Distinctive Brand Assets: Be Recognized Before You Are Read
Distinctive brand assets let people recognize you before they read a word. Without them, your ads and content risk building memories for the category instead of for you.
Key takeaways
- Distinctive brand assets are non-verbal and verbal cues, such as colours, logos, shapes and taglines, that trigger your brand name.
- Jenni Romaniuk assesses assets on two measures: fame among category buyers and uniqueness against competitors.
- Pick a few assets and use them consistently for years, because recognition builds slowly.
Picture a red can with a white ribbon of script, or a pair of golden arches. You know the brands before you see the names. That instant recognition is not luck. It comes from using the same cues so consistently that they now stand in for the brand itself.
Smaller companies can build the same thing at their own scale. Most never do, because they change their look every year or two.
What distinctive brand assets are
Distinctive brand assets are the elements that trigger your brand in a buyer’s memory. They can be visual, such as a colour, a logo, a shape or a character. They can also be verbal or audio, such as a tagline, a sound or a spokesperson.
The idea is set out in Jenni Romaniuk’s book Building Distinctive Brand Assets, published in 2018 and based on research at the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute. Her central point is that an asset only works if buyers already link it to your brand.
Why distinctive brand assets matter
Most people give ads and content a moment of attention, often while doing something else. If they cannot tell who the message is from, the effort may build memories for the category rather than for you. Worse, it can help a competitor who is easier to recognize.
Strong assets also make every later piece of marketing cheaper. Once buyers recognize your colour or character, each new ad starts with a head start.
Fame and uniqueness
Romaniuk evaluates assets on two measures.
- Fame. What share of category buyers link the asset to your brand?
- Uniqueness. How few of them link it to a competitor instead?
An asset high on both is valuable, so protect it. An asset high on uniqueness but low on fame has potential, so invest in it. Assets low on uniqueness are risky, because they may be helping a rival.
How to test your assets
You can run a simple version of this research yourself. Show category buyers each asset on its own, with the brand name removed. Then ask which brand comes to mind.
Include your colours, logo symbol, typeface, tagline and any recurring imagery. Also test competitors’ assets, so you can see which cues the category already owns. Twenty or thirty responses from real buyers will reveal the clearest patterns.
Building them over time
- Audit what you have. List every element you have used in the last five years and note which ones stayed consistent.
- Choose a small set. Two or three assets used everywhere work better than ten used occasionally.
- Use them prominently. Put the assets where people look first, not in a corner.
- Protect them. Write simple rules, so agencies and new staff do not quietly change them.
Patience is the hard part. Teams tire of their own look long before buyers have even learned it, so resist the urge to refresh.
Distinctive brand assets work best alongside clear category entry points, because one helps buyers notice you and the other helps them remember when you are relevant. To review your brand assets with us, book a free diagnosis.
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