A glossary of terms used in Brand Management

Brand
A belief in the mind of the consumer

Brand Alignment
Harvard Business Review reported that "Successful visionary companies are 1% vision and 99% alignment". Brand alignment comes after a programme of communication throughout an organisation to gain buy-in and commitment to Corporate Branding Strategy and values. This does not come from a single 'show-and-tell' staff conference

Brand Architecture
The deliberate management of brands within a portfolio, to create a Corporate Brand Strategy. It culminates in a hierarchy of brands with a predetermined interaction

Brand Attributes
The values that the customer can (ideally) associate with a brand

Brand Equity
The pool of goodwill that the brand has built - in the mind of the consumer and sometimes transferred onto the balance sheet

Brand Essence
The heart of a brand, its DNA - frequently boiled down by 'experts' into the lowest common denominator. This manages to ignore the fact that a brand is a rich set of emotions and often unique to each individual. An effective Corporate Identity Company will retain the richness that makes a brand in describing the brand essence

Brand Extension
Using brand equity to take the brand into new product or service territories

Brand Guidelines
A set of rules that inform how a brand communicates - too often a straight-jacket. We believe that it should be a spring-board to effective communication

Brand Identity
The way a managed brand communicates, with the Business Logo Design at its heart

Brand Lexicon
A collective term used within an organisation to describe their brand management tools, typically Mission, Vision and Values

Brand Positioning
The deliberate management of brand attributes and characteristics, including product, services, pricing, communication and distribution, to create a distinctive appeal

Brand Values
All too often an undifferentiating set of adjectives that describe how an organisation wants to be seen. However, at its best, a motivating set of phrases that describe how an organisation goes about its business for which they consequently become famous  

Branding
Or Brand Management. The active management of reputation to create permanent competitive advantage. Applied to all aspects of products, services and organisations  

Corporate Brand Management
Active management of corporate (communication) assets to ensure consistent activity around a common goal - as consistency creates trust and without trust a brand cannot exist. Often achieved with a Corporate Branding Consultancy

Corporate Identity
Or Company Identity. The 'suit of clothes' that a company wears to each of its various audiences at its 'moments of truth'. This includes architecture, interior and graphic design, tone of voice and has the logo as the most powerful single expression  

Corporate Identity Agency
An organisation that has the resource to work with senior management to define the company Mission, to reflect this in Company Logo Design, corporate identity and the company naming and then to create internal alignment  

Endorsement
A Business Naming convention adding credibility to a product or service by formally relating it to the parent company through the corporate identity. Can also be used to create a sense of 'group' to a diverse organisation

Logo
The most valuable single communication asset owned by a company, service or product. Note: Anything that is valuable is rare.  

Mission
Or 'Mission Statement'. A definition of success created by management in consensus, creating a common and measurable ambition  

Moments of Truth
A phrase reported by Tom Peters to describe the moments when a brand has an interaction with its customer - and can therefore influence perception  

Proposition
The offer to the customer  

Strap Line
Or tag-line. A carefully crafted public expression of the Mission that complements the Brand Naming and the Company Identity 

Sub-Brand
As the name suggests, a derivative of a brand  

Vision
All too often 'To be No1' or 'the most profitable.'. It should be a beautifully crafted and motivating set of words that describe how the Mission will be achieved. Viz. Disney's vision 'To make people happy'.  

Visual Identity
A sub-set of the corporate identity that deals with the 'look and feel' of a brand  

Wordmark
Naming a company to create a logo. The use of type alone to create a unique and recognisable logo