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When and why should you audit your brand in the QSR industry

When and why should you audit your brand in the QSR industry
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When and why should you audit your brand in the QSR industry

December 23, 2022 7-Minute read

As a QSR brand in the zestful quick-service restaurant industry, you are bound to face a few difficult situations; situations where you are forced to reimagine your QSR brand’s entire foundation to understand what could be going wrong. The QSR industry goes through many challenges in this ever-active market where every QSR competitor seems to be trying the same things to stand tall and maintain its reputation in the QSR market. Therefore it is essential to create a QSR brand or a food and beverage brand that is entirely yours and can be used by your QSR and food and beverage customers to not only relate but also use to distinguish you from the rest of your food and beverage customers. That is when food and beverage brand audits come into place. If your QSR brand is going through a tough time with low business, low customer retention, decrease in sales and revenue then this may be the perfect time for you to start looking at hiring a leading customer experience company that can advise you on how to take on a QSR brand audit to help sustain your business and breathe life back into the QSR business and administer it to perfection. Building on your brand, making it strong while simultaneously focusing on making sure every aspect of your brand guidelines and brand manual is being followed is vital for you to sustain. And as we have witnessed the culture of QSR brand guidelines getting diluted in the light of continuous business and focus on sales; you may be looking at a long-term challenge in the QSR industry with a certain loss in business and reputation if you do not act now.

What can a QSR brand audit achieve?

  • Brand awareness and the current position of your QSR brand
  • Visual marketing status of your QSR brand
  • Potential customers or target audience
  • Effectiveness of the product catalogue
  • Customer satisfaction level and QSR user experience
  • Worthwhileness of marketing strategies
  • Assessment and durability of long-term goals

So, why is QSR brand audit important?

A food and beverage brand audit is administered to find out where your QSR business is lacking and how it can build itself back up in the eyes of the customer. To quickly understand, here are some benefits of brand audit in the QSR industry:

  • Aids you in assessing your company's strategy and take timely decisions on customer experience and brand strategies that need to be worked upon
  • Allows you to assess your QSR product and QSR service’s strengths and weaknesses and advantages and disadvantages
  • Aids you in better to aligning your services and products with customer expectations
  • Allows you to stay relevant on customer attitudes and current trends in the QSR industry (both favourable and unfavourable)
  • Helps you in targeting the right demographic
  • Revisits your QSR brand positioning in the QSR market
  • Helps you in improving your QSR brand, QSR products and QSR services

One could take a QSR brand audit as a hygiene check to over look any potential losses or dangers in the market. Unlike other strategies, this customer experience strategy not only shows you what works it also gives you an idea of your own weaknesses.

A QSR brand audit is done, usually, once a year and hence many believe it is not that necessary. However, to help you understand, let us take you through why you should consider a QSR brand in the QSR industry although you may have heard otherwise!

Market assessment:

To limit market assessment to once a year can be beyond regrettable because of the sheer competition in the market that wants to replace you as the best QSR brand. As days go by, the market changes. Those that can incorporate and adapt stay in the line and those that cannot, are simply forced to leave the QSR market. Take technology, for example, we have come across many companies that did the right thing by adapting to the market’s needs and evolving with the different formats and technologies that were introduced. Netflix and Blockbuster were in the same market and two of the biggest competitors when Netflix was still mailing DVDs. While Netflix adapted to the internet and technologies to become the brand that it is today Blockbuster is a brand that simply disintegrated by not incorporating new changes.

On the other hand, a professionally done QSR brand audit can also find out the status of your QSR competitors and the actions being taken by your QSR competitors which is critical to your growth. You as a leading QSR brand in the QSR industry must be ready to make changes as your QSR competitor does, so you are never a step behind them.

Catalogue changes:

Changing your catalogue once in a while is necessary. Irrespective of how much of what your QSR customers are enjoying you should be able to add new products and remove old-unsold products as and when time comes. Brand audits find out what your catalogue could be lacking and help you make a decision based on trends running at that particular time in the market.

Setting expectations:

More often than not your QSR brands may be running campaigns, online and offline, that sounds good theoretically but when it comes to practicality they seem to not be working out in your favour. In fact, you start losing money as opposed to gaining any from campaigns. These are clear indications that your brand could do with some brand auditing in QSR industry from the leading customer experience companies present in the market today.

Does that make your decision on whether or not you should hire a good customer experience company as a method to overcome challenges in the food and beverage industry through food and beverage company brand audit easier? Sonata CX can help you get through all your losses, continuous market developments and blockages to achieve customer satisfaction, cater to customer needs and also increase revenue and sales altogether through brand audits in the QSR industry.

Our CX solutions are focused on transforming the total customer experience through surveys, metrics, analytics and auditing by using the CXM framework to combine physical measurements with digital Platformation™ capabilities. We are committed to finding the right customer experience strategy that can lead to a competitive advantage.

Sonata CX is a global technology company specializing in customer experience CX measurement, platform-based digital transformation, supporting businesses to become connected, open, intelligent and scalable. Global coverage of more than 105 markets with over 27 years of market leadership through extensive measurement capabilities, powerful and intuitive reporting and analytics platforms give us the leverage to improve customer experience. It has presence across USA, Canada, EMEA and APAC regions. If you would like to know more about how we can assist you, please fill out the business enquiry form below.