Identity assets are measured by two metrics. Fame is the share of customers who remember the asset and link it correctly to the brand. Uniqueness is the share of customers who link that asset only to you, not to your competitors. An asset with high Fame but low Uniqueness is building identity for the whole sector. These two metrics were developed by Jenni Romaniuk and the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute. It is the only measure that does not depend on the business owner's aesthetic taste.
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In most conversations about brand, the first question that comes up is: "Does this logo look good?" That is the wrong question. The right question is: "When customers see this without the company name, do they know whose it is? And only whose it is?" Those two questions lead to two completely different measures.
Why beauty and ugliness are the wrong criteria
Beauty is a matter of personal aesthetic judgment. It changes with generations, geographical regions, and the tastes of those in the meeting room. A brand may have an award-winning identity system, but industry customers may not recognize it, or they may recognize it but confuse it with a competitor. Conversely, a brand that consistently uses a familiar orange color over many years will achieve something that no award can measure: a place in the memory of buyers.
Jenni Romaniuk, a researcher at the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute at the University of South Australia, created a measurement framework called Distinctive Brand Assets. In it, the strength of an identity asset is determined by exactly two metrics: Fame and Uniqueness. Both measure customers' cognitive behavior, not the sensibilities of designers or business owners.
Fame: the percentage of customers who remember correctly
Fame is not general celebrity. In Romaniuk's framework, Fame is the percentage of customers in the sector category who see an asset (color, shape, melody, scent, photography style) and link it precisely to the brand. That means customers know for certain whose it is, not just that it looks familiar.
A low Fame asset is one that is functioning but leaving no trace. Customers look at it, the brain processes it, and then does not remember it. The cause is often not because the asset is poor, but because the frequency of exposure is insufficient or the asset is continuously changed before it can imprint in memory.
That figure explains why low Fame is a far more common problem than people admit. Most businesses think they are "using their identity," but in reality they are using many different versions of the same idea. The viewer's brain does not add those versions together. It sorts them into separate signals and builds up no associations at all.
Uniqueness: that asset belongs only to you
Uniqueness measures the opposite. Among the people who recognize the asset, what percentage link it only to your brand and attribute it to no one else in the sector. This metric measures ownership in memory, not legal ownership.
A brand can register legal protection for its distinctive green. But if customers see that color and think of three competitors at once, the Uniqueness of that asset is close to zero. The asset still exists on legal paper, but not in the buyer's mind, and that is the place that matters most.
Distinctive assets only create presence in the mind when repeated consistently. Consistency is the mechanism of memory, not an aesthetic choice.
Jenni Romaniuk, Building Distinctive Brand Assets, Oxford University Press, 2018
Four-cell matrix: know where you are standing
When placing Fame and Uniqueness on two axes, an identity asset falls into one of four positions:
- High Fame, high Uniqueness: a mature asset that needs protection and ongoing maintenance. This is the result of many years of consistent investment.
- Low Fame, high Uniqueness: a potential asset, not yet widely recognized but not diluted. The next step is to increase frequency of appearance.
- High Fame, low Uniqueness: the most dangerous asset. You are spending budget to embed a signal in customers' memory, but that signal does not lead back to you. Every advertising dollar may be nurturing recognition for a competitor in the same industry.
- Low Fame, low Uniqueness: an asset that has not formed. Not enough people know it and it is not distinct enough to occupy space. Review the asset before pouring budget into distribution.
Practical application: test the asset without a name
The simplest test to assess Uniqueness yourself goes like this. Take each identity asset, cover the name and logo, then ask a group of customers and non-buyers: "When you see this, which brand do you think of?" No prompting, no preset choices.
If the answers are dispersed across many names in the industry, Uniqueness is low. If the answers focus clearly on your name, that asset is functioning correctly. This test cannot replace rigorous quantitative research, but it is sufficient to detect serious issues before continuing to invest in the wrong assets.
One important thing to remember: the result of this test is behavioral data, not aesthetic opinion. The question it answers is "is this color doing the job it needs to do," not "is this color beautiful." They are two completely different questions. Only the first affects business results.
Fame and uniqueness do not come naturally
Both metrics are the result of a long process, not a single design decision. Fame comes from consistent exposure over time. Uniqueness comes from choosing assets that are distinct enough from the start and not allowing them to drift with industry trends.
Those two points mean this: the most important design decision is keeping the color and font unchanged long enough for them to become real assets, more than choosing which color or font. Changing the identity often because it "looks old now" breaks the memory already built up, right before the finish line.
References
Jenni Romaniuk, Building Distinctive Brand Assets, Oxford University Press, 2018. Byron Sharp, How Brands Grow, Oxford University Press, 2010. Marq (Lucidpress) / Demand Metric, Brand Consistency Report, 2021.