If there was an idiom to best describe the importance of market research tracking for your business or brand it would be this one:

“If something is worth doing, it’s worth doing well.”

Tracking research refers to market research studies that are repeated over time to track a set of KPIs or other metrics to provide a holistic overview of how your business or organisation is perceived and how effective any changes you enact are. It can take the form of consumer sentiment studies around your product or services, measuring the effectiveness of marketing campaigns or mapping changes in community attitudes or behaviours.

Over our eighteen plus years of operation, Square Holes has stewarded a number of tracking services for a wide range of clients and outcomes. Here are some of the kinds of trackers that could help you to gain a clearer picture of where your business or organisation is headed:

Brand Health Tracker

A brand heath tracker is used to measure and assess the overall health and performance of a brand over time. It helps businesses and organisations understand how their brand is perceived in the market, how it compares to competitors, and how it resonates with consumers. The main purpose of a brand health tracker is to provide valuable insights that can inform marketing strategies, improve brand positioning, and enhance overall brand equity. Square Holes have worked with South Australian institution Haigh’s Chocolates since 2015 to build a comprehensive picture of how the brand is perceived, while also tracking consumer reflections on marketing strategies.

Fiona Krawczyk, Marketing Manager at Haigh’s Chocolates says that their yearly tracker enables the company to keep their finger on the pulse of public perception.

“I wanted the ability to check in on our brand health at least once a year. That allows us to not only look at our brand awareness, but also the general health of the brand and how the online part of the business is travelling. And then a part of this evolved into developing a company-wide KPI,” says Krawczyk.

Another brand utilising longitudinal tracking to evolve their output is Jones Radiology, who have worked with Square Holes since 2017.

Professor Susan O’Neill, Chief Executive Officer, Jones Radiology says that this extensive data has enabled her build a solid vision for the future while the organisation rebranded in 2023.

“The practice was looking to refresh our strategy to reflect a new phase in their business. The work that had been done through Square Holes, provided me with a very comprehensive story of the past, present and the emerging trends which we need to be mindful of as we consider the future,” says Professor O’Neill.

Customer Tracker

A customer tracker is designed to monitor and track the behaviour, preferences, and satisfaction levels of a company’s customers over time. It is a crucial component of customer relationship management and provides businesses with valuable insights into their customer base, enabling them to make informed decisions, improve customer experiences, and enhance customer loyalty.

Square Holes has partnered with the Adelaide Film Festival (AFF) since 2008 to track community engagement with the broader festival on a yearly basis. This research has provided AFF with the data to refine and hone their offering, as well as substantiate the cultural and economic impact of the festival to their stakeholders.

“One of the things that Jason and I’ve talked about is longitudinal observation. There is quite a body of data there now, and what I’m interested in doing is bringing together the market research that Square Holes has done against our ticketing data that we’ve gathered internally and really drill in and look at the correlations between things. I think if we drill into it, we can get some really powerful insights as to who our audiences are and where potential audiences may come from, and what is actually of genuine value to the community,” says Mat Kesting, AFF Creative Director.

With more than 50,000 students across 103 Catholic schools in the state, Catholic Education South Australia (CESA) decided to undertake a fortnightly tracking program in order to gain a deeper understanding of how they are viewed by departing? families.

Uby Faddoul, Strategy Coordinator, CESA says that the market research tracking conducted by Square Holes helps CESA in defining their key points of difference in a highly competitive sector.

“It provides us with information which can then assist to drive decision making strategically as a system of schools. If we hear messages consistently, then we are able to put in place measures, controls, policies, and practices that ensure those things are attended to as a system. It’s a smarter way for us to operate than operating in a silo of one school’s challenges, issues or wins at a time. We try and get a look at the broad sector, and this data provides us with the right information to help our decision making,” says Faddoul.

Advertising Tracker

An advertising tracker is used to monitor and measure the effectiveness of advertising campaigns over time. It helps businesses and advertisers assess the impact of their marketing efforts, understand how well their advertisements resonate with the target audience, and make data-driven decisions to optimise their advertising strategies.

As a part of Zoos SA strategic plan, they have conducted annual research through Square Holes to both measure key performance indicators and assess the impact of their marketing efforts.

“It’s very tangible, specific data, that helps us develop the stories that we want to tell in our marketing, and our social media, et cetera. Otherwise, you’re making decisions based on anecdotes, and that can be misleading…It helps you keep a finger on the pulse for perceptions in a really genuine sense,” says Elaine Bensted, Chief Executive at Zoos SA.

Behavioural Tracker

A behavioural tracker is used to monitor consumer behaviour as well as mapping changes in community attitudes or behaviours. These scenarios cover various aspects, ranging from brand research focused on understanding shifts in shopping behaviour due to online options, to government efforts aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of social messaging in reducing undesirable behaviours like smoking, speeding, or consuming less fat and sugar.

Square Holes has run our own mind and mood study from 2013 to track how South Australian’s feel about their financial security, confidence in the future, and general mental health and well being among other themes. These studies became particularly illuminating during the onset of Covid-19 to explore how the worldwide pandemic event was affecting our community.

Jason Dunstone, Founder and Managing Director of Square Holes says that the importance of tracking can be defined as a future-proofed map of the way forward for your brand or organisation.

“On-going tracking can provide profound insights that help an organisation to understand the issues and strengths at the heart of their service. This sort of investment into your organisation or brand can help to map your way into the future with confidence and assertiveness.”

Want to learn more about market research tracking and how it can help your business/organisation? Head here.