A lot of brand conversations still get trapped in taste
We like it. We do not like it. It feels tired. It needs a refresh. It is not premium enough. It is not contemporary enough.
Those reactions are common, but they are not especially useful.
A better question is this: is the brand fit for business?
That shifts the conversation away from style and towards usefulness. A fit-for-business brand is one that helps the organisation do what it needs to do. It is clear enough to understand, distinctive enough to remember, usable enough to apply consistently, and relevant enough to support commercial growth.
That means the test is not whether the brand feels new. It is whether it works.
Can people quickly grasp what the business stands for? Can the team use the system confidently across touchpoints? Does the identity stretch across channels, audiences and contexts without losing coherence? Does the brand make the offer feel stronger, clearer, and more credible?
If the answer is no, the issue is not cosmetic. It is structural.
The strongest brands reduce friction. They support growth rather than getting in its way. That is the standard worth designing for.
Key definitions
Distinctive brand assets: The specific visual and sensory elements that consumers associate with a brand without needing to see its name or logo. In FMCG and beverage, these typically include a signature colour, a distinctive shape, a recurring character or icon, a proprietary typeface or a specific structural packaging element.
Shelf standout: The ability of a product’s packaging to be noticed and correctly identified within the first one to three seconds of a shopper scanning a retail fixture. Achieved through colour contrast against the competitive set, distinctive structural or graphic assets and clear information hierarchy.
Visual Attention Software (VAS): AI-powered eye-tracking technology that predicts where consumers will look first on a pack, shelf or advertisement before physical consumer testing. The 3M Visual Attention Service predicts first-fixation patterns with up to 92% accuracy against human eye-tracking studies.
Mental availability: The ease with which a brand is recalled when a buyer enters the purchase category. In FMCG, built through consistent deployment of distinctive visual assets across all packaging and marketing touchpoints.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a brand audit?
A brand audit is a structured review of how a brand is performing across strategy, identity, messaging, consistency, relevance and application.
How do you assess whether a brand is working?
Look at whether it is clear, distinctive, trusted, usable and commercially supportive across touchpoints and decision-making moments.
What makes a brand scalable?
A scalable brand can stretch across channels, audiences, products and contexts without losing coherence or recognisability.
How do you know if a brand is usable across touchpoints?
The system should be easy for teams to apply consistently in digital, print, environments, campaigns and sales materials without constant reinterpretation.
How do I know if my brand is fit for business?
Start by testing whether it is clear, distinctive, usable and commercially relevant. A brand that cannot be deployed consistently or understood quickly will struggle to support growth.
Soucres:
Google, Modern Brand Measurement Playbook.
Nielsen, Brand and Sales Outcomes. Kantar, Meaningful, Different and Salient framework.
- Kantar, Meaningful, Different and Salient framework.
Ehrenberg-Bass, distinctive assets research services.