The Ultimate Guide to Brand Terminology

Jun 11

From brand ambassadors to buyer personas, from brand dilution to vector files, it can feel like you need to learn a new language to speak branding. While the lexicon can be initially confusing, I try not to get too micro and lost in definitions, but instead look more to the macro of understanding what branding should strive to accomplish.

Oftentimes, branding and marketing are used interchangeably; while there are some similarities, they’re different. Branding is strategic, while marketing is tactical. True branding is so much more than a logo or graphic element. Great branding creates loyal customers and passionate employees. It’s also a strategic piece of your marketing puzzle. Often thought to be reserved for larger companies, branding is essential for nonprofits, small and medium-sized businesses, individuals (in the form of personal branding), and even special events.

A great brand inspires us to take some sort of action. Products and services can be copied and replicated, but successful and authentic brands have a purpose and can’t be duplicated; simply put, they’re unique.

You don’t need to become the Merriam-Webster of brand terminology, but these are a few of the top terms that are regularly used. All business owners should familiarize themselves with these terms to create branding magic.

BRAND AMBASSADOR

An individual who’s engaged by a company or organization to help raise brand awareness and increase sales. They complete a variety of tasks, ranging from promoting products or services to implementing marketing campaigns. (BetterTeam)

BRAND AWARENESS

The extent to which a brand is recognized by potential customers and correctly associated with a particular product or service. The more familiar people are with something, the more they trust it and gravitate to it. (ThriveHive)

Pro Tip: Brand awareness is that hard-to-quantify, difficult-to-calculate ROI concept at the very top of your marketing and sales funnel. However, it’s difficult to have wins cascade to the bottom of the funnel without constantly working to fill the top of the funnel first with increased brand awareness.
A robust digital presence, including social media and your website, is important for this stage of the branding game. Look to craft your perfect mix of social media content by including content from others, branded content that provides value to your audience, and, finally, the smallest of all, branded promotional content.

BRAND DILUTION

When a company’s brand equity diminishes due to an unsuccessful brand extension, which is a new product the company develops in an industry in which it doesn’t have any market share. (HubSpot)

BRAND EQUITY

A marketing term that describes a brand’s value. The value is determined by consumer perception and experiences with the brand. If people think highly of a brand, it has positive brand equity. When a brand consistently underdelivers and disappoints to the point that people recommend others avoid it, it has negative brand equity. (Shopify)

BRAND IDENTITY

The collection of all elements that a company creates to portray the right image to its consumers. (99Designs)

BRAND STYLE GUIDE

The primary visual DNA of your company’s branding, which additionally can, and arguably should, reference grammar, tone, word usage, point of view, and more. Essentially, it’s a document that describes, defines, and illustrates what your brand looks like across various media, such as print and digital. (Executionists)

Pro Tip: While spending the resources to create a brand style guide for your company may seem like a waste of time and money, it’s critical to have this document in place to ensure every expression of your brand, across all internal and external touchpoints, is consistent.
No matter how detailed or succinct your brand style guide is, you should include sections on logo usage, colors and color palettes, typography, photography, iconography, and voice and usage examples. Whether you do your branding yourself or engage an agency or partner, a brand style guide will ensure you can build a trustworthy, recognizable, and scalable brand.

BRANDING

The process of giving a meaning to a specific organization, company, product, or service by creating and shaping a brand in consumers’ minds. (The Branding Journal)

EMPLOYER BRANDING

A company’s ability to differentiate and promote its identity to a defined group of candidates that they’re interested in hiring. (Beamery)

EMPLOYEE VALUE PROPOSITION

A set of associations and offerings provided by an organization in return for the skills, capabilities, and experiences an employee brings to the organization. (Talent Lyft)

Pro Tip: Just as companies use a value proposition as a promise to customers and prospective customers, you should use an employee value proposition (EVP) as a promise to employees and prospective employees. Although closely aligned, your EVP isn’t your company's mission, vision, values, and purpose.
Whether it’s formally defined or not, you probably already have at least the beginnings of an EVP if people are working for your company. If you want to formalize it, create a diverse focus group of employees from all different walks of life and ask questions about the work environment, career progression, compensation and benefits, values alignment, etc. Common themes will surface and provide you with a strong framework for a formal EVP.

FONT

A collection of characters with a similar design. These characters include lowercase and uppercase letters, numbers, punctuation marks, glyphs, and symbols. (TechTerms)

LOGO

Simply a type of design a company, brand, or individual chooses to represent themselves by. (DesignCrowd)

LOGOMARK

Refers to an image or symbol that represents a brand, and usually does not include the name of that company. (DesignCrowd)

LOGOTYPE

The logotype, also known as a "word mark", is a brand name styled as a logo. (DesignCrowd)

MISSION STATEMENT

A short statement that focuses on today and what an organization does to achieve it. (ClearVoice)

PERSONAS

Personas are fictional "characters" that companies design to represent the real people who typically use or purchase a product or service. (Creative Market)

Pro Tip: It’s incredibly hard to put an effective sales and marketing strategy together if you don’t know where your target audience gets their information, what their problems are, what their days are like, and how they make decisions. Well-written buyer personas ensure all activities geared towards your potential customers are targeted and help solve their problems.
To craft buyer personas, begin by asking yourself detailed questions about your ideal customer. Then compare those answers with colleagues; they will be enlightening. Creating great buyer personas is an art and takes some time; however, they help your business empathize and understand the processes, strategies, and tools you will need to grow and acquire customers.

TAGLINE

One phrase (sometimes two) that provides clarity, entertainment, or emphasis to help highlight a brand's mission, purpose, or culture. (Kajabi)

TYPOGRAPHY

The technique that you can use to arrange language in an organized manner. These characteristics can include font type, size, spacing, and even different typefaces. (Freelancer)

VALUE PROPOSITION

A statement that answers the “why” someone should do business with you. It should convince a potential customer that your service or product will provide more value to them than similar offerings from your competitors. (Kuno Creative)

VECTOR FILE

Constructed using mathematical formulas rather than individual colored blocks, known as a raster (think of a JPEG file format like a digital photograph), vector file types such as EPS, AI, and occasionally PDF are excellent for creating graphics that frequently require resizing. (MODassic)

VISION STATEMENT

A short statement focused on tomorrow and what an organization ultimately wants to become. (ClearVoice)

Often, companies and individuals don’t pay attention to their brand or simply don’t make it a priority. But by not creating and cultivating a brand, you’re depriving your company, or yourself, of the highest potential reach.

This list isn’t all-inclusive, but familiarizing yourself with these terms will help you get on your way to branding success. Remember, branding isn’t rocket science, but it does take time to do it right.

Chris Skaggs

Digital and social media, branding, recruitment and content strategy are all skills Chris has developed as he has built teams, processes and strategies from the ground-up. In his previous experience, Chris has served in various roles including: recruiter, ambassador, director, vice president and co-founder. His work and experiences have been featured on CNN, Marketing Sherpa, Thrive Global, CBS Radio, Recruiter.com and Glassdoor to name a few.

Chris received a Bachelor of Arts in Human Ecology from The University of Texas at Austin where he was an active member of Phi Kappa Psi fraternity.

He is passionate about giving back to his community. Chris is a current member of the board of trustees for the Texas Health Resources Foundation and a past board member for the North Texas Christian Academy. Additionally, he alongside his wife, co-founded Leighton’s Gift, a nonprofit with a mission to turn a tragedy into something positive in memory of the couple’s daughter, Leighton, who tragically passed away.

Outside of work, Chris can be found spending time with his wife, Amy, of 13 years, and his children Jaxon (7), Leighton (angel) and Olivia (4). He also enjoys wine, coffee, cooking and watching his beloved Longhorns in any college sporting event — Hook ‘Em!

https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrislskaggs/