What is Branding? Your Cheat Sheet to Brands & Brand Assets

When you think about your favourite brands – maybe it’s a crisp logo on your Instagram explore page, a catchy slogan at the end of a video ad, or that comforting robin-egg-blue you see when you walk past the Tiffany store – chances are those elements are all brand assets; individual elements that represent a brand.

Brand assets are the visual and non-visual ingredients that make a brand instantly recognisable. They are the visual icons, the tone of voice, the colours, slogans, and design details that echo in your mind. 

These assets help brands stand out, build trust, and live on in people’s memories. 

But their role is deeper than aesthetics; they’re a strategic asset that marketers must manage carefully.

In this article, we’ll unpack:

• A history of branding
• A breakdown of brand asset types
• What to do when brand asset management goes wrong
• How BAM software helps
• Your takeaway cheat sheet

Let’s crack on.

A Brief History of Branding

Believe it or not, “branding” is ancient. The word originates from the Old Norse brandr, meaning “to burn” – literally burning cattle to show ownership with a hot iron mark 😬. That deep-rooted concept of “marking your territory” is where branding begins.

Fast-forward to the 1700s and the Industrial Revolution. Factories started mass-producing soaps, foods, and textiles. 

To stand out from local goods made by individuals or families within the community, larger manufacturers needed identities – a consistent logo or symbol – so people bought into the prestige of a larger brand, and eventually bought into that familiarity, too.

• Bass Brewery was one of the first to trademark. Its iconic red triangle appeared on pale ale barrels and became Britain’s first registered trademark in 1876.
• Tate & Lyle’s golden syrup packaging hasn’t changed much since 1885, and is Europe’s longest-standing design.
• Twinings has used its crest logo since 1787.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, branding evolved. 

Marketers like Thomas J. Barratt (called the “father of modern advertising”), used slogans, imagery, and art to emotionally connect products (like Pears Soap) with people.

As Walter Landor, pioneer of modern brand design, said:

“Products are made in the factory, but brands are created in the mind.” 

Brand assets are rooted in ownership and trust, that evolved into strategic tools that shape how people feel and remember.

What is a Brand Asset?

Brand assets can be visual or non-visual, and they help your brand speak – in colour, tone, memory, or experience. Here are some core brand asset types:

Visual Brand Assets

• Logo variations – icon, wordmark, black or white versions, full colour or simplified layouts for different contexts. (e.g., Nike’s swoosh, WWF’s panda)
• Colour palette – signature colours (e.g., Cadbury’s deep purple and gold, Nickelodeon’s orange and white), which evoke brand instantly.
• Typography – custom or chosen fonts that convey voice (Apple uses simple, clean text to convey the tech’s simplicity and ease of use; Coca-Cola uses the Spencerian script logo to evoke authenticity and classic charm).
• Iconography, illustrations, mascots – from Compare the Meerkat’s Aleksandr Orlov and Go Compare’s Gio Compario to Henry vacuum cleaners, people naturally identify with, respond to – and remember – faces.
• Packaging & store design – Apple’s sleek, minimalist packaging and in-store aesthetic; Pringle’s iconic cardboard tube.
• Audio & jingles – Netflix’s “tudum” sound, or “Washing machines live longer with [BLANK]” (you can probably fill it in!)

Non-Visual Brand Assets

• Taglines, slogans, jingles – short and memorable: Nike’s “Just Do It.”; “Have a break; have a KitKat”, “Every Lidl helps”, etc.
• Brand name – that itself is an asset. Whether a brand name is eponymous (Disney), or reflects the brand’s values (Who Gives a Crap), a brand name helps position a company in what could already be a crowded market – and is a chance to set a company apart.
• Brand voice and tone – Apple’s clear simplicity; Innocent Smoothies’ conversational charm, Ryanair's witty (brilliantly dry) TikTok account.
• Mission & values – guiding principles like Google’s “organising the world’s information”, or Airbnb’s “Belong anywhere”. 

Brand assets are powerful because they’re memorable, recognisable, and because they differentiate you from competitors. They’re also intangible – your brand equity lives in your audience’s mind.

When Managing Brand Assets Goes Wrong

You’ve got all these precious brand assets – now you need to manage and protect them.

Often, brands start with all their exciting, shiny new brand assets in one place: a Google Drive folder, for example. But it’s often not long before more branded assets get created (TikToks, for example), which don’t quite fit in the master folder, so another folder is created. 

Then sales material is built for a new prospect, and that content lives somewhere else. Ditto the YouTube channel long-form content that’s being managed by a whole different team. 

This all might be okay, as long as nothing changes at a brand level. But the moment your brand gets tweaked, how are you going to collect all of those (now outdated) brand assets, and update them?

Brand Asset Management Can Get Hard:

• Scattered files across Dropbox, drives, emails, personal desktops
• Wrong or outdated assets in use (e.g. older logo used in pitch deck)
• Slow access – waiting for marketing to send updated assets
• Lack of governance (no clear licensing or usage instructions)
• Inconsistent branding across global or remote teams

But Brand Asset Management Software Helps!

With brand asset management software, all your assets stay in one place. Anything featuring your logo, for example, lives in your BAM system. 

And every time a change gets made, that change is rolled out across every affected piece of content. 

How? Users who’ve downloaded any asset will get an email telling them that it’s now out of date and needs replacing. The source asset will be updated, and remains THE single source of truth. 

When all your brand assets (even those used by your sales teams, social media teams, external agencies) live under one BAM roof, your design team can edit (without even leaving Adobe, (and/or dare we say, Canva!?) because Asset Bank integrates directly with those tools. 

It’s an incredibly efficient way of managing and protecting your branded assets. In short, brand asset management software offers:

• A centralised asset library for logos, templates, voice guidelines
• AI search functionality so nothing gets missed
• Integrated approval workflows, so nothing goes live unless it’s been signed off
• AI-assisted Auto tagging, permissions, expiry dates, usage notes – for every asset!
• Portals, so agencies, or regions, or select groups can access only certain pieces of content, without being able to rifle through everything.

That’s just the surface of it. There’s also a financial benefit to keeping your brand assets safe, and sometimes legal ramifications if you mismanage content!

Your Takeaway Cheat Sheet

1. Brand assets = the building blocks of recognition (visual and non-visual). They are intentionally distinct assets that make your brand memorable
2. Logo versions + brand guidelines are key components
3. Managing assets properly via BAM / DAM platforms ensures consistency, efficiency, and confidence

So that’s what branding is, what brand assets are, why they matter, and how to manage them like a pro. 

Whether you're curating a mood board or launching a content campaign, your brand assets are your power tools. Handle them well, and they make your brand feel unforgettable.

Launching a new brand campaign in record time? It's easy for things to slip through the net. But don't worry, we've got you covered with our handy campaign checklist.