Is Your Brand Easy to Recognize?

Like, from a distance in a moving car? Or scanning down an aisle in 1.62 seconds? Or scrolling distractedly in a web search?

A quick & unscientific way to test is to do an online image search of “your brand” or “your brand + your category”. (E.g., “Starbucks”, or “Starbucks coffee”.) Then zooooom out (Ctrl - or Cmd - ).

Check it on its own & against competitors. Can you tell them apart? Is there anything beyond your logo or product that pops? Do you look like everyone else, or are you creating your own distinct look?

Image of brands that are easily recognized like Dunkin Doughnuts with text commentary.

Go one further and show those little thumbnails to someone who doesn’t acutally work on the brand. See if they can recognize it.

Is it scientific? Nah. Caveats galore, as usual. (Call me for the scientific version.) But it’s big data LOL.

And it’s a start to diagnosing how good your “distinctive brand assets” game is. (AKA brand identifiers, ownable brand equities, etc.)

Whether you’re in CPG, B2B, or luxury, you really ougttta build & invest in distinctive brand assets.

Because while it’s fun to obsess over brand values & emotional positioning & brand purpose (ugh), you must never forget how important it is for your brand to be easy to find & recognize by normal, everyday customers. And especially by new customers.

Half the time shoppers are like, “I think he likes the blue one.” Or “it was a car ad, I forget which brand." Or "it was the orange one in the middle of the Gartner quadrant." Or just scanning the streets for a green mermaid.

So build up those distinctive brand assets! And INVEST in them over the long-term.

I mean, how else do you build equity in something? Sheesh.

#branding #brands #design #marketing #advertising #brandscience #b2b #luxury #bigdata

PS: want more tasty brand science? I’m booking up speaking and brand consulting gigs for the winter & spring already. So call me maybe.