Why Most Brand Tracking Is Underperforming (and What to Do About It)

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The tracker’s running, the board’s got their chart, and the agency’s got their deck. Job done… right?

Wrong. And it’s costing you.

Brand tracking has quietly drifted into autopilot mode. A routine. A recurring line in the budget. Another link in the insight-to-nowhere chain. Ask many marketing or insight leader if they feel their tracker is truly shaping smarter, bolder decisions, and the answer is often a sigh. Or worse: a shrug.

Because here’s the hard truth – a lot of brand trackers are underperforming.

Not broken. Not pointless. But nowhere near their potential.

The Disconnect That No One Talks About

Behind the scenes, there’s tension.
In team retros, leaders admit they can’t see how tracking connects to campaign performance. In planning meetings, insight teams struggle to get traction for the rich findings they do uncover. And in pitch decks, trackers are increasingly treated as background scenery, not front-line strategy.

If you’re a CMO, Strategy Director, or Head of Insight, you’ve probably felt the same. That creeping suspicion that you're sitting on data that’s interesting, but not useful. The gap between brand tracking and business impact is growing - and it’s becoming harder to defend the spend.

So, What’s Going Wrong?

Here’s the kicker: it’s not the principle of brand tracking that’s failing. It’s the way we’ve let it become passive.

1. It’s often built for status, not strategy.
Most trackers have become a form of reputation management. They show you where you stand, not what to do next.

2. It’s full of KPIs that don’t challenge.
Awareness, consideration, preference - yes, they matter. But they tell you very little about how to grow, what to change, or why people choose (or ignore) your brand.

3. It’s rarely built around decisions.
Marketing leaders need to know what messages to push, where to dial up investment, how to shift perception in real time. Brand tracking should be the engine behind those decisions instead of a passive mirror of performance.

What Happens When You Get It Right?

Let’s flip the lens. Imagine a tracker that helps you…

- Pinpoint which mental associations your brand owns (and where you’re invisible).

- Track the emotional hooks that drive recall in key buying moments.

- Test real content, images and claims, not just funnel metrics.

- Feed the entire business - from CX to product to strategy - with directional evidence.

Now you’ve got a strategic tool. One that works hard for every team, not just for quarterly reporting.

But First... Be Honest About the Problem

You don’t need to throw out your tracker. But you do need to interrogate it. Ask:

- Is this helping us make smarter, braver marketing decisions?

- Are we learning something new each wave? Or are we just watching trendlines?

- Do the outputs land with the people who need them most?

- Is the business taking action? Or are we still presenting slides to polite silence?

If the answer’s no, then it’s not about spending more. It’s about rethinking the brief.