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Distinctive Brand Assets

Distinctive Brand Assets (DBAs) are the collection of cues – visual, audio, semantic, or other – that help consumers immediately recognize your brand’s products and communications in an otherwise noisy market. DBAs are the building blocks that marketers can use to create a consistent message across the entirety of the customer experience. 

empty billboard on city street

When is distinctive brand asset testing useful?

It is vital that marketers know what DBAs are available that will ensure that consumers intuitively recognize the brand. A firm understanding of DBAs is necessary anytime that a “look” is updated – whether it is updating brand standards, redesigning a pack, or creating a new website. 

The benefits of distinctive brand asset testing

Identify unconscious cues

Identify which assets best serve to non-consciously cue the brand in consumers’ minds using implicit testing.

Uncover conscious cues

Understand what claims and other elements contribute to the conscious processing and navigation of the brand and products. 

Prioritize brand assets

Prioritize assets and develop a short-list that serves as the key components of your brand’s visual identity for communications.

Our perspective on distinctive brand asset testing

Distinctive Brand Assets are elements of design which act as a shortcut to brand recognition or imagery. This means that DBAs work to make navigating categories and product offerings much easier for consumers. Carefully crafted cues simplify the process of sense-making and allow your brand to jump to the head of the line for consumer choice. We recommend considering DBAs in the following categories, breaking them up before testing to make for optimal results:

  • 10 ft assets - These assets are used to broadly stake your claim at shelf. They help identify sub-category and possibly brand. Examples: color, pack shape, brand block  

  • 3ft assets - focused on helping your brand stand apart from the immediate competitors, shows distinction and excellence 

  • 1ft assets - Assets used to navigate your brand block and identify best variant - used to make the purchase decision as easy as possible. Complex assets including claims, variant names, or longer tag-lines fit here.