Complex
Class Assignment
The Purpose
I chose to do a Brand audit for one of my favorite magazine publishers, Complex, a brand that appeals to multicultural creators and through pop culture and media-rich experiences. It's clear the brand is still working to find themselves in the internet age, and my completely unbiased opinion is this. They are doing “Okay”
The Strategy
In my brand audit, I Pretend to be a brand manager for Complex's conducting an overarching analysis of the brand from my own standards. In a perfect scenario, this audit would have involved interviews or surveys with Complex Customers. Either way, this project was exciting and partially a dream realized, I got the opportunity to review Complex content from a professional point of view, rather than that of a consumer and report on whether or not their content is in line with the brand’s identity and messaging.
In order to uncover interesting marketing insights that would help the senior leadership evaluate strengths and weaknesses at Complex I conducted an audit of the brand's public-facing media, and published content. I reviewed their content for branding and messaging inconsistencies which there were few, and concluded that the brand is actually holding on quite strongly in the internet era. I imagine this is due greatly to their ComplexCon now has 243k followers on Instagram up 500% since I first researched the brand in fall 2017. Awareness of the brand continues to grow thanks to social media where their outreach is very good but could use some minor improvements to boost engagement.
