Stop asking whether they like it

Every bad brand review I have ever sat in eventually arrives at the same question, and it’s the worst question in the business.

“Do you like it?”

That question has no axis. There’s nothing to be more or less of, so the answer can only ever be a preference, and a room full of preferences gets settled by whoever’s most senior. You didn’t run a process. You found out what the highest-paid person wanted rather than the best choice forward.

Design and branding get a bad rap as being something that cannot be objectively measured, and I disagree. You can measure anything. You just have to have a process for taking something that is subjective and setting a spectrum to be measured against.

Here’s how to actually do it with an example from a client of ours, MentorCruise, testing a homepage and ads.

1. Name the feeling

Not “better.” Not “modern.” The actual feeling you want a stranger to walk away with, two or three words, decided before anyone opens a design tool.

For MentorCruise, that was: more luxurious, more wise, and still approachable. A mentorship marketplace is selling access to somebody who’s been where you’re trying to go, and that’s the feeling underneath the sale.

One test for a good adjective: the opposite has to be something a reasonable brand might actually want. Calm works, the opposite is energetic and plenty of brands should be energetic. “Trustworthy” doesn’t, because nobody’s going for untrustworthy. That’s not a scale, it’s a compliment, and it’ll tell you nothing.

2. Run the comparison.

Three ways to do it, pick whichever apply.

Internal directions, head-to-head.

If you’ve got two or three concepts on the table, put them against each other on the named scale before anyone picks by vibe. MentorCruise wanted to do this with an updated version of their current branding and a newer idea that we were proposing.

Current brand vs. new brand.

Your existing site next to the direction you’re proposing. This is the one that tells you whether the money did anything, and it’s the one everyone’s most tempted to skip.

We didn't do this one with MentorCruise because they were dead set on improving the design and, since we had one direction that was a newer evolution of their current branding, it didn't make sense for them.

But, it does make sense if you are going cold turkey from your current branding to something else, especially if your current branding is earning money.

You vs. the competition.

Your work next to the three or four companies you actually lose deals to. This tells you whether the movement matters in the market you’re fighting in.

The method’s the same each time: forced choice, five seconds, one question at a time. “Which one feels more luxurious.” Never a one-to-ten scale, ratings drift and forced choices don’t.

What that actually produced

With MentorCruise, it took about five people to see a clear, repeating signal.

The newer, more interesting direction won. Against the old brand and against the competitive set.

Then it went further than a perception test, which is the part that actually closes the argument. It got A/B tested, real traffic, a real conversion outcome. The direction won that too.

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The scary thing about undergoing a rebrand that people ask is, will it work? And I don't think many designers and creatives have a good answer for this. This is mine, and it's two phases of how to objectively measure your brand before you throw everything that was previously earning you money, out for good.

Name the feeling. Run the comparisons. That’s an objective measurement of your branding endeavor.

— Zach 😎