Branding Glossary
In marketing, brand management begins with an analysis on how a brand is currently perceived in the market, proceeds to planning how the brand should be perceived if it is to achieve its objectives and continues with ensuring that the brand is perceived as planned and secures its objectives.
Branding
Mission Statement
A formal declaration of the goals, values and purpose of a company. The mission statement defines why the company exists, what it aims to achieve and guides all decision making. It serves as a company’s North Star, and is essentially the “who” and “why” of the brand story.
Branding
Monogram
A typographic logo that visualizes a company’s initialism and can be used in lieu of a formal logo to represent the company. It is commonly used by fashion brands such as Chanel or Louis Vuitton.
Branding
Name, Descriptive
A company that descriptively conveys the characteristics of its services without being specific to its brand story. Descriptive names do not allow for easy recall in a consumer’s mind because they can be applied to any company offering similar services. Examples: Pacific Gas & Electric and Booking.com.
Branding
Name, Evocative
A brand name that suggests an association with an underlying benefit or conveys the positioning of the brand. Evocative names conjure emotions, imagery, metaphors and experiences in the mind of the consumer. Examples: Starbucks, Patagonia and Nike.
Branding
Name, Experiential
A brand name that describes the experience a customer will have with the brand. Examples: Pivot, Agility and Safari.
Branding
Name, Generic
A brand name that describes an entire category of products or services and provides little differentiation. Examples: Waster Management, Hotels.com and News Corp.
Branding
Name, Invented
An original brand name that is invented and has no linguistic definition or meaning. Examples: Twitter, Accenture, Google.
Branding
On-Brand
The perception that a brand asset is consistent with how an audience expects a company to look, act or feel. A company that is consistently on-brand builds lasting, loyal relationships with its customers.
Branding
Parent Brand
A brand that acts as an endorsement to one or more sub-brands. Parent brands are typically well-established and trusted by their audience, benefitting the sub-brands beneath it. Example: Coca-Cola, which has hundreds of sub-brands including Dasani, Powerade and Simply Orange.
Branding
Personas
Personas (a.k.a. customer personas) describe an audience segment’s occupation, desires, actions, beliefs and anything that might influence their behavior with a brand; extending beyond demographics to psychographic motivators. include This creates a consistent understanding of the audience for stakeholders during brand positioning and targeted communications.
Branding
Positioning Statement
A written description of the position that a company wishes itself, its product or its brand to occupy in the minds of its target audience. Intended The statement explains why the company is different than competitors and what consumers will gain from purchasing it.
Branding
Private Label
Private label products are sold under a brand name but manufactured by an outside company. Brands using a third-party to manufacturer private label products have control of the brand packaging, prices and marketing, without owning the production facilities. Example: Kroger’s Private Selection and Simple Truth brands.
Branding
Qualitative Research
Research conducted through interviews, focus groups and other forms of observation. It provides context about an audience’s feelings, beliefs and motivations regarding a brand, product or service with nuance and depth.
Branding
Quantitative Research
Research that uses surveys, polls and questionnaires to provide numerical observations on large audience samples. It provides empirical answers to branding and marketing questions, and is often used to provide factual, projectable and statistically significant information for decision-making.
Branding
Rebranding
The act of updating or revising a brand. The decision often follows a merger, acquisition, or realization that the company has evolved and its brand is no longer compatible with its identity. Rebranding may consider a change in target audience, how the brand’s internal and external circumstances have shifted and competitors’ positioning.
Branding
Repositioning
Enacting changes to a product’s positioning to enhance its value in the mind of customers or change its potential market. Typically initiated when a product’s target audience(s) has shifted or the product is used in a different manner than originally positioned. Many products and services are originally positioned inadequately, minimizing the potential market. It is […]
Branding
Service Brand
A brand that is centered on people and customer service interactions, rather than products. Examples: Starbucks, Southwest Airlines.
Branding
Sub-brand
A product or service that has its own name, design and identity, and is affiliated with a parent or masterbrand. A sub-brand benefits from the parent brand’s name recognition and consumer loyalty, but the sub-brand is never stronger than the parent brand. Examples: Coca-Cola Zero, Samsung Galaxy, Virgin Atlantic, Apple AirPods
Branding
SWOT
An acronym for the technique to analyze a brand’s internal and external Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. It provides an understanding of where and how the brand can improve, and how to set itself apart from competitors.
Branding
Symbol
Symbols, the graphical portion of a logo, provide an instant way for consumers to recognize a brand. A well-known symbol, like McDonald’s Golden Arches, the Pillsbury Doughboy, or Starbucks’ Mermaid can be seen and recognized without any words.
Branding
Tagline
A short phrase that communicates a brand’s personality and energy in a distinctive catchphrase that is both succinct and memorable; often a concise embodiment of the brand positioning. Example: Disneyland’s “The happiest place on earth.” or Nike’s “Just do it.”