Glossary of Terms Related to

Branding

Brand

The unique sum of impressions associated with a particular company, product or service. If the impressions are overwhelmingly good, if individuals desire a steady affiliation with the brand, the brand will endure and become an important - perhaps the most important - asset to a company. The greatest asset you'll never see

Dennis Hahn

Sometimes the value of a brand is represented by the equation Brand = Price - Utility to represent the value ascribed to a product, service or company that cannot be attributed to anything tangible.

Branding

The process through which a cohesive, enduring impression of an organization, product or service is formed in the minds of your audience members.

Brand Attributes Functional or emotional associations that are assigned to a brand by its customers and prospects. Brand attributes can be either negative or positive and can have varying degrees of relevance and importance to different customer segments.

Brand Audit

A comprehensive and systematic examination of all collateral (both tangible and intangible) which relates to a brand.

Brand Awareness

The proportion of target customers that recall a brand. Realization by a consumer of the existance and availability of a particular product. Brand awareness is a common measure of marketing communications effectiveness. Unaided awareness is spontaneous; aided or prompted awareness is when the name is recognised among others that are listed or identified.

Brand Community

What happens when Values and Interests are shared with with both Community Members and its Sponsor(s).

Brand Equity

The value - both tangible and intangible that a brand adds to a product/service.

Brand Essence

The core characteristic that defines a brand.

Brand Expansion

The exposure of a brand to a broader target customer market, geographic market, or distribution channel. E.G. Orange Juice: it isn't just for breakfast anymore.

Brand Extension

The application of a brand beyond its initial range of products, or outside of its category. This becomes possible when the brand image and attributes have contributed to a perception with the consumer/user where the brand and not the product is the decision driver. E.G. Starbuck's now sells food and music, not just coffee.

Brand Identity

A unique set of associations that the brand strategist aspires to create or maintain. These associations represent what the brand should stand for and imply a potential promise to customers. It is important to note that a brand identity refers to the strategic goal for a brand; while brand image is what currently resides in the minds of consumers.

Brand Image

A unique set of associations within the minds of target customers which represent what the brand currently stands for and implies the current promise to customers. (Note that brand image is what is currently in the minds of consumers, whereas brand identity is aspirational).

Brand Personality

The human qualities and/or the persona that best reflects the character of the business. In determining how best to articulate what sets it apart from its competitors, a business may find it helpful to imagine how it might be personified.

Brand Promise
What the customer is assured of receiving, and the emotional and practical value that the customer can expect to enjoy as a result. This can be illustrated by a cause-and effect sequence that begins with a business's key messages and ends with the unique advantages or benefits its audience enjoys as a result.

Community
A group sharing something in common. Historically, a community was characterized by its locality e.g. street corner, synagogue, push carts). Today, the successful Community mus tbe: Mobile, In Real Time, and Ubiquitous. Often, we "put things in the way" of our Community e.g. a difficult to navigate web site home page.

Competitive Differentiation

The unique benefits that set the company, product or service apart from the competition. Although each component of a business's identity is integral to what Joan-Noel Kapferer terms "creating a difference," it is often useful to delineate exactly how a business, product or service differs from the competition. In this context, competitors and their offerings are cited by name so that direct comparisons can be made. A simplified statement of competitive differentiation, then, might look something like this: Unlike Company X (a competitor), which does such and such, Company A (your company) offers you these advantages...

Core Message or Core Benefit
Distillation of the various components of a business's identity into one or two essential distinguishing characteristics, which can then be used by the various foundational elements - logo, name, slogan, and other outward expressions of its identity to facilitate branding.

De-positioning
Involves attempting to change the identity of competing products, relative to the identity of your own product, in the collective minds of the target market.

Identity Program
The end result of the process of clearly and exactly establishing what an organization knows about itself. It begins with a candid assessment of how the organization sees itself into its environment. This gives the business perspective, allowing it to ascertain where it is presently e.g. in terms of organizational values and philosophy, customer/prospect profile, competitive landscape, etc., as well as where it wants to go in the future. Having established exactly what it already knows about itself, the organization may now concentrate on articulating what makes it different.

Articulating a differentiating message is perhaps the most critical step in an identity program, for it establishes what makes the organization unique and distinctive. The message that results from this process should unambiguously answer the questions, "Who are you, what do you do, and why should I care?"

Key Messages
The two or three facts or assertions (and their attendant support points) essential to audiences' understanding of your business. Because audiences cannot be expected to remember everything a company may want to tell them, businesses must decide which two or three points best convey their individuality.

Logo
A unique and identifiable symbol, association, name or trademark which serves to differentiate competing products or services. It is both a physical and an emotional trigger, which creates a relationship between consumers and the product/service.

Off Core Benefit
A positive experience or expectation that is intuitively important to the consumer, but not (yet) generally associated with the product service or organization in question.

Positioning
The process by which marketers create an image or identity in the minds of their target market for its product, brand or organization. It is the 'relative competitive comparison' their product occupies in a given market as perceived by the target market.

Position Concept
The one essential idea you own, or want to own, in the minds of your audience. Also called mindshare.

Professional Identity
The symbols and verbiage comprising the outward expression of a brand e.g. logo, color(s), name, tagline(s), paper texture, look and feel of website, etc.

Re-positioning
Involves changing the identity of a product, relative to the identity of competing products, in the collective minds of the target market.