A MMMasterclass in using distinctive assets to build brand

The Calgary Stampede is an annual rodeo festival held every July in Calgary, Alberta. The 10-day festival bills itself as the 'greatest show on earth' and attracts over 1 million visitors every year. Joining the rodeo this time round is a certain fast food brand who just pulled out a genius piece of distinctive brand building. No massive logos. No cheesy slogans filling the entire ad... Just a cowboy jacket with golden tassels that are unmistakably fries.

No need for their name. No need for “I’m Lovin’ It.” Just the suggestion of those golden, salty strands swinging from a denim shirt like they’ve been wrangled straight off the ranch.

This is distinctive brand building at its finest.

And McDonald’s has been at it longer, and better, than most.

Welcome to a MMMasterclass in branding done properly.

What are Distinctive Brand Assets?

If you’ve done your homework or been trained properly in marketing, you’ll know this already. But let’s refresh.

Distinctive brand assets (DBAs) are the non-verbal cues that make your brand recognisable, even in total silence. Think colours, shapes, sounds, icons, packaging, characters... even smells.

They don’t tell people who you are. They remind people who you are. Subconscious nudges that say, “Hey, remember us?” when a customer is halfway down the aisle, or halfway through Instagram.

Jenni Romaniuk and the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute have been flying this flag for years. If you want mental availability, you need memory shortcuts.

McDonald’s: The golden standard

McDonald’s hasn’t just built a brand, they’ve built a visual language. A shorthand that's understood in 100+ countries. Here’s what makes their asset play so effective:

• The Golden Arches - A shape so powerful you don’t even need to see the whole thing. Half an arch behind a tree? Still McDonald’s.

• Red and Yellow - Not just colour. Appetite triggers. Optimism and urgency in two Pantone swatches.

• The Jingle - “I’m Lovin’ It” isn’t just a tagline. It’s an ear worm with equity - a bit like that rather annoying "Mah Na Mah Na" song on The Muppets (thank me later 😜).

• Menu Icons - The Big Mac, Fries, McNuggets. These aren’t just SKUs. They’re characters in the brand story.

• Scent and Setting - Walk past the extractor fan of a McDonald’s and tell me your brain doesn’t ping with childhood memories.

They’ve built memory structures so strong that even a few fries dangling from a cow boy jacket say, “Welcome to McDonald’s.”

Why McDonald’s gets It right (and you probably don't)

Here’s where most brands fall down. They:

• Get bored before the audience has even noticed

• Chop and change based on the marketer’s whim

• Confuse “creative” with “novel”

• Think brand assets are just logos and guidelines

McDonald’s, on the other hand, plays the long game:

• Unrelenting consistency - From Tokyo to Telford, those arches stay the same

• Unrelenting repetition - They hammer the same codes year after year

• Multi-sensory branding - They don’t just show up visually - they taste, sound and smell like McDonald’s

• Simplicity - No fluff. No faff. Just clear, recognisable brand codes that do all the heavy lifting

There's a fabulous piece of research from Andrew Tindall and the System 1 gang called 'Compound Creativity', that shows consistency isn't boring at all. It's actually really effective and leads to 6x more profit, 5x more brand growth, and exponential business growth.

Read the research here.

Lessons in proper marketing

If you want your brand to be properly remembered, take a few tips from the king of the drive-thru:

• Develop real DBAs - Not just logos. Think icons, shapes, colours, sounds

• Be boringly consistent - If you’re not sick of it, you haven’t used it enough

• Use them everywhere - Social, ads, packaging, signage, merch

• Make it sensory - Tap into sight, sound, scent, taste. Memory is multi-sensory

• Get out of your own way - Let your assets work for you. Stop fiddling with them!

Final Fry

McDonald’s doesn’t need to shout. It doesn’t need to explain. It just needs to show you a red box, a yellow arch, or even a jacket with tassel fries and your brain fills in the rest.

That’s the power of distinctive brand assets.

That's the power of proper marketing!