Show up first in the moments that drive growth. Stone Ward's Brand Salience & Asset Growth Package combines consumer research, brand asset measurement, and team education to drive measurable, defensible growth.
Request This Research Package TodayThis is a research-led growth package designed to help brands build mental availability, brand awareness, and long-term demand.
We measure your brand's share of awareness across key buying situations (Category Entry Points) and how effectively your brand is recognized in those moments (Distinctive Brand Assets).
Those findings are delivered as clear research reports and strategic guidance, then brought to life in a separate, hands-on workshop that creates shared structure and language for your marketing team.
In short: We will show you where your brand lives in buyers' minds today and equip your team with a system to grow it deliberately over time.
You're not fully confident you understand your brand's true equity versus competitors.
Advertising feels busy but ineffective—awareness isn't translating to growth.
Customer growth has plateaued or slowed.
A rebrand is on the table, but the risks feel high.
The C-suite wants marketing to "reinvigorate the brand"... yesterday.
Budget pressure pushes spend towards short-term performance, starving the brand.
Brand impact feels harder to prove than clicks, leads, or ROAS.
If buyers don't easily think of your brand in the moments that matter—or don't recognize it when they see it—growth stalls no matter how much you spend.
Stone Ward helps brands grow by strengthening mental availability—the likelihood your brand comes to mind in buying situations—and by building distinctive brand assets that make your advertising work harder over time.
We don't guess. We measure.
We combine proven principles with modern research design, clear benchmarks, and practical application.
We've helped brands understand where they truly stand—and what to do next.
Our Brand Salience & Asset Growth Package is designed as a complete system—not disconnected reports.
Step 1
We identify and measure the buying situations, needs, and emotional moments that cue category decisions—and benchmark how strongly your brand (and competitors) are linked to them.
You'll learn:
Step 2
We audit and test your brand assets to determine what truly signals your brand—without needing your name.
We measure:
You'll get:
Step 3
We connect the dots between CEPs and assets to define:
This becomes the foundation for future messaging, campaigns, and media.
Step 4
Research only works if teams know how to use it.
We run an interactive workshop with your marketing (and leadership) team to:
Make your brand come to mind more often in high‑value buying situations.
Ensure your advertising is immediately recognizable and clearly branded.
Build a CEP‑led content calendar that systematically reinforces long‑term category associations.
Use a clear, data‑backed playbook for when and where to deploy brand assets—and know when it’s time to evolve or introduce new ones.
Defend brand asset decisions with evidence, reducing ego‑driven debate and internal friction.
Justify brand investment to the C‑suite with clear metrics and rationale.
Improve performance marketing results by strengthening the brand that supports it.
This package is ideal for organizations that:
Compete in crowded, look-alike categories
Are questioning the effectiveness of current advertising
Are considering (or recovering from) a rebrand
Need to justify brand investment internally
Want a clear, evidence-based growth strategy
"My team and I thoroughly enjoyed the interactive workshop and learned a great deal from the exercises. The work challenged us to think critically about the messaging we incorporate into our brands, and the creative exercises with the DBAs were particularly engaging. We walked away with a clearer understanding of our category entry points and the role our brand should play in each. This will become the foundation for future messaging, campaigns, and media."
- Debbie Davis / Director of Marketing, Baptist Health
A typical engagement takes 6-8 weeks from kickoff to final workshop. Timelines may vary slightly based on scope, research fielding requirements, and stakeholder availability.
We lead the process and bring the full research methodology.
Your team's involvement is focused and efficient:
We respect your team’s time and structure the engagement to minimize disruption while maximizing strategic alignment.
Engagements typically start at $25,000, with final investment dependent on:
We'll scope the work to match your business size, growth ambition, and budget.
Category Entry Point and Distinctive Brand Asset research applies across all industries.
If you compete in a crowded category and want evidence-based direction for brand growth, this work is relevant.
We have particular depth in:
But the principles are universal.
This package includes a one-time benchmark study.
However, brand growth compounds over time. To understand whether your strategies are increasing mental market share and asset strength, we recommend annual or semi-annual tracking.
We'll design a tracking cadence that fits your business and budget.
When brands increase mental market share, they increase market share and penetration.
That relationship is supported by decades of academic research—and our own client results.
By strengthening the situations in which buyers think of you (CEPs) and the assets that make you recognizable (DBAs), you increase the likelihood of being chosen.
If you're not currently measuring market penetration or share, we can help connect this investment directly to long-term growth metrics.
For over 40 years, Stone Ward has built brands with a simple philosophy: Building Good.
That means providing honest, evidence-based direction—not chasing trends or opinions.
We combine research rigor with real-world marketing execution, ensuring this work doesn't sit in a report but becomes an operating system for growth.
