Building Distinctive Brand Assets
Stop debating the rebrand in a conference room — measure what buyers' memories already own.
- Author
- Jenni Romaniuk
- Published
- 2018, Oxford University Press
- Core grid
- Fame × Uniqueness
- School
- Ehrenberg-Bass Institute
Forms & parts of speech
What the book says
Building Distinctive Brand Assets applies Ehrenberg-Bass brand science to identity: distinctive assets — colors, logos, characters, taglines, sounds, fonts, shapes — exist to trigger the brand name in buyers' memories, and they should be managed by measurement, not taste. The core instrument is the fame-uniqueness grid: fame is the share of category buyers who link the asset to your brand; uniqueness is the share who link it ONLY to you. Assets earn investment, retirement, or rebuilding based on where they sit.
The ideas people quote
Use-it-or-lose-it — assets decay without consistent use; the danger zone — famous but shared assets advertise the category (or a rival); test before you change — rebrands that kill famous assets pay in lost mental availability; different asset types do different jobs (faces beat fonts for emotion, colors work at distance); and the smart-acquisition rule — build the palette around assets that work across media, including the small screens where most impressions now land.
How to read it now
It is the working antidote to redesign-by-boredom. Where Positioning tells you what to mean, this book tells you how to be RECOGNIZED — and the Ehrenberg-Bass evidence says recognition does more heavy lifting than meaning. Read it before any identity project; it converts the agency conversation from 'do you like it?' to 'what does it score?'
Synonyms & antonyms
Synonyms
Origin & history
Published 2018 by Oxford University Press as the practitioner companion to the Ehrenberg-Bass research program — Romaniuk had developed the fame-and-uniqueness metrics across a decade of institute work for brands including Mars and Unilever. A second edition followed in 2023.
Etymology: source.
Usage trends
Search interest for this term over the last five years:
Common questions
- Who wrote Building Distinctive Brand Assets?
- Jenni Romaniuk of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, published 2018 by Oxford University Press.
- What is the fame-uniqueness grid?
- The book's measurement — fame is how many buyers link an asset to your brand; uniqueness is how many link it only to you.
- What is the book's core advice?
- Manage brand identity by measurement — build a small palette of famous, unique assets and use them with ruthless consistency.
Related tools & calculators
- toolCAC calculator
- toolLTV-to-CAC ratio
Resources & people to follow
- bookBuilding Distinctive Brand Assets — Jenni Romaniuk (the subject)
- bookHow Brands Grow Part 2 — Romaniuk & Sharp
- referenceEhrenberg-Bass Institute
Curated, non-competitor resources verified per term.
Related training
Disciplines
Areas of marketing where building distinctive brand assets is a core concern: