Which brand elements make you unique

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📝 Context

Topic: Brand & Strategy
For: B2C. Can be tested for B2B
Research date: March 2020
Universities: University of South Australia (Ehrenberg-Bass Institute)

You’re refreshing your barefoot shoe brand to more clearly differentiate yourself from competitors and make it easier for people to remember you.

You decide that a great way to do that is by introducing an eye-catching color that you’ll use consistently across your brand (e.g. ads, website). 

You pick bright red, as you know it’s associated with excitement and high-energy. Now you’re sure people will immediately recognize your brand. 

But when you show it to your friends and family, the first thing you constantly hear is “Oh! That’s the Coca-Cola red”.

Perhaps you didn’t create such a unique brand identity after all. Here’s why, and what to do instead.

P.S.: On a personal note, I’m curious about what you think of our Science Says purple 💜 

As we’ll see, colors - on average - are not a very unique distinctive asset. At the same time, I often get positive feedback that our insights’ illustrations are pretty unique (like the one below under “📈 Recommendation”), and people often mention our purple color. 

Is our combination of purples indeed unique, perhaps because it’s rare in this category - or do you think it’s something else that makes our illustrations feel distinct and unique?

Would love to hear what you think. I read every message!

📈 Recommendation

Make sure your brand elements are unique. Focus on unique mascots (e.g. Ronald McDonald), logos (e.g. the “M” golden arches), and fonts (e.g. Coca-Cola’s font). Yhey have the highest impact in making your brand immediately unique and recognisable.

Avoid relying on color alone, as it is a highly shared brand element and is less helpful for people to recognize your brand. Instead, create unique color combinations (e.g. Cadbury’s purple paired with gold accents) or combine it with unique shapes and patterns to create a more distinct brand look.

People will be more likely to recognise and remember your brand.

Pro tip: Remember that - like most insights we cover - the effect depends greatly on your context. If you operate in a small niche you may not need very sophisticated brand elements or need different ones. For example, if you advertise mainly with audio ads in podcasts, there is little point in having a mascot, as nobody will see it.

🎓 Findings

• Logos, mascots, and fonts are the most effective brand identity elements for creating unique associations.

• Across 61 datasets in 19 countries, a 2-year period of 1,281 brand identity elements with 26,755 people, researchers found that people:

  • Were more likely to uniquely associate mascots or characters with their respective brand (e.g. M&M’s characters or Colonel Sanders), compared to any other brand elements

  • Associated logos (e.g. Nike swoosh) and fonts (e.g. Coca-Cola’s cursive script) with their respective brands, but slightly less effective than mascots 

  • Were 2x more likely to associate characters and logos to the correct brand (vs colors)

  • Associated 82% of color assets to multiple brands (e.g. the very same color combination was associated with two or more brands), making them the least unique brand element

🧠 Why it works

• We process visual elements (e.g. logos, mascots) more easily than text-based elements (e.g. taglines).

• This helps us immediately associate a distinctive brand element (e.g. golden arches) to the brand (e.g. Mcdonald’s).

• Because visual elements are often distinct, we can create unique associations between them and the brands they represent.

• However, colors are often shared between brands and across the same category.

• This makes them less effective at helping us recognise them and create brand associations.

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✋ Limitations

• The study only looked at consumer packaged goods categories (e.g. snacks, detergent). The effect might not be the same for other categories like luxury products and services as people might use other elements to identify those brands.

• Other brand elements influence brand perceptions but weren’t considered in this study. For example, auditory elements like jingles have been shown to play a significant role in brand recall but it’s unclear how distinct they are.

• It’s likely that the effect is similar for small brands, though only bigger brands were analyzed.

👀 Real-life example

Lejan is a barefoot shoe brand developed by doctors, focusing on comfort and style.

❌ Issue: Their value proposition is unique and well communicated, but their brand identity is not very recognizable or unique.

✅ Solution: There are a few things they could try to fix this:

• Leverage the logo shapes and fonts consistently in their branding and across touchpoints. For example, they could use the mirrored “N” as a unique element. They could develop their own font, and avoid using the generic one they currently have.

• Add a foot or shoe element to their logo to make the product immediately recognizable and make people like it more.

• Play around with this element and include smile-like curves to help increase purchase intentions.

🔍 Study type

Market observation (secondary data collected from 61 datasets across 1,281 brand elements and across 13 CPG categories in 19 countries)

📖 Research

Building a unique brand identity: measuring the relative ownership potential of brand identity element types. Journal of Brand Management (March 2020)

🏫 Researchers

• Ella Ward. Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science, University of South Australia.

• Song Yang. Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science, University of South Australia.

• Jenni Romaniuk. Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science, University of South Australia.

• Virginia Beal. Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science, University of South Australia.

Remember: This is a scientific discovery. In the future it will probably be better understood and could even be proven wrong (that’s how science works). It may also not be generalizable to your situation. If it’s a risky change, always test it on a small scale before rolling it out widely.

🎁 Bonus mini-insight

Read the full insight here (for paid Platform members only).

🎓 Insight: How to design your brand to feel safe, or exciting

📈 Recommendation: Use structured designs (e.g. straight lines) to be perceived as effective and reliable. Use unstructured designs (e.g. incomplete shapes) to be perceived as fun and exciting.

People will like your brand more and will be more likely to choose you.

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