Glossary

Brand strategy language, without the fog.

Use these definitions to name the decision in front of you, question advice precisely, and brief the work with less guesswork.

Brand positioning

PositioningThe decision about which single idea a brand should own in a buyer's head, made before any design work begins.
Category designChoosing, and sometimes creating, the market frame a brand competes in before competing in it.

Brand recognition

Distinctive assetsThe colors, shapes, sounds, and phrases a brand owns so thoroughly that people recognize it with the logo covered.
Mental availabilityHow easily a brand comes to mind in a buying moment. Built through consistent presence, well before any single campaign.
Brand salienceThe share of buying situations in which a brand gets thought of at all.
RecognitionThe compound return of consistency: being known again without reintroduction.

Verbal identity

Brand architecture

Brand architectureHow multiple offers relate under one roof: what earns its own name and what borrows the parent's.

Psychology and branding

SemioticsThe study of what signs and symbols mean to a culture, applied so a brand's codes say what it intends.