Small Business Branding Glossary
Whether you’re setting up a new business or 3 years in, there always seems to be a new word or phrase to discover and define.
This is the first in a series of glossaries for the small business owner or entrepreneur. This time it’s the turn of Branding to take centre stage.
So here’s my glossary of business terms to provide you with definitions for all things branding.
Awareness
The recognisability or memorability of your brand.
Brand
Similar to brand image, this is what others see of your business.
Branding
The efforts you make as a business to shift your brand.
Collateral
A range of media used to promote your business. It’s a physical version of the brand. This can be a menu, a business card or email signatures for example.
Core Values, or Culture
This is a statement of benefits customers can expect from your business, and how your workforce carries these out. How will value be delivered or experienced by them?
Customer Avatar
This is a detailed profile of your dream customer. It is usually heavily detailed and specific to one individual. An incredibly useful tool.
Customer Service
Assistance and advice given to current or potential customers.
Favicon
A small logo or icon that appears in the address bar when accessing a specific site. Squarespace’s is a black cube, for example.
Guidelines, or Style Guide
A set of rules to explain how your brand works. This tends to cover it’s vision right through to business card design.
Identity
All parts relating to a business. This could include the name, logo, tone, tagline, typeface, and shape that create an appeal. Brand identity is different from brand image as it’s what we can control, not how it’s perceived.
Image
A brand image is how your business is perceived by others. Whilst it’s not decided by you, you can control it with effective branding and marketing.
Logo
A small design used to identify a business or organisation.
Loyalty
The tendency for customers to continue to buy from one brand and not it’s competitors. Are you team Coke or Pepsi?
Marketing
The action of promoting or selling your services or products.
Mission Statement
A brief description of what your company does - and why. I like to think of it as bridging the gap between your values and vision statement.
Mood Board
A mood board is a collection of images and text that represent a style or feeling. It’s a good starting place for brand visuals.
Packaging
Materials used in transporting the product to a customer. Think boxes, bags, stickers and leaflets for a start.
Personality
Human characteristics related to a business. It’s made up of tone and voice.
Secondary Logo
A simplified version of the main logo. It is often used for small sizes as text is more easily readable.
Slogan, or Tagline
A short or catchy phrase used in advertising your business.
Strategy
A brand strategy is a long term plan for your brand. It often includes lots of different aspects of your brand in this glossary including logos, personality, mission statement, values etc.
Submarks, or Icons
Submarks are small pieces of design to represent some or all of your business. They tend to be small versions of a logo, usually taken from the main logo. For example, a star icon might be taken from a letter in the original logo and included as a submark for a brand.
SWOT
This is a planning technique that identifies strengths (s), weaknesses (w), opportunities (o) and threats (t). This can be applies to your business as a whole, or individual projects within it.
Tone
This is the expression of brand voice depending on the audience. It changes all the time, just like we wouldn’t speak to our kids like we would our best friend. I like to think of it as how a brand speaks.
USP
Unique Selling Point. This is what makes your offering different from competitors. This could be you or how you make your products, for example.
Vision Statement:
A vision statement is a big, almost unattainable dream for your business based on the work that you do. It will shape your future decisions and is the core to your business.
Voice:
A brand voice is a consistent way that your business communicated with customers. It’s easily defined by what it is and what it is not, i.e. cheeky but not offensive. Think of it as how the brand acts.
Wordmark, or Logotype:
A simple logo designed to contain only text - no symbols or icons. This variation of a logo is great for use on smaller spaces like social media profiles.
Have I missed anything? Comment below and I’ll add it to the list.
