Brand-led growth is becoming the key competitive advantage in the 2020s, eclipsing the product-led strategies popular in the previous decade. However, many companies still focus mainly on conversion metrics at the bottom of the funnel, ignoring the vast majority of potential future customers.
Marketers universally acknowledge the importance of brand awareness. Studies such as Nielsen’s surveys show it remains the top metric for marketing success, while reports like Marq’s State of Brand Consistency link strong brand coherence to nearly 30% revenue growth. The challenge lies in measuring brand impact accurately—many executives know their customer acquisition cost (CAC) precisely but struggle to quantify what drives brand affinity.
In response, startups and established firms are investing in better brand measurement tools. Tracksuit recently raised $25 million in Series B funding to advance this mission. Co-founder Matt Herbert explains their goal is to create a common language enabling marketers, boards, and agencies to understand how brand initiatives contribute to growth.
This funding reflects a broader shift towards treating brand as a data-driven asset. Just as human resources evolved from intuition to analytics, branding is entering an era defined by measurable insights. If marketers can quantify what people remember, they can influence consumer choices more effectively.
Longstanding measurement platforms such as the Edelman Trust Barometer and Morning Consult provide valuable data on public confidence and brand perception worldwide. Now, venture capital firms like VMG Partners are betting on brand performance management becoming a critical system for consumer businesses, much like Salesforce is for sales or Datarails for finance.
VMG’s Sam Shapiro emphasizes brand as a company’s most valuable asset, urging quantification accordingly. Tracksuit serves over 1,000 paying customers with 240% year-over-year growth in the U.S., supporting brands from Steve Madden to Opendoor. The oversubscribed round indicates strong investor confidence in this emerging category.
Shifts in market dynamics drive the resurgence in brand measurement. As AI facilitates product copying and social media shortens attention spans, brand strength increasingly determines market success. Industry leaders like Matthew Kerbel of Turo and Caleb Pearson of McDonald’s stress the necessity of connecting brand efforts to business outcomes using comprehensive data.
This evolving “statistification” of brand parallels HR’s data-driven transformation. Real-time brand tracking and daily polling provide actionable metrics where previously only subjective opinions existed. As more consistent longitudinal data becomes available, marketers will gain deeper scientific insight into how brand attributes impact performance over time.
For executives, adopting a data-focused approach means treating brands not as intangible assets but as measurable growth engines. To begin, companies should conduct brand audits to benchmark awareness, consideration, and perception against competitors, then set measurable goals integrating brand metrics into executive reporting.
Investing in measurement tools with the same rigor as media spend is crucial. Herbert concludes that ongoing brand health monitoring—not just campaign tracking—is essential to understanding how activities contribute to sustainable growth. In a landscape where product features can be replicated and attention spans wane, a strong, measurable brand is what endures.