The Strategic Edge: Using Mental Models to Strengthen Brand Studies
Most brands are interested in understanding the lasting impression they leave on consumers. Over time, a variety of terms have emerged to describe this enduring impact. Some of my favorites include:
Mental Model
A concept drawn from behavioral science that describes how people internally conceptualize a brand and its characteristics. These internal representations reflect what audiences believe, expect, and feel about a brand.
Brand Imprint
Emphasizes the mark left in the consumer’s mind.
Cognitive Footprint
Highlights the mental space or memory a brand occupies.
Brand Mindprint
Refers to the enduring cognitive and emotional impression that consumers form about a brand.
Augmenting Traditional Brand Studies with Mental Models
At Q2 Insights, we have conducted hundreds of Brand Tracking, Brand Health, and Reputation studies across industries and categories. These foundational studies are critical for understanding brand performance. When we enrich them with mental model insights, we equip leadership teams with a more complete and actionable view of brand equity.
Mental models do not replace standard measures. They enhance them by revealing the cognitive and emotional context that explains how audiences internalize and interpret brand signals.
Our approach is grounded in quantitative research, supported by AI Rapid Insights Sessions that uncover deeper patterns in open-ended responses. We tailor every study with organization-specific KPIs, brand scorecards, and purchase funnel diagnostics to reflect strategic goals and the lived experiences of each audience.
Why the Mental Models Matter
Visibility metrics are no longer enough. Leaders want to understand if their brand is resonating—if it is trusted, relevant, and reflective of the organization’s core purpose.
Mental models help answer those questions. They reveal how your brand is understood, remembered, and emotionally processed. By adding this lens to brand data, we shift from simply tracking performance to interpreting meaning.
And meaning is what drives behavior.
Strengthening Established Research with Mental Model Insights
Several of our core studies are especially effective when layered with mental model thinking:
Brand Tracking Surveys
These periodic studies monitor performance over time. These comprehensive surveys also include customized KPIs, track the customer journey through the purchase funnel, and populate brand scorecards. Interpreting results through the mental model framework allows us to see how impressions are taking shape and whether they align with strategic intent.
Brand Health Studies
Used to identify brand strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities. Mental model dimensions such as emotional connection and perceived innovation give added depth to these assessments and reveal unmet brand potential.
Reputation Studies
Focused on credibility, values, and long-term standing, often benchmarked against peers. Mental model analysis adds clarity around how these reputational traits are absorbed and reflected in stakeholder mindsets.
Name Awareness and Recognition Studies
Especially relevant for rebranding efforts or geographic expansion. We go beyond recall to examine what the brand name evokes and whether it connects meaningfully with target audiences.
From Metrics to Meaning
Traditional brand studies remain essential, and the metrics they provide are foundational. But when seen through the lens of the mental model, those same metrics take on deeper meaning.
A brand with strong awareness but little emotional connection may be quickly forgotten. A brand with high trust and a clear sense of purpose is more likely to leave a lasting impression and inspire action.
KPIs Help Reveal the Mental Model
To get a clear picture of how your brand is understood, it helps to expand the KPIs used in traditional brand studies. Below are several that we commonly integrate:
These metrics, when integrated into tracking studies and scorecards, help organizations manage both brand performance and brand perception.
How to Measure Brand Mental Models
At Q2 Insights, we use an integrated approach to explore and track the brand mental model.
Quantitative Tracking
Our surveys include tailored KPIs, awareness and favorability measures, funnel progression, and brand associations. Key driver analysis highlights the factors most responsible for shaping brand impression.
AI Rapid Insights Sessions
We apply AI to open-ended responses to detect emotional tone, recurring themes, and implicit associations. Prioritization exercises improve clarity, while the speed and precision of the AI model support faster iteration and insight generation.
Qualitative and Emotional Insights
As needed, we conduct in-depth interviews or focus groups, using symbolic and projective techniques to surface subconscious meaning. We add cultural and behavioral context to round out the picture.
In Closing
The mental model your audience carries is shaped through exposure, emotion, and alignment with their values. When you integrate this understanding into Brand Tracking, Brand Health, and Reputation studies, you are no longer just tracking numbers. You are interpreting how the brand lives in the minds of those who matter most.
This is the shift from measurement to insight.
At Q2 Insights, we bring decades of experience in designing brand studies that combine analytical rigor with human understanding. We would be glad to help you uncover the cognitive and emotional impressions your brand is making and explore what you can do to strengthen them.
Kirsty Nunez is the President and Chief Research Strategist at Q2 Insights, a research and innovation consulting firm with international reach and offices in San Diego. Q2 Insights specializes in a wide range of research methodologies and predictive analytics. The firm uses AI tools to enhance the speed and quality of insights delivery while relying on the expertise and judgment of human researchers. AI is applied exclusively to respondent data and is never used to generate findings, which remain grounded in human analysis and interpretation.
