30 questions every brand should ask itself

You can tell a brand is working by what happens around it.

A campaign that gets people talking. A customer who keeps coming back. A new starter who can explain what the company stands for by the end of their first week.

Here are 30 questions every brand should ask itself.

Write your own answers first, then ask your team. Where the answers match, you have something to build on. Where they don't, you've found where to start.

If any of these make you pause, that's worth a conversation. Drop me an email tom@wearethought.co

Brand positioning questions

Positioning is a choice: what you want to be famous for, and what you're happy to leave to someone else. These questions test whether that choice has been made.

1. What's the one thing you want to be famous for?

2. What was the original spark behind the business? And is it still alive today?

3. What would your customers miss most if you disappeared tomorrow?

4. Who exactly are you for, and who are you prepared to lose?

5. What did you say no to this year because it was wrong for the brand? And what did you learn?

Questions about your customers

A brand lives in two places: the moments people think of you, and how easily they can act on it. These questions test how well you know both.

6. In which moments do you want people to think of you? When do they actually?

7. In their daily lives, how easy are you to find and buy?

8. What would it take to win a customer from a competitor?

9. What has changed about your customers in the last three years, and what needs to change to keep growth moving?

Reputation and culture

Famous brands get talked about, recognised and recommended. These questions look at what people say when you're not in the room.

10. When did someone last recommend you without being asked?

11. When customers recommend you, what do they actually say?

12. What would your brand detractors say about you? How fair is it?

13. When did your brand last give people something worth talking about?

14. What part of culture does your brand belong to? Be honest.

Competitor questions

Every category has someone setting the pace. It helps to know who they are, what they offer and how you are different.

15. Why do people choose a competitor over you? What's the rational reason, and what's the emotional one?

16. Who is setting the agenda in your category right now, and why is it working for them?

17. What can’t your competitors copy from you? Are you making the most of it?

Commercial questions

A strong brand shows up in the numbers: in what people will pay, and in what this year's budget builds for next year. These questions connect the brand to the P&L.

18. What does the business need the brand to deliver in the next 12 months?

19. What do you regret cutting this year? What can you learn from that?

20. What say or influence do you have over price? How aligned is that with marketing and sales?

21. How is your budget split between building the brand and driving short-term sales, and is that balance right?

22. Where will next year's growth come from: new customers, or existing ones buying more?

23. How would your sales and commercial team describe their relationship with you?

Internal questions: can your team explain the brand?

A brand is built by every team that makes decisions, from product to finance to customer service. These questions test how far it reaches beyond marketing.

24. Ask five people in your business what the brand stands for. Would you get one answer?

25. Does the most junior person in your team understand the Strategy? Do they understand their role in executing that Strategy?

26. Which product or service fits the brand least well? How can you influence change?

27. Where does the view of your brand least match your own?

Brand measurement questions

What a business reports tends to shape what it does. These questions check whether the brand counts when decisions get made.

28. What does an AI platform say about you? Have you asked?

29. What do you measure that nobody acts on?

30. Does your board trust how you measure the brand?

Using these questions in a brand workshop

I frequently run workshops using these questions.

Everyone answers a section on their own before anyone discusses it. Then you put the answers side by side and spend the time on the gaps.

Want them as a pack of cards for your team? Email me and I'll send you a set.

If any of these questions made you pause, that's worth a conversation. And if you try them, I'd like to hear how you got on. Email tom@wearethought.co.