How to Run Brand Perception Surveys That Reveal What Customers Really Think

Your brand exists in the minds of your customers, not in your brand guidelines. There's often a gap between how you want to be perceived and how you're actually perceived. Brand perception surveys close that gap by measuring awareness, sentiment, associations, and competitive positioning from the customer's perspective.

But traditional brand surveys have a fundamental flaw: they prompt. When you ask "Do you associate our brand with innovation?" you're planting the association. The respondent agrees because it seems reasonable, not because they actually think of you as innovative. The survey creates the perception it's supposed to measure.

Koji's conversational approach solves this by using open-ended, unaided questioning first, then layering in aided metrics. The AI naturally probes for associations without planting them.

What Brand Perception Surveys Measure

Brand Awareness

• Unaided awareness: "When you think of [category], which brands come to mind?" Your brand's position in the list (and whether it appears at all) is your unaided awareness.
• Aided awareness: "Have you heard of [brand]?" Binary recognition after prompting.
• Top-of-mind awareness: First brand mentioned in unaided recall. The ultimate awareness metric.

Brand Associations

What attributes, feelings, and qualities people connect with your brand. "What words come to mind when you think of [brand]?"

Brand Sentiment

Overall positive/negative/neutral feeling toward the brand. Both measured (scale) and explored (conversation).

Competitive Positioning

Where you sit relative to competitors on key attributes. Who wins on quality? Price? Innovation? Trust?

Brand Loyalty

How committed customers are to your brand. Would they switch? Under what conditions?

Building Brand Perception Studies with Koji

Phase 1: Unaided Exploration (Critical: do this BEFORE any brand mention)

Q1: Category Awareness (Open-ended) "When you think of [category, e.g. customer research tools], which brands or products come to mind?"

• Probing depth: 2
• AI instruction: "Let them list freely. Then ask about each brand mentioned: Why did that one come to mind? Don't mention any specific brands."

Q2: Category Needs (Open-ended) "What matters most to you when choosing a [category product]?"

• Probing depth: 2
• Captures unaided attribute importance

Phase 2: Aided Brand Evaluation

Q3: Brand Familiarity (Single Choice) "How familiar are you with [your brand]?"

• Options: Never heard of it / Heard the name / Know what they do / Have used it / Regular user
• Route: If "Never heard of it," skip to Q8 (awareness gap data is still valuable)

Q4: Brand Associations (Open-ended) "When you think of [your brand], what words or phrases come to mind?"

• Probing depth: 2
• AI instruction: "Explore each association. What made them think that? Is it from personal experience, word-of-mouth, marketing, or reviews?"

Q5: Brand Sentiment (Scale, 1-10) "Overall, how favorably do you view [your brand]?"

• Labels: 1 = "Very unfavorable", 10 = "Very favorable"
• Anchor probing: "You gave a [score]. What drives that feeling?"

Q6: Key Attributes (Ranking) "Rank these qualities in terms of how well [your brand] delivers on each:"

• Options: Quality / Value for money / Innovation / Ease of use / Trust / Customer support
• Probing: AI explores the top-ranked and bottom-ranked attributes

Q7: Competitive Comparison (Open-ended) "How does [your brand] compare to alternatives you've used or considered?"

• Probing depth: 3
• AI instruction: "Get specific comparisons. Where does the brand win? Where does it lose? Don't lead toward positive comparisons."

Phase 3: Forward-Looking

Q8: Improvement (Open-ended) "If you could change one thing about [your brand], what would it be?"

• Probing depth: 1

Q9: Recommendation (Scale, 0-10 / NPS) "How likely are you to recommend [your brand] to a colleague?"

• Doubles as NPS data for brand health tracking

Brand Tracking: Longitudinal Studies

Run the same study quarterly to track:

• Awareness trend: Is unaided awareness growing?
• Association shift: Are your brand-building efforts changing perceptions?
• Sentiment trajectory: Is overall favorability improving?
• Competitive movement: Are you gaining or losing ground on key attributes?

Koji's trend reporting automatically compares results across waves, highlighting statistically significant changes.

Best Practices

Always start unaided

Never mention your brand before asking about category awareness and needs. Unaided responses are far more valuable than aided ones for strategic decisions.

Sample from non-customers too

Brand perception isn't just about current customers. Include prospects, lost deals, and category-aware non-users. Each segment tells you something different:

• Customers: Are we living up to our promise?
• Prospects: What's preventing conversion?
• Lost deals: Where did we fall short?
• Non-users: Do they even know we exist?

Measure what matters for your strategy

Don't try to measure every possible brand attribute. Focus on 3-5 attributes that are central to your positioning strategy. If you're positioning on innovation and ease of use, measure those specifically.

Combine with messaging testing

After understanding current perceptions, test new messaging with the same audience. Koji can run a two-part study: measure current perception, present new messaging, measure again.

Why Koji Is Ideal for Brand Research

Traditional brand tracking tools (Brandwatch, Qualtrics, YouGov) use structured surveys that plant associations. Koji's conversational approach:

• Uncovers authentic associations through unaided, open-ended conversation
• Probes the "why" behind sentiment instead of just collecting a favorability score
• Captures competitive intelligence through natural comparison conversations
• Scales to large samples without sacrificing conversational depth
• Supports multi-language studies for global brand research (30+ languages)
• Voice interviews capture emotional nuance that text surveys miss

Brand perception is fundamentally about understanding how people feel and think about you. A conversation reveals that far better than a survey form.