Building such a brand is the holy grail of marketing. Everyone wants it. Few achieve it. And fewer still can clearly explain why some brands seem to lodge instantly and permanently in our minds while others fade just as fast.
Across behavioural research and marketing science, a consistent theme has emerged: unforgettable brands are not built on a single hero asset. They are built through a clear and coherent cluster of cues that work together to create meaning, recognition and recall.
In an industry obsessed with assigning a number to things, many have tried to quantify the exact number of assets you need. Spoiler alert: it might be three.
Research led by Jenni Romaniuk at the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute shows that brands are better served by building a palette of distinctive assets rather than relying on one. This gives brands flexibility across channels and contexts (a menu of cues rather than a single dish).
But critically, even within that broader palette, memory tends to stabilise around a smaller core. Again and again, the evidence suggests that people instinctively remember around three connected cues: the signals that consistently do the heavy lifting.
Rather than encouraging brands to endlessly add new assets, it helps identify the strongest existing cue, then deliberately support it with at least two more that amplify its meaning and extend its reach.
One anchor.
Two reinforcers.
One coherent idea.
1 + 2 = 3.
It's an attractive idea. If only it were that simple.
Because you and I both know that culling your key brand assets to three alone will not make your brand famous. Launching a company with a signature colour, an AI-generated logo and a catchy tagline won't guarantee it lasts the ages.
In other words, memorability doesn't come from having just the right number of brand assets.
It comes from having the right assets, designed to work in harmony.
This is exactly what the Edison BrandOrbit™ framework was built to do.
At The Edison Agency, we’ve developed a proprietary model, Edison BrandOrbit™, centred around the fundamental insight that brands don't become unforgettable through isolated elements.
The brainchild of our very own systems thinking extraordinaire, Amber Boney, who can be often heard ranting about the misattribution of meaning between a logo and a brand system. So what’s my take after a few years at Edison? It’s quite simply that the logo on its own is never enough. Neither is a clever tagline, a punchy colour, or a beautifully designed pack.
Brands become unforgettable when positioning, assets and experiences operate as a connected system: one where each element reinforces the others and pulls towards the same core idea. Edison’s BrandOrbit™ is the framework that brings that system together.
It's built around four interconnected ideas:
1. Meaning: what the brand as a whole and each of its individual elements stands for. Both in and out of context.
2. Memory: the distinctive sensory cues and codes that people recognise and recall.
3. Momentum: how the brand drives choice through both subtle and overt suggestions.
4. Moonshot: the creative ambition that pulls the brand forward, sustaining relevance in the face of changing contexts and increased competition.
To be clear, this is not a checklist of assets you need. We're not telling you that a logo will only work if it has a story behind it and we’re not demanding that your brand's colour palette alone deliver on all four of these factors. (Brat green is a rare breed of genius and an exception to the rule.)
Remember: you have at least three assets you should be working with. What we are asking you to do is think about which assets in combination best deliver to the full framework.
It's about how your assets complement each other, how each fuels a system of design that reinforces meaning, drives memorability, encourages action and participation, and retains relevance in a changing world.
When these four spheres of influence align, brands are recognised faster, felt more deeply and remembered for longer—not because they're louder, but because they're clearer.
The world's strongest brands intuitively operate this way. They don't rely on a single hero. They anchor themselves in a small set of mutually reinforcing signals that work together across every channel.
Cadbury's purple on its own is a strong memory device that has strong recognition thanks to its consistent use. But purple also stands for royalty, quality and refinement: on its own it has cultural meaning.
The glass-and-a-half device, with both auditory and visual memory triggers, hints at a playful optimism and deeper shared values, while signalling quality again through whole ingredients, creating preferential momentum.
As does the product's form and packaging: from a square of milk chocolate to a box of 'favourites', these hints both subtle and overt remind us Cadbury is best experienced when shared, creating another reason to buy.
McDonald’s assets work because they communicate meaning as well as familiarity. The Golden Arches and red-and-yellow palette are not just distinctive; they are designed for speed of recognition using high-contrast colours, simple shapes and consistent placement that can be processed instantly, often at a distance or in motion (crucial if you’re driving by on a highway).
The Big Mac’s structure, the uniformity of packaging and the repetition of these cues across drive-thru, apps, delivery and restaurants reinforce a promise of predictability, which is exactly where comfort comes from. Because these assets operate as a connected system, McDonald’s can show just colour, a partial arch or a box of fries and still be unmistakable.
Who Gives A Crap could have launched as a typical but for-cause toilet paper, relying on familiar category cues to communicate its values. Instead, it chose to embed the meaning of its mission into its assets.
Bold colour blocking and playful typography break category norms, acting as strong memory devices that are bright, bold and playful in a product people usually avoid engaging with. These same cues appear consistently on wrapped rolls and packaging that are designed to be left out and talked about rather than hidden, that just happens to reinforce recognition and repeat purchase through everyday exposure (what a coincidence).
Again, these are the principles of Edison’s BrandOrbit™ in action.
Once we understand that memorability comes from harmony, the question becomes practical: how do you design for it?
Brand custodians should start by asking:
What are the three brand cues we genuinely own?
Do they ladder back to a shared meaning, not just visual difference?
Do they reinforce emotion as well as recognition?
If you have too few, you're under-coded: the brand lacks signals strong enough to travel.
If you have too many, you're over-complicating: memory is being diluted and you won’t be able to support all the assets effectively.
Brand Orbit is ultimately about focus. About identifying the cues that create gravitational pull and letting go of those that don't earn their keep.
Because the strongest brands aren't built by accident.
They're built by deliberately designing a set of meaning-rich cues to work together, again and again, until the brand becomes impossible to ignore.
Unforgettable doesn't come from shouting louder. It comes from refining, aligning and reimagining elements already in orbit.
-
Written by Calin Barker, Strategist at The Edison Agency.
