What the diagnostic actually measures
Four questions, a score out of 100, and four measures behind it. This is what each one is, and what the number is not.
7 September 2026 ยท 2 min read
The diagnostic asks four things: your brand name, what you sell, your typical ticket, and who buys. It returns a score out of 100 and breaks it into four measures. People reasonably ask what the number is made of, so here it is.
Clarity
How much explaining your category does before you have said anything. Some markets are self-describing and some need a paragraph before a buyer knows what they are looking at. A name that is hard to place in a category it does not already explain is carrying weight it does not need to carry.
Distinction
How crowded the comparison is, and how far your name sits from the pattern everyone else in it uses. In a market where every competitor is named the same way and looks the same way, distinctiveness is worth more, because there is more to be distinct from.
Price support
Whether the identity is doing anything to justify the number on the invoice. This is the measure that moves most with the ticket you told us: the same brand that is adequate at a low ticket is a liability at a high one, because the buyer is doing more scrutiny before they commit.
Audience fit
How much scrutiny your buyer applies before purchase, and whether the brand survives it. Selling to consumers and selling to procurement are not the same test, and a brand can pass one comfortably while failing the other.
What the number is not
It is not an audit. It is a deterministic score computed from four answers, which means the same answers always give the same result, and it means the score knows nothing about your actual website, your deck, or the two competitors keeping you awake. It is a starting position for a conversation, and it says so on the result screen. Anyone selling you a brand score derived from four questions and calling it an assessment is overselling it, ourselves included if we ever do.
