Creating distinctive brand assets is a critical part of marketing strategy, but many marketers make the mistake of focusing too heavily on meaning at the expense of other crucial factors. After reviewing Jenni Romaniuk’s recent Marketing Week column, I’ve come to believe that this obsession with meaning can actually undermine the effectiveness of distinctive assets.
Distinctive assets—those visual, auditory, or verbal elements that help consumers recognize and remember your brand—work through a four-stage development process. What’s fascinating is how trying to force meaning into each stage can backfire spectacularly.
The Four Stages of Distinctive Asset Creation
Romaniuk outlines a clear progression in how distinctive assets develop:
- Creation – Developing the initial asset
- Exposure – Getting the asset in front of consumers
- Association building – Linking the asset to your brand
- Retrieval – Ensuring consumers recall your brand when they encounter the asset
The problem occurs when marketers try to inject meaning into each of these stages. This approach can complicate what should be a straightforward process.
When Meaning Gets in the Way
At the creation stage, forcing meaning often leads to complex, hard-to-remember assets. I’ve seen countless brands develop intricate logos or jingles that try to tell their entire brand story—only to find consumers can’t recall them accurately.
During the exposure phase, meaning-heavy assets typically require more mental processing from consumers. This creates a barrier to quick recognition, which is the whole point of distinctive assets in the first place.
The most effective distinctive assets often have little inherent meaning but gain their power through consistent association with the brand.
Consider some of the most famous distinctive assets: McDonald’s golden arches, the Nike swoosh, or the Coca-Cola bottle shape. None of these had strong inherent meaning when first created—they gained their power through consistent use and association.
Simplicity Trumps Symbolism
The most successful distinctive assets share common traits:
- They’re simple and easy to recognize
- They stand out from competitors
- They’re consistently used across all brand touchpoints
- They work across different media and contexts
Notice that “packed with meaning” isn’t on this list. While meaning can develop over time through association, starting with meaning as the primary goal often leads to assets that are too complex or too similar to competitors (who are trying to convey similar meanings).
This doesn’t mean distinctive assets should be completely random or meaningless. But their primary job is recognition, not storytelling. The meaning comes through repeated exposure and association with your brand and its values.
Finding the Right Balance
The key takeaway from Romaniuk’s analysis is that we need to prioritize distinctiveness and recognition over meaning when developing brand assets. This might feel counterintuitive to marketers who want every element to tell their brand story, but it’s supported by extensive research.
For marketers, this means we should focus first on creating assets that are unique, simple, and memorable. Then, through consistent use alongside our brand, these assets will naturally begin to absorb meaning from the brand itself.
Next time you’re developing a new logo, packaging design, or sonic brand element, ask yourself: “Will consumers easily recognize and remember this?” before asking “Does this convey our brand meaning?” The former question is far more important for building effective distinctive assets.
The most powerful distinctive assets don’t start with meaning—they acquire it through their association with your brand over time. By focusing first on distinctiveness and memorability, you’ll create assets that truly work for your brand in the marketplace.
