Last reviewed: October 2026
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This free brand asset testing checklist is for brand managers, marketing directors and insight teams running a brand asset assessment: a consumer study of the brand’s distinctive assets, such as its logo, colours, shapes, characters, sounds, taglines and packaging. One run is one study. It sets the objective and agrees how assets will be scored before any results come in, chooses the assets, the competitor set, the sample and the research supplier or panel, prepares each asset with the brand name removed, and writes a survey that asks category buyers whether they recognise each asset and which brand it makes them think of. It fields the survey, removes poor-quality responses, and scores each asset’s fame and uniqueness. Each asset is placed on the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute’s Distinctive Asset Grid and given a proposed decision: use and protect, invest, change, test again or drop. The brand lead approves the decisions before the brand guidelines change. Tasks appear for a repeat study, an agency or an in-house survey, assets people link to a competitor, and trade mark checks for assets to build or protect.
Brand asset testing asks consumers, not the brand team, which elements signal the brand. Ask the team and you learn what the team believes; ask category buyers, with the brand name taken out, and you learn what they link to the brand from memory. This checklist is that consumer research step: one study, scored the same way each time, with the decisions approved before anything changes.
It is not brand asset management. The Brand Asset Management Checklist organises and governs the asset files: its first phase is an audit and inventory of what exists, then storage, permissions and keeping the guidelines current. This checklist takes the assets from that library and finds out which of them work. The Brand Development Checklist creates a brand in the first place, and when the results lead to a new name or identity, the Rebrand Launch Checklist rolls it out.
Asks: which of our assets do category buyers link to us without the name, and which point to a competitor?
When: once per study, before a refresh, a new campaign or a change to the guidelines, and again to track progress.
Output: fame and uniqueness scores, an asset grid and an approved decision for each asset.
Asks: what assets do we have, where are they, who may use them and which version is current?
When: continuously, in the Brand Asset Management Checklist.
Output: an asset inventory, an organised library, approval workflows and current guidelines.
Asks: where does the old brand appear, and is everything ready before the new one goes public?
When: once per rebrand, in the Rebrand Launch Checklist.
Output: a touchpoint inventory, an approved launch and the old brand retired.
Eight phases take one study from the objective to the updated brand guidelines. Preparation counts back in working days from the date fieldwork starts, and the analysis and decisions count forward from it. Tasks appear for a repeat study, an agency or an in-house survey, assets people link to a competitor, and trade mark checks for assets to build or protect. The brand lead approves the decision for each asset before the guidelines change.
Answer the first task before anything else: the brand, the market, the day fieldwork starts and the people involved. Every due date counts in working days from the fieldwork start date: back from it for the preparation, and forward from it for the analysis and the decisions. Start the checklist about six weeks before fieldwork. A repeat study adds a task to bring in the last one, and the choice of an agency or an in-house survey adds that route’s tasks.
Decide what to test, against whom and with whom. List every element that might signal the brand, including ones used in the past, then choose the assets for this study, the competitors whose names respondents could give instead of yours and the people to ask, and choose the agency or panel that can reach them. An agency is briefed now, so it can help with the stimuli.
Each asset is shown on its own, with the brand name and every other clue taken out, so the survey measures what people link to the asset itself. Prepare every stimulus the same way, so none stands out because of how it is shown.
Write the questions and get the survey ready. Each asset gets the same questions: has the respondent seen it before, and which brand, if any, it makes them think of. An agency study adds a task to approve its survey, and an in-house survey adds tasks to build it and order the sample.
Start with a soft launch, check the first answers, then open the survey to everyone. Do not change the questions or stimuli once fieldwork is open. Remove poor-quality responses by the rules set in Phase 4 before anything is scored.
Score every asset the same way, by the rules agreed in Phase 1, and place each on the fame and uniqueness grid. A repeat study adds a comparison with last time, and assets that people link to a competitor add a review of what to do about them.
Turn the scores into a proposed decision for each asset, check the assets you want to build or protect against trade marks, and present the results. The brand lead approves the decisions, and nothing after that step can be completed until they do.
Put the approved decisions into the brand guidelines and the work that uses them, then file the study so the next one can repeat its method. Assets to build or protect add a task to brief the trade mark filings.
The first table sets out the four quadrants of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute’s Distinctive Asset Grid, as described by Professor Jenni Romaniuk, and what this template does with an asset in each. The second sets out the UK and US trade mark points the checklist uses when an asset is to be built or protected. Neither is legal advice: take advice on your own assets.
| Quadrant | Fame | Uniqueness | What Romaniuk’s article says | What this template does next |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Use or Lose | High | High | Can be considered a distinctive asset and used to replace or extend the footprint of the brand | Proposes using it consistently, records it in the guidelines as an asset that must appear, and adds a trade mark check if it is to be protected |
| Invest | Low | High | Needs investment to build its fame | Proposes using it beside the brand name, the same way everywhere, and testing it again in the next study |
| Avoid | High | Low | Famous but not unique, so it should be avoided | Proposes using it only with the brand name, changing it or dropping it, and reviews which competitor people named |
| Test or ignore | Low | Low | Needs testing; every new asset starts here, and one that still does not register after you have tried to build it needs a very different execution, or a switch to another element | Proposes testing it again after a period of use, changing it, or dropping it |
| Topic | UK | US |
|---|---|---|
| What a trade mark can be | Words, sounds, logos, colours, or a combination of these. | Any word, phrase, symbol, design, or a combination of these things that identifies your goods or services. |
| What cannot be registered, or is hard to | A mark cannot describe the goods or services it relates to, be too common and non-distinctive, or be just a generic shape associated with your business. | Descriptive marks are registrable only in certain circumstances, such as gaining distinctiveness through extensive use in commerce over many years. Generic terms are not federally registrable. |
| Checking for similar marks | Search the trade marks database before you apply, and get professional advice first if you know of a mark that is the same or similar. The IPO contacts holders of identical or similar marks when you apply. | Search the USPTO database, state trade mark databases and the internet. The examining attorney checks only the federal database, and likelihood of confusion is one of the most common reasons applications are rejected. |
| Rights without registration | Take advice. | You become the owner as soon as you use the mark with your goods or services, but those rights apply only in the area where you provide them. Registration creates nationwide rights. |
| When an application becomes public | Your application is published on GOV.UK as soon as you apply, so someone could use its details, for example to buy the domain for the brand name. | Take advice. |
| What registration covers | The UK and the Isle of Man, only in the classes and terms you choose. It lasts 10 years and must be renewed. | Nationwide rights, for the goods or services listed in the registration. |
| Symbols | ® once the trade mark is registered. | TM for goods or SM for services at any time; ® only once the mark is registered, and only with the goods or services listed. |
Sources. The grid: Jenni Romaniuk, “Brands of Distinction”, on the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute’s website, which describes a distinctive asset as both unique to the brand and famous, with uniqueness the more important of the two. The measures, the cut-offs and the proposed decisions are this template’s choices; research suppliers measure fame and uniqueness in their own ways. Trade marks: “Register a trade mark” on GOV.UK (Intellectual Property Office), and the USPTO’s “What is a trademark?”, “Strong trademarks” and “Why search for similar trademarks?”. Fees and timings change, so check them when you file.
Research codes. The checklist’s survey tasks follow the Market Research Society Code of Conduct (2023) on age checks and what participants are told. Outside the UK, follow the code your research supplier works to and your local data protection law.
Enter the fieldwork start date and every task falls due a set number of working days before or after it. Tasks are assigned from the people named in the first task, overdue alerts go to the assignees, and studies in progress show on the Reports Grid with their answers. Tables keep the assets, the stimuli, the scores and the decisions in one place, so a repeat study can use the same method.
A repeat study adds a task to bring in the last one and another to compare each asset with it. An agency adds a brief and an approval of its survey; an in-house survey adds building it and ordering the panel sample. Assets that people link to a competitor add a review, and assets to build or protect add a trade mark check and the filings.
The brand lead records Approved, Approved with changes or Not approved, with the decision for each asset, and nothing after that approval step can be completed until a decision is recorded. Not approved adds a rework task, so the guidelines wait for an approved decision.
CheckFlow does not run surveys, recruit respondents or score assets. Your survey tool, panel or agency does that. CheckFlow makes sure each study has an objective, scoring rules set in advance, blind stimuli, clean data and an approved decision for every asset. Workflow software shows how hand-offs like these run across a team.
Keep the asset files in order with the Brand Asset Management Checklist, and take a changed or new asset through the Design Review & Approval Checklist. Create a brand with the Brand Development Checklist and roll a new one out with the Rebrand Launch Checklist. For feedback on a product rather than a brand, use the User Feedback Collection Checklist.
Describe the process in a sentence and the AI checklist generator drafts the phases and tasks for you.
A consumer study that finds out which of a brand’s elements people link to it without the name: the logo, colours, shapes, characters, sounds, taglines and packaging. Each asset is shown on its own with the brand name removed, and category buyers say whether they recognise it and which brand, if any, it makes them think of. The answers show how many link it to your brand and how many name a competitor, so you can decide which assets to use, build, protect or drop.
Set the objective and agree how assets will be scored before any results come in. Choose the assets and the competitors, remove the brand name from each asset, and write a survey that asks category buyers which brand each asset brings to mind. Field it with a panel or an agency, remove poor-quality responses, score each asset, place it on a grid, and have the brand lead approve a decision for each one before the brand guidelines change.
Elements other than the brand name, such as colours, logos, shapes, characters, sounds and taglines, that bring one brand to mind. Professor Jenni Romaniuk of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute describes a distinctive asset as both unique, so it evokes only one brand, and famous, so people who see it think of that brand. Of the two, she puts uniqueness first. Until an element is both, it is part of the brand’s identity rather than a distinctive asset.
This template measures fame as the share of all respondents who name your brand when shown the asset alone, and uniqueness as the share of respondents naming any brand who name yours rather than a competitor. You agree the cut-offs for high and low before fieldwork. Research suppliers define these measures in different ways, so agree yours with your supplier and keep them the same in every repeat study.
Because the study is about what the asset does on its own. With the name in view, people simply read it, and every asset scores well. Removing the name, product names, web addresses and any other clue shows whether the colour, shape, character, sound or line brings your brand to mind from memory. This template has someone outside the team check every stimulus for clues before fieldwork.
Buyers in the category, not only your own customers. People who buy competitors’ brands show whether an asset reaches beyond your existing customers, and their answers reveal assets that point to a competitor. This template screens for recent category buyers, sets quotas for age and region, excludes people who work in marketing or research, and reports smaller groups only when they meet the size you agree in advance.
Either works. An in-house survey on an online panel can cost less, and suits a team with survey skills and a survey tool. An agency brings experience of brand research, coding and reporting, and can keep the method the same across studies. This template asks the question at the start and adds the right tasks: briefing the agency and approving its survey, or building the survey and ordering the panel sample.
In the UK, GOV.UK says a trade mark can include words, sounds, logos and colours, but not just a generic shape associated with your business or a mark that is too common and non-distinctive. The USPTO describes a trademark as any word, phrase, symbol, design or combination that identifies your goods or services. Registering colours, shapes and sounds raises its own questions, so this template asks a trade mark attorney or adviser before an asset is built or protected.
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