country's target market. According to a detailed sampling plan, we collected data from 1800 respondents in the first wave of the survey and 1100 in the second wave. Wherever required, surveys were translated and administered online in the market's primary language (e.g., Mandarin in China, Spanish in Mexico), with English also available as an option for respondents.

Data Analysis and Presentations:

Data from both waves of the survey were analyzed in line with the survey's objectives. The client brand’s performance in the brand funnel was evaluated competitively. Brand funnel metrics, along with conversion figures compared with key competitors and the competitor averages, provided insights on pathways to strengthen the brand. For example, in a market where the conversion from favourability to consideration of the brand fell below average, we suggested looking closely at salesforce performance, the volume of sales contacts, and improving the salesforce’s ability to stay updated on potential client requirements as they arise, as well as optimizing sales pitches. A key driver analysis on the brand imagery attributes as drivers of Favourability pointed toward the top imagery attributes on which the client needed to work on to improve Favourability toward the brand in markets, where the performance on this funnel metric was low.

We also looked at the NPS scores competitively using benchmarks from our own prior work in the professional services sector as guidelines. Given that, in the context of professional services, even non-users of service providers often make recommendations, the NPS was calculated for both users and non-users combined to provide a better assessment of the brand’s ability to generate positive word-of-mouth and recommendations. In addition, we examined exposure to recalled marketing communications from the client brand and its competitors. Looking at this competitively by marketing channel gave the client’s marketing team useful pointers.

The following were the highlights of the study:

• Rigorous Benchmarking of all results:  All results of the survey were rigorously benchmarked around the following benchmarks:
• Close competitors, in each individual market, the close competitors being globally defined over all markets
• All competitors in the specific market, excluding the Big 4
• Ideal target performance – defined by the Big 4
• Global close competitor benchmark across all markets
• Global benchmark across all competitors (excluding the Big 4) across all markets
  

This rigorous benchmarking enabled the client to gain a comprehensive competitive view of its performance and to identify strengths and weaknesses across various levels of comparison. It could then prioritize different performance metrics for managerial or marketing action.

• Rigorously defined limitation of the admissible market:  It was decided after discussions with the client that the main target market of the client brand was mid-sized firms. In the US, this would be between USD 20 million and USD 1 billion. This limit was converted using PPP for each individual market. The lower quartile of firms in this range was excluded for each market to establish a lower bound for the admissible target market, and PPP-adjusted USD 1 B was retained as the upper bound. This limitation of the target market of qualifying firms ensured that the survey universe remained relevant to the client’s brand target market.
  

• Distinctiveness as a personality trait: Given the nature of the professional services being researched, there is a very high level of standardization of service delivery in terms of hard quality parameters across all firms, due to the high degree of statutory regulation of such services. Any opportunity for the brand to stand out thus becomes a feature of the brand personality itself to be considered alongside other brand personality attributes. Such distinctiveness is less about the quality of core services rendered and more about the qualities of the brand itself –  a brand can distinguish itself by being extra collaborative, approachable, empathetic etc. and can also carry, as a result the halo of being a distinctive brand.
  

The study results was pivotal to the marketing team in understanding the status of current marketing efforts and as pointers for improvement in marketing strategy. The client has decided to expand the scope of the study for a third global wave covering a larger number of markets.