Which Distinctive Assets are most valuable?

Distinctive Assets are a hot topic in the marketing community.

For most brand owners, the challenge is not convincing their team that distinctiveness is important; it’s getting agreement on a strategy for building it. With so many options available, it’s natural to wonder which types of assets prove to be most effective.

Recent studies have sought to answer this question looking at findings across multiple categories and countries. The take-out is simple and clear: brand characters perform best. But before banging on the door of your agency like the Duracell Bunny… we’d offer the following learnings from our own research and case studies (MountainView’s distinctive asset database covers over 50 categories and 10,000 assets):

1. The billion dollar bias. Every brand we’ve tested has a logo. Not every brand has a character. When we’re considering the performance of characters — a relatively small group of assets as a proportion of all assets tested — we have to consider whether there are particular properties (or advantages) of the brands that choose to deploy them. For example, in UK cereals (a character-heavy CPG category) 5 of the top 10 brands use characters, yet none of the 20 smallest brands appear to. We have to closely examine whether the conclusions reflect strengths of the asset type, or strengths of the brands they’re typically attached to.

2. ‘Don’t debate it if you can’t activate it.’ Assets thrive off reach and repetition, so if your brand sells in a grocery store or (especially) via eCom channels — consider how much exposure the asset will have. For brands with limited budgets or limited pack space, introducing a new character is unlikely to make sense; our learning is that it’s better to start with assets that can be effectively deployed on your own real estate (i.e. front of pack).

3. Brands do better with tailored plans. While ‘one size fits all’ asset learnings would be convenient, we see significant variance from category to category in the types of assets that perform well and the opportunities that exist. Just like performance coaching an athlete, different brands will benefit from different strategies depending on what field they’re competing in, what they’re starting with and what tools they have available.

As is so often the case, the answer is not as straightforward as we might want it to be. Simplicity is always welcomed, but accuracy is probably most valuable when it comes to understanding how to grow your brand’s assets.

If you’d like to discuss a personalised plan for your brands, don’t hesitate to reach out.