Brand Health Tracking
Overview
Brand Health Tracking provides a structured way to measure brand equity; the overall value of a brand in the eyes of consumers.
Think of it as keeping a pulse on your brand so you can act early and decisively rather than reacting too late.
At its core, brand tracking asks:
- Do consumers know our brand?
- What do they think and feel about it?
- How does the brand compare to competitors?
- Is Awareness likely to convert into Purchase and Loyalty?
To answer these, a typical tracking survey will utilize a core set of metrics to understand the ‘health’ of all brands in the category as it has been defined:
- Awareness – Do people know the brand exists? Are they aware of the brand itself?
- Attributes / Perceptions – What qualities do people associate with the brand (good value, tastes great, sustainable)? These feed into preference and loyalty.
- Consideration – Is the brand on their shortlist or in their consideration set? Are they planning to purchase the brand soon? This is often the clearest indicator of sales potential.
- Loyalty & Advocacy – Do consumers keep coming back to the brand and recommending the brand to others? A strong brand generates repeat business and word of mouth.
These metrics go beyond measuring brand health, to equip commercial teams to refine their strategy by identifying where brands are more or less effective and where the biggest conversion opportunities lie.
Media and activation strategies are often shaped by these insights, targeting the brand perceptions of most value to brand performance and growth within the category. When viewing brand tracking data alongside business outcomes such as sales lift or brand penetration, brands can translate brand health into clear, actionable growth levers.
Zappi’s brand tracking options
Zappi has two types of Brand Health solutions.
The Brand Health Tracker, collects data continuously over time, offering a longitudinal understanding of the trajectory of a market and its core brands.
The Brand Health Snapshot offers a point-in-time understanding, using the same survey but deploying it only once.
To understand which solution would be a better fit for your research needs, check out our 'Choosing the right Brand Health Solution for you' article.
Zappi’s methodological approach
Zappi's Brand Health Tracking is built on ‘How Brands Grow’ Principles. Developed by the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, this framework explains that brands grow by increasing both mental and physical availability, making it easier for consumers to think of and buy the brand in buying moments.
It shifts focus from short-term persuasion to long-term memory building, showing that growth isn’t just about loyalty, but about reaching more buyers, more often, across more occasions.
Zappi’s Brand Tracking embeds Ehrenberg-Bass metrics like Mental Market Share directly into the dashboard, giving brands a clear, consistent, and science-backed view of mental availability and how consumers connect their brand to key Category Entry Points.
What are Category Entry Points (CEPs)?
These are the cues (needs, occasions, emotions, or contexts) that trigger brand recall in buying situations. They are ‘pre-brand’ needs that form before a brand is considered.
Why they matter:
Brand choice is driven by Mental (and Physical) Availability, and a buyer retrieving a brand from their memory due to that brand’s association with real-life buying contexts.
The breadth and depth of association a brand has with CEPs, its Mental Market Share, is strongly related to future buying behavior. The more reasons a buyer has to recall a brand, the more likely that brand will grow.
Zappi’s Brand Health Tracking helps you understand Mental Market Share within the category and track it as a marker of growth. Dig deeper to see where your brand is mentally present, where it’s missing, and the opportunities to expand memory networks and unlock growth through marketing & comms.
How to get started with Zappi Brand Health
Designing your audience
Audience set-up takes place in the same way as it does for other Zappi solutions. For projects in the Market space, representative audiences are most appropriate. Brands grow by including buyers that previously had not bought to their customer base. These new buyers may be previous buyers of other category brands, or may be new entrants to the category. In order to capture and monitor each of these sources of growth, sample audiences should avoid targeting existing buyers only, although it is reasonable to screen out definitive category rejectors.
It is also important to be mindful of the penetration of your category. Low awareness categories with very broad samples can result in low levels of insight from audiences who are not familiar with the space. If you feel like this is likely for your category, increase the sample size to capture more people in the know.
Required Configuration Inputs
In configuring a project you will be prompted to enter potential answers to questions.
Brand list
Enter the names of the significant brands in your category including your own. You can add a maximum of 15 brands, although fewer brands make for a shorter, more enjoyable survey for respondents so aim for 10. These brands should account for at least 95% of market share in total. Brands are presented in randomized order per respondent and will appear throughout the survey.
Category Entry Points / Attributes list
This is a list of factors that can influence a consumer to make a purchase decision in your category. They may be baseline competencies that any brand within your space needs to satisfy, or they may be ‘Category Entry Points’. The cues (needs, occasions, emotions, or contexts) that trigger brand recall in buying situations. Think of the contexts in which brands might be chosen (why, when, how or where?). For example, in the ice cream category, some CEPs would be, ‘When it’s a hot day’, ‘When I want to give my kids a treat’ or ‘As an after dinner dessert option’. Avoid using 'is the best’ or ‘better than' in your attributes. The results will show how readily your brand is associated with each of these motivating factors compared to the competition, as well as how important they are for the category.
Question and metrics Guides
Select the link to open the Metrics guides.
| Impulse Consumer Packaged Goods | This template is designed for fast-moving, low-involvement categories such as food, beverages, confectionery, and personal care products. In these categories, consumer behaviour is typically habitual and spontaneous - brands are bought frequently, often without deep deliberation. |
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| Functional Consumer Packaged Goods | This tracker is designed for practical, performance-oriented categories such as cleaning products, homecare, OTC healthcare, pet food, and paper goods. These categories are habitual and utilitarian - consumers expect products to work reliably and rarely seek variety unless a brand fails to deliver. |
| Lifestyle & Retail | This template is designed for style-led and expressive categories such as apparel, footwear, beauty, premium personal goods, and lifestyle retailers. In these markets, consumers buy both for utility and identity — the products they choose say something about who they are or aspire to be. |
| Durable & Tech | This template is designed for high-value, infrequently purchased categories such as appliances, consumer electronics, and automotive. In these markets, decisions involve research, evaluation, and timing, but brand growth still depends on being mentally and physically available when buyers enter the market. |
| Digital & Entertainment | This template is designed for digital, on-demand, and experience-driven categories, including streaming services, gaming platforms, social media, audio apps, and delivery services. These are habitual but fluid categories - consumers frequently explore, adopt, and drop platforms, often with little planning or commitment. |
| Telco & Essential Services | This template is designed for high-involvement, subscription-based, or service categories such as telecommunications, utilities, financial services, insurance, and healthcare plans. These markets are defined by infrequent switching, contractual lock-in, and habitual usage. |
| Quick Service Restaurants | This template is designed for quick-service and fast-casual dining brands — restaurants, coffee shops, and delivery-based outlets. In this category, consumer behaviour is defined by routine, convenience, and impulse, with decisions often made in the moment rather than planned in advance. |
For help with configuring your survey, head to our Brand Health Configuration Guide.
Interpreting and actioning results
The Brand Health Dashboard is your hub for all of your tracking data. Comb through the numbers, and learn how your brand stacks up against the competition.
We go into all the dashboard details in our Brand Health Tracker | Dashboard article.
Self service vs. serviced approach
You can use the Brand Health Tracker on your own after initial setup as a self-serve solution, or choose a service option.
To get started with the Brand Health Tracker, you'll need to reach out to your account representative to create a dedicated credit pot.
To get started with the Brand Health Snapshot, all you need is access to the Zappi platform!
| Core Service Package | Enhanced Service Package |
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Brand Health FAQs
What is the market availability?
Brand Health Tracking is available in the following markets. Please reach out to your Zappi representative if you are interested in a market that is not on this list.
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Why can’t I buy a tracking project at check-out?
Your Zappi Customer Representative will need to set up a tracking credit pot for tracker-specific payment. A tracker needs to be bought upfront, for the year. If you run multiple trackers, each tracker will require its own credit pot.
Can I launch my tracker?
Absolutely! If your credit pot is available to you then your rep should already be aware of your schedule. Be sure to launch your tracker at least 5 days before the end of a month to ensure a smooth launch the following month.
When will my tracker start collecting data?
Your first wave will begin on the 1st of the next month. Subsequent waves automatically launch on the 1st of each month.
When should I get in touch?
As soon as possible ahead of next month’s launch date! In order to get a tracker started we require all inputs and audiences to be confirmed 5 business days before the end of the month.
Can I make changes after my tracker is launched?
No, changes are currently not available for the duration of your tracker, including to custom questions. These are not advised as changes can impair comparability across waves.
We encourage you to talk to your Zappi account representative to help you think through everything you need during the set up process.
Is my data weighted?
Yes, Brand Health data is weighted to quota targets to ensure consistency and comparability wave on wave. You should therefore expect to see small adjustments in data when comparing to raw scores.
Can I get help from Zappi Consultants with my Tracker?
Yes, your Zappi account team can advise which Consultancy packages may suit, or arrange a time to discuss scope.
Can I connect this Tracking data to my old Tracking data?
No, Zappi does not currently offer the ability to calibrate data or ingest data from other sources. If continuity is an important consideration, customers are encouraged to run incumbent trackers in parallel with their Zappi tracker initially to observe and understand differences in trends before making the switch.