AMPERAGE Marketing & Fundraising

ServicesPlanning & StrategyCBAS & Brand Perception Studies: Which Type of Research is Right for You?

Subscribe to AMPERAGE Marketing & Fundraising

CBAS & Brand Perception Studies

CBAS & Brand Perception Studies: Which Type of Research is Right for You?


“Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.”

CBAS & Brand Perception StudiesThe statement above is attributed to Jeff Bezos, CEO and founder of Amazon. And he’s right—your brand is so much more than a well-designed logo and well-placed advertising. Your brand is a promise to your constituents. Are you delivering on your brand promise? How do you know for sure?

Understanding and measuring your brand’s value is an essential part of any brand strategy. How do consumers perceive your brand? Do perceptions of your brand align with the position you want to portray? Strategic brand research can help you answer these questions, and more. But what type of research should you conduct? Over the years, we’ve developed two primary methodologies designed to collect the information you need—Comprehensive Brand Alignment Surveys (CBAS) and Brand Perception Surveys.

What’s the difference between the two surveys? First, CBAS use qualitative research (in-depth interviews), while Brand Perception Studies use quantitative research (online or phone surveys). Each of these research methods have distinct benefits:

  • Qualitative research introduces the human factor and takes the study beyond faceless statistics. You’re interacting with a smaller group of people, but this humanistic approach allows you to look deep into the minds of your stakeholders.
  • Quantitative research is where statistics come into play. By interacting with a large group of people, you’re able to use statistics to generalize a finding and project it onto the broader population.

Second, each survey is designed to measure different brand attributes. CBAS provide insights about how your brand position, personality and differentiation are regarded by people important to you and your success. Brand Perception Surveys help you understand your brand’s value as determined by consumers’ positive or negative attitudes as they relate to your brand. You get a comprehensive look at consumers’ perceptions about, experiences with and attitudes toward your organization.

And finally, due to the nature of the qualitative and quantitative research methods being used, each survey is designed to measure the information differently. CBAS use a combination of open ended, scoring and metaphorical questions to capture the language and imagery consumers use to relate to your brand, while Brand Perception Studies are designed to capture data more numeric in nature by asking multiple choice, true/false and ranking/rating questions.

Separately, each of these research methods provide you with the dynamic results you need to strategically position your organization in the marketplace and overcome any perceived shortcomings, but together, they are an electrifying combination, designed to maximize your return on investment and move your needle. And, perhaps the greatest benefit of brand research, each person surveyed will become better educated about you.

Written by:

Mark wrote his first direct-mail fundraising letter in 1981 for the University of Iowa Center for Advancement. The effort raised a few million dollars in undiscovered wills and legacy gifts. From that day forward Mark discovered a love of the big idea that moves the needle. After 12 years at KWWL, Mark became a business owner as a co-founder of ME&V — rebranded as AMPERAGE in 2015. After 25 years of leading creative teams in video production, graphic design, PR, writing and web development, Mark transitioned out of ownership in 2021. Today he serves in an employee role as special projects consultant. He is creatively ambidextrous — son of an artist and engineer — and famous for distilling complex ideas down to a few words and a few visuals. Mark is a writer. When he found that many nonprofits struggled with complex branding puzzles, he wrote the book, “NonProfit-NonMarketing .” He also wrote a novel called “Reenactment.” Mark is an active blogger OneMinuteMarketer® with nearly 1,000 readers each week on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter. One of his most popular YouTube videos is on “How to Look Good on Zoom.” One of Mark’s fondest business memories was being named to INC 500 two times and attending the INC 500 conference with other winners. Mark is considered by some a Civil War expert (and that explains his novel). Mark also served as an adjunct professor in the business and in the communications departments at Wartburg College. Mark is a graduate of the University of Iowa and is currently vice president of the University of Iowa Journalism and Mass Communications Advisory Board. Mark is married to state Sen. Liz Mathis, and the two love to travel, even when it means being trapped by a volcano in the Czech Republic for three weeks.