How to use distinctive assets to get more from your marketing

An 8 minute read to let you spend more time on your business not your marketing

What are distinctive assets?

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Distinctive assets are your business's way to be recognised and remembered more easily. 

And when you are recognised more, it is easier to be chosen and charge a premium.

They are the elements of your business that act as “memory triggers” reminding people of your business, even when your name isn’t shown and you only catch a quick glimpse. 

They can take various forms: a logo, a tagline, colours, sounds. Like Cancer Councils “Slip, Slop, Slap” or one of my favourite small business ones Domo 39 an onigiri cafe in Sydney’s character or Whitefox fast fashion brand always choosing to run the same ads on the back of the bus with the same model.

The Domo39 onigiri café character, a distinctive brand mascot that helps customers instantly connect the image with the business.

The Big brands have them everywhere:

• McDonald’s has the golden arches and the “I’m lovin’ it” jingle.
• Qantas has the flying kangaroo.
• Bunnings has the “lowest prices” tune.

They spend a lot of money building them and then re-embedding them in peoples minds so they are easier to be remembered and hence bought next time someone thinks about entering the category.

One of the main goals of using distinctive assets is to make your advertising spend work harder. When people see or hear your posts or ads, they should instantly know it’s from you. This matters more than most realise: on Meta platforms (Facebook/Instagram), the average watch time is only 1–2 seconds. If your distinctive assets aren’t obvious right away, people are likely to miss that it’s your business—or even attribute the ad to someone else.

_{Note: If you’d like to dig deeper into distinctive assets, check out the Ehrenberg-Bass Marketing Science Institute from Adelaide, South Australia. They’re the team that coined the term and have done some of the most influential research on why these assets are so powerful for building brands.}

Why are distinctive assets so important for small businesses?

System 1 found in a recent study that campaigns which use distinctive assets well (e.g. recurring characters, consistently used themes, audio cues) are 73% more likely to report large profit gains than those that don’t.

In short, distinctive assets make marketing work harder for you. Businesses that use strong distinctive assets are noticed faster and chosen more often. Whilst it is easier for large businesses to embed distinctive assets to the masses with their millions of dollars in budget, it is important for small businesses too.

Buying decisions happen quickly in a context of someone's life when they are often thinking about other things or rushed, so shortcuts like colours, logos, and jingles are crucial (Sharp, How Brands Grow, 2010) (Romaniuk & Sharp, Building Distinctive Brand Assets, 2016). It’s what people rely on.

Distinctive assets are important for your business because…

1. They make you easy to spot: People are busy. When they see shelves of options, or scroll past dozens of posts, they won’t stop to read every name. But if they see your colour, shape, or phrase that they already connect with you, they’ll recognise you in a split second.
2. They help people remember you: Most customers aren’t thinking about your business all the time. Distinctive assets act like mental sticky notes.
3. They save you money: Instead of having to shout louder or spend more on ads because you are not getting noticed, you can lean on consistent use of your assets. ‍
4. They build familiarity: Consistency (always using the same look, sound, or phrase) makes you feel familiar. And familiarity makes people comfortable choosing you over someone they don’t recognise. In psychology it is called the mere-exposure effect simply repeated exposure equals liking.

What are some everyday examples? 

Here’s a little list. 

These are the basics. But you can think broader, a distinctive asset could be how you start your social media videos the same every time, the setting of your content and more. Remember I mentioned Whitefox, they have made the back of buses and a particular model @ashleighmenin one of their distinctive assets.

There has been some research on what distinctive assets are best. Interestingly sound and characters perform highly making businesses easily recognisable yet they are used the least. It’s why at Unjumble we have been working with one of our freelancers to develop a character of our own.

Three upfront pro tips

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1. Create a list of your businesses distinctive assets: Create a folder with all your distinctive assets, write them down and save them digitally. Make sure they’re easy for everyone in the business to access. Having them in one place gives you a clear picture of what you need to keep showing up with, and it helps social media managers or future freelancers stay on brand and bring your business to life consistently. We keep ours on Notion and in a Google Drive folder. 
2. Use distinctive assets in social media posts and ads in the first 2 seconds: 95% of people don’t watch past 1.5 seconds so it’s crucial that your business is recognised early. Leading with a distinctive asset makes it easier for people to spot you instantly—even if they’re just scrolling past. In System1’s “The Long and the Short (form) of it” report (with TikTok), it’s shown that short-form ads must use distinctive assets early (in the first 2 seconds) to drive brand recognition. E.g. mascots, logos, signature characters help deliver recognition in that timeframe.‍
3. Be consistent with your distinctive assets: The goal of distinctive assets is to make your business recognised and remembered as quickly and easily as possible. It means you can’t go round changing them every week. Big brands hold onto their logos, colours, and taglines for years. Do the same: play with your content, but keep your core assets steady.

Step-by-Step Guide: How to build and use distinctive assets

1. Show distinctive assets in the first two seconds of your social ads

You might be thinking: “But showing my logo in the first two seconds is boring.” And honestly—we agree. That’s why, with social, you’ve got room to think differently.

System1 and Tik Tok research shows that while a logo can help people recognise your business instantly, it’s not much of a hook. You need something that grabs attention and feels like your brand.

Here’s a perfect social video example from @meatysbutcher: https://www.instagram.com/p/DME6XXxSs8l/ 

In those crucial first two seconds, try leading with:

• Brand music or a jingle
• A recognisable character (mascot or person — think Duolingo’s owl)
• Someone speaking your brand name
• Your logo in context, like a quick pan past your café sign out front

2. Don’t just rely on your logo and colours

Logos and colours are important, but they’re not the whole story. Some of the strongest distinctive assets are actually characters, sounds, and jingles.

Think of the classic: “Frank Walker… National Tiles!” (Frank Walker's National Tiles - Radio Ad) — you probably read that in his voice. Or take a local example in Sydney: Meaty’s Butcher in Stanmore, who’ve created their own steak character to stand out.

If you don’t have any distinctive assets beyond your logo yet, don’t stress. Work with a freelancer on Unjumble to develop one — it could be a sound, a phrase, or even a character that fits your brand. Done well, these assets make your business instantly more recognisable, help your posts cut through, and make your marketing dollars work harder.

3. Put them everywhere, online, in-store, on product, on windows

Once you’ve got your distinctive assets, don’t keep them hidden away. Think about where they naturally fit and make sure they show up there. With a little bit of taste, it’s fine to use them almost everywhere.

Online spots to cover:

• Social media posts, bios, and profile pictures
• Google Business Profile images
• Your website
• Photos you share or that get used in articles

Offline spots to cover:

• Store signage and wayfinding
• Windows and shopfronts
• Product packaging (stickers, labels, wraps)
• Free stickers you can give away
• Posters and flyers
• Menus or price boards

The goal is simple: the more places people encounter your assets, the faster they’ll connect them back to your business.

4. Keep your assets in one easy place to share

This one’s simple but powerful. 

Write down all your distinctive assets—or save the files—and keep them together in a single folder. Make it a shared folder so the key people in your business (and any freelancers you bring on) can access them anytime. 

That way, everyone stays on the same page and your brand shows up consistently.

We like to keep Unjumble’s list of distinctive assets organised in Notion (for workflows and notes), Slack (for team communication), and Google Drive (for storing and sharing files). The key is to pick the tools that fit best with how you work.

5. Use guidelines to leverage distinctive assets consistently

Set some simple brand guidelines for yourself, your social media managers, and any freelancers you bring on. That way, your distinctive assets are always used the right way and your business looks consistent across everything you put out.

If you’re running the marketing yourself, Canva makes it easy: upload your logo, colours, and fonts into their Brand Kit (part of the paid plan) so they’re always on hand.

When working with freelancers, share your assets and guidelines upfront. Be clear on the non-negotiables—your logo, colours, tagline, or character must show up in every piece of work. Otherwise, the money you spend won’t work as hard as it should.

And if you need help building or applying these guidelines, you can find local freelancers for everything from brand identity to signage design on Unjumble.

Enough rambling — time to let you get back to it.

Cheers,

Zac

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Check out some more research from Ehrenbug-Bass Institute of Marketing Science, System1, and Applied Brand Science.

Check out some classic Sydney institutes @domothreenine, and the newly formed @meatysbutcher.

Are you an Australian business and needing a hand with creating or utilising effective distinctive assets? Hit ‘Post a project’ with Unjumble, and we’ll match you with a marketing freelancer.

All our freelancers are Australian experts who know the local market inside and out so you’re in good hands. Find out more about Unjumble's marketplace service connecting Australian businesses to local marketing professionals on our homepage.