A recently rebranded public media organization was looking to identify and benchmark key brand KPIs to gauge general familiarity, brand associations, degree of differentiation among competitors, and perceived relevance among locals from across their service area. In order to answer these questions, City Square Associates designed and fielded a brand benchmarking study in 2020 that identified key metrics and data points that could be used to judge the relative strength of the media organization’s brand and sub-brands.

Since media markets and public perceptions generally evolve over time, however, City Square Associates designed and fielded a follow-up study two years later in order to track the organization’s performance on key brand metrics and gauge the impact of newly implemented strategic directions such as the national distribution of existing media properties, the acquisition of a weekly publication, the intentional development of news as a sub-brand, and recently hosted events in the community.

Like the first benchmarking study, the tracking research consisted of a quantitative survey of two distinct populations: A general population sample of 18+ adults carefully curated by our trusted panel partners and a member and e-newsletter list consisting of members, donors, and e-newsletter subscribers with a closer connection to and awareness of the organization’s brand identity.

Among the key takeaways from the research were that the organization’s intentional investments in community and development since the 2020 study were having a positive effect. General brand perceptions had improved across the board. Local content and journalism were among the key differentiators. And there were significant improvements in brand health, especially among African-Americans, young adults, and political conservatives—all key demographics in the local market.