The Brand Gap Read online

  The growing importance of the brand has a flip side: its growing vulnerability. A failed launch, a drop in quality, or a whiff of scandal can damage credibility.

  The more collaborative a brand becomes, the more centralized its management needs to be. The future of branding will require strong CBOs—chief brand officers who can steward the brand from inside the company.

  Branding is a process that can be studied, analyzed, learned, taught, replicated, and managed. It’s the CBO’s job to document and disseminate brand knowledge, and to transfer it whole to each new manager and collaborator.

  Each lap around the branding circle, from differentiation to cultivation, takes the brand further from commoditization and closer to a sustainable competitive advantage.

  Become a BRAND GAP GURU in your company. Visit www.newriders.com and download a free Adobe PDF presentation of the ideas in THE BRAND GAP. You can also buy discounted copies of THE BRAND GAP—an easy way to keep every member of your team focused on the company’s brand.

  Brand Glossary

  Included in this revised edition is the complete list of definitions from THE DICTIONARY OF BRAND, a book I edited with the support of an all-star advisory council. The challenge was to create a “linguistic foundation”—a set of terms that allows specialists from different disciplines to work together in a larger community of practice. Neither the terms nor their definitions are carved in stone; we’ll most certainly find that many are malleable, some are fluid, and a few are provisionary as we co-develop the practice of brand building.

  artifact

  A visible representation of an idea; a product or by-product of designing | see Designing

  atmospherics

  The identity of a brand environment, represented by its architecture, signage, textures, scents, sounds, colors, and employee behavior | see Experience Design

  attitude study

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

  audience

  The group to which a product, service, or message is aimed; also called the target audience

  audio branding

  The process of building a brand with auditory associations, such as Hewlett-Packard’s use of the song “Pictures of You” in their Photosmart advertising | see Earcon

  authenticity

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

  avatar

  A brand icon designed to move, morph, or otherwise operate freely across various media | see Icon

  awareness study

  A survey that measures an audience’s familiarity with a brand, often divided into “prompted” and “spontaneous” awareness | see Audience

  backstory

  The story behind a brand, such as its origin, the meaning of its name, or the underpinnings of its authenticity or charisma | see Authenticity, Provenance

  benefit

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

  bhag

  A“ Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal” designed to focus an organization | read Built to Last, Jim Collins and Jerry Porras

  bottom-up marketing

  Customer-driven marketing, as opposed to top-down or management-driven marketing | read Bottom-Up Marketing, Al Ries and Jack Trout

  brand

  A person’s perception of a product, service, experience, or organization; the art and science of brand building

  brand agency

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

  brand alignment

  The practice of linking brand strategy to customer touchpoints | see Brand Strategy, Touchpoint

  brand ambassador

  Anyone who promotes the brand through interactions with customers, prospects, partners, or the media; ideally, every company employee

  brand architecture

  A hierarchy of related brands, often beginning with a master brand, describing its relationship to subbrands and co-brands; a brand family tree | see Co-Branding, Master Brand, Subbrand

  brand articulation

  A concise description of a brand that enables members of the brand community to collaborate; the brand story | see Brand Community, Brand Story

  brand asset

  Any aspect of a brand that has strategic value, which may include brand associations, brand attributes, brand awareness, or brand loyalty | see Brand Attribute, Brand Loyalty

  brand attribute

  A distinctive feature of a product, service, company, or brand

  brand audit

  A formal assessment of a brand’s strengths and weaknesses across all of its touchpoints | see Touchpoint

  brand champion

  Anyone who evangelizes or protects a brand; a brand steward | see Brand Steward

  brand community

  The network of people who contribute to building a brand, including internal departments, external firms, industry partners, customers, users, and the media

  brand consultant

  An external adviser who contributes to the brand-building process, often in a strategic or advisory role

  brand council

  A committee formed to assess and guide a company’s brand-building process; sometimes called a creative council

  brand designer

  Any person who helps shape a brand, including graphic designers, strategists, marketing directors, researchers, advertising planners, web developers, public relations specialists, copywriters, and others

  brand earnings

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

  branded house

  A company in which the dominant brand name is the company name, such as Mercedes-Benz; also called a homogeneous brand or a monolithic brand; the opposite of a house of brands

  brand equity

  The accumulated value of a company’s brand assets, both financially and strategically; the overall market strength of a brand | read Managing Brand Equity, David A. Aaker

  brand essence

  The distillation of a brand’s promise into the simplest possible terms

  brand experience

  All the interactions people have with a product, service, or organization; the raw material of a brand | see Brand Story

  brand gap

  The gulf between business strategy and customer experience

  brand identity

  The outward expression of a brand, including its name, trademark, communications, and visual appearance | read Designing Brand Identity, Alina Wheeler

  brand image

  A customer’s mental picture of a product, service, or organization

  branding

  Any effort or program to build a brand; the process of brand-building

  brand loyalty

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

  brand manager

  An obsolescent term for a person responsible for tactical issues facing a brand or brand family, such as pricing, promotion, distribution, and advertising; a product manager

  brand manual

  A document that articulates the parameters of the brand for members of the brand community; a standardized set of brand-building tools | see Brand Community

  brandmark

  An icon, avatar, wordmark, or other symbol for a brand; a trademark | see Avatar, icon, Symbol, Trademark

  brand metrics

  Measurements for monitoring changes in brand equity | see Brand Valuation

  brand name

  The verbal or written component of a brand icon; the name of a product, service, experience, or organization | see Icon

  brand personality

  The character of a brand defined in human terms, such as Virgin = irreverent, or Chanel = refined

  brand police

  Manager or team responsible for strict compliance
with the guidelines in the brand manual | see Brand Manual

  brand portfolio

  A suite of related brands; a collection of brands owned by one company | read Brand Portfolio Strategy, David A. Aaker

  brand pushback

  Marketplace resistance to brand messages or brand extensions, often leading to changes in brand strategy | see Brand Strategy, Extension

  brand steward

  The person responsible for developing and protecting a brand

  brand story

  The articulation of a brand as a narrative; a coherent set of messages that articulate the meaning of a brand | see Backstory

  brand strategy

  A plan for the systematic development of a brand in order to meet business objectives

  brand valuation

  The process of measuring the monetary equity of a brand | see Brand Metrics

  buzz

  The current public opinion about a product, service, experience, or organization | read The Anatomy of Buzz, Emanuel Rosen

  category

  The arena in which a brand competes; a consideration set | see Consideration Set

  CBO

  A company’s Chief Brand Officer, responsible for integrating the work of the brand community | see Brand Community

  challenger brand

  A new or rising brand that is viable in spite of competition from the dominant brand in its category | read Eating the Big Fish, Adam Morgan

  charismatic brand

  A brand that inspires a high degree of loyalty; also known as a lifestyle brand or passion brand | see Tribal Brand

  clutter

  The conceptual noise of the marketplace; a disorderly array of messages or elements that impedes understanding

  co-branding

  The purposeful linking of two or more brands for mutual benefit

  co-creation

  The collaborative development of a product, service, brand, or message

  collaboration

  The process by which people of different disciplines work in concert to build a brand; the practice of co-creation | read Serious Play and No More Teams!, Michael Schrage

  command and control

  A management style relying on clearly defined goals, processes, and measurements; top-down rather than bottom-up or distributed management

  commoditization

  The process by which customers come to see products, services, or companies as interchangeable, resulting in the erosion of profit margins; the opposite of brand-building | see Vicious Circle

  concept map

  A diagram showing the connections among a set of concepts

  conceptual noise

  Cognitive clutter arising from too many messages or meanings; any competing ideas that undermine clarity | see Clutter

  consideration set

  The range of brands that a customer considers when making a purchase decision; a category | see Category

  coopetition

  The cooperation of two competitors so that both can win | read Coopetition, Adam M. Brandenburger and Barry J. Nalebuff

  core competencies

  A set of capabilities (typically two or three) that gives a company a strategic advantage

  core identity

  The central, sustainable elements of a brand identity, usually the name and trademark | see Brand Identity, Trademark

  core ideology

  A combination of core values and core purpose | see Core Purpose, Core Values

  core purpose

  The reason a company exists beyond making a profit; part of a core ideology | see Core Ideology

  core values

  An enduring set of principles that defines the ethics of a company; part of a core ideology | see Core Ideology

  corporate identity

  The brand identity of a company, consisting of its visual identifiers such as the name, trademark, typography, and colors; a company’s trade dress | see brand identity, Trade Dress

  creative brief

  A document that sets parameters for a brand-building project, including context, goals, processes, and budgetary constraints

  cultivation

  The process of imbedding brand values throughout the organization; internal branding | read Building the Brand-Driven Business, Aaker, Davis and Dunn

  cultural lock-in

  The inability of an organization to change its mental models in the face of clear market threats | read Creative Destruction, Richard N. Foster and Sarah Kaplan

  culture jamming

  The act of modifying advertisements or brand messages to subvert their original intent; also known as subvertising | read Adbusters magazine

  customer expectations

  The anticipated benefits of a brand, whether explicit or implicit

  customer goals

  The “jobs” that customers “hire” a product, service, experience, or organization to do for them | read The Innovator’s Solution, Christensen and Raynor

  descriptor

  A term used with a brand name to describe the category in which the brand competes, such as “fluoride toothpaste” or “online bank” | see Category

  design

  In brand-building, the planning or shaping of products, services, environments, systems, communications, or other artifacts to create a positive brand experience | see Artifact

  designing

  The process of design; bringing together strategic and creative processes to achieve a shared goal | read Why Design?, published by AIGA

  design management

  The practice of integrating the work of internal and external design teams to align brand expressions with strategic goals

  design research

  Customer research on the experience and design of products or communication elements, using qualitative, quantitative, or ethnographic techniques | see Ethnography, Field test, one-on-one interview

  differentiation

  The process of establishing a unique market position to increase profit margins and avoid commoditization; the result of positioning | see Positioning | read Differentiate or Die, Jack Trout

  disruptive innovation

  A new product, service, or business that redefines the market; also called discontinuous innovation | see First Mover | read The Innovator’s Dilemma, Clayton Christensen

  drive features

  Brand attributes that are both important to customers and highly differentiated from those of competitors | see Brand Attribute | read The McKinsey Quarterly, May 2004

  driver brand

  In a brand portfolio, the brand that drives a purchase decision, whether master brand, subbrand, or endorser brand | see Brand Portfolio, Endorser Brand, Master Brand, Subbrand

  earcon

  An auditory brand symbol, such as United Airlines’ use of “Rhapsody in Blue” as a brand expression; an aural icon | see Icon

  elevator pitch

  A one-sentence version of a brand’s purpose or market position, short enough to convey during a brief elevator ride | see Market Position

  emergent attribute

  A feature, benefit, quality, or experience that arises from the brand, as opposed to the core product or service; an example is the friendliness of Google

  emotional branding

  Brand-building efforts that aim at customers’ feelings through sensory experiences | read Emotional Branding, Marc Gobé and Sergio Zyman

  endorser brand

  A brand that promises satisfaction on behalf of a subbrand or co-brand, usually in a secondary position to the brand being endorsed | see Co-Branding, Subbrand

  envisioned future

  A 10 to 30-year BHAG with vivid descriptions of what it will be like to reach the goal | see BHAG | read Built to Last, Jim Collins and Jerry Porras

  Ethnography

  The study of people in their natural settings; research to discover needs and desires that can be met with brand innovations

  experience design

  A focus
on shaping the experience of a customer or user, rather than on the artifacts themselves; the design of interactive media | see Artifact, Information Architect

  extended identity

  The elements that extend the core identity of a company or brand, organized into groupings such as brand personality, symbols, and positioning | see Brand Personality, Core Identity, Positioning, Symbol

  extension

  A new product or service that leverages the brand equity of a related product or service

  evangelist

  A brand advocate, whether paid or unpaid

  feature

  Any element of a product, service, or experience designed to deliver a benefit

  feature creep

  The addition of unnecessary elements to a product, service, or experience; sometimes called featuritis

  field test

  A type of qualitative research in which prototypes of products, packages, or messages are tested in real environments instead of laboratories | see Qualitative Research