Try this: Think of three ketchup brands. Does your list include Heinz? Could you think of two more? The food-processing mega brand has achieved universal awareness—they’re the dominant name associated with ketchup. 

On a surface level, brand awareness seems like a self-explanatory subject—it’s the degree to which consumers know, or are aware of, your brand. It’s established through advertising and marketing campaigns over time. 

Although the concept is simple, evaluating brand awareness can be tricky. The process involves setting goals, defining measurable key performance indicators (KPIs), and even circulating a brand awareness survey. This article will focus on one effective tactic—brand awareness surveys—and how to develop surveys to help clarify your brand awareness metrics.

What is a brand awareness survey? 

A brand awareness survey is a questionnaire and market research tool designed to assess a brand’s reputation and renown. Conducting a brand awareness survey can reveal how familiar your target audience is with your brand, as well as any feelings or associations they may have.

Measuring brand awareness helps you evaluate your marketing efforts. Strong brand awareness suggests that your key messages are reaching the right people. Limited brand awareness might indicate the need for a strategy shift. 

Types of brand awareness survey questions

Brand awareness surveys often include multiple types of questions designed to evaluate different levels of brand awareness. Questions with a clear focus help brands generate detailed, actionable insights. Here are some of the most common brand awareness survey question categories: 

• Aided questions. Aided brand awareness questions prompt consumers by including your brand in the question. For example, a brand survey could provide a list of four company names, including their own, and ask respondents which ones they can identify. These questions help evaluate aided brand recall. 
• Unaided questions. Unaided brand awareness questions ask respondents to fill in the blank without any help. This category includes prompts like “Name three mattress brands.” 
• Recognition. Brand recognition questions seek to find out if consumers recognize your brand name from cues like your logo, packaging, or tagline. 
• Identity. Brand identity questions focus on how clearly consumers understand the brand personality you’re trying to communicate and if it’s resonating with them. 
• Image. Brand image is another component of perception, measuring what the public perceives about your brand. Brand perception survey questions focus on brand credibility and trustworthiness. 
• Recall. Brand recall questions test relationship depth. They move past brand recognition and evaluate how well customers understand your offerings and how quickly they bring up your brand in conversation. 
• Loyalty. Brand loyalty questions focus on customer satisfaction and affinity among those who have purchased something or engaged with your brand before.

How surveys measure brand awareness

Brand awareness surveys can generate a blend of quantitative and qualitative data. Open-ended questions generate qualitative feedback—the “why” behind customer perceptions. To process this feedback, brands compile survey responses, review suggestions, and look for themes. AI tools can speed up bulk response analysis and trend spotting.

To sift through a lot of information quickly, you can collect numerical responses and calculate a score for each question. Ranking questions, such as “On a scale of 1 to 5, how familiar are you with our products?” are a popular way to solicit a numerical answer. To analyze this data, simply calculate the average consumer response to each question.

Binary questions, such as yes or no questions, also lend themselves to quantifiable data, as you can convert these responses into a percentage for each category. Binary questions help calculate brand awareness metrics like brand recognition rate and brand preference rate.

Audiences to target with a brand awareness survey

• Current customers
• Target market
• General population

The best audience for your brand awareness survey depends on your goals. Before you decide who to target, ask yourself what you hope to learn and consider what type of consumer holds relevant information. These are some potential target groups and use cases for brand awareness surveys:

Current customers

Consider surveying your existing customers if you want to evaluate customer loyalty or awareness depth. This group already knows your brand and might be able to provide valuable insight about consumer perception. Surveying loyal customers can help businesses understand how well different aspects of their product strategy are working. A consumer packaged goods (CPG) company well-known for its dish soap, for example, might survey existing customers to see how many are aware that it also sells hand soap and dishwasher pods. Brands can use social media followers and email subscriber lists to disseminate current customer surveys.

Target market

Target market surveys evaluate how well your message is reaching and persuading your intended audience. These are potential customers—they’re part of your target audience, but haven’t tried your product yet. Surveying these customers is key to fine tuning your messaging and positioning so that you can reach them more effectively.

Connecting with your target market often involves targeted advertising. Use demographic information to target your ideal customers with paid ads on social media platforms or search engines. Third-party survey companies, like Qualtrics and SurveyMonkey, offer targeted survey services as well. 

General population

General population surveys measure current brand awareness. This group includes all consumers—even if they don’t fit within your target audience. Surveying the general population can help businesses develop a big-picture understanding of brand recognition and understand how they’re ranking compared to other brands. Broad advertising and third-party survey companies can help you reach the general population for brand surveys.

Tips for distributing brand awareness surveys

• Include incentives
• Use responsive design principles
• Use multiple channels

Once you’ve crafted your questions and selected your audience, it’s time to share your survey. Distribution is the process of getting your survey in front of the right audience and collecting their responses. A strong distribution strategy can help you get the most out of your brand awareness survey. Try these tips: 

Include incentives

Survey incentives like freebies or sweepstakes can increase completion rates. Offering a reward provides motivation and shows customers that you appreciate their time. Survey tools like Gojiberry make it easy to provide custom incentives for survey participants. 

Use responsive design principles

Make sure that your survey displays properly on both mobile and desktop devices. A clunky design or illegible questions could lead to consumer drop off. Working with a survey platform that provides responsive design templates, like Zigpoll or UserLoop, can simplify this process.

Use multiple channels

Sharing your survey on several different channels, including social media, display ads, and promotional emails, can help attract a diverse test group. It also makes it easier for customers to engage with you from their preferred platform, rather than having to migrate from social media to email to give their feedback. 

Brand awareness survey question examples

The most effective brand awareness survey questions are clear, concise, and targeted. Focusing on short and simple questions helps keep readers on the hook. 

Design a clear target for each question to ensure that you get the information that you need. Here are some examples of brand awareness survey questions targeted for specific aspects of brand awareness:

Recognition

Questions about recognition can include: 

• On a scale of 1 to 5, how familiar are you with [brand’s] products? 
• Which of the following company logos can you recognize? [question includes a list with your brand logo and three competitor logos]
• Do you follow [brand] on any of the following social media platforms: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest?

Identity

You could ask participants questions about your identity, like: 

• How would you describe [brand’s] personality to a friend?
• If [brand] were a celebrity, who would it be and why? 
• What problem could [brand or product] help you solve?

Image

Questions related to your image may include: 

• On a scale of 1 to 5, how trustworthy do you consider [brand]?
• What is the one thing you wish you could change about [brand]?
• What values do you associate with [brand]?

Recall

Consider questions like these about recall:

• What products do you most associate with [brand]?
• Name three companies that sell [product category]:
• How did you first learn about [brand]?

Loyalty

To know how loyal your customers are, consider asking the following questions: 

• On a scale of 1 to 5, how likely are you to recommend [brand] to a friend? 
• On a scale of 1 to 5, how likely are you to purchase [brand] products again? 
• Do you prefer [brand] products over [competitor] products and, if so, why?