Common branding terms that carry multiple meanings and how to avoid confusion
When speaking with clean energy organizations about branding and brand efforts, it’s not uncommon for us to spend a few minutes defining terms. What does someone mean when asking for a rebrand? Does someone use vision and mission interchangeably? What the heck is a customer profile?
How we define and use terms can make a major difference in how a brand, marketing, or creative project is scoped. The way in which we interpret branding terminology impacts how we actually work to brand our own organizations.
To that end, here is a list of terms, with definitions, that commonly have varied meanings. They’re not in alphabetical order, but are grouped by similarity. However, I’ve provided the following links in alphabetical order if you’d like to jump straight to a specific term. Or read through like you would a normal post.
- Brand
- Brand advocate, champion, ambassador
- Brand guide
- Brand values
- Branding
- Customer archetype
- Customer persona
- Customer profile
- Logo
- Mission
- Positioning statement
- Style guide
- Value proposition
- Vision
- Visual identity
Brand
When people talk about “brand”, it can be used in one of several contexts. For some, the term brand is interchangeable with “company”, “firm”, or “organization.” They might refer to something “that brand did”, meaning the company.
For others, “brand” refers to a product brand of a larger entity. For example, they might talk about the Tide brand owned by Procter & Gamble, or the Gen24 brand inverter from Fronius.
For still others, “brand” refers to the logo of a company or product line. They may talk about how many brands incorporate a sun icon in the solar industry.
While all three are correct, the idea of “brand” combines all three – company, product, and logo – along with defined branding and audience perceptions.
With different interpretations out there, it’s important when having a conversation about “brand” to ensure that all involved are using the same definition to avoid confusion. Ask if they mean company, a product brand, a logo, or something else.
Branding
The term “branding” in common parlance is no less nebulous than the term brand. For some, when talking about branding, they mean a company logo along with, possibly, the company’s visual identity.
For others, it can mean how one promotes and/or markets a particular company or product.
Branding, however, is more encompassing than either of those interpretations. Branding includes interactions, messaging, and visuals that influence how a person feels about a certain company or product. A person will respond to cues about the “personality” of an organization by taking in the organization’s visual identity. These cues are either reinforced or obscured by messaging. And all is confirmed or refuted by interactions with the organization. When all three are in sync, customers/potential customers feel it and react depending on the organization’s alignment with their own values.
Vision
The terms vision and mission are often used interchangeably. They are not, however, the same thing.
A vision is a portrait of the future your organization wants to bring forth, described in a single sentence. It gives the firm something to strive for, as well as acting as a guide in decision making. Without a massive shift in direction, a vision rarely changes for a company.
If you’re familiar with the work of Simon Sinek and his “Why, How, What” model, a vision is directly related to an organization’s “why.”
Mission
Again, a mission and a vision are not the same thing.
While a vision describes a future outcome, a mission describes how your organization is working towards that outcome. It also describes what your organization is using to get there now.
Imagine a map. Your vision is a pin on that map. Someplace you’ve never been. Your mission describes the route you’re currently taking to make progress toward that pin. As your journey progresses, conditions may change and your mission (aka, your route) can and should change to reflect new conditions.
Brand values
Brand values are words or short statements governing company behavior. Brand values are non-negotiable for the company to operate authentically and on brand.
We can compare brand values to statements one would use to describe a person. A person might value honesty. When they are fully leaning into that value, people around them might say, “I trust them. I’ve never known them to tell me anything but the truth.” The value and the reality match.
The same is true for companies. The value and the reality must match.
Brand advocate, champion, or ambassador
When an organization has aligned their messaging and visuals with the interactions they have with customers, there is the potential to turn that customer into a brand advocate (also: champion or ambassador). Without prompting from you, they become a referral source for your company. Some organizations set up formal referral programs to reinforce what brand advocates do. However, this should come after aligning other branding elements.
Customer persona
A customer persona is a fictitious person representing a key customer group with shared demographics. A persona personalizes this segment of a company’s target audience, giving them a specific “person” to write and create for when developing marketing and sales campaigns.
Using aggregated customer data, a persona will commonly have a name, age, family information, job title, education, geography, where they get their information, and broad motivations.
Customer archetype
A customer archetype is a mix between a persona and one of the 12 Jungian personality archetypes. An archetype paints a persona with a broader brush while taking into account motivations and detractions. Think of a customer archetype as Lucy the rebel versus the persona of Lucy the 40-year-old accountant.
While Carl Jung’s theses were the basis for the 12 well-known archetypes used today, they were codified by Carol Pearson and Margaret Mark in their book, The Hero and the Outlaw.
Twelve archetypes: https://www.centreofexcellence.com/what-are-the-12-jungian-archetypes/
Customer profile
A customer profile is more in-depth than basic customer segmentation, customer personas, or customer archetypes. It uses all three to create a more comprehensive, useful picture customers and their buyer journey. A customer profile will often include demographics, pain points, psychographics, tactics to reach them, and how to approach all of this with care and intent.
Value proposition
A value proposition is a statement summarizing why one would buy from a specific company. It answers the question why a customer should buy from a particular company over the competitors.
A value proposition works hand-in-hand with positioning statements to show the benefits of a company and product/service to a potential customer.
Positioning
A positioning statement describes how a company’s product or service solves a customer’s need. While describing a product/service, it is customer-focused, answering a pain point for a specific target audience.
Working hand-in-hand with a value proposition, a positioning statement answers why a customer should purchase a particular product or service, while a value proposition answers the question of why a particular company is the best choice.
Logo
A logo refers to a visual mark that represents a certain company or organization. While “logo” is used as an overarching term, a logo may consist of a logomark – the picture or icon portion of the logo, a wordmark – the name or word portion of the logo, and possibly a tagline – a few word descriptor of the company. And a logo system will involve all these components and more.
Visual identity
A visual identity encompasses all the pieces visually representing a brand in a unique, memorable way. At its most basic, a visual identity includes a logo, color palette, and font choices. Most will also detail how materials are laid out in different media, identifiable textures and shapes, how color is used, and illustration/image content and style.
Creating and building an effective visual identity system can be complex, taking into account multiple factors, including brand tenets, customers, psychology, color theory, design theory, best practices, different media, as well as other considerations.
Style guide
A style guide defines visual aspects of a brand while codifying elements of a visual identity to maintain consistency and avoid confusion.
Broadly, it includes logo appearance and usage, defined color palette, fonts, and visual identity elements.
Brand guide
A brand guide incorporates the components of a style guide – logo, color palette, visual identity – and then goes further to cover brand purpose, vision, mission, content tone of voice, and messaging frameworks.
A brand guide might also include customer profiles, value proposition, and positioning statements, combining all aspects of a well-defined brand into a “single source of truth” for an organization’s brand.