What Are Brand Assets & How Can You Leverage Them?

What makes your brand stand out from the competition? It could be your slogan, your packaging, your unique offerings, or your marketing visuals. These are some of your brand assets- the aspects of your business that make your standout. It’s crucial you understand what your brand assets are so that you can leverage them in the best way possible.

What Are Brand Assets?

A brand asset is anything that is unique and automatically gets associated with your brand. It should be distinctly yours and never get tied to another brand. And, it should be something all consumers recognize and understand.

So, the following things can be brand assets IF they meet that criteria:

• Colours, fonts, and themes
• Logo and slogan
• Product packaging
• Your mascot
• Music, scents, and scripts

Simply having these elements isn’t enough to make them brand assets. It’s important to be strategic about which elements you choose to have. They should support your core values and mission statement, easily conveying your brand message.

Some examples of successful and effective brand assets include Nike’s “swoosh” logo, the Coca-Cola bottle, the animated characters in M&M’s commercials, and the golden arches at McDonalds. Each of these brands have invested in a brand asset that makes them recognizable and unique.

The Benefits of Brand Assets

Having effective brand assets is hugely beneficial to your business. For one thing, they give you a stronger ROI on your advertising efforts. When a consumer sees an ad and believes it belongs to a different brand, that’s a failure. However, when they see an ad and immediately know it belongs to your brand, you’ll get more engagement.

Second, brand assets help to boost your sales conversions. It’s a long way for a consumer to get through the buying journey. From point one to the final sale, your messaging could be all but forgotten. Brand assets leveraged at every step of the buyer’s journey ensure the consumer always relates the offering to you. 

What Are My Brand’s Assets?

Many brands already have effective assets that they just need to be aware of and reinforce. Here’s how you can identify any brand assets you may currently have.

1. Assess All Your Brand Elements

Look at all your marketing materials and strategies in the past and present. List every element you can find from the inception of your business to your future plans.

•  Collect Feedback

You should already have a good idea of who your target consumer is. In this step, you need to ask your target consumer for feedback and collect that data. You want to know how recognizable your brand is to them and what their demographic information is.

You can collect this data by posing surveys on your social media pages or paying for ad space. AB testing is also helpful for seeing which ads with specific brand assets get more clicks.

• Analyze the Data

Once you’ve collected the data from your feedback, it’s time to analyze it. How many of your consumers associate your logo with your brand? Your colors, font, slogan, mascots, etc.? Compare your results to your competitor’s. This will tell you how recognizable and unique your element is. Perhaps consumers recognize that your element as unique to your brand. Or, they recognize the element as unique to many brands in your industry. This is all important information to know.

Convert your findings into percentages that you can plot on a graph. For example, if the element you’re analyzing is your logo, calculate how many consumers linked it to your specific brand and how many consumers recognize the element at all.

• Plot the Data

Create a grid that has four quadrants along an XY axis. The X axis will have a scale of 0-100 percent and represent the percentage of consumers who recognize the element in general. This tells you how unique it is. Then, the Y axis will have a scale of 0-100 percent and represents fame, or how easily consumers link that element to your specific brand.

The top left quadrant is categorized as “Avoid”. Elements that are plotted into this section of the graph are probably going to be associated with your competitors as well.

The bottom left quadrant is categorized as “Ignore or Test”. These elements aren’t known at all by the market and will require extra work to make them known.

The top right quadrant is categorized as “Use or Lose”. Ideally, your brand elements would be plotted in the farthest right and top area of the graph. In this area, the element is so strong that it could potentially replace your brand’s name in recognition. If you don’t nurture and continue investing in these assets, you could lose them.

The bottom right quadrant is categorized as “Invest Potential”. These assets have the potential to become amazing elements of your brand, but they require more time and consistency. They need further development and to be paired with your brand name more.

How to Leverage Your Brand Assets

You’ve tested the market, received feedback, and plotted the data on a graph. Now, you need to know how to leverage your elements to make them effective assets. Here are some of the best tips for leveraging them:

• Be Consistent: Every campaign and channel that your brand touches should also be touched by your brand assets. Identify your brand’s touchpoints and pair them with an element. You should also be consistent across different channels. Whatever elements you use in our online branding should also be on your physical packaging.

• Use a DAM System: If you have a marketing team, it’s important for each member to have access to your brand elements. By using a digital asset management system, every team member can access and organize your assets.

• Ask for Feedback Often: No matter how strong your marketing team is, your customers know best. Keep asking, testing, and surveying your consumers. Their feedback is the number one metric to assess how strong your assets are.

• Consider Trademarking or Copywriting: When you have a successful asset, your competitors will try to copy it. That’s just the name of the game. Protect your top assets with either trademarking or copywriting.

Lastly, be wary of creating brand new assets. Consistency over time is one of the best tools for building your assets. When you start from square one, you don’t have any length of time to back it up.

Need Help ?

Knowing which assets are worth investing in and how to leverage them can be difficult. We can help. Contact us today to start leveraging your top brand assets.