Better Brand Health: Measures and Metrics for a How Brands Grow World

This book is the missing link for anyone who felt 'How Brands Grow' was a bit too theoretical for Monday morning implementation. Romaniuk dives deep into the mechanics of mental availability, providing a blueprint for building brand trackers that actually serve a purpose. Frankly, the way she explains survey design makes you realize how much money most companies waste on vanity metrics that don't drive growth. It isn't a light afternoon read, and you might find yourself re-reading sections on Category Entry Points just to let the logic sink in. However, the analogies used throughout are brilliant and help bridge the gap between academic research and practical application. If you want to stop measuring 'brand love' and start measuring what matters, this is the definitive guide.

Jenni Romaniuk has managed to write a book that I wish I could just beam directly into the minds of every client I work with. It's essentially a masterclass in how to set up a brand tracker that actually predicts performance rather than just reflecting past successes. I love how she dismantles the notion of brand love with such surgical precision, replacing it with measurable evidence-based theories. The focus on light buyers is a game-changer for our internal strategy sessions. You’ll probably need a highlighter and a lot of patience because it’s packed with insights that require deep concentration. It’s easily the most useful marketing text I’ve picked up in the last five years.

Finally, a resource that treats marketing measurement with the scientific rigor it deserves instead of relying on fluffy metaphors. The analogies Romaniuk uses to explain complex memory theories are worth the price of admission alone. I found the sections on identifying Category Entry Points to be particularly enlightening for our upcoming brand refresh. Some might say it's too technical, but I think that's exactly what our industry needs right now to regain some credibility. Just be prepared to spend some time with it; this isn't a book you can skim during a commute. It is an essential framework for growth-oriented measurement.

Look, the chapter on mental availability alone is enough to justify adding this to your permanent collection. Romaniuk has a way of cutting through the nonsense of the marketing industry with sharp logic and evidence-based research. I particularly enjoyed the 'how-to' aspect of setting up trackers that actually account for how humans store and retrieve information. It’s a heavy read, no doubt, but the clarity it provides for future brand strategy is absolutely vital. I’ve already started redesigning our annual tracking survey based on the principles laid out here. This is how brand health should have been measured all along.

Ever wonder why your brand tracking data never seems to correlate with your actual sales growth? This book explains exactly why that happens and how to fix your methodology. It is essentially a 'how-to' guide for setting up your brand tracker using the latest scientific thinking. I found the distinction between top-of-mind and prompted awareness to be handled with much more nuance than I've seen elsewhere. Not gonna lie, you'll need to focus hard on the technical chapters. But for anyone responsible for a marketing budget, this is as close to a mandatory textbook as it gets.

If you’ve ever felt like your current brand health tracking is just a series of 'stats for stats' sake,' then you need to get your hands on this immediately. Romaniuk provides an incredible reference for marketers who want to move beyond superficial awareness scores. To be fair, it is a very technical read that feels more suited for a specialized researcher than a high-level creative executive. I found some of the granular distinctions between different types of word-of-mouth a bit too academic for my daily needs. Still, the frameworks provided for measuring non-buyers are absolutely indispensable for anyone serious about long-term growth. It’s dense, but the ROI on your time will be high.

Picking this up was the best decision I made this quarter for my professional development, despite the sheer density of the material. Romaniuk takes the latest thinking in brand tracking and turns it into a rigorous 'how-to' guide that leaves no stone unturned. I appreciate the focus on practical survey design, though it can feel overwhelming if you aren't already familiar with the Ehrenberg-Bass principles. Personally, I think the book could have used a bit more focus on how to sell these 'boring' metrics to a C-suite obsessed with sentiment scores. It’s a tough climb, but the view from the top is much clearer once you understand these measurement theories.

Truth is, most marketers are measuring the wrong things, and this book is a loud wake-up call for anyone willing to listen. Romaniuk explains why traditional brand tracking is often a waste of time and offers a much more robust alternative. Gotta say, I was skeptical about the sections on non-buyer word-of-mouth at first, but the logic is hard to argue with. The book is definitely on the academic side, and there were moments where the level of detail felt like it was intended for a PhD student. Nonetheless, the practical advice on survey structure is gold for anyone trying to build an in-house tracking system.

After years of struggling with brand trackers that gave us inconsistent data, this book provided the technical roadmap we desperately needed. It’s a difficult read, often requiring me to go over the same paragraph three times to really grasp the methodology. The focus on measuring activity for growth rather than just reporting for the sake of it is a breath of fresh air. To be fair, the book is quite dry and could have been edited down a bit to make it more accessible. However, the reference materials included are excellent and will be used by our team for years to come.

As someone who works in a small marketing team, I found this book incredibly frustrating because it assumes you have the budget of a Fortune 500 company. The level of granularity required for the surveys she describes is almost impossible to achieve without a massive, specialized market research firm. It’s overly academic and gets bogged down in technical details that just don't feel applicable to the fast-paced 'real world' we operate in. While I agree that brand love is a myth, I don't need 300 pages of survey design theory to tell me that. It’s just too dense and specialized for the average marketing manager to get much immediate use out of.