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A name created for your Ideal Client.

Brand

The entire tangible and intangible experience of your product or company is condensed into something recognizable. 

Read more about the Definition of Brand and Branding and 13 Definitions of Brand and Branding.

Branding

Actively creating a unified story and visuals to represent your product or service.

Brand strategy

A plan for how a company will develop its brand in a holistic way by clarifying positioning, differentiators, ideal clients, buyer motivations, competitor analysis, visual identity, messaging, and marketing.

Read more: Startup Branding Strategy,  A Branding Checklist of 10 Critical Items For Your New Business and Save Time and Money on Marketing When You Invest in Your Brand First.

Brand voice

The words you use in your communications and the tone of those words. Your voice includes both written copy and spoken words. 

Read more about brand voice: What’s your brand’s voice? and 5 Ways to Develop your Brand Voice.

Buyer persona

See Ideal Client Profile

CMYK

Stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black. Also called 4-color or process. CMYK is used whenever there are full-color images or when the number of colors makes it more practical than just PMS colors. CMYK is also the primary system for digital printing, as specific Pantone colors can not be put into an inkjet or laser printer.

Corporate colors

Key colors used in your branding. Usually, one or two primary colors are found in your logo, and sometimes secondary colors, are clearly defined using PMS, RGB, or CMYK.

Read more about corporate colors:  How many colors should a brand have? and Avoid these 5 mistakes when choosing brand colors.

Corporate fonts

Key fonts or typefaces used in your branding. These are typically limited to only a few fonts or a family of fonts with varying weights to build consistency for your brand. 

Read more: What are corporate fonts?

Customer Value Proposition (CVP)

See Unique Value Proposition (UVP)

Differentiator

The key feature or benefit that sets you apart from your competitors.
Learn about your differentiators here: Answer These 10 Questions Before You Build Your Brand and How to Review Your Competition to Build a Better Brand.

ICP

See Ideal Customer Profile

Ideal Client Profile (ICP)

An ideal client or customer profile defines your organization’s ideal customer, including their demographic and psychographic details.

Read more: Define Your Ideal Customer: Demographic and Psychographic Segmentation, How Many Ideal Client Profiles Should You Have?, and Avatars, Personas, and Ideal Clients: What’s the difference?

Logo

A symbol or graphic mark adopted by an organization for identification and recognition.

Read more about logos: Modern, Vintage, Minimalist: What logo style should you use for your brand? and How to Get the Best Logo Design from Fiverr.

Marketing

Activity a company takes to promote its products or services. Marketing is a set of actions designed to generate interest in a product or service. 

Read about the difference between branding and marketing and Is Branding the Same as Marketing?

Marketing Funnel or Funnel

A customer’s journey with your business, from first becoming aware of your product or service to purchasing and any steps in between.

Read about how you can  Save Time and Money on Marketing When You Invest in Your Brand First.

Pantone, Pantone Colors

A system of thousands of numbered swatches. Used by offset printers, the color is pre-mixed based on a formula (very similar to getting paint mixed at the hardware store). This is good for predominantly one-color (or two) applications, such as a business card.

Personal branding

When a brand is built around a person and what they have to offer. Your name may often be part of the business name, or your credentials and skills make the business unique.

Read more: Personal Voice or Corporate Voice: Which Should You Use to Market Yourself? and Your Headshot Is an Important Part of Your Personal Brand.

PMS

PMS refers to the Pantone Matching System. See Pantone.

Positioning, Market Positioning or Brand Positioning

Intentionally highlighting certain differentiators to have customers perceive the brand in a specific way.
Read more: Brand Positioning: Be Your Category and Market Leader.

RGB

Stands for Red, Green, and Blue and is the color system for computer monitors, video, etc.

Tagline

A catchphrase or slogan is used in advertising.
A tagline is different than a UVP: Why You Need a Unique Value Proposition (UVP) and Examples of Unique Value Propositions.

Trademark

A symbol, word, or words legally registered that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from others.

Read more: Definition of Brand and Branding.

Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

See Unique Value Proposition (UVP)

Unique Value Proposition (UVP)

A Unique Value Proposition is a clear statement that describes the benefit of what you offer and how it helps your ideal customer. Also called a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) or a Customer Value Proposition (CVP).

Read Why You Need a Unique Value Proposition (UVP),  Value Proposition: What it is and why it’s helpful, and Three ways to use your Unique Value Proposition on your website.

Voice

See brand voice.

Web Hex

A six-digit, hexadecimal number used in HTML, CSS, SVG, and other computing applications to represent color.

Wordmark

A text-only logo. Or the word portion of a logo with a graphic icon. Some companies with wordmark logos are Tiffany & Co., West Elm, Google, and Sony.

Read more: Wordmark logos: The hardest working logos in branding.