Branding Terms

Brand
Identification of a business' products, services and organization through a combination of a name, symbol, design and colors. Distinguishes a business among its competitors.

Branding
Process of defining a company's core attributes and values, from which a brand and brand image are visually built.

Brand Equity
The perceived quality and value of a brand amongst consumers and clients.

Brand Essence
The intrinsic or indispensable characteristics of a brand composed into one fundamental concept.

Brand Extension
Expanding the concept of a brand by organizing brand identity elements into cohesive groupings, providing texture and completeness.

Brand Consistency
Concurrence of brand elements throughout products and services and/or geographic markets.

Brand Positioning
A company's position within the industry that specifies their brand’s point of superiority and differentiation among its competitors.

Co-Brand
The unification of two or more brands, comparative in strength, in relation to a common offer.

Hierarchic
Brand architectures that consist of a master or parent brand, and subbrands (child brands) that are very closely related. There is a clear point of reference between the two (i.e. Adobe Acrobat). When correctly implemented, the child brand eventually becomes automatically associated with the parent brand, and parent brand name is no longer necessary in reference (i.e. PowerPoint and Microsoft).

Interactive Branding
Developing a web or interactive product, incorporating the established brand cohesively among the structural, informational and graphic design.

Icon
The image or symbol part of a logo.

Logo
A trademark or signature of a company or product. Sometimes only a wordmark (i.e. Nordstrom) and sometimes an icon paired with typography.

Monolithic
Brand architectures that unify everything around a single master brand, common among service companies Examples include Starbucks and UPS.

Pluralistic
Brand architectures that consist of a parent brand that has a product or products that stand on their own as well-known consumer brands. The parent may be invisible to the consumer but is recognized by the investment community. For example, Godiva Chocolates is a product brand that stands on its own, rarely associated with its parent brand, Campbell’s Soup.

Rebrand
When a brand owner revisits the brand with the purpose of updating or revising based on internal or external circumstances. Rebranding is often necessary after an M&A or if the brand has outgrown its identity/marketplace.

Wordmark
A logo consisting of typography only, with no icon.