Distinctive Brand Assets: 11 ways to fully harness their potential (Part 2)
100% of marketing directors agree that Distinctive brand assets are an important driver of growth in our brandgym research. However, very few brand assets are truly distinctive, with a mere 15% getting a ’gold’ rating in research by JKR and IPSOS.
This year’s set of new year cards suggest 11 ways to fully harness the potential of brand assets to drive growth, brought to life with inspiring examples This week we look at six more inspiring examples, following the five we looked at last week.
6. BRING BACK A BRAND ASSET LIKE TANGO
Soft drink Tango dug up some buried brand treasure in the form of its iconic slogan, “You’ve been Tango’d”. The slogan was updated as part of delivering a new, product-centric purpose: Tango exists to invigorate with intense, bold taste. The brand tapped into memory that existed with older drinkers, whilst re-using an effective execution to appear to new users.
7. BAKE YOUR BRAND INTO YOUR PRODUCT LIKE BN
The best form of distinctive asset is when you can “bake the brand in” to your product. Biscuit brand BN used this approach at the heart of a re-launch with the brand idea “Goutez au Sourire (Taste the Smile)”. The smile featured in an upgraded version of the core product and was also embedded into a refreshed logo and new communication. Sales and market share returned to growth after several years of decline.
8. REVITALISE YOUR CORE BRAND LIKE ITV
ITV decided to back and revitalise their core brand to step-change their streaming offer, rather than create a new, youth-focused brand. A distinctive new name, ITVX, stood out in a crowded market dominated by descriptors using the ‘+’ naming convention (e.g. Disney+, Apple TV+). A striking visual identity and distinctive positioning, The UK’s Freshest Streaming Service, helped drive a 56% increase in streaming hours with the key 16-34 year old segment.
9. LEVERAGE YOUR DISTINCTIVE ASSETS LIKE WD-40 BRAND
Brand Asset Tracking (D-BAT) for the WD-40 brand highlighted blue & yellow and the red top as key brand assets. Together with the can shape, these assets were more recognizable than Cokes’ contour shaped bottle! A re-design of the premium Specialist range leveraged these assets, improving shelf impact and speed of brand recognition.
10. USE ASSETS AS THE KEY TO UNLOCK EMOTION LIKE VEUVE CLICQUOT
Veueve Clicquot show how distinctive brand assets can do more than just drive recognition. The brand’s signature orange colour is amplified across the whole mix, including communication and secondary packaging, to trigger positive emotions linked to vibrancy, optimism and “solaire culture.”
11. CREATE A CHARACTER AND AMPLIFY IT ACROSS THE MIX LIKE KFC
Characters are shown in research to be one of the most effective forms of brand asset. Unlike celebrities, they work only for you, for free, 365 days a year! KFC’s Colonel Sanders is great example, being used by the brand to drive distinctiveness for over half a century. What is particularly impressive is the way the character is amplified across the whole mix, including packaging, in- store display, communication and even in video game Street Fighter 6!. The Colonel played a key role in helping grow global revenues to $2.8billion in 2022, up 25% on 2020.
In conclusion, fully harnessing the potential of DBAs to drive growth requires action on three key fronts. First, you need to MEASURE your DBAs, something only a minority of brand teams do. Second, you need to create and then consistently amplify your DBAs. Finally, you need to track AND treasure your DBAs, making changes based on data, not judgement. Reach out to your brandgym partner if you’d like to learn more about how to do this.
And if you’d like the set of postcards to share with your team, just reply to this email.
