Brand sentiment is the intangible yet powerful emotional connection consumers have with a brand. It shapes consumer behavior, affects purchasing decisions, and ultimately impacts your bottom line. Understanding, measuring, and improving brand sentiment should be a priority for all retailers aiming to thrive in a competitive market.
Take Adidas, whose brand momentum has been on the rise this year. The company saw an 11% increase in currency-neutral sales, with a significant €346 million operating profit for Q2, compared to €176 million the previous year. This impressive performance was attributed to “improved sentiment” around the Adidas brand globally.
In this guide, we will explore the importance of brand sentiment, how you can measure it, and actionable strategies for leveraging it to drive growth and success in your retail business.
What is brand sentiment?
Brand sentiment is the overall emotional perception customers hold about a brand, expressed through reviews, social media mentions, direct feedback, and purchase behavior. It can be positive, neutral, or negative, and changes in response to product quality, customer service, marketing, pricing, and external events.
For example, a shopper might leave a glowing review praising the high quality of a product but criticize customer service. That nuanced feedback impacts the overall sentiment analysis, which evaluates emotional context across various touchpoints.
Unlike brand image, which is shaped and controlled by the company, brand sentiment is shaped by customers. It reveals whether the experience people actually have with your brand matches the promise you make in your marketing, stores, service channels, and digital journeys.
Why you should monitor brand sentiment?
Monitoring brand sentiment isn’t just a luxury; it’s essential for retailers to stay competitive. As seen in the recent SK-II brand’s situation, negative sentiment can have significant financial repercussions. SK-II skincare sales plummeted by 34% in the last quarter of 2023 due to increasing negative sentiment in China, highlighting the potential impact of sentiment on a brand’s performance.
It’s important to monitor sentiment to understand consumers’ feelings about your products, services, and overall brand. Positive sentiment can indicate brand loyalty and potential revenue growth, while negative sentiment might signal high customer churn and a damaged reputation.
Here’s why monitoring brand sentiment is so important:
- Identify customer pain points – by analyzing negative comments, you can identify issues affecting your brand’s performance and address them before they escalate.
- React to market changes – track fluctuations in sentiment following product launches, marketing campaigns, or external events.
- Maintain customer loyalty – a deep understanding of how consumers feel about your brand helps in creating strategies to enhance loyalty and customer retention.
- Stay competitive – monitoring brand sentiment allows you to track how your brand is perceived compared to competitors, giving you a competitive advantage.
Is brand sentiment a KPI?
Yes, brand sentiment can be a KPI when it is measured consistently and tied to business outcomes. Tracked as a sentiment score, it gives retailers a quantitative way to monitor how customer perception changes over time.
The real value comes when sentiment data is connected to commercial metrics such as revenue, churn, conversion, repeat purchase, and customer lifetime value. For retailers, brand sentiment is more than a reputation metric. When measured at scale, it becomes an early warning system for customer experience, store performance, product perception, and future sales risk.
Brand image vs. sentiment
Many retailers often confuse brand image with brand sentiment, but understanding the distinction is important. Brand image is how consumers view your brand’s identity, logo, design, and customer-facing elements. It’s more static and controlled by the company.
Brand sentiment, on the other hand, is fluid and constantly evolving. It’s how people emotionally react to your products and services. While brand image can set expectations, brand sentiment reveals whether those expectations are being met or exceeded.
For instance, in the Adidas example mentioned above, a strong brand image in performance and lifestyle products set the stage, but it was the improved brand sentiment that helped drive their sales success.
How to measure brand sentiment
Measuring brand sentiment requires analyzing consumer feedback across various channels. The most common methods for gathering sentiment data include:
1. Social media monitoring
Social media platforms are often the first place where consumers express their opinions about a brand. Using social media monitoring tools, retailers can track positive, neutral, and negative mentions to gauge how people feel about their brand.
2. Customer reviews and surveys
Customer feedback through surveys or reviews provides valuable insights into how people feel about your products or services. TruRating captures verified customer feedback from an average of 84% of transactions at the point of sale, helping retailers understand sentiment from actual customers rather than relying only on the small percentage of shoppers who leave reviews, complete follow-up surveys, or post publicly
3. Sentiment analysis tools
These tools use Natural Language Processing (NLP) and machine learning algorithms to analyze customer interactions, including text data from surveys, reviews, or social media. They identify emotional keywords and categorize them as positive, negative, or neutral. This process, often referred to as opinion mining, provides a clearer understanding of consumer sentiment.
What tools measure brand sentiment?
The most common tools for measuring brand sentiment fall into five categories:
- Social media monitoring tools — track mentions, tone, and engagement across platforms where customers publicly discuss your brand.
- Review aggregation platforms — collect and analyze star ratings, written reviews, and product feedback across retail, marketplace, and review sites.
- Sentiment analysis software — use NLP and machine learning to classify text feedback as positive, neutral, or negative.
- Customer survey platforms — gather structured feedback through email, SMS, web, app, or post-purchase surveys.
- Point-of-sale feedback tools — capture customer sentiment at the moment of transaction, when the experience is still fresh and the feedback can be linked to actual purchase behavior.
Each tool type captures a different part of the customer voice. Social listening shows what vocal customers say publicly, while point-of-sale feedback gives retailers a broader, more representative view of what real shoppers felt at the moment they bought.
What is brand sentiment analysis?
Brand sentiment analysis refers to the process of using tools and techniques to evaluate the overall perception of your brand by consumers. Sentiment analysis works by analyzing text data, such as social media posts, reviews, or survey responses, to categorize mentions of your brand as positive, neutral, or negative.
By using NLP and machine learning, sentiment analysis tools can identify the tone and emotional context of these mentions, giving you a snapshot of consumer sentiment.
For example, if customers frequently describe your store as “amazing” or “disappointing,” sentiment analysis tools will pick up on these keywords and assign a positive or negative value to the data. The more data you collect from various channels, the clearer the picture of your brand’s sentiment will be
Brand product sentiment analysis
Specific product feedback offers valuable insights into product sentiment. By isolating reviews or comments about individual products, retailers can better understand what’s working and what’s not. For instance, a product that frequently receives feedback about being “too expensive” despite its quality might indicate a pricing issue rather than a problem with the product itself.
Sentiment analysis metrics
To fully harness sentiment analysis, it’s important to understand the key metrics that can be tracked:
- Sentiment score – this is a composite score derived from positive, neutral, and negative mentions. It provides a quantitative measure of how well your brand is perceived.
- Sentiment velocity – this metric tracks how quickly sentiment around your brand is shifting. A sudden increase in negative sentiment might signal a PR crisis, while rising positive sentiment can indicate successful marketing or product launches.
- Topic sentiment – this dives deeper into sentiment around specific areas of your business—like customer service, product quality, or price. It helps you identify areas of strength and weakness.
How to improve brand sentiment
Improving brand sentiment requires active listening and swift action. Here are some strategies retailers can implement:
- Listen to your customers – consumers want to feel heard. Respond to negative feedback promptly and acknowledge customer concerns. By showing you’re listening, you can turn a negative experience into a positive one.
- Engage positively on social media – social media is a powerful tool for connecting with your audience. Engage with your customers by responding to comments, sharing positive stories, and being transparent during crises. Build a community that feels valued.
- Improve customer service – customer service is often the touchpoint that influences brand sentiment the most. By providing excellent service, you create positive experiences that customers will remember and share.
- Refine your brand messaging – ensure your brand message aligns with consumer expectations. If your marketing promises convenience, but customers experience delays, sentiment will shift negatively. Keep promises consistent across all touchpoints.
Brand sentiment survey questions
Here are some targeted questions that can help you gauge brand sentiment:
General brand sentiment
1. “Are you satisfied with your overall experience with our brand?”
Allow customers to share their feelings about your brand directly.
2. “Do you rank our brand higher than others in the market?”
Helps gauge your position relative to competitors.
3. “How satisfied are you with our brand’s mission and values?”
Focuses on alignment between the brand’s identity and customer values.
4. “If you had to rate your trust in our brand, what would you give us?”
Trust is a key indicator of positive sentiment, especially in today’s market.
Product or service quality
5. “How satisfied are you with the quality of our products/services?”
Measures sentiment towards the core offering of the brand.
6. “Did our products/services meet your expectations?”
Gives insight into whether your offerings align with customer expectations.
7. “Is this the first time you have used our product/service?”
Helps identify new or returning product purchasers or customers
8. “Have you encountered any issues with our products/services?”
Allows customers to express any negative experiences.
9. “How would you rate the value for money of our products?”
Sentiment around pricing is crucial for understanding perceived value.
Customer service and support
10. “How satisfied are you with the customer service you received?”
Helps to identify how well customer interactions are being handled.
11. “Was your issue resolved in a timely manner?”
Timeliness often impacts overall sentiment regarding customer service.
12. “How likely are you to seek customer support again if needed?”
Evaluates whether customers feel comfortable reaching out for help.
13. “How easy was it to contact us for support?”
Ease of access can influence brand perception and sentiment.
14. “How would you rate the professionalism and friendliness of our customer service team?”
Provides feedback on team performance.
Purchase and delivery experience
15. “How satisfied are you with your recent purchasing experience?”
Helps track customer satisfaction with the buying process.
16. “Did the product arrive as expected and in good condition?”
A key factor in customer satisfaction and potential repeat purchases.
17. “How easy was it to navigate our website/app and make a purchase?”
Focuses on the usability of the digital shopping experience.
18. “How satisfied are you with the speed of delivery?”
Delivery times can influence customer sentiment significantly.
Brand loyalty and advocacy
19. “How likely are you to recommend our brand to a friend or colleague?”
A common question to assess overall loyalty and satisfaction.
20.”How likely are you to make another purchase from us in the next 6 months?”
Gauges potential for repeat business, a strong indicator of positive sentiment.
21. “Would you switch to another brand?”
Identifies potential threats to brand loyalty.
22. “Have you recommended our brand to others before?”
Explores how loyal a customer has been to your brand.
Brand sentiment and AI search
Brand sentiment now influences more than traditional search results. AI search engines and answer platforms, including Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT Search, Perplexity, and Gemini, can synthesize brand perception from multiple signals such as reviews, articles, structured data, social mentions, and customer feedback.
That matters because sparse, skewed, or unverified sentiment data can distort how a brand is represented. If the loudest available signals come from a small group of dissatisfied customers, AI-generated summaries may overstate negative brand sentiment and underrepresent the experience of the broader customer base.
Fixing negative brand sentiment in AI search starts at the source. Brands need to improve the quality, volume, and reliability of the sentiment signals available online. That means responding to negative feedback, improving recurring pain points, encouraging verified reviews, and collecting representative customer sentiment data at scale.
For retailers, transaction-linked feedback is especially valuable. TruRating captures verified ratings at the point of purchase, helping retailers generate high-volume sentiment data from real customers and real transactions. That gives brands a more accurate foundation for customer understanding, performance improvement, and future AI brand sentiment analysis.
How TruRating can help you measure brand sentiment
Brand sentiment is a crucial driver of consumer behavior and business growth. Whether you’re analyzing feedback on social media, using sentiment analysis tools to classify written comments, or tracking survey responses over time, understanding how customers feel about your brand can guide better decisions across marketing, operations, CX, and product strategy.
Accurate brand sentiment analysis relies on consistent, reliable feedback from real customers. That’s where TruRating comes in. TruRating is a real-time, transaction-linked customer feedback platform that captures verified customer sentiment at the point of purchase whether it’s in-store, online, or across omnichannel journeys.
One way TruRating helps retailers gather more meaningful feedback is through Intelligent Questions. With IQs, retailers can ask customized survey questions based on the items in a customer’s basket, whether they are shopping in a physical store or online. For example, if a customer has added a specific product to their cart, you can ask targeted questions about its quality, price, or usability.
This gives retailers direct insight into what customers think about specific products, experiences, and moments in the journey. It also gives CPG partners a clearer understanding of how shoppers perceive their products at the moment of purchase.
Make data-driven decisions that positively impact brand sentiment, improve customer experience, and drive long-term loyalty. Learn more about TruRating’s customer feedback platform or request a demo today.
Make data-driven decisions that positively impact your brand sentiment and drive long-term loyalty. Learn more about our customer feedback platform and book a demo today.
Useful resource
- Predictive analytics in retail – examples and strategies
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- Business intelligence in the retail industry – strategies and trends
- How to measure customer service
- Customer insight analysis – strategies and techniques
Brand sentiment FAQs
What tools measure brand sentiment?
Brand sentiment can be measured using social media monitoring tools, review aggregation platforms, sentiment analysis software, customer survey platforms, and point-of-sale feedback tools. Each tool captures a different type of sentiment signal, from public social mentions to verified customer feedback at the moment of purchase.
Is brand sentiment a KPI?
Yes, brand sentiment can be used as a KPI when it is measured consistently and connected to business outcomes. A sentiment score helps brands track customer perception over time, while links to revenue, churn, conversion, and repeat purchase show whether sentiment is influencing commercial performance.
What is brand sentiment?
Brand sentiment is the emotional perception customers have of a brand. It can be positive, neutral, or negative and is expressed through reviews, social media mentions, direct feedback, survey responses, and purchase behavior.
How do you measure brand sentiment?
You measure brand sentiment by collecting customer feedback from channels such as social media, reviews, surveys, customer support, and point-of-sale interactions. Sentiment analysis tools then classify feedback as positive, neutral, or negative and track changes over time.
What is brand sentiment analysis?
Brand sentiment analysis is the process of evaluating customer feedback to understand how people feel about a brand. It often uses natural language processing and machine learning to detect emotional tone in reviews, comments, survey responses, and social media posts.
How do you perform a brand sentiment analysis?
To perform a brand sentiment analysis, collect customer feedback from relevant channels, clean and organize the data, classify comments as positive, neutral, or negative, and then review sentiment by topic, location, product, or customer segment. The most useful analysis connects sentiment patterns to business outcomes.
How do you fix negative brand sentiment?
To fix negative brand sentiment, identify the causes of dissatisfaction, respond quickly to customer concerns, improve recurring pain points, and track whether sentiment improves over time. Retailers should focus on the operational issues behind the feedback rather than only managing public responses.
How do you improve brand sentiment in AI search results?
Improving brand sentiment in AI search results starts with improving the quality and volume of reliable sentiment signals available about your brand. That includes verified reviews, structured feedback, positive customer experiences, accurate website content, and consistent responses to negative feedback.
What is the difference between brand image and brand sentiment?
Brand image is how a company wants customers to perceive its identity, positioning, and values. Brand sentiment is how customers actually feel about the brand based on their experiences. Brand image is shaped by the company; brand sentiment is shaped by customers.
What are the key metrics for brand sentiment?
Key brand sentiment metrics include sentiment score, sentiment velocity, topic sentiment, positive-to-negative mention ratio, review trends, customer satisfaction scores, and sentiment by location, product, or customer segment.
How does negative brand sentiment affect sales?
Negative brand sentiment can reduce trust, lower conversion, increase churn, and discourage repeat purchases. If customers repeatedly associate a brand with poor service, low value, or disappointing products, that perception can translate into measurable revenue loss.
How does brand sentiment affect AI recommendations?
AI systems can use public and structured information to summarize brand reputation and customer perception. If the available sentiment signals are sparse, negative, or unrepresentative, AI-generated answers may present a distorted view of the brand.
What is sentiment velocity?
Sentiment velocity measures how quickly customer sentiment is changing. A sudden rise in negative sentiment may indicate a product issue, service failure, or reputational risk, while rising positive sentiment can suggest that a campaign, service improvement, or product launch is working.
How is customer sentiment different from brand sentiment?
Customer sentiment refers to how customers feel about specific experiences, interactions, products, or services. Brand sentiment is broader: it reflects the overall emotional perception customers hold about the brand as a whole.
