Brand perception survey template
A brand perception survey template covering category engagement, awareness, usage, associations, competitive attributes, and intent.
Questions and setup
Customize the placeholders and apply the setup notes in the study builder before launch.
- 01
Multiple Choice
Which best describes what you did when considering [Category] products or services in the past 12 months?
- Purchased one
- Researched or compared options but did not purchase
- Neither
- Not sure
Setup: Screen out Neither and Not sure only when the intended population is category-engaged; doing so means results are not general-population awareness estimates.
- 02
Open Text
When you think of [Category] brands, which ones come to mind? List as many as you can, in the order they occur to you.
- 03
Multiple Choice
Before today, which of these brands had you heard of? Select all that apply.
- [Brand]
- [Competitor A]
- [Competitor B]
- [Competitor C]
- None of these
Setup: Enable multi-select and randomize brand order; keep None of these last and reject contradictory combinations.
- 04
Multiple Choice
Which of these brands have you personally purchased or used in the past 12 months? Select all that apply.
- [Brand]
- [Competitor A]
- [Competitor B]
- [Competitor C]
- None of these
Setup: Enable multi-select and randomize brand order; use this to gate experience-based ratings and NPS.
- 05
AI Question
What comes to mind when you think of [Brand]? Describe your impression in your own words.
Setup: Show only to respondents aware of [Brand]; allow one neutral follow-up for the source of the impression.
- 06
AI Question
What, if anything, makes [Brand] different from other [Category] brands?
Setup: Show only to respondents aware of [Brand]; allow one follow-up for a concrete example.
- 07
Matrix Rating Scale
Based on what you know or have experienced, how much do you agree with each statement about [Brand]?
- Offers high-quality products or services
- Offers good value for the price
- Is a brand I trust
- Provides good customer service
- Is innovative
Setup: Use a 1-5 scale from Strongly disagree to Strongly agree, enable N/A, and randomize rows. Show only to respondents aware of [Brand].
- 08
Matrix Rating Scale
Based on what you know or have experienced, how much do you agree with each statement about [Competitor A]?
- Offers high-quality products or services
- Offers good value for the price
- Is a brand I trust
- Provides good customer service
- Is innovative
Setup: Use the identical scale, N/A behavior, and row order settings as [Brand]. Show only to respondents aware of [Competitor A].
- 09
Rating Scale
How likely are you to choose [Brand] the next time you are in the market for a [Category] product or service?
Setup: Use a 1-5 scale from Definitely would not to Definitely would. Show only to respondents aware of [Brand].
- 10
AI Question
What is the main reason for your likelihood rating?
Setup: Allow one neutral follow-up for the experience, belief, or trade-off behind the rating.
- 11
NPS
How likely are you to recommend [Brand] to a friend or colleague?
Setup: Show only to respondents who purchased or used [Brand] in the past 12 months.
- 12
Open Text
Is there anything else that shapes how you see [Brand]?
This brand perception survey separates category engagement, unaided awareness, aided awareness, and recent brand use before asking perception or intent questions. The sequence gives each metric a clear basis and avoids treating satisfaction as a complete measure of brand health.
What this template measures
The survey opens with category engagement, then separates unaided awareness from aided awareness before measuring recent use. That order prevents the brand list from contaminating recall and lets you distinguish recognition from firsthand experience. Use explicit routing so people only rate brands they know and only answer NPS for brands they have used.
Two AI Questions capture associations and differentiation without asking respondents to personify the brand. Matching matrices use statement agreement with N/A available, followed by purchase intent and a neutral reason prompt. NPS appears only for recent users, where recommendation likelihood is meaningful.
Who it's for
This template is for brand and marketing teams running a periodic brand health tracker, measuring perception before or after a rebrand or repositioning, or identifying attributes that weaken a brand against a named competitor. It also fits teams establishing a baseline for awareness and associations in a new market or audience segment.
How the AI moderator probes
The AI Question type examines the reasons behind a rating. If a respondent describes [Brand] as "reliable but boring," the moderator asks what specifically feels boring and whether the impression comes from the product, marketing, or another source. If someone struggles to name a first impression, the moderator asks what they associate with the category in general, which can indicate that the brand lacks a distinct position for that respondent.
The purchase-likelihood follow-up uses the same neutral wording at every score, then probes the experience, belief, or trade-off the participant names. That keeps high and low ratings comparable without assuming everyone should want to score the brand higher. AI follow-up questions: probing without a moderator explains adaptive probing.
Tips before you launch
Replace the "[Brand]", "[Category]", and competitor placeholders before launch. Keep the matrix wording, anchors, N/A behavior, and row randomization identical across brands. Add awareness and usage routing before collecting ratings; Skip logic and branching, explained covers the required rules.
Run this survey on a recurring cadence, such as twice a year or around a major campaign, so you can interpret movement in awareness and attribute scores over time. Use theme extraction to group open-ended associations and identify words that respondents repeat without prompting. Replace the brand, category, and competitor placeholders, and adjust the attribute list to match the factors that drive choice in your market.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between aided and unaided brand awareness?
Unaided awareness asks respondents to name brands from memory without prompting. Aided awareness shows a list and measures which names they recognize.
How many respondents does a brand perception survey need?
Choose sample size from the precision and subgroup comparisons you need. Near a 50% result, 100 responses is roughly plus or minus 10 percentage points and 150 roughly plus or minus 8 points at 95% confidence, before weighting or design effects.
Should you benchmark against one competitor or several?
Two or three relevant competitors usually provide enough contrast to evaluate differentiation. Adding more brands lengthens the survey and may not support the research goal.
Can this run as a structured survey instead of an AI-moderated one?
Yes, the multiple choice, matrix rating, NPS, and rating scale questions all work in a plain survey, though swapping out the AI Question types for open text trades away the adaptive follow-ups that explain why a score landed where it did.
Full reference
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