Glossary

Experience shows that as soon as we try to communicate about brands and their management, words come into play that everyone understands differently. It therefore seems sensible to us to demand more transparency at the conceptual level. With this glossary, we want to contribute to the understanding of terms that are central and indispensable for explaining brand management and brand management – at least from our point of view. We deliberately say “explanation” and not “definition”: these are not delimiting or even conclusive definitions, but an attempt to capture and present the brand and its management in their current meaning and the associated functions. In other words, our aim is to gain a better understanding of how certain processes, functions, structures and relationships in the world of the brand should be viewed and assessed. It is also our intention to shed light on the current stage of development of the brand: As the brand continues to undergo new metamorphoses with increasing speed, what was right and important a few years ago is by no means necessarily relevant today. This is particularly evident at the moment: technological developments – first and foremost the global triumph of digitalization – are once again causing a paradigm shift for brands and their management, which is placing a wealth of new demands on companies and organizations such as associations, political parties and NGOs that communicate via brands.

For the following explanations of terms, we have drawn on our book “Innovative Brand Management”, which was published by Springer Gabler in 2017.

Branding

The brand is a strategically and operationally central aspect of a company or organization and, based on its communicative functions, contributes significantly to the (re)recognizability, identity and profiling and thus to the success of its respective sender (brand owner) both externally (market, external stakeholders) and internally (employees, internal stakeholders). The development of a brand into a strong figurehead for the brand owner through the brand-specific labeling of its products and services is known as branding.

Brand Strategy

Today, corporate strategy and brand strategy are closely interlinked – or at least they should be. Traditionally, the priority has been on the corporate side. However, at a time when company value is increasingly being driven by the value of the brand, the weight of strategic influencing factors is shifting. The direction and tendency of specifications and influences no longer run only from the company to the brand, but also in the opposite direction from the brand to the company.

Brand Orientation

Brand orientation is the consequence of the realization that the brand contributes significantly to increasing the value of the company through brand value or brand equity. In light of this realization, it makes sense to align the organization of the entire company with the needs, requirements and goals of the brand and its brand strategy. The classic definition of brand orientation by Mats Urde is: “Brand orientation is a strategic platform whereby a company deliberately and actively strives to manage the process that give its brand value and meaning.”

Brand Architecture

The term brand architecture conjures up the idea of a fixed building. In reality, it is currently a flexible and, to a certain extent, fluid structure that is constantly being restructured. Today, markets, technologies and trends are changing at a rapid pace, meaning that sub-brands or mono-brands can be introduced or liquidated very quickly. Against this backdrop, the egalitarian “brand family” is increasingly gaining ground over the old basic structure of umbrella brand – sub-brand. The structures in this newer version are no longer as rigid and binding. If you like, the brand family is the brand-strategic answer to the socio-cultural phenomenon of the patchwork family.

Brand Development

With regard to the conception of brands, their communication and their management, we speak of brand development and no longer of brand building. “Brand building” is associated with a brand system that is constructed like a house: several floors, different rooms, supporting elements, a roof. This image is no longer up to date. Brand development therefore no longer means planning and building a house, but rather staging appropriate brand experiences on the basis of an adaptable and therefore sustainable brand identity that are tailored to the respective addressee – right down to the individual.

Brand Profile

The currently common categories of a brand profile are mission, vision, values and positioning of the brand. The statements and objectives made here concern both the brand and the company or organization for which the brand serves as a communicator.

Mission describes the current situation of the brand owner and its brand on a fundamental level: this is what we are here for, this is what we do and offer, this is what we are good at.
Vision formulates the brand’s strategic objectives: this is where we want to go, this is what we want to achieve and this is what we will have achieved in the future – in five years or so.
Brand values are more than just an ethical statement. They establish a common basis of trust between the company/organization, brand and stakeholders: these maxims and principles are important to us, we are committed to them and our thoughts and actions are guided by them.
The positioning – the communicative localization of the brand – is the essence of the mission, vision and values and describes the brand core: a comparatively stable basic configuration that claims substantial quality regardless of market volatility, new trends and innovative technology.

Brand Identity

In our opinion and conviction, brand identity is still the central functional scheme of the brand. This is because the identity of the brand is the basic prerequisite for its communicative effectiveness, simplicity and uniqueness and therefore for its success. Its identity model corresponds to that of individual psychology. Based on Erik Erikson’s classic model, this model is supported by four constitutive elements:

Reciprocity (interaction of the brand with the outside world, also for the purpose of differentiation)
Individuality (identification of the brand from the recipient’s point of view)
Continuity (retention and maintenance of essential brand attributes, brand values and brand positioning)
Consistency (uniform and consistent brand presence as a basic prerequisite for concise and credible brand communication).

Conclusion: The brand is so extraordinarily successful as a proactive communicator because it acts and communicates like a particularly approachable, attractive, reliable and charismatic human personality.

Brand Experience

The communicative effect of the brand in terms of “brand perception” is currently described by the term “brand experience”. In terms of conceptual history, “brand experience” has also taken over the position of the older term “brand image” and partially replaced it. While the old brand image is the domain of PR strategy and corporate design (which is primarily concerned with the reputation of the client/brand owner), brand experience was generated and used by planners and designers of interactive brand communication (who develop a successful user interface (UI) in line with a coherent user experience (UX)). This reflects the digital paradigm shift in communication, brand management and brand management. The term “experience” shows how brand communication works today and how it must be constructed in order to be as effective as possible: In addition to the functional aspects (“this app works exactly as it should”), the associated emotional impression (“this app is really fun”) takes priority. Successful brand communication at the cutting edge stages a functional and at the same time emotionally charged brand experience that aims to strengthen the affective effect and thus achieve lasting identification with the brand.

Brand Design

Corporate design (CD) is the traditional method or instrument for implementing, presenting and securing a brand identity (or its historical predecessor, corporate identity (CI)). It depicts the consistent identity of the brand using visual means, with the positioning of the respective brand serving as the central template. A CD usually comprises five visual elements: logo, image concept, typography, colors and layout. In the current media context, however, this classic, i.e. static, cross-media and target group-oriented CD is no longer sufficient to construct a brand identity. It must be supplemented and functionally optimized by further approaches and measures, which are ensured by brand management. Against this background, effective brand design today is to a large extent service design, which paves the way for a functional, emotional and visually coherent brand experience.

Brand Management

Brand management enables and supports a brand in its communication and service activities in the service of a company or organization. Back in the 1930s, Hans Domizlaff summarized the key processes and structures associated with this in the term “brand technology”. Basically, the task of brand management is to help the brand to communicate successfully in the form of a sustainable brand experience that increases brand value (as the result of everything that contributes to the brand) and with it brand equity (as a monetary expression of brand value) and thus ultimately the value of the company. Looking at brand management from a very simplified perspective, both strategic and operational tasks are planned and implemented in accordance with brand governance.

Brand Implementation

For a brand to work and function – in other words, to communicate effectively and efficiently – the necessary organizational and technical requirements must be created and implemented. In today’s media environment, the implementation process therefore involves much more than just rolling out a new or modified corporate design: in practice, it is about planning and implementing the personnel (roles and rights), organizational (processes and structures) and technological (platform and apps) requirements for successful brand management. The aim of such an implementation is to ensure that the brand can communicate effectively and as efficiently as possible at all touchpoints on the basis of a consistent brand identity.

Brand Communication

Brand is communication. However, the role of the brand has changed significantly in recent years. Whereas it used to be the representative of a brand owner (company or organization), today it is a proactive communicator that – thanks to interactive media – is in dialogue with (increasingly individualized) stakeholders who interact directly and reciprocally with the brand via a growing number of channels in real and virtual places (here and there: touchpoints).

Brand Performance

Brand performance is often described as the development of the brand value (= brand equity). However, the performance of the brand is actually more comprehensive and can only be optimized through permanent course corrections, not through retrospective considerations. The KPIs are therefore to be defined along the brand value chain – brand organization, brand implementation, brand perception – on the one hand and thus the transition management of enabling, execution and experience on the other.