While there is an opportunity to build “iconic” brands based on brand properties like shape, slogan, sound, symbols and celebrities through neuroscience and psychology, brand-owners may be “destroying brand memory structure and even promoting competitor brands if they continue to chop and change their brand properties based on subjective decision-making”, according to new research from Decode Marketing and the brandgym.

The survey gathered data from 85 marketers across Europe, Africa, Asia, USA and Latin America, as well as 1,000 UK consumers.

The results showed that while 83% of marketers consider brand properties to be extremely important in growing brands, only 54% have a proper quantitative tracking system for brand properties. 55% of marketers said they change their brand properties due to organisational change, especially a change in marketing director. Only 24% of marketers change brand properties strategically based on quantitative data.

“The research shows that brand properties are seen as ‘highly important’; however, only half of the companies surveyed have a proper process for identifying and tracking the strength of these,” said David Taylor of the brandgym. “As a result, brand properties are often chopped and changed based on personal judgement alone or as a result of changes in the organisation, such as the arrival of a new marketing director. This prevents the creation of valuable memory structure in consumers’ minds which can take several years to build.

“The study presents major opportunities for brand-owners to create stronger, iconic brands.”