FAQs & Glossary on Brand Management – Metrics & Definitions

When your co-founders or investors ask you to “increase” and “strengthen” the brand, what do they mean exactly? As a marketing leader what is that you are supposed to improve?

In practice, this means your function is expected to accelerate impact across several fronts such as market visibility and overall perception that influence business outcomes like customer acquisition, retention, and valuation. In the B2B tech context this typically involves improving multiple key brand metrics. To make this actionable, we’ve outlined the key indicators -quantitative and qualitative- that help you track, benchmark, and evolve your brand’s performance in the market.

We’ve explained what those terms mean, how they relate to your investor’s advice, and how to act on it based on our extensive Brand Management projects with clients.

Metric	Definition	Why It’s Critical	How to Measure It
Brand Awareness	The extent to which consumers recognize and recall your brand when prompted or unprompted.	Foundation for all other metrics; drives initial consideration and top-of-mind presence in purchase decisions.	Aided/unaided recall, share of models, share of search, branded-search volume,  social mentions, or share of voice in media.
Brand Perception	Consumers’ overall attitudes, beliefs, and feelings toward the brand, including associations like quality or trustworthiness.	Influences loyalty and differentiation; poor perception can lead to reputational damage.	Sentiment analysis from reviews/social media, Net Promoter Score (NPS), or perceptual mapping surveys.
Brand Salience	How prominently and frequently the brand comes to mind during buying situations, often tied to distinctiveness.	Ensures the brand is considered first in competitive categories; high salience boosts market share.	Top-of-mind awareness surveys, category entry point analysis, or mental availability metrics.
Brand Equity	The overall value added to a product/service by the brand, encompassing awareness, associations, loyalty, and perceived quality.	Represents financial and strategic strength; strong equity allows premium pricing and resilience to crises.	Composite scores from models like BrandZ or Interbrand, including financial valuation, loyalty rates, and preference metrics.
Brand Strength	The brand’s ability to withstand competition, maintain relevance, and drive performance metrics like growth and profitability.	Indicates long-term viability; weak strength leads to erosion over time.	Indices like BAV (Brand Asset Valuator) scores, market share stability, or innovation perception surveys.
Brand Loyalty	The degree of consumer commitment, repeat purchases, and resistance to switching to competitors.	Reduces acquisition costs and increases lifetime value; critical for sustainable revenue.	Retention rates, repeat purchase ratios, or loyalty program engagement data.
Brand Associations	The mental links consumers make with the brand (e.g., attributes, benefits, or imagery).	Shapes differentiation and emotional connections; strong associations enhance equity.	Association mapping surveys or word cloud analysis from consumer feedback.
Perceived Quality	Consumers’ judgment of the brand’s excellence relative to alternatives.	Directly impacts willingness to pay premiums; tied to trust and satisfaction.	Customer satisfaction scores (CSAT), ratings/reviews, or comparative surveys.

Is unaided awareness same as brand salience, isn’t it?

They are not same. They seem similar because both metrics deal with a brand’s presence in consumers’ minds without external prompts. Both are measured via surveys and focus on spontaneous consumer recall, making them feel overlapping.

However, Brand salience is broader. It includes not just whether the brand is recalled but how often and in what contexts it’s associated with a need or category. For example, Salesforce might have high unaided awareness as a CRM brand, but its salience is strengthened by being linked to multiple cues like “cloud solutions,” “automation,” or even its logo at a conference.

Whereas, Unaided Awareness is a component of brand salience that measures spontaneous recall. If a brand has high unaided awareness, it likely has strong salience in that category.

Key Differences in B2B Tech Context

In B2B tech (SaaS, enterprise software), the distinction is critical due to complex buyer journeys and high competition:

• Unaided Awareness: Crucial for early-stage companies (e.g., a new AI Hallucination tool) to gauge if they’re even on the radar. If buyers don’t name your brand when asked about “AI hallucination platforms,” you’re missing initial consideration. You measure by asking, “What brands come to mind for [category, e.g., cloud storage]?” Calculate the percentage naming your brand first or at all.
• Brand Salience: Vital for established players (e.g., Microsoft, HubSpot) to ensure they’re top-of-mind across diverse decision points, like when buyers search for “collaboration tools” or see a LinkedIn ad. Salience drives choice in long sales cycles. You measure using Category Entry Point (CEP) surveys (e.g., “What brand do you think of for [secure file sharing]?”) or track mental availability via frameworks like Ehrenberg-Bass. Analyze branded search volume or social mentions for cues.

Example: A B2B tech buyer might recall “Zoom” unaided when asked about video conferencing (high unaided awareness). But if “Zoom” also comes to mind when thinking of “remote work solutions” or seeing a blue camera logo, that’s strong salience.

How They Interact

• Unaided Awareness Feeds Salience: High unaided awareness is a prerequisite for strong salience. If buyers can’t recall your brand without prompts, it’s unlikely to be salient across buying contexts.
• Salience Amplifies Awareness: A brand with strong salience (linked to multiple cues like features, use cases, or emotions) reinforces unaided awareness over time, as it becomes embedded in memory. Salience is critical in long sales cycles where buyers research multiple solutions. A salient brand (e.g., Zoom for “video conferencing”) wins by being recalled at key decision points.

Nevertheless, we need to track both to gauge brand health. Low unaided awareness (<20%) signals a need for awareness campaigns; low salience suggests weak differentiation or cue association.

So What Your Investor Means by “Increase” and “Strengthen” the Brand

• Increase the Brand: This likely refers to expanding the brand’s reach and visibility, making it known to more potential customers and stakeholders. This aligns with boosting brand awareness (how many people know your brand) and brand salience (how often it’s recalled in buying contexts). In B2B tech, this means ensuring more decision-makers (e.g., CTOs, IT managers) recognize your brand when considering solutions.
• Strengthen the Brand: This focuses on deepening the brand’s value and differentiation, improving how it’s perceived and its ability to influence decisions. This ties to brand perception (positive attitudes and associations) and overall brand equity (the brand’s strategic and financial value). It means building a reputation for quality, innovation, or value, which supports higher pricing, customer retention, and investor appeal (e.g., for acquisitions or IPOs).

Your investor likely sees the brand as a growth lever: increasing awareness and salience drives leads and market share, while strengthening perception and equity builds long-term value, making the company more attractive for customers, partners, or future funding rounds.

Why These Brand Metrics Matter

Your investor likely wants to see:

• Growth Potential: Higher awareness and salience mean more leads and faster market penetration, critical for B2B tech startups scaling to compete.
• Customer Trust: Strong perception ensures prospects trust your solution, reducing churn and supporting premium pricing, which boosts revenue and valuation.
• Competitive Edge: A salient brand with positive perception stands out in RFPs or demos, increasing win rates and investor confidence in long-term profitability.
• Exit Strategy: A strong brand (high equity via awareness, perception, salience) makes your company more attractive for acquisitions (at premium valuation) or IPOs.