It is important to establish a common brand management vocabulary in your organization. Establishing this common vocabulary will ensure that people can communicate with fewer misunderstandings. More importantly, it will help communicate and reinforce key brand management principles.
We worked with one organization in which different managers used different terms to describe positioning the brand. Terms ranged from “essence” and “promise” to “position” and “unique value proposition.” This caused great confusion. Another organization that struggled with the difference between master brand, family brand, parent brand, umbrella brand, corporate brand, brand, sub-brand, endorsed brand, product brand, etc. The aim is to agree to one set of terms and to simplify the brand architecture.
Brand: The American Marketing Association describes a brand as a “name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competition.”
More importantly, a brand is the source of a promise to the consumer. It promises relevant differentiated benefits. Everything an organization does should be focused on enhancing delivery against its brand’s promise.
Combining a few different definitions, a brand is the name and symbols that identify:
• The source of a relationship with the consumer
• The source of a promise to the consumer
• The unique source of products and services
• The sum total of each customer’s experience with your organization
• In their book The 22 Immutable Laws of BRANDING, brand management experts Al Ries and Laura Ries offer another definition for brand: “What’s a brand? A singular idea or concept that you own inside the mind of the prospect.”
In the coming weeks on Branding Strategy Insider I’ll be exploring the language of branding. My hope is that collectively we will further demystify branding terminology.
The Blake Project Can Help: The Brand Positioning Workshop
Branding Strategy Insider is a service of The Blake Project: A strategic brand consultancy specializing in Brand Research, Brand Strategy, Brand Licensing and Brand Education
One comment
Ed Burghard
September 19, 2007 at 1:36 pm
The definition I have developed and used successfully to get people (particularly non-marketers) on the same understanding of brand is – “At its core, a brand is a promise that sets an expectation of what can be expected when a consumer uses the product or service. A brand needs to be relevant, authentic and competitive.”
The thing I like about the definition is it allows me to springboard into conversations regarding the importance of product development in keeping a brand relevant and competitive. It facilitates a quality discussion on life cycle management. And it helps people appreciate the scope is beyong a logo and tagline. Finally, most people intuitively understand the importance of keeping promises made.
Comments are closed.