Glossary

Our branding glossary is special, it contains essential branding concepts, but we also added some terms to help you distinguish between different types of brand assets and between various types of asset management systems.
Without further ado, here it is.

Banners

Banners are image-based advertisements. Whether digital or in print, they need to be show-stopping. Banners are typically used to increase brand awareness and to generate leads to your website.

Bar Chart

The bar chart is a categorical data visualization graphic. They make it easy to compare sets of data. You can use them throughout your pitch deck or marketing materials, for instance. It is, however, crucial that they stay on-brand.

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Board Deck

Without preparing a board deck beforehand, board meetings can be a drag. In short, a board deck is a presentation that includes: the overall goal for the meeting, recent metrics, any relevant updates, and strategy plans. You can think of it as the meeting agenda. Hand it out to employees beforehand for a structured and engaging meeting.

Booklet

Essentially, a booklet is a mini-book, if you will, since it doesn’t typically exceed 20 pages. It is frequently used as digital and print marketing material. A booklet can be used in so many ways — whether you want to publish an online magazine to help promote your brand or you want to provide customers with the latest offers.

If you want to showcase your services or products in a sleek way, booklets are the way to go.

Brand Architecture

The brand’s architecture adds order to chaos. With the brand architecture, you map out the organizational structure of your company’s brands, sub-brands, services, or products.

A successful brand architecture increases brand awareness and helps you manage the brand’s positioning in the market. What does it contain? Well, all the brand and sub-brand elements, such as names, logos, color palettes, visual elements, or brand messaging.

Take Coca-Cola, for instance.

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Brand Asset

A brand asset is any element that helps build brand identity. Logos, color palettes, fonts, imagery, and mockups — are all brand assets.

Brand Asset Management

While asset management is a general system of storing, editing, and sharing assets within your company, a brand asset management system is more specialized. Brand asset management software saves you time and effort in managing brand identity elements, such as typography, fonts, or design templates.

Brand Association

Brand association is the mental connection a customer makes between a brand and certain images, symbols, messages, sounds, or experiences. One example is the association between Coca-Cola and Christmas.

Brand Attributes

Brand attributes define the heart of your brand. What are your brand’s core values, characteristics, and personality traits? Define these and you’ve got the brand attributes.

Having a clear picture of your brand is crucial, as it makes you stand out from the crowd. More so, brand attributes help employees decide on which marketing and promotional tools to use to promote products or services.

Brand attributes are further expressed through elements such as images, fonts, content writing style, or colors.

Brand Audit

A brand audit is an evaluation used to determine a brand’s position in the market. More so, a brand audit brings to light the strengths and weaknesses of a brand, as well as insights into how to strengthen it.

Brand Awareness

Brand awareness is a marketing term, which defines how recognizable a brand is to its target audience. Brand awareness is measured through brand recognition and brand recall, and it is pivotal to customer loyalty and sales generation.

Brand Book

The brand style guide, or the brand book, is a user manual for your brand. It contains everything from editorial guidelines, font, colours, and images to buyer persona reports and mission statements.

Brand Building

Brand building refers to the process of creating a brand and all the activities associated with it.

Brand Colors

Every brand has a specific color palette that represents the brand’s personality and attributes. Brand colors are important, as they can make your business stand out or fade out. A well-chosen brand color palette illustrates your brand identity and increases brand recognition.

Brand Communication

Branding is so much more than designing a logo. Branding is also about how you communicate your brand essence — mission statement, values, personality, offering — to the target audience.

Brand communication is all about adding a human, unique touch to a brand. It refers to the act of communicating — visually, written, or auditory — with stakeholders, be they customers, investors, or employees. All in all, brand communication encompasses activities such as social media promotion, advertising, review, and even print marketing.

Brand Consistency

In branding, consistency is key. Brand consistency refers to the practice of keeping a recurring pattern on every piece of content you produce — whether we’re talking about internal documentation, social media posts, business pitches, or physical brochures.

Customer loyalty, brand identity, and brand awareness all depend on brand consistency. To ensure consistency, branding specialists usually put up brand style guidelines, which should be available to every team member. This way, every piece of content stays on-brand.

Brand Design

From the website interface to the brand logo, graphic design elements, and fonts and colors - everything is part of the brand design.

Brand Equity

Brand equity defines a brand’s value. A brand's equity is based on the perception and experience of its customers.

What makes up brand equity? Well, brand equity consists of brand awareness, customer loyalty, perceived quality, and brand associations.

Brand Experience

Brand experience refers to all the emotions, sensations, thoughts, and reactions that people have in response to a brand. All in all, brand experience is the lasting impression a brand leaves on people.

Brand Identity

Brand identity is how you present your brand to the world. The brand identity encompasses elements such as visual style, tone of voice, corporate identity, customer communication, and brand positioning.

Brand Image

Your brand's image shows how your brand is perceived by your customers. While you can control brand identity, brand image evolves organically, based on the interactions that customers have with your brand.

Brand Interaction

Customers interact with a brand whenever they enter a store, read a branded article, open a newsletter or speak to a salesperson.

Brand interaction refers to the experience that someone has with a brand. Constructing brand interactions that are aligned with target audience needs is crucial to driving customer loyalty and sales.

Brand Library

A brand library, or a digital asset library, is a centralized digital storage space where all brand assets are kept. These storage spaces make it easy to retrieve, edit, share, and create brand assets.

The brand library is essential to a company’s successful collaboration and workflow. It reduces informational silos, enhances productivity levels, supports brand consistency, and saves a lot of time.

Brand Loyalty

Brand loyalty defines the degree to which a customer is loyal to a certain brand. When customers form positive associations with a certain product or brand, they gravitate toward it. As a result, brand loyalty develops. And it is crucial if you want to gain a competitive advantage in the market.

Brand Management

Brand management refers to how you want your product, service, or brand to be perceived in time. Essentially, it is about increasing the brand’s value or maintaining its image on the market. Brand management is also about fostering an emotional connection with your customer base.

Brand Management Software

Brand management software makes the process of managing brands easier. It allows users to store, create, edit, analyze, and share brand assets to achieve brand consistency across teams and channels.

Brand Map

A brand map is a way of visualizing how customers and potential customers perceive your brand, relative to main competitors.

Brand Personality

If your brand were a person, how would you describe their personality? Answer that question and you’ve got your brand’s personality. Brand personality refers to a set of human characteristics and traits which are attributed to brands. This is part of the brand essence. And it informs the brand messaging and design.

Brand Portal

The brand portal is a digital workspace. Users can create, manage, and share brand assets with this software.

Brand Positioning

The brand positioning shows how your brand stands out from its competitors and how it sits in customers' minds.

A solid brand positioning strategy blends the target audience's needs with the brand’s core values and personality. The result is a mission statement that appeals to prospective customers, and which is reflected in all the subsequent branding work you do.

Brand Recall

Brand recall refers to the ability of the target audience to recall a brand’s name when prompted by a product category. For instance, the category of electric cars is dominated by Tesla. Overall, brand recall gives businesses a competitive edge and improves customer loyalty.

Brand Recognition

Brand Recognition refers to how easy it is to identify a brand just by seeing the brand’s visual elements.

Brand Storytelling

This is what is meant by brand storytelling — telling the story of your brand, connecting the mission statement with what you do, and what role the customer plays in it all.

Brand Strategy

A brand strategy is a comprehensive business plan aimed at developing and maintaining a favorable brand in the minds of customers.

Brand Style Elements

A brand strategy is a comprehensive business plan aimed at developing and maintaining a favorable brand in the minds of customers.

When you create a brand style guide, you need to include several elements. These are called brand style elements and they help define your brand. They refer to brand elements such as logo, color palettes, fonts, imagery, architecture, and tone of voice.

Brand Value

A brand strategy is a comprehensive business plan aimed at developing and maintaining a favorable brand in the minds of customers.

There are two ways to define brand value. On the one hand, brand value refers to the financial worth of your brand.

On the other hand, it can also refer to the perceived value of the brand, which is determined by customers. However, when talking about the perceived value of a brand, most specialists use the term brand equity.

Brand Values

A brand strategy is a comprehensive business plan aimed at developing and maintaining a favorable brand in the minds of customers.

The brand values define the heart and soul of a brand. They are basic principles that give brands direction, help with formulating a brand positioning statement, and attract the right audience.

Brand values should be manifested in every move your brand makes.

Brochure

Brochures are effective print and digital marketing materials that inform and engage customers. Brochures are used to generate leads and sales or to promote a brand.

Business Card

A business card is a small, printed paper card that illustrates your business details (name, contact details, and brand logo). Business cards are a key component of your branding. It should be consistent with your brand style guideline.

Business Proposal

A business proposal is a presentation of your company and its offering. When do you need a business proposal?