A survey of opinions about a brand, often used as a benchmark before and after making changes to the brand.

The group of people for which a product, service, message, or experience is designed.

The quality of being genuine, considered a powerful brand attribute.

In computer games, a digital alter ego; in branding, an icon designed to move, morph, or otherwise operate freely in a variety of media.

A survey that measures an audience’s familiarity with a brand, often divided into “aided” and “unaided” awareness.

A perceived advantage derived from a product, service, or feature.

A “Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal” designed to drive an organization forward for one to three decades, from Built to Last by Collins and Porras.

A virtual software agent often used to run automated tasks over the Internet; a robot.

Customer-driven marketing, as opposed to top-down or management-driven marketing.

A person’s perception of a product, service, experience, or organization; a commercial reputation.

A strategic firm that provides or manages a variety of brand-building services across a range of touchpoints.

The practice of closely linking customer experience and brand strategy.

A person experienced in building brands as strategic systems.

A hierarchy of related brands or brand names, often beginning with a master brand and describing its relationship to subbrands and co-brands; a brand family tree.

Any aspect of a brand that has strategic value, including brand associations, brand attributes, brand awareness, or brand loyalty.

A measurement of how well a product, service, or company is recognized by its audience.

A publication or online resource that outlines the strategy, key messages, and style guidelines for a brand.

A shared understanding of a company’s purpose, value proposition, personality, and messaging that allows brand builders to collaborate with autonomy.

The share of a business’s cash flow that can be attributed to a brand.

The accumulated value of a company’s brand assets, both financially and strategically; the overall strength of a brand.

All the interactions people have with a product, service, or organization.

A series of related brands owned by the same company.

A disconnect between business strategy and brand experience.

The outward expression of a brand, including its trademark, name, communications, and visual appearance.

Any effort or program designed to increase value or avoid commoditization by building a differentiated brand.

The strength of preference for a brand compared to competing brands, sometimes measured in repeat purchases.

A document that articulates the parameters of a brand for members of the brand community; a standardized set of brand-building tools.

A measurement of how strongly a brand name is connected with a category in the minds of an audience.

A record of changes in brand awareness over time.

A retail business model that combines a physical store with an e-commerce component.

A retail business model with a physical store.

The electronic, one-way communication of audio or video content to a large audience.

A software program that allows a user to display and interact with websites on the Internet.

Email messages sent to many people at the same time from a mailing list.

A tying strategy in which the purchase of one product, element, or feature is conditioned on the purchase of another.

An elevated level of gossip or information-sharing about a person, product, service, event, experience, or organization.

A brand that inspires a high degree of customer loyalty; also known as a lifestyle brand or passion brand.

In communication, the quality of being easily perceived or understood.

In communication design, an idea, phrase, or trope that has been overused to the point of losing its original meaning or effect.

In social networks, an exclusive group in which every member is closely connected to every other member.

A catch-all term for information and programs that can be accessed over the Internet.

In problem solving, any facts, data, or personal experiences that can aid in forming a framework for the problem.

A disorderly array of elements or messages that impedes understanding.

Two or more separately owned brands linked for mutual benefit.

The collaborative development of a product, service, experience, process, business model, strategy, message, or other outcome.

The process by which people of different disciplines work together to create something they could not create individually; the practice of co-creation.

In language, the characteristic of or appropriate to ordinary or familiar conversation rather than formal speech or writing; informal.

Informal verbal forms of expression divided into four general categories: Informal Contractions (Gonna = Going to, Wanna = Want to, Gotcha = Got you); Idiomatic Expressions (Hit the nail on the head, Bite the bullet, Kick the bucket); Regional Informal Phrases (Y'all = You all, Fixin' to = About to); Slang (Sick/Dope = Cool or awesome, Chill = Relax, My bad = My mistake).

The process by which customers come to see products, services, or companies as interchangeable, resulting in the erosion of profit margins; a failure of branding.

In economics, goods that have no appreciable differentiation or brand value.

A message or conversation; the conveyance of information from a sender to a receiver.

A discipline that combines visual design and verbal design to produce identity elements, websites, advertisements, publications, and other vehicles for messaging and content.

A large group of people with common interests or a shared culture.

A hierarchical diagram showing the connections among related ideas, functions, or elements.

Cognitive clutter arising from conflicting messages or meanings; a clash of ideas that undermines clarity.

The range of choices that a customer considers when making a purchase decision; a category.

In marketing, the central, sustainable elements of a brand identity, such as a brand name and trademark.

In management, a combination of core values and core purpose.

The reason a company exists beyond making a profit; a key component of a core ideology.

An enduring set of principles that defines the ethics of a company; a key component of a core ideology.

The brand identity of a company, consisting of its key identifiers, such as its brand name, trademark, typography, and colors; a company’s trade dress.

A document that outlines the parameters of a design project, such as its context, goals, processes, and budgetary constraints.

In management, the process of embedding shared values and skills throughout an organization.

In marketing, the jobs for which customers “hire” a product, service, experience, or organization.

A method or framework for the execution of a creative project.

Customer research on the experience and design of products or communication elements, using qualitative, quantitative, or ethnographic techniques.

The process of establishing a unique market category to increase profit margins and avoid commoditization; a central principle of positioning.

A new product, service, or business that upsets and redefines a market.

In a brand portfolio, the brand that drives a purchase decision, whether a master brand, subbrand, or endorser brand.

Brand attributes that are both important to customers and highly differentiated from those of competitors.

An expression of a company’s value proposition that is brief enough to convey during an elevator ride.

The value derived from how a product or service makes a customer feel.

A brand that promises satisfaction on behalf of a subbrand or co-brand, usually in a secondary position to the brand being endorsed.

A tablet or app for reading digital books and documents.

In anthropology, the study of people in their natural settings; in business, a qualitative research technique for discovering needs and desires that can be met through innovation.

In anthropology, the study of people in their natural settings; in business, a qualitative research technique for discovering needs and desires that can be met through innovation.

In linguistics, a person who studies etymology, typically a PhD in linguistics and often times a writer and University level professor.

In linguistics, the study of the origin and history of words, or the history of a specific word. A strategy often used by verbal brand naming experts.

The discipline of creating user experiences rather than products and services, with
a strong application in interactive media.

The elements that extend the core identity of a company or brand, organized into groupings such as brand personality, earcons, favicons, symbols, positioning taglines and/or slogans.

In marketing, a new product or service that leverages the brand equity of a related product or service.

A user who pushes a product past its envisioned limits.

In psychology, a personality type characterized as being outgoing, friendly, gregarious who thrives in dynamic environments and seeks to maximize social engagement — collaborators who work very well in teams. Popularized by Austrian Philosopher Carl Jung in the early 1900's.

A marketing approach that uses nontraditional channels or touchpoints to sell or advertise products and services.

A system of creative collaboration in which specialists work as part of a metateam
to create a harmonious or aligned whole.

A company for which the products or services rather than the company itself have the dominant brand names; also called a heterogeneous brand or pluralistic brand. (Examples: Chevrolet, Colgate, J&J, Facebook, Toyota & Wrigley's)

A cognitive bias in which people tend to value things that they made themselves over things that others have made.

An integrated marketing team comprising various specialist firms working in collaboration to build a brand; a metateam or virtual agency.

A modest improvement to a product, service, or business that produces a short-term competitive advantage.

A creative discipline that optimizes the form and function of products and systems for the mutual benefit of the user and manufacturer.

In business, a sort of narcissitic attitude by CEOs and upper management that they can stray from their brand promise, core ethics and product offerings that very often lead to damaging a brand's reputation and a loss of brand equity. Example. Elon Musk's participation in US Politics and the damage done to the Tesla brand.

A person who designs complex information systems to make them easy to navigate.

A brand used as a feature for another brand, such as an Intel chip in an HP computer.

A design outcome that changes a company, industry, or society; the process of innovating.

A collaborative method for developing consistent branding across disciplines, audiences, media, and touchpoints.

The discipline of creating meaningful relationships between people and the products, services, or technologies they use.

The process of spreading brand knowledge and brand skills throughout an organization by use of a shared vision, storytelling, training, and creative councils; also known as cultivation.

In psychology, a personality type characterized as beomg concerned primarily with their own thoughts and feelings. Often seen as quiet or shy, they typically limit social engagement, thrive in calm environments and prefer solitude. Highly creative, they enjoy abstract thinking and are generally autonmous and self-motivated. Popularized by Austrian Philosopher Carl Jung in the early 1900's.

A brand that grows, adapts, and sustains itself by virtue of a healthy brand ecosystem.

An abbreviation of logotype, now applied broadly to mean a trademark.

The market share of one product, service, or company compared to others in the same category.

The ranking of a product, service, or company within a category, sometimes calculated as market share multiplied by the level of awareness.

The percentage of sales in a given category, usually calculated using as the number of units sold or the value of units sold.

The percentage of sales in a given category, usually calculated using as the number of units sold or the value of units sold.

Media channels designed to reach a large audience, traditionally through one-way communications.

One-way communications designed to sell, persuade, or create awareness of a brand through public communication channels.

A thought, belief, or behavior that reproduces and spreads like a virus through a culture, such as "Where's the beef?", "Black Lives Matter, "MAGA", or "Yolo".

A piece of communication with a single purpose.

A hierarchy of messages communicating the key value propositions of a brand.

Data about data, such as its purpose, authorship, network location, time code, or date of creation, usually hidden.

An online financial transaction involving only a few dollars or, potentially, fractions of a cent.

In industrial design, a prototype that has the least number of features and capabilities needed for real-world testing.

In language, a misapplied or inappropriate name or designation; an error in naming a person or thing. Examples: Funny Bone, Jellyfish, Butterfly and White Chocolate.

In organizational strategy, a 5- to 20-year plan to fulfill a purpose.

A concise statement of the core purpose or aspirations of an organization.

An app designed to run on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.

An app designed to run on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.

The smallest unit of language that has meaning, often used by brand naming specialists to assemble coined words or neologisms (for example, Agilent, formed by combining the morphemes agil- and -ent).

A portmanteau word meaning “network etiquette,”a set of social conventions governing online interactions.

In computing, a principle that all Internet traffic should be treated equally, regardless of bandwidth usage, content, platform, or purpose.

A brand loyalty metric that measures the likelihood that customers will recommend a product or service.

A system of nodes interconnected by information channels to allow a diverse range of communications.

A distributed model of creativity in which information and ideas flow up and down
the organizational chart, influencing both strategy and execution.

A phenomenon in which adding more users to a network increases the value of the network; the reverse can also be true, as in the case of congestion.

Products and services that deliver higher quality or performance at a premium price, such as Belvedere Vodka, Callaway golf clubs and Cadillac Escalade.

In marketing, a diagram of customer perceptions showing the relationships between competing products, services, or companies, usually in two dimensions.

The practice of promoting goods or services with anticipated, personal, and relevant messages.

In business, a foundational framework for building a product line, technology, or brand.

A store that occupies a small retail space one day and disappears the next, designed to either create buzz or ignite a buying frenzy.

A neologism made from two morphemes, commonly used for creating brand names. Examples include Agilent (Agil-ent), Dumpster (Dump-ster), Gatorade (Gator-ade), Microsoft (Micro-soft), Motorola (Moto-rola), Polaroid (Polar-oid) and Thermos (Ther-mos).

The process of differentiating a product, service, or company in a customer’s mind to obtain a competitive advantage.

A mathematical relationship that describes the distribution patterns of natural and man-made phenomena, such as the long tail of online merchandising.

In social networks, the tendency for people with more connections to attract even more connections.

In marketing, preliminary research to frame the research to follow.

The degree to which demand goes up or down in response to a change in price.

A cognitive bias in which first impressions tend to be stronger than later impressions, except for last impressions.

A high-value customer in a given target market.

A store-branded product that competes, often at a lower price, with widely distributed products; a store brand as opposed to a national brand or name brand. Examples: 365 from Whole Foods, Member's Mark from Sam's Club, or Bitz from Oxxo).

A branch of industrial design aimed at developing commercial products.

The financial incentive for investing capital, time, or effort in a business.

In branding, a stated or implied pledge that creates customer expectations and employee responsibilities, such as FedEx’s on-time guarantee.

A product or service that combines professional-level features with consumer usability and price.

A historical connection that lends authenticity or credibility to a company or product. Examples: Plymouth (Plymouth Rock) and Bank of Gibraltar, Getty Images (Getty Oil & John-Paul Getty), and The Rockefeller Foundation (John D. Rockefellor).

The study of personality, interests, values, and lifestyles often used to define market segments.

A company with a single line of business; a brand with a high degree of focus. Examples: McDonalds (hamburgers), Microsoft (software), Subway (sub-sandwiches), Starbucks (coffee), Tesla (electric cars), Twinings (tea).

In marketing, the number of people exposed to an advertising or brand message.

A cognitive bias in which last impressions tend to be stronger than earlier impressions, including first impressions.

In branding, the general opinion about a product, service, experience or organization among the members of its audience.

In branding, the general opinion about a product, service, experience or organization among the members of its audience.

The study of the meaning of words, phrases, signs and symbols.

A basic indicator of meaning.

One or more signs used to identify, direct, locate, or persuade people in the physical environment.

In communication, the relationship of useful information to irrelevant data.

In brand identity design, the defined visual relationship between a logotype and a symbol.

In brand design, a nonfunctional appearance that represents a functional attribute of the item it imitates.

Stock-Keeping Unit, a unique identifier used for each distinct retail product, package,
or version, usually identified with a barcode.

A rally cry, catchphrase, or tagline, such as “Just do it” from Nike (from the Gaelic sluagh-ghairm, meaning “war cry”).

A term referring to an advertising campaign for Pets.com, one of many failed e-commerce companies launched on frothy advertising rather than solid business plans.

A strategy of differentiation that allows a company to compete against larger or more established companies.

The quality of a brand name, such as Cheerios, Kleenex, Smuckers, Chevy, or "Caddy", that allows it to be recognized as a proper noun in conversation.

A private label product that can be sold at lower prices or higher margins than its widely distributed competitors; sometimes incorrectly called a generic brand.

A decision filter based on the twin concerns of business strategy and brand strategy.

In brand strategy, the degree to which a brand can be extended before the link between the brand and its category is broken.

In social networks, a person’s family and closest friends.

Documentation that describes the graphic standards for a brand, including use of
the trademark, typography, photography, and colors.

A secondary brand that leverages the associations of a master brand.

A company that is owned and controlled by a parent company.

An incremental improvement to an existing product, service, or business; opposite of disruptive innovation.

A strategy of attacking a problem from many angles or with many disciplines at once.

The amount of loss a customer must absorb in switching from one product or service to another.

The psychological factors that influence collaboration, including trust, fear, respect, and organizational culture.

A person or organization whose ideas exert an influence over others, especially through publishing or public appearances. Examples include Steve Jobs and Apple; Bill Gates and Microsoft, and Jensen Huang and Nvidia.

In social networks, the connections or links between nodes.

Any place where people encounter a brand, including product use, packaging, advertising, websites, movies, store environments, company employees, and conversation.

Colors, shapes, typefaces, page treatments, and other visual cues that create a brand identity.

A brand name and symbol or other visual expression that indicates a source of goods or services and prevents confusion in the marketplace.

A brand with a loyal or even cult-like following, such as Harley-Davidson, Whole Foods, or Star Trek (In the USA); or Moderato, Mana, Sanborn's, Señor Frog's or Squalo (In México).

A specific style or brand of typographic lettering, such as Times Roman or Helvetica, identifiable by its distinctive shapes; a set of digitized characters sold as a font.

The art of using typefaces to communicate messages, stories, or ideas in print or on screen. (*See David Carson's website, who many consider a master in typographic design).