A brand equity survey is a type of research study used to understand how consumers perceive your brand versus others. It aims to measure the overall value your brand holds in the minds of customers – including emotional connection, perceived quality, trust, and likelihood to recommend. Simply put, it gives you a window into what your brand stands for and how well that image is resonating with your target audience.

Brand equity surveys are vital because they help answer questions like:

• Do consumers recognize and remember my brand?
• Is my brand seen as premium, reliable, or innovative?
• How does my brand compare to key competitors?
• Which brand attributes are driving purchase loyalty?

These answers help reveal more than just awareness – they show how meaningful your brand is as a business asset. High brand equity often correlates with stronger customer retention, pricing power, and brand advocacy. Tracking changes in brand perception over time can also alert you to reputational risks, shifts in consumer expectations, or the impact of marketing and advertising campaigns.

Key components of a brand equity survey

To get the full picture, an effective brand equity survey typically includes:

• Equity metrics: These might include brand awareness, consideration, preference, and purchase intent.
• Attitudinal measures: These explore how users feel about your brand – for example, emotional connection, perceived innovation, or alignment with personal values.
• Competitive benchmarking: Comparing your brand against other players in the space helps contextualize findings.

For example, if a fictional tech startup learns that its brand scores high on innovation but low on trust, this insight would guide messaging and product improvement priorities. On its own, raw data doesn’t drive results – but when paired with the right interpretation, it can directly influence marketing, customer experience, and long-term brand strategy.

Having the right talent to craft and analyze brand equity surveys is also crucial. While tools like Dynata make it easy to collect data, skilled insight professionals – like those from SIVO's On Demand Talent network – ensure the right questions are asked, the analysis is meaningful, and the insights inform strategic actions.

Dynata is one of the most widely used market research tools for survey-based studies – especially when it comes to tracking consumer opinions at scale. With a global, permission-based panel of millions of respondents and robust targeting capabilities, Dynata allows companies to reach specific audiences efficiently and cost-effectively. This makes it highly suitable for building brand perception surveys and ongoing brand tracking programs.

Why choose Dynata for brand research?

One of Dynata's biggest strengths is its reach. No matter your target customer – whether it’s Gen Z consumers in the U.S. or B2B buyers in Europe – Dynata’s platform can match you with respondents who fit your criteria. This breadth ensures your brand insights are representative and can be segmented by different demographics, behaviors, or psychographics.

Additionally, Dynata’s robust data platform provides flexible survey design tools to support everything from short brand health check-ins to comprehensive longitudinal brand studies. For beginners, this accessibility is a major benefit – but it also brings with it a learning curve. That’s why many organizations choose to team up with seasoned researchers who understand how to optimize these tools.

Types of brand perception studies Dynata supports

Dynata helps businesses run a wide range of brand studies, such as:

• Brand awareness surveys: Are consumers familiar with your brand? How well do they recall it compared to competitors?
• Brand image and attributes: What words or traits do people associate with your brand (e.g., trustworthy, modern, affordable)?
• Brand tracking studies: Repeated studies over time that monitor shifts in equity metrics and brand health indicators.

These studies are especially useful for companies navigating new product launches, rebrands, or increased competition. For instance, a consumer goods brand tracking its performance after a packaging redesign might use Dynata to gather quick consumer reactions across target markets.

The role of expert support in survey success

While tools like Dynata offer powerful capabilities, meaningful results depend on thoughtful design and interpretation. SIVO’s On Demand Talent brings expert-level know-how into your team when you need it most. From designing survey questionnaires that align with business objectives to translating equity data into actionable brand strategy, they bridge the gap between DIY platforms and strategic impact.

Instead of going it alone or hiring consultants or freelance researchers, bringing in On Demand Talent lets you tap into experienced professionals who can seamlessly plug into your team. This flexibility means your insights team can stay productive without compromising survey quality – whether you're running your first brand perception survey or scaling tracking studies across countries.

In a world where brands need faster, smarter answers, pairing Dynata survey tools with the right insight experts can be the difference between having data – and having answers that drive growth.

Once you've defined your survey goals, the next step is choosing the right brand equity metrics to track. These metrics go beyond awareness – they measure how customers truly feel about your brand and can indicate how strong your position is within the market. Whether you're using Dynata survey tools as a beginner or refining your brand tracking study, here are the essential data points to include.

Core Equity Metrics to Track

These standard elements give a snapshot of your brand’s health and its competitive positioning:

• Brand Awareness – Measures if people recognize your brand name, logo, or products (a baseline equity measure).
• Brand Consideration – Evaluates the likelihood that customers would include your brand in their decision set.
• Brand Preference – Tracks how often customers choose your brand over competitors.
• Brand Usage – Indicates how frequently consumers actually buy or use your brand.
• Net Promoter Score (NPS) – Gauges customer loyalty by asking how likely someone is to recommend your brand.

Attitudinal Measures That Add Depth

Quantitative metrics alone can’t capture the full picture. Including attitudinal measures in your Dynata brand perception surveys brings context to the numbers. These include:

• Brand Personality – How consumers describe the tone, style, or traits of your brand (e.g., friendly, innovative, reliable).
• Perceived Quality – The general view of product/service excellence.
• Trust and Credibility – Whether the audience feels your brand delivers on its promises.
• Emotional Connection – Do people feel aligned with your brand’s values or mission?

Used together, these brand equity and perception metrics help track shifts over time and quantify how initiatives – like marketing or product updates – affect your brand image. If you're unsure where to start, Dynata’s survey design tools provide beginner-friendly templates that make incorporating these measures easy.

For example, a fictional tech startup launching a new app might monitor brand awareness and consideration monthly. Post-launch, they could add emotional connection and usage data to analyze how well the brand resonates with early adopters versus new users.

Ultimately, selecting the right combination of equity metrics allows you to understand and influence how customers perceive and engage with your brand – a key to long-term business success.

Collecting data is one thing – turning that data into meaningful strategy is where the real value lies. Too often, brands build out surveys using market research tools like Dynata, only to end up with charts and spreadsheets that lack clear direction. That’s when experienced insight professionals can provide critical guidance.

Why Strategic Interpretation Matters

Even the best-designed brand equity surveys won’t help your business grow unless someone connects the dots between data and action. Skilled insight experts know how to:

• Separate signal from noise – identifying trends that actually matter
• Compare segment behavior to find growth opportunities
• Spot gaps between brand perception and brand performance
• Use attitudinal measures to uncover drivers of loyalty or attrition
• Translate findings into marketing, innovation, or positioning strategies

Scenarios Where Experts Make a Difference

Here are some common points in a project when bringing in strategic thinkers is especially valuable:

1. Post-Survey Analysis – You've run your Dynata survey and compiled metrics, but you're not sure what they mean or what to do with them.

2. Stakeholder Buy-In – You need to frame insights into a compelling story that drives alignment across teams or leadership.

3. Brand Evolution – Your company is rebranding, entering new markets, or repositioning. Understanding shifting brand perception becomes foundational.

4. Survey Optimization – You suspect your current questionnaire is underperforming or missing the mark. An expert can help recalibrate your approach for better accuracy.

For instance, a fictional regional retailer running quarterly brand tracking studies may see consistent satisfaction scores but stagnant NPS. An expert would dig deeper, identifying that while value perception is strong, emotional connection is weak – guiding the brand toward more meaningful messaging and engagement strategies.

In increasingly agile business environments, it’s not just about research speed – it’s about research quality. Insight professionals are the ones who ensure your brand surveys produce not just data, but confident decisions.

DIY platforms like Dynata are transforming brand research – making it possible to collect consumer feedback faster than ever. But speed doesn’t automatically equal insight. To unlock the full impact of your brand equity surveys, many organizations are turning to SIVO's On Demand Talent solution.

Bridging the Gap Between Tools and Expertise

As businesses adopt market research tools to do more with smaller teams, one thing becomes clear: even the best tool still needs the right human behind it. On Demand Talent brings in highly experienced consumer insights professionals who already know how to design, field, and interpret brand research using platforms like Dynata – without missing the nuances that make data meaningful.

Here’s what sets them apart:

• Immediate support – Quickly match with seasoned experts who can step in within days or weeks
• No learning curve – These aren’t junior hires or freelancers – they’re professionals who lead with confidence from day one
• Tool fluency – Whether it’s Dynata survey design or post-field analytics, they know how to bring your platform investment to life
• Team enablement – Not just support, but skill-building. On Demand professionals can help your internal teams uplevel capabilities for long-term success

Take for example a fictional health and wellness brand launching into new retail markets. They used Dynata to build a brand perception survey, but needed help refining questions and interpreting early results. By bringing in On Demand Talent, they were able to optimize their survey mid-stream and translate the data into a revised messaging strategy – without delaying launch timelines or overextending staff.

Whether you’re launching a new product, recalibrating your positioning, or just looking to get more from your brand tracking studies, On Demand Talent fills skills or resource gaps with exactly the expertise you need – for exactly how long you need it.

In a time where agility, precision, and quality all matter equally, On Demand Talent ensures your brand research delivers insights that move business forward – not just dashboards that sit idle.