40+ Brand Health Survey Questions to Measure What People Really Think
Johannes
CEO & Co-Founder
13 Minutes
June 5th, 2026
Your marketing team believes your brand stands for innovation and trust. Your customers describe it as "kind of expensive" and "hard to reach." This gap between internal brand belief and external brand reality is not a marketing problem. It is a measurement problem. Brand health surveys exist to close that gap with data. They tell you what your market actually thinks, not what you hope it thinks.
What Brand Health Actually Measures
Brand health is not a single number. It is a set of dimensions that together describe how a brand lives in the minds of its market.
The six core dimensions are awareness (do people know you exist?), perception (what do they associate with you?), consideration (would they consider buying from you?), preference (do they prefer you over alternatives?), loyalty (do existing customers stick around?), and advocacy (do they recommend you?).
Each dimension is a separate diagnostic. A brand can score well on awareness and poorly on consideration. A brand can have high loyalty among existing customers and zero awareness among potential ones. The dimensions are independent enough that you need to measure all of them to know where the real problem is.
| Dimension | Core Question | What It Reveals |
|---|---|---|
| Unaided Awareness | "Which [category] brands can you name?" | Whether your brand occupies active mental space |
| Aided Awareness | "Have you heard of [Brand X]?" | Whether the brand is recognizable when prompted |
| Perception | "What three words describe [Brand X]?" | The associations, emotions, and attributes people attach to the brand |
| Consideration | "Which brands would you consider for your next [purchase]?" | Whether you are in the active buying set |
| Preference | "Which brand do you prefer most in [category]?" | Competitive positioning and purchase intent |
| Loyalty | "How likely are you to purchase from [Brand X] again?" | Retention signal from existing customers |
| Advocacy | "How likely are you to recommend [Brand X]?" | NPS, the summary metric for word-of-mouth potential |
Brand Health vs. Brand Tracking vs. Brand Equity
These three terms are used interchangeably but they mean different things. Getting clear on the distinctions helps you design the right measurement program.
| Term | What It Is | Time Frame | Primary Use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brand health | Current state of a brand across all key dimensions | Snapshot in time | Diagnostic: where are we right now? |
| Brand tracking | Repeated measurement of brand health over time using identical questions | Longitudinal (quarterly or monthly waves) | Trend analysis: are we improving or declining? |
| Brand equity | The economic value a brand adds beyond the product's functional attributes | Long-term | Strategic: what is our brand worth? |
Brand equity is the concept. Brand health is what you measure. Brand tracking is how you measure it repeatedly.
Kevin Lane Keller defined customer-based brand equity in his foundational 1993 paper in the Journal of Marketing as "the differential effect of brand knowledge on consumer response to the marketing of the brand." A brand has positive equity when consumers respond more favorably to marketing because of who the brand is, not just what the product does. Brand health surveys measure the inputs to that equity: awareness, associations, quality perceptions, and loyalty.
Keller's Brand Equity Model: Four Dimensions and Survey Questions
Keller's customer-based brand equity model (1993, Journal of Marketing, cited over 33,000 times) organizes brand equity into four progressive levels. Each level depends on the one below it. The model gives brand health surveys a rigorous theoretical backbone.
Level 1: Brand Salience (who are you?) This is the awareness layer. Can consumers recall and recognize the brand in various situations?
Survey questions that measure salience:
- "When you think of [category], which brands come to mind?" (unaided recall)
- "How familiar are you with [Brand X]?" (depth of awareness)
- "In which situations would [Brand X] come to mind?" (breadth of awareness)
Level 2: Brand Performance and Imagery (what are you?) Performance covers functional attributes: reliability, durability, service quality, price-quality ratio. Imagery covers psychological and social attributes: user imagery, usage situations, brand personality, brand heritage.
Survey questions that measure performance and imagery:
- "How would you rate [Brand X] on quality?" (performance)
- "How would you describe the type of person who uses [Brand X]?" (user imagery)
- "Which of these personality traits describe [Brand X]?" (brand personality)
Level 3: Brand Judgments and Feelings (what do I think and feel about you?) Judgments are rational evaluations: quality, credibility, consideration, and superiority. Feelings are emotional responses: warmth, fun, excitement, security, social approval, self-respect.
Survey questions that measure judgments and feelings:
- "How credible is [Brand X] in [category]?" (credibility)
- "How does [Brand X] make you feel?" (emotional response)
- "How superior is [Brand X] compared to alternatives?" (superiority)
Level 4: Brand Resonance (what about you and me?) Resonance is the ultimate goal: the relationship and level of identification consumers have with the brand. It has four components: loyalty (repeat purchase), attachment (attitudinal bond), community (sense of belonging), and engagement (active involvement).
Survey questions that measure resonance:
- "How likely are you to recommend [Brand X]?" (loyalty/advocacy)
- "Do you feel a personal connection to [Brand X]?" (attachment)
- "Do you consider yourself part of a community of [Brand X] users?" (community)
40+ Brand Health Survey Questions by Dimension
Each question includes a type label and a priority rating: Essential (core to any brand health tracker), Recommended (adds significant diagnostic value), or Nice-to-have (useful for deeper research).
Unaided Awareness (Questions 1-5)
Unaided questions must come first in your survey, before any brand names appear. The moment you name a brand, you have aided the respondent. Order matters.
1. When you think of [category], which brands come to mind? Type: Open-ended | Priority: Essential The most important question in brand health research. No prompts. Aggregate responses into a frequency table. Your "top-of-mind" percentage is the share of respondents who name you first.
2. Please list any other [category] brands you can think of. Type: Open-ended (follow-up to Q1) | Priority: Essential Captures the full unaided consideration set, not just first mention. The combined result from Q1 and Q2 is your total unaided awareness.
3. Which brand do you think of first when it comes to [key benefit, e.g., "reliability" or "value for money"]? Type: Open-ended | Priority: Recommended Tests attribute-specific top-of-mind awareness. Owning a specific attribute in your category is a different and often more valuable position than just general awareness.
4. If you had to recommend one [category] brand to a colleague today, which would it be? Type: Open-ended | Priority: Recommended Unaided advocacy question. More specific than general NPS because it places the respondent in a concrete recommendation scenario.
5. Which [category] brands would you consider the industry leaders? Type: Open-ended | Priority: Nice-to-have Measures perceived category leadership, which is distinct from personal preference. A brand can be perceived as a leader without being personally preferred.
Aided Awareness (Questions 6-9)
These questions follow the unaided block and may name brands explicitly.
6. Have you heard of [Brand X]? Type: Binary (Yes/No) | Priority: Essential The baseline aided awareness check. Pair with Q1 to measure the gap between unaided and aided recall.
7. How familiar are you with [Brand X]? Type: Likert (1-5: Not at all familiar to Extremely familiar) | Priority: Essential Depth of familiarity matters. Many people have "heard of" a brand but know nothing about what it does. This question distinguishes shallow recognition from genuine familiarity.
8. Which of the following brands have you heard of? (Select all that apply) Type: Multi-select with brand list | Priority: Essential Include your brand alongside 4-6 competitors. Randomize order across respondents to eliminate primacy effects.
9. Where did you first hear about [Brand X]? Type: Multiple choice: Social media / Search / Word of mouth / Advertising / News coverage / Colleague or peer recommendation / Never heard of it / Other Priority: Recommended First-touchpoint attribution for brand awareness. The answer is frequently different from what marketing attribution tools report because it captures organic and word-of-mouth channels that tools miss.
Brand Perception and Associations (Questions 10-19)
Perception questions are where brand health surveys go beyond simple tracking and into diagnosis. The language respondents use spontaneously tells you more than any attribute rating scale.
10. In three words, how would you describe [Brand X]? Type: Open-ended | Priority: Essential This is the most diagnostic question in a brand health survey. Aggregate responses across hundreds of respondents. Compare the top words your audience uses to the top words your brand says it stands for. The gap between those two lists is your brand positioning problem in concrete form.
11. How would you describe [Brand X] to a friend who had never heard of it? Type: Open-ended | Priority: Essential Tests whether your positioning has actually landed. Compare to your official positioning statement. If people consistently describe you in a way that contradicts your intended position, you have a messaging or delivery problem.
12. Which of these attributes describe [Brand X]? (Select all that apply) Type: Multi-select (Innovative / Trustworthy / Affordable / Premium / Reliable / Easy to use / Difficult to work with / Outdated / Confusing / Other) Priority: Essential Include negative attributes to avoid response bias. Respondents will select negative attributes if they apply. If you only list positives, you will miss critical perception problems.
13. How would you rate [Brand X] on the following attributes? Type: Rating scale (1-7) for each attribute: Overall quality / Value for money / Innovation / Customer service / Ease of doing business Priority: Essential The attribute ratings give you quantitative scores you can track over time and compare to competitors.
14. Compared to other [category] brands, how would you rate [Brand X]? Type: Single choice: Much better / Somewhat better / About the same / Somewhat worse / Much worse Priority: Essential Overall competitive positioning in a single question. Track the "much better" and "somewhat better" combined percentage over time.
15. How well does [Brand X] understand the needs of customers like you? Type: Likert (1-5: Not at all to Extremely well) | Priority: Recommended Customer-centricity perception. Important for B2B brands and for any brand competing on customer experience.
16. What do you like most about [Brand X]? Type: Open-ended | Priority: Recommended Identifies genuine strengths from the customer's perspective, which may be different from the strengths you emphasize in marketing.
17. What do you like least about [Brand X]? Type: Open-ended | Priority: Recommended The most actionable question in a brand health survey. Unaided criticism is more valuable than prompted satisfaction ratings because respondents name what actually bothers them.
18. Which [category] brand do you think is the most innovative? Type: Single choice from brand list | Priority: Recommended Competitive innovation perception. Ask the same question about quality, value, and service to build a competitive perception map.
19. If [Brand X] were a person, how would you describe them? Type: Open-ended | Priority: Nice-to-have Brand personality question. Surfaces emotional and personality associations that attribute lists often miss. Useful for brand identity work and creative briefing.
Brand Consideration and Purchase Intent (Questions 20-25)
20. Which [category] brands would you consider for your next purchase? Type: Multi-select from brand list | Priority: Essential The consideration set question. Your position in the active consideration set is often more predictive of purchase than awareness alone. Track what percentage of your category audience includes you in their consideration set.
21. How likely are you to consider [Brand X] for your next [purchase]? Type: Likert (1-5: Very unlikely to Very likely) | Priority: Essential Individual consideration intent. Ask this for your brand and each competitor to build a consideration comparison.
22. What would make you more likely to consider [Brand X]? Type: Open-ended | Priority: Recommended The most direct question you can ask about barriers to consideration. Answers frequently surface pricing concerns, feature gaps, trust issues, or simple lack of awareness about specific capabilities.
23. How likely are you to purchase [Brand X] in the next 3 months? Type: Likert (1-5: Very unlikely to Very likely) | Priority: Recommended Short-term purchase intent. Combines consideration and timing. Useful for connecting brand health data to near-term revenue forecasts.
24. Which factors would most influence your decision to choose [Brand X] over a competitor? Type: Multi-select (Price / Quality / Reputation / Recommendation from someone I trust / Previous positive experience / Features / Customer support / Other) Priority: Recommended Decision driver mapping. Reveals what actually converts consideration into purchase, which is often different from what brand messaging emphasizes.
25. Have you ever considered [Brand X] but chosen a competitor instead? Type: Binary (Yes/No) followed by open-ended: "If yes, why?" Priority: Nice-to-have Lost consideration question. Captures why you are in the set but not winning. This is highly specific data that most brand health surveys miss.
Brand Preference (Questions 26-28)
26. Which [category] brand is your first choice? Type: Single choice from brand list | Priority: Essential Brand preference, the most direct competitive ranking question. Your first-choice percentage among your target audience is one of the clearest indicators of brand strength.
27. If your preferred [category] brand were unavailable, which would be your second choice? Type: Single choice from brand list | Priority: Recommended Second preference reveals your real competitive set and where you pull from when people switch. It also indicates the competitive brands that most threaten your position.
28. How strongly do you prefer [Brand X] over other [category] brands? Type: Likert (1-5: No preference to Strong preference) | Priority: Recommended Preference intensity. A brand can rank first by preference but with weak intensity, which signals a fragile position. High intensity preference is much harder for competitors to dislodge.
Net Promoter Score and Advocacy (Questions 29-32)
29. How likely are you to recommend [Brand X] to a friend or colleague? Type: 0-10 NPS scale | Priority: Essential The standard Net Promoter Score question. Promoters (9-10) minus Detractors (0-6) equals your NPS. Track this metric quarterly as your primary advocacy benchmark. For more examples and context, see our guide to NPS question examples.
30. What is the main reason for your score? Type: Open-ended (follows Q29) | Priority: Essential The NPS follow-up is as important as the score itself. Promoter language tells you what to amplify. Detractor language tells you what to fix. Without this question, NPS is a number without a direction.
31. Have you recommended [Brand X] to someone in the past 12 months? Type: Binary (Yes/No) | Priority: Recommended Actual past advocacy, not just intent. A person who scores 9 on NPS but has never recommended you is a passive advocate. A person who scores 7 and has recommended you twice is more valuable. Both data points matter.
32. When you recommend [Brand X], what do you typically say? Type: Open-ended | Priority: Recommended Captures authentic word-of-mouth language. The phrases people actually use to describe your brand to others are often more compelling than any marketing copy.
Brand Trust and Credibility (Questions 33-37)
Research on consumer behavior consistently identifies trust as a primary driver of brand preference. Yoo and Donthu (2001, Journal of Business Research) found that perceived quality, measured through structured survey scales, is one of the strongest components of consumer-based brand equity alongside loyalty and brand associations.
33. How much do you trust [Brand X]? Type: Likert (1-5: Not at all to Completely) | Priority: Essential Overall trust is a summary metric for brand credibility. Trust declines are early warning signals of brand health problems before they show up in preference or purchase data.
34. How well does [Brand X] deliver on its promises? Type: Likert (1-5: Never to Always) | Priority: Essential Brand credibility as promise delivery. This is distinct from general trust. A brand can be trusted generally but still fail on specific promises.
35. How honest and transparent is [Brand X]? Type: Likert (1-5: Not at all to Extremely) | Priority: Recommended Transparency perception has become a significant brand equity driver, particularly for brands operating in regulated industries, healthcare, finance, and technology.
36. Would you feel comfortable recommending [Brand X] to someone who is new to [category]? Type: Binary (Yes/No) with optional open-ended follow-up | Priority: Recommended Comfort-based trust. This question surfaces whether respondents feel confident enough in a brand to put their personal credibility behind a recommendation.
37. How likely is [Brand X] to still be a leader in [category] in 5 years? Type: Likert (1-5: Very unlikely to Very likely) | Priority: Nice-to-have Future brand confidence. Tracks whether customers believe in the brand's long-term trajectory. Particularly useful for technology and innovation-driven brands.
Emotional Connection and Brand Differentiation (Questions 38-43)
38. How emotionally connected do you feel to [Brand X]? Type: Likert (1-5: Not at all connected to Extremely connected) | Priority: Recommended Emotional connection is a leading indicator of loyalty and advocacy. Brands with high emotional connection retain customers at higher rates and command price premiums. Keller's resonance model places attachment at the peak of brand equity.
39. How different is [Brand X] from other brands in [category]? Type: Likert (1-5: Not at all different to Extremely different) | Priority: Essential Perceived differentiation. A brand that is well-known but perceived as identical to competitors has a positioning problem. Differentiation scores that decline over time signal that competitors are closing the gap.
40. What makes [Brand X] different from its competitors? Type: Open-ended | Priority: Essential Unaided differentiation. Do not give options. The spontaneous language people use to describe your difference is your real competitive advantage, as long as it matches your intended positioning.
41. Does [Brand X]'s values align with your own? Type: Likert (1-5: Not at all to Completely) | Priority: Recommended Values alignment is a driver of emotional connection and brand loyalty, particularly among younger consumers and for brands in mission-driven categories.
42. How would you feel if [Brand X] no longer existed? Type: Single choice: Devastated / Disappointed / Neutral / Relieved / Happy Priority: Nice-to-have The "brand eulogy" question, adapted from qualitative brand research methodology. Devastated and Disappointed combined give you a measure of brand irreplaceability.
43. Which [category] brand has the best reputation? Type: Single choice from brand list | Priority: Recommended Reputation leadership by category. Compare against preference and consideration scores to identify whether reputation is translating into business outcomes.
The Awareness-Perception Disconnect: The Problem Most Brand Surveys Miss
Most brand health programs track awareness scores. Fewer look at the relationship between awareness and perception. This is a significant gap because the two can move in completely different directions.
A brand can have 70% aided awareness and deeply negative perception. People know the name and have strong feelings about it. That is a very different problem from low awareness.
The diagnostic question is: when awareness is high but consideration is low, is the gap driven by perception problems or availability problems?
Ask these two questions in sequence and compare the answers:
- "Have you heard of [Brand X]?" (aided awareness)
- "Would you consider [Brand X] for your next [purchase]?" (consideration)
If someone has heard of you but would not consider you, they either have negative associations, no associations at all, or a specific unresolved concern. The open-ended perception questions (Q10, Q11, Q17) are where you find out which.
A brand rebuilding after a reputational event needs to know that awareness is not the problem. Spending on awareness campaigns when the problem is perception is the most common waste in brand marketing budgets.
The "Words People Actually Use" Method
Standard brand surveys ask respondents to rate the brand on a list of attributes you provide: innovative, trustworthy, affordable, premium, and so on. This approach has a structural problem. You are measuring whether people agree with the words you chose, not what words they would choose themselves.
The open-ended three-word question (Q10) produces a completely different kind of data. When you aggregate 400 open-ended responses and find that the most common words are "expensive," "complicated," and "corporate," while your brand strategy says you stand for "accessible," "simple," and "human," you have a precise diagnosis, not a vague dissatisfaction score.
Run this analysis:
- Collect open-ended three-word responses at scale (minimum 200 respondents).
- Standardize synonyms (reliable, dependable, and trustworthy can be grouped).
- Count frequency and rank the top 10 words.
- Compare those 10 words to your brand's stated values and positioning pillars.
The gap between column A (what you say you are) and column B (what customers say you are) is your brand positioning problem stated in concrete, actionable language.
Competitive Brand Health Tracking: A Framework
Brand health measured in isolation is context-free. Knowing that 35% of your target market considers you does not tell you whether that is strong or weak unless you know that the category leader has 60% consideration and the brand you are trying to take share from has 28%.
Run competitive brand tracking by including your brand and 3-4 competitors in the same survey. Ask the identical questions about each brand.
How to structure competitive brand tracking:
- Select 3-4 competitor brands that your target buyers also evaluate.
- For each brand (including yours), ask: aided awareness, familiarity, consideration, preference, quality rating, and NPS.
- Rotate the order in which brands are presented to control for order bias.
- Use the same sample for every wave so you are comparing equivalent audiences over time.
Competitive brand health scorecard (example format):
| Metric | Your Brand | Competitor A | Competitor B | Competitor C |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aided Awareness | [track] | [track] | [track] | [track] |
| Familiarity (top 2 box) | [track] | [track] | [track] | [track] |
| Consideration | [track] | [track] | [track] | [track] |
| First Preference | [track] | [track] | [track] | [track] |
| Quality (top 2 box) | [track] | [track] | [track] | [track] |
| NPS | [track] | [track] | [track] | [track] |
Fill each cell from your survey data. Run this every quarter. Plot trends. When a competitor's consideration score rises sharply while yours stays flat, that is a signal, not noise.
How to Run a Brand Health Tracker
Step 1: Define what you are measuring Choose 8-12 questions that cover the dimensions relevant to your business stage. An early-stage brand needs heavy emphasis on awareness questions. A mature brand competing for preference needs stronger emphasis on differentiation and perception.
Step 2: Define your audience Brand health surveys should include non-customers and potential customers, not just existing users. Surveying only people who already chose you produces optimistic data. Include: current customers, lapsed customers, prospects who evaluated but did not buy, and general target market members who have never engaged with your brand.
Step 3: Set your sample size 300 to 500 respondents per wave is the minimum for statistically reliable trend detection. If you track multiple segments, 300 per segment. A wave of 400 total respondents split between customers and non-customers will give you enough data to compare the two groups and track combined trends.
Step 4: Lock your methodology The most important rule in brand tracking is consistency. Use the same questions, the same scale, the same question order, and the same sample frame for every wave. Changing any of these breaks comparability. You cannot compare a 5-point scale to a 7-point scale across waves.
Step 5: Set a cadence and stick to it Quarterly is standard. Monthly works for fast-moving categories or during active campaigns. Annual is the minimum for any meaningful tracking. The cadence matters less than the consistency.
Step 6: Build a reporting template Define the key metrics before you launch the first wave: top-of-mind awareness percentage, aided awareness, consideration rate, NPS, trust score, and primary competitive comparison. Build a dashboard that auto-populates each quarter. The template forces you to focus on signals rather than exploring new angles every wave.
Key Brand Health Metrics and Benchmarks
| Metric | How to Calculate | Strong Performance |
|---|---|---|
| Top-of-Mind Awareness | % of respondents who name your brand first in unaided recall | Category leader: 30-50%; Challenger: 10-20% |
| Total Unaided Awareness | % who name your brand at any point in unaided recall | 10-15% above top-of-mind score |
| Aided Awareness | % who recognize your brand from a list | 70%+ among target audience for established brands |
| Consideration | % who include your brand in their purchase consideration set | Varies widely; compare to competitors |
| First Preference | % who name your brand as their first choice | Category leaders: 25-40%; Challengers: 8-15% |
| Net Promoter Score | % Promoters minus % Detractors | Positive score; compare to industry benchmarks |
| Trust (top 2 box) | % who rate trust 4 or 5 on 5-point scale | 60%+ among familiar audience |
| Differentiation | % who rate brand as "very different" from alternatives | 30%+ is meaningful differentiation |
These benchmarks are directional. Category context matters significantly. A 20% first preference in a fragmented market with 50 competitors is very different from a 20% first preference in a duopoly.
Common Mistakes in Brand Health Surveys
Surveying only customers. If your sample is drawn entirely from your customer list, you are measuring the opinions of people who already chose you. That is useful for loyalty and NPS measurement but it will give you an inflated picture of awareness and perception. Include non-customers, prospects, and general population samples in your brand tracker.
Asking leading questions. "How much do you agree that [Brand X] is innovative?" is not a brand perception question. It is a leading question that anchors respondents to your preferred attribute. Use balanced scales and unprompted questions for perception measurement.
Changing questions between waves. The most common brand tracking mistake is adding new questions or modifying existing ones between waves. Any change breaks the trend line for that question. Create a permanent core tracker of 6-8 questions that never changes. Add new questions as a separate block labeled "exploratory."
Treating aided as equal to unaided. Aided awareness is easy to achieve. Most people will recognize a brand name when shown it. Unaided awareness is the metric that reflects actual market position. Track both but weight unaided awareness more heavily in your analysis.
Ignoring the consideration gap. Many brand health programs track awareness and NPS but skip consideration entirely. The consideration rate, the percentage of your target market who would include you in an active purchase decision, is often the most actionable gap between where you are and where you want to be.
Not including open-ended questions. Closed-ended rating scales tell you scores. Open-ended questions tell you why. A brand health survey with no open-ended questions misses the diagnostic value that makes the data actionable.
For more context on building customer research programs, see our guides on voice of customer, market research survey questions, and customer experience survey questions.
Free Brand Health Survey Template
Stop guessing what customers think about you. Formbricks is a free, open-source survey tool that lets you run brand health trackers, perception surveys, and competitive brand studies, with no engineering lift.
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- Sign up at formbricks.com (free, no credit card required)
- Choose a survey template or build from scratch
- Target your audience (customers, prospects, or the general market)
- Launch, track, and compare brand health over time
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