In short: distinctive brand assets (DBAs) are the elements that make a brand recognisable even without its name: a colour, a shape, a sound, a character, a typeface, a tagline. Jenni Romaniuk (Building Distinctive Brand Assets, Oxford University Press, 2018) measures them on two axes: fame, how many people link the element to the brand, and uniqueness, how many link it only to that brand. Examples: Tiffany blue, the Coca-Cola bottle, the Intel jingle, the Geico gecko. The costliest mistake for a small business is changing logo, colours and tagline before they have had time to become its own.
What is the difference between distinctiveness and differentiation?
Differentiation is having a product that is better at something the customer notices. Distinctiveness is being recognised at a glance. Byron Sharp and Jenni Romaniuk keep the two apart, and a study by Romaniuk, Sharp and Ehrenberg (Australasian Marketing Journal, 2007) found that few customers see their usual brand as different from the others.
That is why growing brands work on distinctiveness. Coca-Cola and Pepsi are close in the glass, but the red, the contour bottle and the script set them apart on the shelf and in memory. Distinctiveness builds mental availability: the brand comes to mind when it is needed.
What are the 6 types of distinctive brand assets?
(1) Colour. Tiffany blue, Coca-Cola red, Cadbury purple, McDonald's yellow. A colour used the same way every time becomes a shortcut.
(2) Shape. The Coca-Cola contour bottle, the Toblerone triangle, the McDonald's arches.
(3) Sound. Intel's five notes, Netflix's "ta-dum", the "I'm lovin' it" melody.
(4) Character. The Geico gecko, Kellogg's Tony the Tiger, Mr. Clean.
(5) Typeface. Coca-Cola's Spencerian script, Walt Disney's signature.
(6) Tagline. Nike's "Just Do It", L'Oréal's "Because You're Worth It".
A young brand often has only a logo and a tagline. An asset grows stronger with consistent use over the years.
Distinctive brand asset examples
Tiffany & Co., colour. The blue appears on the cover of the Blue Book, the catalogue published since 1845, and is now a private Pantone colour numbered 1837, the year the company was founded (Wikipedia). A ribbon in that blue says "gift" before you read the name.
Intel, sound. The five notes written by Walter Werzowa (Wikipedia) have closed Intel and PC makers' ads for decades: you can recognise them with your eyes shut.
Geico, character. A talking gecko with a British accent has been the face of the American insurer for years.
How do you measure a distinctive brand asset?
Romaniuk proposes two questions, asked of a sample of category buyers, showing the asset with no name or logo.
Fame: "Which brand is this?". The share of correct answers tells you how many people link the asset to the brand.
Uniqueness: how many people also link it to other brands. Red alone is not very unique for Coca-Cola, because many brands use it; the exact shade together with the bottle and the script makes it its own.
Putting the two measures on a grid shows what to do: a famous and unique asset is used everywhere, a unique but little-known one deserves investment, a known asset shared with competitors should only appear next to the name, one that is neither known nor unique is dropped.
Why does frequent rebranding hurt a small business?
Every new logo, colour or tagline starts from zero: the memory customers had built does not transfer. In small businesses the identity often changes with a new partner, a new consultant or the design fashion of the moment.
When rebranding makes sense:
- the asset is genuinely weak and does not grow despite use;
- a merger or legal separation requires it;
- the brand is compromised by a scandal;
- the company changes category or positioning.
When it does not:
- a new CEO or CMO wants to "leave a mark";
- a "modernisation" with no specific problem to solve;
- a design fashion that will age within a few years;
- imitating a competitor.
How to build DBAs in a small business: 4 phases
Phase 1, audit existing assets. A survey of category customers and prospects measures the fame and uniqueness of colour, typeface, tagline and character, if there is one. The output is a table of strengths and weaknesses.
Phase 2, selection. Keep the two or three best-recognised assets and decide whether to build a new one, for example a sonic logo.
Phase 3, consistent use. The chosen assets appear at every touchpoint: advertising, packaging, store, website, social, email, customer service. Consistency beats local optimisation.
Phase 4, measure again. The same survey, repeated a year or two later, shows which assets have grown and which need relaunching or replacing.
How to track DBA strength over time
Each asset falls into one of the four quadrants you get by crossing fame and uniqueness. At every new wave, check which quadrant it has moved into.
| High uniqueness | Low uniqueness | |
|---|---|---|
| High fame | Strong asset: use it everywhere and protect it, without changing it | Recognised, but also linked to competitors: never on its own, always next to the name or logo |
| Low fame | Little known but yours alone: a candidate to invest in with consistent use | Neither known nor yours: test it or let it go |
The movement that matters is from bottom right to top left: an asset that gains fame without losing uniqueness is working.
FAQ
What are distinctive brand assets?
They are the elements, colour, shape, sound, character, typeface or tagline, that make a brand recognisable even without reading its name.
How many DBAs should a brand have?
Better a few strong ones than many weak ones: a young brand does well to focus on two or three assets and use them every time.
Do DBAs apply to B2B?
Yes. HubSpot orange and Salesforce's Astro mascot work on the same logic: be recognised before explaining what you sell.
Is changing a DBA always damaging?
No, but building a strong asset takes years and changing it wipes that work out: change only if the asset is weak, never for aesthetic reasons.
Are brand characters outdated?
No: the Liberty Mutual emu, the Compare the Market meerkats and Aldi's Kevin the Carrot are recent cases.
Sources
- Romaniuk, J., Building Distinctive Brand Assets, Oxford University Press, 2018
- Sharp, B., How Brands Grow, Oxford University Press, 2010
- Romaniuk, J., Sharp, B., Ehrenberg, A., "Evidence concerning the importance of perceived brand differentiation", Australasian Marketing Journal, 2007
- Contagious, Jenni Romaniuk on distinctive assets
- Tiffany Blue, Wikipedia
- Intel Inside, Wikipedia
