*On collecting internal data for content insights, [part 1/4 of the full framework](https://vickygu.com/content-research-framework)*
**What:** Qualitative brand positioning and perception insights
**How:** Conducting internal employee interviews and surveys
**When:** During onboarding audits and key company moments like a rebrand, strategy pivot, or new product launch
**Why:** To understand the human dynamics behind brand perception.
**Questions to answer:** How does external brand positioning match internal perception? Where are the gaps and opportunities to bridge this? What are the underlying organizational norms or cultural biases behind company language?
Whether you've just joined a company or started consulting for one, consider who might be able to offer brand perception insights, outside of your main stakeholders or collaborators.
Employee interviews are an effective way to glean brand insights, but they're also time-intensive. You might not be able to get a 30-minute interview with senior stakeholders across teams, or you might not think to spend time with more junior team members.
Complementary mini-surveys can scale insights and surface trends faster than conducting individual or group interviews. You could also run a survey first, and then use trends from the findings to inform the questions you ask in deep dive interviews.
Try asking employees to describe the company's value proposition in one or two sentences. Pretend they're introducing the organization to a prospect at a conference, without looking at the website for reference.
Collect the survey responses in a spreadsheet and note keyword trends. See where it deviates from the language you're hearing from executives. Make a checkbox to mark how many employees mirror executive phrasing, and see what percentage it is. Don't be surprised if it's just 1/4 of the company. That gives you a sense of how far the vision has trickled down, and where the reconciling work is to be done.
For sample size, be strategic. You don't need a huge sample if you're talking to key stakeholders who have influence on decisions and team training. And if you'll be manually analyzing open-ended responses, 15–20 respondents is a good cap to protect your own time while still getting an accurate look at the brand.