How to Measure a Brand's Impact on Society through Marketing Metrics?

By Kanika Mathur, Senior Partner at BOD Consulting, Go-to-Market and Brand Success Expert

Today, brands are gaining a competitive advantage by actively contributing to positive societal changes. However, the question arises: how does a brand gauge the impact of these initiatives on society?

Much like how brands meticulously assess the effects of their branding and marketing initiatives on consumers and communities, they can seamlessly apply a similar evaluative process to measure success in achieving their social goals.

To measure the impact your brand has had on society, you need to first clearly define your impact goals. Leading from these goals are the metrics. While the choice of metrics can vary based on specific goals, here are some important marketing metrics which can be leveraged to measure the impact a brand is making on society.

#1 Reach: One of the most fundamental metrics in marketing is reach. This measures the extent of your brand's visibility and exposure via KPIs such as impressions. The reach of your social initiatives can be measured by the number of individuals or groups who have directly benefited from your social programs, such as receiving access to education, healthcare, or job opportunities.

#2 Engagement: Marketeers measure the effectiveness of brand campaigns by measuring target audience engagement with content you put out on channels like social media! Here metrics such as Likes, shares, comments and follower growth would be key parameters for success.  High engagement with a social initiative indicates that your audience is interested in what you have to say and is more likely to become loyal advocates of your initiatives.

#3 Perception: Through focus groups, surveys and sentiment analysis you can generate insights on how your brand is perceived by consumers. Similarly, you can assess how your targeted social community perceives your social initiatives and whether the initiative builds a strong connection & response to actions the brand wants them to take.

#4. Brand Association: This metric assesses the qualities, values, and attributes that people associate with your brand. It helps identify whether your brand is perceived as innovative, trustworthy, or eco-friendly. For example, if Nike is associated with performance, a social brand needs to be associated with a stance they have taken on attributes that reflect their increased commitment to their impact on society. An example here is Dove - a real beauty. 

#5 ROI: In marketing, we calculate ROI by looking at cost per sale, cost per lead or cost per reach. Similarly, Social-ROI is a powerful metric that quantifies the social value created by your brand relative to the resources invested. For instance, if your brand runs a program that helps reduce CO2 emissions, you can calculate the monetary value of the emissions avoided and compare it to the cost of implementing and maintaining the program.

Tailoring brand metrics to align with specific social goals is a crucial aspect of a brand's strategy. By customising the metrics to reflect the impact on society, a brand can more accurately measure its contributions and effectiveness in areas such as environmental sustainability, community engagement, and social responsibility.