DBA Inventory Specification

Structure of assets/dba-inventory.md: the file that records a brand’s Distinctive Brand Assets (DBAs), their usage rules, and — where tracking research exists — their measured strength.

Theoretical basis: Jenni Romaniuk, Building Distinctive Brand Assets (2018). DBAs are non-name elements (colours, characters, taglines, sounds, shapes) that trigger the brand name in buyers’ memories. The heart of every record is the asset’s definition and usage rules — what it is, how to deploy it, what never to do with it. Where the brand runs asset tracking, strength is additionally recorded as fame and uniqueness; unmeasured assets are normal, unmeasured claims about asset strength are not (see D-04).

1. File layout#

The file MUST carry standard secondary-file frontmatter with type: dba. Its body is a sequence of asset entries. Each entry is a ## heading (the asset’s human name) followed by exactly one fenced ```yaml block (the asset record) and optional free prose (background, history, examples).

---
standard: brandbook.md
type: dba
brand: acme-hot-sauce
version: "1.4.0"
last_validated: 2026-05-12
---

# Distinctive Brand Assets: <Brand>

## <Asset name>

​```yaml
id: dba-colour-primary
type: colour
...
​```

Optional prose about the asset.

• D-01. Asset records MUST be fenced YAML blocks, one per asset. Rationale: tooling extracts records by scanning fences, with no Markdown AST needed, mirroring the frontmatter-only principle of the root index.

2. Asset record fields#

id: dba-tagline-en            # REQUIRED. Unique in file. Pattern: dba-[a-z0-9-]+
type: tagline                 # REQUIRED. logo | colour | character | sound | tagline | pack | font | shape
status: use                   # REQUIRED. use | invest | test | retire
scope: [US, GB]               # OPTIONAL. Markets; default = all root markets
language: en                  # OPTIONAL. For verbal assets (taglines, sounds with lyrics)
rule: >-                      # REQUIRED. One usage rule, imperative, one sentence.
  Use verbatim on every piece of US/GB communication; never reword or pun on it.
do:                           # OPTIONAL. Further imperative examples of correct use
  - Set in the brand typeface, sentence case.
dont:                         # OPTIONAL. Explicit misuses an approver can cite
  - Never translate or localise the tagline.
fame:                         # OPTIONAL. RECOMMENDED when tracking research exists
  value: 0.78                 # share of category buyers linking asset to brand (0 to 1)
  source: "Example Research Co., DBA tracking wave 12"
  measured: 2026-03-01        # ISO 8601 date
uniqueness:                   # same shape as fame
  value: 0.91
  source: "Example Research Co., DBA tracking wave 12"
  measured: 2026-03-01
anchor_rules: [AR-02]         # OPTIONAL. Anchor Rule IDs that govern this asset
files:                        # OPTIONAL. Machine-readable/binary manifestations
  - assets/files/tagline-en.txt
notes: ""                     # OPTIONAL. One line; longer prose goes below the block

Field rules:

• D-02. id MUST match ^dba-[a-z0-9-]+$, be unique within the file, and MUST NOT be reused after retirement. Rationale: like Anchor Rules, assets are referenced by ID in approvals and prompts; recycled IDs corrupt history.
• D-03. type MUST be one of logo | colour | character | sound | tagline | pack | font | shape. Rationale: a closed list keeps queries like “give me the brand’s verbal assets” deterministic; extend the list in the spec, not per package.
• D-04. fame and uniqueness are OPTIONAL: most brands do not run asset tracking, and an inventory without scores is still a complete, usable inventory. When present, each MUST carry value (0 to 1), source, and measured; scores without a named source and date are invalid. Rationale: Romaniuk. A missing measurement is an honest gap; an unsourced score is folklore dressed as evidence.
• D-05. status encodes the Romaniuk usage decision: use (deploy consistently), invest (build via consistent use), test (unproven; measure before relying on it), retire (shared with competitors or abandoned; do not deploy solo). Assets with status: use or invest SHOULD carry fame and uniqueness records; validators warn when they are absent. Rationale: deployment decisions are strongest when measurement backs them, but the definition and rules must not wait for a tracking budget.
• D-06. rule is REQUIRED for every asset: one imperative sentence a generator or approver can act on. do and dont lists MAY extend it with further citable examples of correct use and explicit misuse. Rationale: an asset without a usage rule is a museum piece; do/don’t pairs are the most actionable form a rule can take.
• D-07. Entries with scope apply only in the listed markets; agents MUST NOT deploy an asset outside its scope (mirrors parent spec §6.5). Rationale: localised assets, above all taglines, do not travel.

3. Ordering#

Assets SHOULD be ordered by importance (the top 3 to 7 mirror the Brand Codes section of BRANDBOOK.md). retired assets SHOULD be kept at the end of the file rather than deleted. Rationale: the retirement record prevents an agency rediscovering and redeploying a deliberately abandoned asset.