Benchmarking brand awareness in key European markets
How Beckmann used annual brand tracking to measure awareness, evaluate brand-building impact, and identify growth opportunities in Denmark and Germany.
“The cooperation has been good. I’m getting the support I need with effective communication.”
Martin Beckmann
CMO at Beckmann
About Beckmann
Beckmann is a heritage backpack brand specialising primarily in school backpacks and related accessories. With a strong presence in Northern Europe, the company operates across core home markets including Norway, Denmark, Germany, and Austria, while also serving around 25 distributor markets globally.
Founded 80 years ago, Beckmann has built a strong reputation in Norway and has increasingly focused on expanding brand strength in neighbouring European markets.
The challenge
Moving from product-led growth to brand-led growth
For many years, Beckmann’s commercial success was driven primarily by product quality and functionality. However, as the market became more competitive and products were increasingly copied, the company recognised the need to strengthen its brand position.
Approximately five years ago, Beckmann introduced a strategic shift to focus more heavily on brand building.
To support this transition, the marketing team needed a consistent way to measure whether investments in awareness and branding were creating tangible impact in priority markets.
Therefore, attention focused on Denmark and Germany, two of the company’s most important home markets outside Norway.
The key challenges were:
Limited visibility into brand awareness outside Norway
Need to assess whether brand-building activities were working
Desire to track progress year over year
Need to identify regional growth opportunities, especially in Germany
Need for actionable data that could be combined with commercial market knowledge
The solution
Annual brand tracking across Denmark and Germany
Beckmann partnered with Opeepl to conduct annual brand tracking research designed to measure awareness and monitor brand momentum over time.
Project Overview
Research type: Brand Tracking
Objective: Measure brand awareness and evaluate the impact of branding initiatives
Target audience: Men and women aged 25+, households with children aged 0 to 14
Markets: Denmark and Germany
Germany regions covered: Bremen, Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Niedersachsen, Brandenburg, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Hessen
Sample size: 1,000 interviews total
Split: 500 Denmark, 500 Germany
Incident rate: Denmark 20 to 25%, Germany 15 to 20%
Beckmann selected Opeepl after another internal department had previously used the platform for market research and reported a positive experience. Reliability, responsiveness, and ease of collaboration helped establish a partnership that has continued for approximately five years.
Brand Tracking
Brand tracking gives you continuous knowledge of how consumers recognise, associate and perceive your company, its brand(s), products and/or services.
From the data collected you will gain awareness about your brand health, on how to better shape marketing strategies in accordance with consumers’ perceptions, on new opportunities for further product innovation and on ways to maximise sales by communicating the right message and avoiding misconceptions.
The research
Turning yearly data into strategic decisions
The research gives Beckmann an annual benchmark of brand awareness and a practical framework for evaluating progress over time.
Rather than treating one wave of results as absolute truth, the company uses the data directionally, combining survey findings with local sales knowledge and multi-year trend analysis.
The results were used to:
Analyse detailed audience filters and segments
Review geographical differences across Germany
Identify regions where commercial focus should increase
Compare survey findings with sales team market experience
Validate changes only when trends repeat over several years
Assess whether branding investments are translating into stronger awareness
This long-term perspective helps Beckmann make more confident decisions than relying on a single snapshot.
The outcome
Clearer prioritisation and stronger decision-making
The annual tracker now helps Beckmann monitor the effectiveness of its brand-building strategy and make smarter decisions across priority markets.
The business benefits include:
By consistently tracking awareness, Beckmann has created a reliable reference point for evaluating whether its efforts are making a difference.