Brand Is Behavior, Not Just Design
Coming from creative, I was always skeptical about measuring brand. I think a lot of us are. We’re trained to design with intention—but then asked to justify that intention with metrics we rarely have access to.
“How many downloads did that visual drive?”
“What was the ROI of the redesign?”
It’s no surprise we start to conflate brand with performance marketing. And when we do, brand loses. Because brand isn't just visuals. It’s not the color palette, the layout, or the tone of a social post. Those are expressions of brand—not the brand itself.
So if brand isn’t what we see, what is it? And more importantly—how do we prove it’s working?
Brand is meaning.
It’s the story people tell themselves about who you are and what you stand for. That story is shaped by every interaction someone has with your business. Over time, that meaning becomes perception.
And perception matters.
It builds trust. It accelerates decisions. It makes people care before they compare. But for any of that to happen, we need to stop treating brand like aesthetic—and start treating it like strategy.
Because when brand is working, it delivers real, tangible business value.
A strong brand reduces customer acquisition costs. When people already know and trust you, they don’t need to be sold from scratch. Harvard Business Review found that companies with strong brands enjoy up to 50% lower CAC than those without¹.
It shortens sales cycles. Strong branding removes uncertainty. When a prospect already feels familiar with your brand, the burden of proof is lower. McKinsey reports that B2B companies with strong brands can shorten sales cycles by **20–25%**². The more confidence your brand instills, the fewer slides it takes to get to “yes.”
It attracts better talent. People want to work for companies they admire. A brand with a clear mission, strong presence, and solid reputation pulls in stronger candidates. According to LinkedIn, companies with strong employer brands see 50% more qualified applicants, 28% lower turnover, and up to 50% lower cost-per-hire³. You're not just competing for customers—you’re competing for teams. Brand gives you the edge.
And once you’ve earned customers, brand helps you keep them. When people feel connected to a brand—when it delivers consistently and aligns with their values—they stick around. Edelman’s Trust Barometer shows that trusted brands see 2x the loyalty and 5x the advocacy compared to brands with low trust scores⁴.
Brand doesn’t just acquire. It compounds.
It also unlocks pricing power. When people believe in your brand, they’ll pay more for what it represents. Millward Brown found that high-equity brands can charge up to 20% more than competitors and still retain market share⁵. When trust is high, price sensitivity goes down.
All of this is real value—but only if we measure it that way.
Impressions and pageviews won’t tell the full story. Brand shows up in behavior.
So instead of measuring what was seen, start measuring what was believed—and how that belief changed what people did.
Start here:
Branded search volume — Are more people searching for you by name?
Direct traffic growth — Are people coming to you, unprompted?
Conversion rates on branded terms — Are those who know you more likely to act?
Sales cycle length — Are deals closing faster as brand recognition grows?
CAC efficiency — Are you spending less to acquire customers as brand strength increases?
Retention and referrals — Are customers sticking around and bringing others?
These are signals of trust. Signals of relevance. Signals of value.
Because your brand isn’t what you say it is—it’s what people believe it is.
And what they believe shapes how they behave.
That’s where the value is. That’s what we should be measuring.
Harvard Business Review, “The Brand Value of CX,” 2019
McKinsey & Company, “The Power of Brand in B2B Markets,” 2017
LinkedIn Talent Solutions, “Why Employer Branding Matters,” 2016
Edelman, Trust Barometer, 2023
Millward Brown, BrandZ: Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands, 2017