Most brands have
a logo. Fewer have
a brand.
There is a difference between a business that looks professional and one whose brand drives commercial outcomes. The first has colours, fonts and a website. The second has a clear market position, consistent messaging that reaches the right audience and a visual identity that reinforces both.
- When a brand is not working, it shows up in the numbers: paid ads cost more, pricing pressure increases, sales cycles get longer.
- These are brand problems. They just look like commercial problems.
- A brand audit is the diagnostic that connects the two.
Michael Johnson’s Five and a Half Steps
Michael Johnson is one of the world’s most respected brand consultants and founder of johnson banks, the London studio behind rebrands for Virgin Atlantic, the Science Museum, BFI and Unicef UK. His book Branding: In Five and a Half Steps is the definitive practical guide to the branding process. The framework rests on one principle: great brands do not begin with design. They begin with the right question.
CXConversion uses this framework as the spine of every brand audit. It ensures the review covers not just how the brand looks, but what it says, what it means and how it sits against the market.
Brand health and marketing ROI are the same problem
A weak brand creates drag across every performance channel. Every finding in the audit is assessed for its brand impact and its downstream effect on marketing performance.
Weak brand awareness means lower Quality Scores, higher CPCs and lower conversion rates from branded searches.
Poor brand clarity leads to creative that tries to do too much. No clear hook, no clear audience, no consistent message.
Brands without a clear positioning struggle to create content that ranks. They are not distinctive enough to attract links or engagement.
Conversion problems are often brand problems. If visitors do not trust the brand or understand the proposition quickly, they leave.
Customers who connect with a brand have higher lifetime value, lower churn and are more likely to refer others.
Brands that lack differentiation compete on price. A clear brand position gives you the room to hold your margin.
Six outputs. All commercially framed.
Plain English throughout. No brand jargon. Every finding tied to a commercial outcome.
A section-by-section review mapped to Johnson’s Five and a Half Steps. Covers visual, verbal, competitive and perceptual dimensions.
The gap between how your brand presents itself and how the market actually perceives it, backed by competitive research.
How direct and indirect competitors are positioned visually, verbally and strategically, with gaps clearly identified.
Immediate fixes, medium-term improvements and strategic brand decisions clearly separated so you know what to do first.
A one-page summary of brand health across five dimensions: clarity, differentiation, consistency, relevance and commercial alignment.
A 60-minute debrief to walk through findings, challenge assumptions and agree priorities. Recorded for your team.
Who this audit is for
Brand audits are available as a standalone engagement. They often lead to ongoing brand strategy or performance marketing work, but that is your choice, not a requirement.
Whose brand no longer reflects what the business has become. Common for businesses that have grown but whose brand identity was built at an earlier, smaller stage.
Preparing for a rebrand or brand refresh and wanting a structured starting point. The audit gives you the evidence base to brief an agency or make the investment case internally.
Where brand inconsistency is creating friction in the customer acquisition journey or increasing the cost of paid acquisition.
Where differentiation is weak and the business is competing on price more than it should. Brand clarity is often the lever that changes this.
Preparing for a fundraise, sale or major market expansion. Or those that have grown through acquisition and inherited brand fragmentation.
Teams that suspect brand is affecting performance marketing but cannot prove the link. The audit gives you the evidence.
The consultant behind the audit
CXConversion is led by Femi Olajiga, a growth marketing consultant with over 15 years working with brands where strategy and performance need to operate together. The brand audit is not a theoretical exercise. Every finding is grounded in what affects commercial outcomes across paid media, SEO, CRO and customer experience.
Michael Johnson’s Five and a Half Steps, applied to brand audits for growth-stage and established businesses across all sectors.
Ecommerce, Retail, Financial Services, Luxury, Pharma, Energy and Utilities, Charities, B2B SaaS and Public Sector.
Harrods, Nationwide, Aviva Investors, Bacardi, Philip Morris International, British Heart Foundation, Macmillan Cancer Support, OVO Energy and more.
Brand shows up in everything
A brand audit identifies the root issues. These services address the channels where those issues show up most directly.
If your ads are not converting, brand clarity is often the reason. A paid ads audit reviews your Google, Meta and TikTok campaigns against your commercial goals.
See Paid Ads Audit →Brand problems show up as conversion problems. Visitors who do not trust or understand a proposition quickly leave. A CRO audit finds where that friction lives.
See CRO Audit →Brands without clear positioning struggle to create content that ranks. A content audit maps content gaps to revenue opportunity with your brand position as the anchor.
See Content Audit →
Harrods
Avis
Nationwide
Aviva Investors
Bacardi
Timberland
New Look
British Heart Foundation
OVO Energy
Macmillan Cancer Support
Smith & Nephew
EON Next
Hastings Direct
Philip Morris International