Branding Glossary

We thought it would be useful to provide a Branding Glossary as an accompaniment to our Brand Series. So here’s the Wisdom skinny on some of the terms we’ve used a lot already, and those which you’ll hear more of as the series progresses.

Feel free to treat this as a wiki and comment with your own suggestions for improving, or adding to our definitions!

Brand

The living, breathing soul of a company, product, or service; the total sum of the tangible and intangible qualities and characteristics of who and what is stood for and delivered. It’s encapsulated in and communicated through the packaging, the colours, the symbols and the typography used, but more than that, it’s the way brand and its people behave, and the experience delivered.

Brand management

The process of protecting, nurturing and growing a brand or stable of brands to keep messaging consistent and aligned with the business strategy.

Brand strategy

The vision set out, to take the brand fulfilling their objectives, which are aligned with the overall business strategy.

Visual identity

The visual representation of everything the brand stands for. This means a brand’s logo, typography, palette, packaging and stores in some cases, but more than this it’s how these elements are used, that brings a brand to life.

Logotype

Or logo, consists of a single graphic element, either a name or a sign and name and uniquely identifies a company, product or service. Sometimes a strapline is included in the logotype.

Icon
The image, the enduring symbol that represents the brand. It can be a part of the logo, or used alone and acts as a signpost that is quickly identified, i.e. the Nike ‘swoosh’.

Typography

A brand’s signature combination of fonts used on all branded content.

Palette

The colours of a brand which are used across all branded material, and in some cases become synonymous with the brand. A good example would be Cadbury’s Dairy Milk purple, or those in the Wisdom London ‘rainbow’ blend.

Logotype guidelines

Outlines the treatment of the logo, word mark and icon – how and where to use them on branded material for consistency and also to protect the brand.

Word mark

Often underestimated, this is a written logo that can be immediately recognized. Think Coca-Cola or Google.

Strapline

A genuine, easy to understand, phrase that becomes a part of the brand identity, so it must add value to the overall message. Otherwise known as a tagline or endline and can be:

• Descriptive: Wisdom London “Creative Communications. Connected” and Accenture “High performance. Delivered”
  
• Action-oriented: Nokia “Connecting people” and Nike “Just do it”
• Evocative or emotional: L’Oreal “Because you’re worth it” and T-Mobile “Life’s for Sharing”
  

Brand series: Gap is bigger than a logo

By Kate Spiers

Wow. Gap launched a new visual identity this week and there is uproar. But more than that, some quite stinging mockery. Since we’re running our brand series this month, I thought it was worth a closer look.

Well, in essence, it’s taken the old blue square, shifted it and used a new font. Presumably it’s to bring Gap up to date and breathe fresh life into the visual brand. That’s OK. It was probably overdue. But what’s interesting to me is not the quality or otherwise of the new visual identity but the emotion it has evoked. Are we getting just a bit too judgmental or snobby about design? Did we expect more from a high street giant? Probably.

But my point is this: Gap is bigger than simply a logotype. I hope they’re not panicking. Because when I think of Gap as a brand (and I’m a neutral-to-positive buyer, certainly not devoted) I think about so many other things. I think about the Gap clothes I own and have owned, what the store feels like (this is a really strong part of their brand, I think), memories of those clothes and experiences wearing them, the fact that I think it’s kind of expensive, that I love their Pierre Hardy shoe range, that I always mess up their neatly folded piles of Ts. As a consumer, I do not think of a logo when I think of Gap.

I’m not saying that visual brand doesn’t matter – it matters hugely.  But playing it safe is not a crime. If we think of logo as simply the visual reference or trigger for all that the brand encapsulates, then it will probably do the job.  The old logo wasn’t exactly ground-breaking, either.

So it’s unlikely that sales will plummet on this basis. The tills will keep ringing so long as they continue to engender their overarching brand values of service, classic quality, laid-back cool design. So long as they can demonstrate CSR and ethical approaches – so vital in the clothing business. That’s what would be keeping me awake if I were CEO of Gap. Not what people think of the logo.

PS: It didn’t always look like this, anyway.  Check out the 1969 look:

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