Brand & Demand Balanced Scorecard

Introduction to the Brand and Demand Balanced Scorecard

This Brand and Demand Balanced Scorecard is a strategic planning and management tool designed to help audit and balance short-term demand generation with long-term brand building across common metrics and KPIs. 

By using this scorecard, you can:

1. Align marketing strategies with both immediate business needs and long-term brand goals

2. Identify areas of strength and opportunities for improvement

3. Make data-driven decisions to optimize resource allocation

4. Ensure a holistic approach to marketing that considers all aspects of the buyer's journey

5. Track progress and demonstrate the value of marketing initiatives to stakeholders

The goal of this scorecard is to understand how your brand is performing holistically, in relation to brand awareness and sales pipeline. The results of this scorecard will allow you to focus your efforts on the most impactful areas for your business. 

Remember, the goal is not to excel in every metric simultaneously, but to achieve a strategic balance that drives overall marketing and business success.

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The Brand and Demand Index

This score is ultimately what the scorecard reports out and gives you an idea of how well your marketing initiatives are balanced across short-term demand generation and long-term brand building. 

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How to calculate the index:

The index is calculated by measuring the health of 5 different categories metrics: Acquisition, Retention, Brand, Customer, and Internal. It is up to your discretion on how many metrics within these categories to use, but we recommend at least 3-5 to give a holistic picture of the health of that category. These categories are divided against short-term and long-term metrics. 

To begin, fill out the metrics based on your current reporting. This is your baseline. Revisit this scorecard 3 months into your brand and demand initiatives. You could also compare your previous quarter results to use this scorecard right now. 

Each category box should be colored according to Green, Neutral or Red. 

Green means metrics saw at least a 5% improvement from the baseline. 

Neutral means there was no change, or a less than 5% improvement

Red means there is a decline of at least 5% from the baseline 

Now that you’ve colored your boxes, tally up how many boxes are in each color and assign points. 

For short-term metrics, each green receives 1 point, each neutral receives 0 points, and each red receives -1 points. 

For long-term metrics, each green receives 2 points, each neutral receives 0 points, and each red receives -2 points. Long-term point values are doubled because brand building can influence short-term metrics, especially when compounded over time. 

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The Scorecard: 

P.S. Visit the Glossary below to get a definition and calculation of these metrics.

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The Scores

The perfect scorecard receives a total of 15 points, reporting all metrics are healthy across short-term and long-term. This means that the sales pipeline is strong and brand building is strengthening. 

The lowest score on the scorecard is -15. This means all metrics are in a decline and short-term sales, as well as long-term brand building are ineffective in the current state. 

The desired range is between 9-15 points. 

If you scored between 3-9 points: Your short-term metrics are likely healthy, but you need to work on your long-term brand building. Overtime, short-term metrics will start to decline. Brand building can help prevent this decline, or even reverse it depending on strength. 

Make sure your marketing is mapped to your Category Entry Points to ensure you are addressing your customer’s needs. Then, consider exploring new content pieces, especially thought leadership content that can build your authority within that problem set. 

If you scored between 9-15 points: We’re impressed! Whatever you’re doing is working. You’re likely building long-term brand health, which is contributing to improved short-term metrics. If there’s an area on the scorecard you’re red or neutral in, consider shifting focus to prioritize that right now. If not, continue to execute against your CEPs and leverage your mental availability maps to strengthen your brand associations. 

If you scored between (-5)-3 points: Don’t worry - this is likely where most marketers are. For too long we’ve prioritized short-term metrics over long-term brand sentiment, and now most b2b marketing is facing a crisis where short-term metrics are starting to decline. 

The first step to addressing this is mapping your CEPs and your mental availability blueprint. This ensures you understand your customers' underlying needs, what triggers their buying journey, and how strong you are considered in that initial consideration set. Remember, most buying decisions are made before they reach out - 84% purchase from the first company they had in mind. Once you have these mapped out, you can revisit your brand narrative and design content and campaign activations to reinforce your CEPs in order to improve brand recall. 

If you scored below (-5) points: It may be time for a brand audit. There’s something not quite working in your current marketing initiatives. This may be caused by a misalignment between your messaging and your customers true needs. This is why we recommend starting with a brand audit to understand what’s going on behind the metrics. From there, start looking at your CEPs and meeting with customers to make sure you know what they need to know from you. Or, this could be a reporting error, in that case escalate with your dev team. 

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Example Scorecard:

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Short-Term Score (Demand): 

Green: 1 + 1 + 1 = 3

White: N/A

Red: (-1) + (-1) = (-2) 

Total: 3 + (-2) = 1

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Long-Term Score (Brand): 

Green: 2

White: 0

Red: (-2) + (-2) = (-4) 

Total: 2 + (-4) = -2

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Brand and Demand Index: 1 + (-2) = 1 

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Concluding Thoughts

No matter what your score is, you have the power to transform your marketing program by understanding how to balance your short-term and long-term initiatives. Brand marketing and demand generation can, and should, coexist in order to synergistically benefit each other.

Ready to take action and improve your scores? Storybook Marketing can help support.

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Glossary: Understanding Key Metrics for Brand and Demand Strategies

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Cost per Acquisition (CPA): The average cost to acquire a new customer. 

Calculation: Total marketing and sales costs / Number of new customers acquired

‍Pipeline/Opportunities: The total value of potential sales opportunities in various stages of the sales process. 

Calculation: Sum of the estimated value of all active sales opportunities

‍Conversion rate at each buyer stage: The percentage of leads or prospects that move from one stage to the next in the sales funnel. 

Calculation: (Number of conversions at a specific stage / Total number of leads entering that stage) x 100

‍New revenue: The additional income generated from new customers or new products/services. Calculation: Sum of revenue from new customers or new product/service sales

‍Retention rate: The percentage of customers who continue to use a company's products or services over a given period. 

Calculation: (Number of customers at end of period - New customers acquired during period) / Number of customers at start of period x 100

‍Churn rate: The percentage of customers who stop using a company's products or services during a given period. 

Calculation: (Number of customers lost during period / Number of customers at start of period) x 100

‍Product adoption rates: The rate at which new users start using a product or feature.

Calculation: (Number of new users of a product / Total number of potential users) x 100

‍Reach and frequency metrics: Reach is the number of unique individuals exposed to a campaign, while frequency is the average number of times each individual is exposed.

Calculation:

- Reach: Number of unique individuals exposed to a campaign

- Frequency: Total impressions / Reach

‍Share of voice (digital): The percentage of all online content and conversations about your brand compared to competitors.

Calculation: (Your brand mentions / Total mentions in your industry) x 100

‍Brand mention sentiment: The overall emotional tone of mentions about your brand.

Calculation: (Positive mentions - Negative mentions) / Total mentions

‍Social media engagement rate: The level of interaction your content receives on social media.

Calculation: (Total engagements (likes, comments, shares) / Total followers) x 100

‍Touchpoint engagement rates: The rate at which customers interact with various brand touchpoints.

Calculation: (Number of interactions at a specific touchpoint / Total number of potential interactions) x 100

‍Lead quality score: A numerical value assigned to leads based on their likelihood to convert.

Calculation: Varies, often uses a weighted scoring system based on demographics, behavior, and engagement

‍Website conversion rate: The percentage of website visitors who complete a desired action.

Calculation: (Number of conversions / Total number of visitors) x 100

‍CTR (Click-Through Rate): The rate at which people click on a specific link or call to action.

Calculation: (Number of clicks / Number of impressions) x 100

‍Campaign execution time: The time taken to plan, create, and launch a marketing campaign.

Calculation: End date of campaign launch - Start date of campaign planning

‍Lead response time: The average time taken to respond to a new lead.

Calculation: Sum of all response times / Number of leads

‍Content production rate: The amount of content produced in a given time period.

Calculation: Number of content pieces produced / Time period

‍Campaign innovation rate: The percentage of campaigns using new or innovative marketing techniques.

Calculation: (Number of innovative campaigns / Total number of campaigns) x 100

‍Return on Investment (ROI): The profit or revenue generated relative to the cost of an investment 

Calculation: (Net profit / Cost of investment) x 100

‍Return on Ad Spend (ROAS): The profit or revenue generated relative to the cost of ad spend.

Calculation: (Revenue from ad campaign / Cost of ad campaign) x 100

‍Prospect pool growth: The rate at which your database of potential customers is growing.

Calculation: (New prospects added - Prospects lost) / Total prospects at start of period x 100

‍NPS (Net Promoter Score): A measure of customer loyalty and satisfaction.

Calculation: % of Promoters - % of Detractors

‍Referrals: The number of new customers acquired through recommendations from existing customers.

Calculation: Number of new customers acquired through referral program

‍Customer Lifetime Value: The total worth of a customer to a business over the whole period of their relationship.

Calculation: (Average purchase value x Average purchase frequency rate x Average customer lifespan)

‍Average Customer Lifetime: The average length of time a customer continues to purchase from your company.

Calculation: Sum of customer lifespans / Number of customers

‍Brand awareness: The extent to which consumers are familiar with the qualities or image of a particular brand.

Calculation: (Number of people aware of your brand / Total survey size) x 100

‍Brand recall: The ability of consumers to retrieve a brand from memory when given a product category.

Calculation: (Number of people who can recall your brand / Total survey size) x 100

‍Brand salience score: How quickly and easily a brand comes to mind in buying situations.

Calculation: Often measured through surveys, using scales or ranking systems

‍Unaided brand recall: The ability of consumers to name a brand without any prompting.

Calculation: (Number of people who name your brand without prompting / Total survey size) x 100

‍Media mix optimization index: A measure of how effectively marketing spend is allocated across different media channels.

Calculation: Varies, often involves complex modeling of channel performance and spend efficiency

‍Brand association strength: The strength of mental connections consumers make between a brand and its attributes.

Calculation: Often measured through surveys, using scales or scoring systems

‍Buyer persona profile alignment: How well your actual customers match your ideal customer profiles.

Calculation: (Number of customers matching persona criteria / Total number of customers) x 100

‍Sales cycles: The average length of time it takes to close a sale from the first point of contact.

Calculation: Sum of all sales cycle lengths / Number of closed deals

‍Cross-functional collaboration scores: A measure of how well different departments work together on marketing initiatives.

Calculation: Often based on surveys or performance evaluations, using predefined scoring criteria

‍Employee satisfaction and retention: Measures of how content employees are and how long they stay with the company.

Calculation:

- Satisfaction: Often measured through surveys

- Retention: (Number of employees who remained employed for the entire period / Number of employees at start of period) x 100

‍Thought leadership production: The rate at which your company produces high-quality, original content that positions you as an industry expert.

Calculation: Number of thought leadership pieces produced in a given time period

‍Awards and recognition: The number of industry awards or recognition received for marketing efforts.

Calculation: Simple count of awards or recognitions received

‍Partnership and collaboration growth: The rate at which your company is forming new partnerships or collaborations.

Calculation: (New partnerships formed - Partnerships ended) / Total partnerships at start of period x 100