Brand Plan IQ™

Brand Plan IQ™ is our rigorous, industry-anchored analysis tool, delivering the actionable insights marketing and brand leads need to optimise brand plans, drive stronger performance and get ahead.

Brand plan IQ™

The challenge

Your brand isn’t performing as planned and you are not sure why

Under pressure to have answers, you default to the obvious explanations and the convenient hunches, but without a true diagnosis, you suspect you’re already on the back foot.

This scenario is true of so many leaders we work with who have a short time-frame to deliver results.

The solution

Brand Plan IQ™ gives you clarity to quickly get ahead

It delivers:

  • A rigorous, but time-efficient, diagnosis of the gaps to fill for fast course correction
  • Industry-leading coaching to empower your teams to act quickly
  • A blueprint for stronger plans to accelerate brand performance

Find out how it works below.

2026 Brand planning report

From an analysis of over 150 brand plans, this free report tells you what makes brand plans strong, where they are weak and how to address performance gaps.

Get the report

KEY BENEFITS

Excellence

Brand Plan IQ™ is our industry-anchored benchmarking tool built from 150+ brand plans spanning therapy areas and geographies 

Speed

From analysis to coaching the process takes just 10 days, for faster course correction

Impact

It provides a clear, objective view of what an industry-leading brand plan looks like and helps teams close the gaps to drive performance

Step 1 – Assess content and implications

Our structured and benchmark-driven approach is grounded in real-world evidence

A three‑tier pyramid diagram shows how different categories of elements impact a brand plan. The bottom tier, labelled “Supporting,” contains 23 elements and represents low impact. The middle tier, labelled “Core,” contains 8 elements and represents moderate impact. The top tier, labelled “Critical,” contains 6 elements and represents high impact. An arrow on the left indicates increasing impact from low at the bottom to high at the top. Text beneath the pyramid notes that a number of elements are measured in each category.

To assess brand plans, we objectively review 37 elements, grouped into three categories based on their impact on the plan (Critical, Core & Supporting).

Each element is scored on content quality and clarity of implications for the brand, using a bronze, silver, gold system.

Step 2 – Review the storyline

A strong storyline transforms a brand plan from a document into a strategic case for action, aligning leaders, focusing investment and accelerating execution

Five colourful speech bubbles contain questions about evaluating communication quality. The bubbles read: “Is it inspiring?”, “Is it coherent?”, “Is there a supporting rationale?”, “Does it have a logical structure?”, and “Is it easy to understand?”. The bubbles are arranged around the image in different colours (orange, green, red, dark blue, and light blue).

However, the concept of a great story is subjective – so that’s how we review them, providing qualitative feedback on the answers to key story questions

Step 3 – Activate the findings

Branding Science’s strategists empower brand teams to drive immediate impact

A slide titled “Development areas for the plan are HCP insights, patient insights and market access” presents three evaluated areas. A left panel summarises that the plan has foundational insights but needs deeper, evidence‑based analysis and clearer understanding of underlying drivers. A table lists: • HCP insights (Critical, score 3/18): Surface‑level insights lacking explanation of underlying drivers; recommendation to capture needs, behaviours, biases. • Patient insights (Critical, score 3/18): Limited but somewhat linked to strategy; recommendation to expand understanding of motivations, fears, barriers, and belief systems. • Market access (Core, score 2/6): High‑level payer perspectives with limited depth; recommendation to explore payer decision drivers and archetype nuances.
A performance assessment compares Brand A with the industry benchmark. A table on the left lists scores for Critical, Core, and Supporting elements, along with maximum available points. Brand A scores 73 in Critical, 30 in Core, and 21 in Supporting, for a total of 96 points, while the industry benchmark totals 155. On the right, two bar charts compare Brand A (yellow) and the industry benchmark (red) across Critical elements—Competitors, HCP insights, Positioning, Patient journey—and Core elements—SWOT, Market access landscape, HCP segmentation.
A slide titled “Development areas for the plan are HCP insights, patient insights and market access” presents three evaluated areas. A left panel summarises that the plan has foundational insights but needs deeper, evidence‑based analysis and clearer understanding of underlying drivers. A table lists: • HCP insights (Critical, score 3/18): Surface‑level insights lacking explanation of underlying drivers; recommendation to capture needs, behaviours, biases. • Patient insights (Critical, score 3/18): Limited but somewhat linked to strategy; recommendation to expand understanding of motivations, fears, barriers, and belief systems. • Market access (Core, score 2/6): High‑level payer perspectives with limited depth; recommendation to explore payer decision drivers and archetype nuances.
A performance assessment compares Brand A with the industry benchmark. A table on the left lists scores for Critical, Core, and Supporting elements, along with maximum available points. Brand A scores 73 in Critical, 30 in Core, and 21 in Supporting, for a total of 96 points, while the industry benchmark totals 155. On the right, two bar charts compare Brand A (yellow) and the industry benchmark (red) across Critical elements—Competitors, HCP insights, Positioning, Patient journey—and Core elements—SWOT, Market access landscape, HCP segmentation.

The scoring results are consolidated into a brief report summarising findings and recommending ways to improve the plan.

Our highly experienced strategists then run intimate group coaching sessions to enable brand teams to take immediate action.

Clients find Brand Plan IQ™ invaluable for uncovering blind spots and highlighting overlooked opportunities. The result is clearer plans, stronger strategies and improved brand performance​.

Get the free report

Get in touch

We are already supporting the world’s leading brands get ahead with Brand Plan IQTM, to join them contact [email protected]
Brand plan IQ™

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