Brand-led growth is emerging as a key competitive advantage in the 2020s, replacing the product-led growth strategies popular in the previous decade. However, many companies still focus their metrics on immediate buyers, overlooking the larger pool of potential customers who may convert later.
Despite widespread recognition of brand awareness as a critical marketing metric, companies often struggle to quantify brand impact effectively. This uncertainty echoes the famous marketing dilemma of wasted advertising spend without clarity on which efforts succeed.
Tracksuit’s recent $25 million Series B funding reflects growing demand for robust brand measurement tools. Co-founder Matt Herbert explains that their aim is to create a unified framework enabling marketers, executives, and agencies to evaluate how brand initiatives drive business growth.
This investment fits within a broader trend of shifting branding from subjective impressions to data-driven insights. Just as HR transformed through analytics, brand management is moving toward measurable performance indicators.
Established measurement providers like Nielsen and newer platforms such as Morning Consult have long worked to link brand investment to results. Venture firms including VMG Partners recognize brand performance management as an essential system for consumer businesses, with VMG backing both branded companies and supporting technology.
Tracksuit currently serves around 1,000 clients, including brands like Steve Madden and Opendoor, and reports strong U.S. growth. The oversubscribed funding round underscores investor confidence in creating a new category focused on brand performance metrics.
The rise of brand measurement responds to challenges in growth sustainability amid product commoditization and increasingly fleeting consumer attention. Executives like Turo’s Matthew Kerbel and McDonald’s Caleb Pearson emphasize the necessity of linking brand efforts to business outcomes through comprehensive data use.
The transition from intuition-based branding to “statistification” provides companies with daily polling and real-time dashboards that mirror advances seen in HR and finance analytics. As data quality improves, deeper insights into campaign effects, emotional connections, and market-specific brand archetypes will emerge, enabling predictive brand management.
For businesses, this shift means treating brands as measurable growth engines rather than soft assets. Starting with brand audits to benchmark awareness and perception against competitors, companies can set actionable goals and incorporate brand metrics into executive reporting alongside traditional measures like CAC and retention.
Investing in continuous brand measurement is crucial. Herbert notes that tracking brand health beyond individual campaigns allows organizations to understand the cumulative impact on long-term growth. In an era where features can be replicated and consumer attention is limited, a strong, data-backed brand is essential for lasting success.