The beginning of a new year is always an exciting time full of energy, optimism, and motivation. We have 12 months ahead of us to achieve brand development goals in new and innovative ways. However, sometimes it’s difficult to harness all that energy and apply it in structured, organized ways. The ideas are there. The passion is there. But boiling it all down to clear next steps can prove challenging. So, to help jumpstart the planning process and establish an action-oriented framework, I’ve created a recommendation list of the top projects to consider as you pursue brand growth and evolution over the next year.
An important note before jumping into the list; these projects have been foundational aspects of business success for many years. In fact, you’ve likely conducted one or more of them in the past. But in 2025, we’re looking to level-up these initiatives with a forward-thinking approach and strategic creativity.
So, all that said, let’s get into my project recommendations for the new year.
1. Data Inventory Assessment
Most brands are sitting on a treasure trove of data-driven insights. Whether it’s performance tracking, sales history, or feedback surveys, there’s no shortage of customer information. With so much data swirling around, it can be tough to process it all. Not only from an analytical standpoint, but simply keeping things organized as well. As a result, these insights often become stagnant, siloed, fragmented, or simply underutilized over time. But just because it has been that way doesn’t mean it needs to stay that way.
This is where a Data Inventory Assessment comes into play. It’s about reviving those existing insights and leveraging “old data” in new ways. It also provides an opportunity to examine how data is being gathered, stored, reported, and applied today. With that, you can improve data-driven processes by building upon strengthens, identifying areas in need of attention, and ensuring your insights are having a meaningful impact moving forward.
As an example, imagine you’re preparing to launch a new market research project. Perhaps it’s a brand awareness and perception study, or a survey to capture feedback about the customer experience. Regardless of the brand development topic or objective, a great place to start is assessing your existing data inventory. When is the last time you conducted a similar market research project? What related insights do you already have? How have those insights been used – and by who? Explore what you already know today, and establish the impact that information is having across your business. This will help ensure any new project is capturing new and useful insights. It will help avoid duplicating what has already been done, or addressing research questions that already have answers. Furthermore, it will help uncover insights gaps and increase ROI from past projects by identifying dots to connect and building upon existing knowledge.
Rather than letting your existing data become stale and stagnant, conduct a Data Inventory Assessment to maximize the value of that resource.
2. Brand Awareness & Perception Study
To get where you want to go, start with a snapshot of where you are today. Think of it like mapping directions. In this case, you have a vision for who you want your brand to be – that’s the destination. And to find the most efficient route, you need to have a starting point. This is one of the main benefits of Brand Awareness and Perception Studies. It establishes where you stand within the minds of consumers today so that you can plan and strategize how to get where you want to be tomorrow.
Another benefit is marketing performance tracking. By gathering awareness and perception insights, you’ll have a benchmark of what people think, feel, and say about your brand. Then, after completing a targeted marketing campaign, you conduct the study again. Now you have apples-to-apples comparative data to gauge the impact of your brand messaging. With that information, you can tweak and adjust your content as needed to achieve your desired outcomes.
This is helping take the guesswork out of marketing and brand development. Rather than basing decisions on assumptions or deductive reasoning, you have hard facts and data-driven insights which will boost your confidence and agility when making key decisions.
3. Customer Journey Mapping
Over the years, this term has become a buzzword as businesses prioritize customer experience development. Which is great! But sometimes buzzwords lose their meaning and the basic concepts become convoluted. We’ve come across many brands who have all the pieces for a Customer Journey Map without even realizing it. So, this type of project likely won’t be starting from scratch.
While there are a number of different definitions for “Customer Journey Map,” it’s generally a visual outline of all the ways customers are interacting with your brand. By taking your omni-channel presence and building a detailed flow chart of when, where, and how you interact with an audience, it becomes easier to see how all the moving pieces fit together. You gain a better understanding of how each touch point influences the others. And strengthening your customer experience strategy becomes more streamlined because all the dots are connected in one place.
From a ground-level and tactical perspective, Customer Journey Mapping tremendously helps with brand development through things like content creation and personalization. You can insert a unique customer persona and follow along was they walk through their journey with your brand. By putting yourself in your customers’ shoes, you’ll see and think about the experiences you’re offering differently.
4. Customer Insights Strategy Building
This is by far the most important and impactful brand development project I recommend kicking off the new year. It’s one that should be completed before any other because it establishes a framework for success in all others. It ensures each new project you launch builds upon the last, yields meaningful progress, and it maximizes the value of all your resources.
Yes, each of the previous four projects can be conducted on their own and will have a positive impact. But there are two key points to consider. One, there is incredible value when multiple projects are connected to each other. When coordinated and combined, they will accelerate success timelines and uncover multi-dimensional insights that simply aren’t possible through an ad-hoc approach. Two, keeping your insights organized and accessible builds long-term value from short-term initiatives. By thinking and planning strategically, you’ll position yourself to be creating future value that may not even be on your radar today.
One of the best parts is, building a Customer Insights Strategy isn’t a complicated undertaking. It’s simply mapping out a series of projects, establishing how they can be tied together, and identifying where the resulting insights will be most useful. That said, while it’s not necessarily complicated, there is a right way of going about this. For nearly 40 years, we at MacKenzie have been honing our approach to building Customer Insights Strategies that directly align with the unique goals of our partner brands. So, if you’re interested in setting yourself up for long-term success in 2025 and beyond, we’d love to be part of that process!
From high-level strategic guidance to ground-level tactical support, we have a service package to fit your needs. But the first step is an exploratory discussion to see if we’d be the right fit. So, please feel free to send me a note or give me a call so we can schedule a time to chat. We’re passionate about empowering brands with the data-driven insights needed to achieve meaningful growth and evolution. And we’re ready to get started whenever you are.
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