How sophisticated brand measurement is helping marketers level up equity in 2026
The power of your brand isn’t created by a single message or a perfectly timed impression. It’s built through the accumulation of interactions, memories, and moments of truth that shape how people feel, and ultimately, what they choose. This is the foundation of brand building; the subtle but persistent process that shapes brand image, brand equity, and brand awareness over time.
In 2026, consumers navigate choices through steady layers of advertising and brand experiences, more than isolated exposures, which means brands compete on the reliability they deliver and the trust they earn across every touchpoint. This growing expectation elevates the importance of brand strength, brand exposure, and overall brand health that businesses cultivate through their presence and consistent provision of value.
For example, in high-consideration categories, brand meaning becomes a shorthand for safety and confidence; in everyday categories like CPG, it rewards consistency and ease. However, for marketers, the real unlock isn’t just knowing that brand matters; it’s finally being able to measure how advertising experiences contribute to brand perception, consideration, and loyalty.
As a teaser to DISQO’s upcoming 2026 Consumer Trends Report, the sections that follow explore new data revealing how consumers form brand perceptions today and why better measurement will define the next era of advertising.
How consumers form brand perceptions in 2026
Consumers say that brand meaning is shaped less by what companies claim and more by what people experience. In our 2026 findings, 60% say their personal experiences with a brand influence their perception the most. Online reviews (49%) and what friends or family say (42%) follow closely, showing that modern brand perception is deeply social, shared, and participatory.
This reflects a simple truth: building brand happens where reliability meets expectation. Every product interaction, customer service moment, or discrepancy between promise and reality becomes part of the brand story. Brand advertising doesn’t overwrite these experiences — it reinforces them, contextualizes them, or competes with them, depending on the strength of the relationship already in place.
What consumers value most and why it matters for brand growth
If experiences shape perception, the next question is: which experiences matter most? In 2026, consumers reward brands that consistently deliver on their core promises. Quality tops the list, influencing brand perception for 63% of people, followed closely by value for money at 65%. Customer service (52%) and a trustworthy reputation (55%) also play outsized roles — reminders that reliability and respect are now competitive advantages tied directly to brand growth and brand preference.
These expectations create both pressure and opportunity for marketers. Brand value is no longer defined by the polish of a campaign but by the consistency of the experience surrounding it. When advertising aligns with what people actually receive — the product, the service, the follow-through — it strengthens credibility and fuels the emotional components of why brand recognition helps businesses in the first place.
How brand meaning shapes choice across every category
Consumers may say they’re rational shoppers, but when decisions get complex, or stakes rise, brand becomes the shortcut they rely on. Our 2026 data shows that in high-consideration categories, brand importance spikes: 56% say brand is very or extremely important when choosing a car, and 54% say the same for electronics. These are decisions shaped by risk, trust, and confidence; qualities impossible to manufacture overnight and central to long-term brand equity.
Even in everyday categories with abundant choice, brand still anchors behavior by offering familiarity and reducing cognitive load. Whether the purchase is high-stakes or habitual, consumers lean on brands that have earned credibility through repeated, consistent experiences and exposure, proving that brand isn’t a luxury in the buying process, but a necessity.
Advertising’s dual role: Immediate action and long-term equity
Advertising has always operated on two horizons: the moment and the memory. In the near term, it captures attention, shapes perceptions, and nudges action. Over time, those impressions accumulate into something more durable — familiarity, trust, and brand preference or brand salience. Our data shows that 24% of consumers cite ads as a top influence on brand perception; the impact of advertising isn’t isolated to a single campaign. It builds in layers.
Social media, where 22% say brand impressions matter, plays a similar dual role — part performance engine, part brand scaffolding. For marketers, this means that even when advertising is designed to drive clicks, downloads, or conversions, it also shapes the emotional and cognitive foundations that determine future choice.
The brand impact of performance media
Marketers often classify campaigns as either “brand” or “performance,” but consumers don’t experience them that way. A discount, retargeting ad, or limited-time offer might be judged on redemption or sales, yet it also shapes how people feel about the brand behind it. Our data shows this clearly: 36% of consumers say frequent promotions increase loyalty, proving that even performance levers carry emotional weight and influence brand exposure.
This dual effect has always existed, but without sophisticated and integrated measurement, it remained invisible. Every click-driven tactic either reinforces the brand’s meaning or subtly erodes it. When marketers understand both outcomes, they can design campaigns that deliver in the moment while building equity for the future.
Why measuring brand is not optional
For years, brand measurement lagged behind performance because it was slow, expensive, or episodic. But in 2026, marketers can no longer afford that distance. AI-driven automation is reshaping targeting, bidding, and optimization, making traditional digital signals harder to track and easier to misinterpret. Attribution is stacking models on top of models, each adding complexity rather than clarity.
In this shifting environment, brand becomes the one signal that reflects how people actually feel — a human anchor in an algorithmic world. Deterministic, always-on Brand Lift measurement with DISQO enables marketers to see how every impression contributes to or detracts from future growth, revealing where perception grows, where it falters, and why. When brand becomes measurable, it becomes actionable.
Two shifts that will redefine advertising trends in 2026
The story emerging from 2026 comes down to two factors.
First, brand is the true engine of growth. It’s not a single campaign or a clever line. It’s the compounded effect of every experience, signal, and expectation met over time. Brand meaning guides choice in both high-stakes and everyday moments, quietly defending margin, loyalty, and resilience.
Second, brand can no longer live outside the measurement stack. When marketers make brand the most measured signal in advertising, tracking how every dollar moves perception, consideration, and intent, they unlock a clearer, more durable view of ROI. DISQO’s Brand Movement is about this union: treating brand not as a story we tell ourselves, but as a metric we can see, optimize, and grow.
For more on measuring what matters and understanding what works directly from thousands of consumers, stay tuned for DISQO’s 2026 Consumer Trends report.
The data for this report comes from a consumer study conducted by DISQO in the fourth quarter of 2025. We collected data from 3,000 US consumers. To ensure that the data accurately reflected the US population, we established quotas for responses to match the gender, age, and income demographics.
