A

ADVERTISING ADVERTISING
A mode of communication where brands express themselves to drive purchase behavior. Brands should ideally advertise only after they have determined their key messages, through a branding exercise.

ACRONYM
A Naming technique used to shorten organization/brand names. One such example is NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration).

ACQUISITION
It is the act of acquiring another company or brand for expanding the reach to larger audience and/or enhancing the current offerings.

ANNUAL TURNOVER
Annual turnover is the percentage rate at which something changes ownership over the course of a year. For a business, this rate could be related to its yearly turnover in inventories, receivables, payables, or assets.

AWARENESS
The Brand Awareness measurement (in percentage or in absolute) showing the number of people aware of the brand. Awareness studies can be done at regional or global scale.

AWESOME AWESOME
An adjective frequently used by our clients to describe us!



B

BACKRONYM BACKCRONYM
This is opposite of Acronym. A backronym is expanded version of an existing brand name.

BENEFIT GROUP
At Mahyar Nazemi, we build passionate brands that enhance lives of millions of customers, we term these customer sets as 'Benefit Group' instead of 'target group.

BRAND BRAND
A brand is an overall experience of a customer that distinguishes an organization or product from its rivals in the eyes of the customer. Brands are used in business, branding, marketing, and advertising. Name brands are sometimes distinguished from generic or store brands.
A brand is right at the intersection of its promise and experience. Well, that's how we like to define it.

BRAND ARCHITECTURE BRAND ARCHITECTURE
Brand architecture is the structure of an organisation's portfolio that explains the relationship between the master brand and its various sub-brands.

BRAND AUDIT
Brand audit is a comprehensive, periodic audit of a brand's performance with regards to its proposition, values and competition. This also includes customer experience with the brand, communication effectiveness and gap analysis. Brand audit often helps in formulating stronger and more relevant brand strategy.

BRAND AWARENESS
Brand awareness is the degree of consumer awareness of a brand and its related products. Creating brand awareness is one of the key steps in promoting and marketing a product. Brand awareness is particularly important when launching new products and services. It allows a company to differentiate itself from competitor-offered products and services.

BRAND CREATION
New brand creation typically involves creation of a cohesive Branding Strategy, Naming, Identity and communication design.

BRAND ESSENCE
The core of a brand that defines its purpose, offering and reason for existence. Also known as Brand proposition or Brand Core.

BRAND EXTENSION
Horizontal expansion of a brand that can offer i) complementary products or services, or ii) unrelated products or services.
Brand extension, also known as brand stretching, leverages the reputation and popularity of the well-known brand to increase demand for new products. Brand extension is the use of a well-established brand name for a new product or new product category.

BRAND GUIDELINES
A set of rules that define a brand's behaviour and controls its visual and verbal manifestation.

BRAND IDENTITY BRAND IDENTITY
Brand identity is how a business presents itself to, and wants to be perceived by, its consumers. Brand identity is distinct from brand image. The former corresponds to the intent behind the branding: the way a company chooses its name; designs its logo; uses colors, shapes and other visual elements in its products and promotions; crafts the language in its advertisements and trains employees to interact with customers — all with the goal of cultivating a certain image in consumers' minds. Brand image is the actual result of these efforts, successful or unsuccessful.
In other hand brand identity is key identifiers of a brand that includes word, sign, symbol, colors, and design style that makes a brand recognisable. Also check: Logo

BRAND IMAGE BRAND IMAGE
This is customers' interpretation of how the brand experience would be. To form a mental brand image, one need not experience the brand.

BRAND LOYALTY BRAND LOYALTY
Brand loyalty is a consumer behavior pattern where consumers become committed to a particular brand and make repeat purchases over time. Companies use creative marketing strategies, such as loyalty or rewards programs, trials, brand ambassadors, and incentives like free samples to build brand loyalty.
This is measured by only one parameter- repeat purchase. But, a customer becomes loyal to a brand when he disregards the alternatives available to him, and is willing to pay a premium of time, or money to purchase that brand.

BRAND NAME BRAND NAME
Brand Name is the process of giving names to things, such as person, company, business, brand, project, product or services. Also check: Naming

BRAND PERSONALITY
Brand personality is a set of human characteristics that are attributed to a brand name. A brand personality is something to which the consumer can relate; an effective brand increases its brand equity by having a consistent set of traits that a specific consumer segment enjoys. This personality is a qualitative value-add that a brand gains in addition to its functional benefits.
Human characteristics used to define the brand. E.g. caring, daring, honest, reliable etc.

BRAND POSITIONING
A rather short - or long term communication platform that has to be in conformity with Brand's Proposition. Also check: Brand Proposition

BRAND PROPOSITION
Brand Proposition is the heart of any brand. It is the 'promise' delivered through its product or service. Otherwise known as Brand Core, or Brand Essence.

BRAND RECALL
It is the ability for customers' or prospective customers' to remember a brand name and its associations from their memory when a product/service category is prompted. When we say mobile phone , what brand comes to your mind?

BRAND RECOGNITION
Brand recognition is the extent to which the general public (or an organization's target market) is able to identify a brand by its attributes. Brand recognition, also known as "aided brand recall," is most successful when people can state a brand without being explicitly exposed to the company's name, but rather through visual or auditory signifiers like logos, slogans, packaging, colors or jingles as seen in advertising. It differs from brand awareness, which is merely the knowledge that a brand exists.
This is a customers' ability to recognize a brand name when various associations are used as aids to help in recall.

BRAND REJUVENATION
The process of revitalising an existing brand by changing brand strategy that brings about a change in its visual and verbal communication.

BRAND VALUES
Brand values support the Brand Proposition and make it come alive. These values transcend down to every employee representing the brand.

BRANDED HOUSE
Branded House is a Branding Architecture Strategy in which parent company (Master Brand) stays at the forefront and endorses all its products whilst leveraging its existing brand equity.

BRANDING
The process by which a brand's promise is manifested in brand's experience across touch points. This maintains consistency for recall and recognition, enhances brand image and increases brand equity in the long term.

BUSINESS
Business is the activity or process of making one's living or making money by producing, buying and selling services or products (such as goods and services). Simply put, it is any activity or enterprise entered into for profit.

BUSINESS CONCEPT
An idea for a business that includes basic information such as the market research and analysis, product or service definition, the target demographic, invest guide and a USP "Unique Selling Proposition" that gives a company an advantage over competitors.
A business concept may involve a new product, service, design or a novel approach to marketing, branding or delivering an existing product or service

BUSINESS MODEL
A business model is a company's plan for how it will generate revenues and make a profit. It explains what products or services the business plans to manufacture and market, and how it plans to do so, including what expenses it will incur.

BUSINESS NAME
Business Name, or Naming is the process of giving names to things, such as person, company, business, brand, product or services.

BUSINESS PLAN
A business plan is a written document that describes in detail how a business, usually a new one, is going to achieve its goals. A business plan lays out a written plan from a marketing, financial and operational viewpoint. Sometimes, a business plan is prepared for an established business that is moving in a new direction.



C

CANNIBALISATION
A situation where a new product/service from a company steals market share of an existing product/service by the same company.

CAPTION
A catchy headline of a piece of communication.

COMPETITION
Set of companies/brands that are serving the same customer set with a similar or better product/service in the same region.

CONSUMER
The person who uses/consumes the goods or services himself, without passing it down the value chains.

CORPORATE BRANDING CORPORATE BRANDING
Corporate Branding is the process of using a company's name as the brand name to determine its Brand Strategy and manifest the same in design.

C-SUITE C-SUITE
C-suite, or C-level, is widely-used vernacular describing a cluster of a corporation's most important senior executives. C-suite gets its name from the titles of top senior staffers, which tend to start with the letter C, for "chief," as in chief executive officer (CEO), chief financial officer (CFO), chief operating officer (COO), and chief information officer (CIO).

Types of C-Suite Roles and TitlesChief Executive Officer (CEO)
Chief Executive Officer (CEO)Invariably the highest level corporate executive, the CEO traditionally serves as the face of the company and frequently consults other C-suite members for advice on major decisions. CEOs can come from any career background, as long as they have cultivated substantial leadership and decision-making skills along their career paths. Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
In the financial industry, the CFO position represents the top of the corporate ladder for financial analysts and accountants striving for upward mobility. Portfolio management, accounting, investment research, and financial analysis are prime skills that CFOs must have learned over the years. CFOs have global mindsets and work closely with CEOs to source new business opportunities while weighing the financial risks and benefits of each potential venture.

Chief Information Officer (CIO) Chief Information Officer (CIO)
A leader in information technology, the CIO usually gets his or her start as a business analyst, then works towards C-level glory, while developing technical skills in disciplines such as programming, coding, project management, MS Office, and mapping. CIOs are usually skilled at applying these functional skills to risk management, business strategy, and finance activities. In many companies, CIOs are referred to as the chief technology officers.

Chief Operating Officer (COO)
As the human resources (HR) C-level executive, the COO ensures a company's operations run smoothly in areas such as recruitment, training, payroll, legal, and administrative services. The COO is usually second in command to the CEO.

Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)
CMOs typically work their way up to the C-suite from sales and/or marketing roles. These execs are skilled at managing social innovation and product development initiatives across both brick-and-mortar establishments and electronic platforms—the latter of which is highly essential in today's digital era.

Chief Brand Officer (CBO) Chief Brand Officer (CBO)
Is a relatively new executive-level position at a corporation, company, organization, or agency, which typically reports to the CEO or board of directors and is responsible for a brand's image, experience, and promise. The brand officer oversees marketing, advertising, design, and public relations.

Other C-Suite officers include the Chief Compliance Officer (CCO), Chief Human Resources Manager (CHRM), Chief Security Officer (CSO), Chief Green Officer (CGO), Chief Analytics Officer (CAO), Chief Medical Officer (CMO), and Chief Data Officer (CDO).
The number of C-level positions varies, depending on variables such as a company's size, business culture, category and sector. While larger companies may require both a CHRM and a COO, smaller operations may only need a COO to oversee human resources activities.

CUSTOMER CUSTOMER
The person who purchases the goods or services, but not necessarily for personal use. He may pass it down the value chain by selling the product or service further with tweaking, value add done by him.



D

DEMAND
A measure of prospective customers who end up buying a product/service. When needs and wants convert into actual purchase, it becomes a demand.

DEMOGRAPHIC
A section of the population who matches the required criteria. It includes age, gender, ethnicity etc.

DIFFERENTIATION
Characteristics, quality or values that differentiates, sets apart a company, its products or services from the given competition.

DIVERSIFICATION
The act of getting into new products/services or acquiring a new company that increases market of a company.



E

EARLY ADOPTERS
A set of customers who purchase a new product/service soon after its launch.

ELASTICITY
The measure of a brand's stretch from one product/service category to the other, OR from one price point to the other within one product/service category.

ELEVATOR PITCH
A very brief and concise description of your brand's purpose that communicates why it exists, what it does, and how. Also check: Pitch Deck

EMOTIONAL BENEFIT
Benefits communicated by a brand that emotionally connects with its customers. This benefit talk to the limbic brain

EPONYMOUS NAME
A brand name that is created around name of a person, real or fictional.

ESOTERIC NAME
A name that has meaning, often understood by a small group of people.

EVOCATIVE NAME
A brand name that evokes feelings and emotions about its brand.

EXCLUSION ZONE
An area or space that is maintained as clear space around a logo.

EXPERIENTIAL NAME
A brand or company name that describes the experience of using the product or engaging with the company. These names are different from descriptive names.

EXTENSION
A new product or service offered under the existing parent brand name that leverages its existing equity.



F

FEATURE
An offering, part of a product or service that is intended to give benefit(s).

FMCG
FMCG is an acronym used for Fast Moving Consumer Goods. It refers to the goods like toiletries, food etc that are frequently purchased by consumers.

FUNCTIONAL BENEFIT
Benefits communicated by a brand that serves the rational needs of buying that product.



G

GENERIC BRAND
A product that doesn't carry a brand name OR a brand that has grown incredibly in its recall and refers to the entire category. The latter may often happen with the first mover's advantage and/or high market penetration compared to competition.

GLOBAL BRAND
A brand that has international presence, in all continents.

GRAPHIC DESIGN
Graphic design is a specialized stream that involves information management, problem-solving, and communication by using elements such as type, color, illustrations and images.

GUERRILLA MARKETING
A low cost marketing strategy in which a brand advertises using unconventional methods are used to gain attention.



H

HERITAGE BRAND
A heritage brand is one that has been favourite of many for many decades and continues to be relevant to today's discerning customers.

HOMOGENEOUS BRAND
When customers don't see any difference in emotional and functional benefit derived from a brand, vis a vis competition.

HOUSE OF BRANDS
House Of Brands is a Branding Architecture Strategy in which parent company (Master brand) stays virtually invisible to the customers and all its sub brands have its own unique identity and equity. This allows for wider Brand Portfolio but needs more investment in building individual sub brands.

HYBRID BRAND ARCHITECTURE
A Hybrid Brand Architecture Model exists when there is use of both Branding Strategies- Branded House and House Of brands.



I

INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
Systematic and intentional placement of information that creates order and clarity whilst communicating in the most effective manner.

INFOTAINMENT
Communication mediums or vehicles that communicate information and entertainment at the same time.

INGREDIENT BRAND
A brand that offers its products/services/parts to contribute to something bigger which is consumer facing. More relevant in B2B.

INTERNAL BRANDING
Efforts and processes that align internal employees with the vision and value proposition of the company and get inspired to move towards it confidently.



J

JOINT VENTURE
A company formed by two or more companies coming together to add strengths and capabilities.



K

KAIZEN
Simply meaning "continuously improve" is a Japanese business philosophy that believes in perpetual change with regards to working practices, efficiency and performance that lead to organisational growth.



L

LIFESTYLE
A person's manner of living day-to-day life as depicted by activities, possessions, attitudes and behaviour. When we use the industry terminology "lifestyle brand", it means the brand would complement to the person's lifestyle.

LINE EXTENSION
When a brand extends its current offerings under the same brand name to provide variants, types, flavours etc.

LOYALTY
When a customer develops trust in a product / service / brand, he becomes committed to purchasing the same brand again. Also check: Brand Loyalty

LOGO
A trademark-able symbol, graphic, visual representation of an organisation that reflects beliefs and values of the organisation whilst enabling public recognition. A logo is part of Brand Identity but not the only thing that comprises it. Also check: Brand Identity



M

MARKET LEADER
A brand that has achieved a dominant position in the market with regards to sales volume, penetration, quality or value offered with its products and services. This is a dynamic concept and market leader is not a function of brand loyalty. It may simply be because of higher penetration or better sales promotion.

MARKET RESEARCH
Systematic collection of data from a given market, followed by its analysis and reporting that helps in planning and strategising.

MARKET-PENETRATION PRICING
A Pricing Strategy where the products and services are priced considerably lower compared to given competition to gain higher sales volume and "penetrate" the market.

MARKET-SKIMMING PRICING
A Pricing Strategy where the products and services are priced considerably higher compared to given competition to maximize profits immediately following launch. The prices are lowered with time.

MASCOT
A person or animal (real or fictional) or even a thing that is used as a symbol to represent a brand.

MASTER BRAND
This is the parent brand in Brand Architecture in relationship with sub brands. The relationship of Master Brand with each of its sub brands are determined in ratios. Also called as Mother or Main Brand.



N

NAMING
The process of selecting an existing word, or creating new one that will identify a brand, product or service. There are numerous Naming Techniques available.

NICHE MARKET
A small segment of the market as identified by a brand that will benefit from their product/service.

NOMENCLATURE SYSTEM
Naming methodology adopted by a company to name its various brands/products/services that illustrate the relationship between various sub-brands.



O

OBJECTIVE
Specific, measurable target or a goal that a brand wants to achieve in a given period.

OFFERING
It is the sum total of a sales offer made by a company- including product, features, its packaging, warranties, services and terms of use.

OLIGOPOLY
A market in which there are a very few sellers offering its products/services to a significantly large customer base (market size).



P

PACKAGING DESIGN
The design of pack format, its graphics, elements and visual hierarchy on a product brand. Also known as Package Design.

PERCEPTION GAP
The degree of difference between customers' perception of a brand and the brand owners' intent of how their brand should be perceived.

PERCEPTUAL MAPPING
An analysis of customer perception that identifies differences in how they perceive a brand versus its competition.

PREMIUM BRAND
A well-regarded brand that holds more brand value than other well-known brands. This could also be seen as a brand selling expensive products/services from the customers' side.

PRIVATE BRAND
A private brand is a good that is manufactured for and sold under the name of a specific retailer, and competes with brand-name products. Also referred to as "private label" or "store brand," prices for private brands tend to be less than those of nationally recognized name brand goods. Private brand items can provide retailers, such as supermarkets, with a better margin than the brand-name goods they also carry.

POINT-OF-PURCHASE
A display, kiosk, stand that stocks a product and provides additional information like features, benefits, etc.

POINT-OF-SALE
Another term of point-of-purchase - A display, kiosk, stand that stocks a product and provides additional information like features, benefits, etc.

PRIVATE LABEL BRAND
Brands that retailers and wholesalers create and sell, instead of selling brands from original manufacturers and suppliers in the supply chain.

PSYCHOACOUSTICS
Affect and influence, of sound on human emotions, feelings and behaviour.



Q

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
A Qualitative Research is a method of inquiry in which the emphasis is on quality of information and does not require statistical/mathematical accuracy. This type of research helps in understanding human emotions, feelings and decision making.

QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
A Quantitative Research is a method of inquiry in which the emphasis is on the quantity of information and requires statistical/mathematical accuracy. This involves use of polls and survey.



R

RE-BRANDING
A change in brand's strategic course or vision or change in its Value Proposition that brings about a change in its Brand Identity to reflect the change.

REASON TO BELIEVE (RTB)
A reason to believe is the proof that the brand delivers the benefits that it promises, and that customers can trust it seeing its credibility.

RETENTION BRANDING
A branding exercise focussed on retaining existing customers.

RETURN ON INVESTMENT (ROI)
Ratio of money gained or lost in proportion to that originally invested.



S

SALES ANALYSIS
Measuring sales achievement against the goals defined for the period.

SECONDARY CUSTOMER
A customer that is outside (above or below) the psychographic benefit group defined for a brand. At Yellow Fishes, we believe that the insight we receive from secondary customer is far richer compared to the insight received from primary customer.

SECONDARY PACKAGING
An outer carton, box or sleeve of a packaged product.

SEMANTICS
Semantics is a specialised study where the relation between signs, symbols, words and phrases with its meaning is understood.

SLOGAN
A phrase, construction of sentence using words that is used for commercial, social or political campaign. This is different from a tagline. Slogans come from temporary positioning. Tag lines are derived from proposition.

SONIC BRANDING
Use of music, sound or tune, that is created for a brand's recognition and is part of brand identity.

SUB-BRAND
Individual brand that is linked to the master brand with similar values. Also check: Brand Architecture

SUBSTITUTE
When alternate product/service satisfies the customer in equal or greater terms as compared to the other product, it qualifies as a substitute.

SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT (SCM)
The continual process of procuring the raw materials from right vendors, processing them by enhancing its value, converting them into usable end products and dispatching them to right destinations.

SWOT
Acronym of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Whilst strengths and weaknesses are something that can be enhanced/leveraged/improved by the company, the Opportunities and Threats are external factors, and cannot be controlled by the company.



T

TAGLINE
A phrase, descriptor, or a sentence, that is used with a Brand Name. A Tagline (if not a descriptor) communicates a brand's promise and stems from Brand's Proposition. Also check: Slogan

TARGET GROUP
A specific market (formed by a pre-defined segmentation of customers) that is targeted by a marketer for selling its goods and services. We urge you to refer to this as Benefit Group, if you think your products/services make a difference. Also check: Benefit Group

TOP-OF-MIND AWARENESS
The brand that comes to a customer's mind first when given a category. When we say 'shoes', what brand comes to your mind?

TOUCHPOINT
A point where a brand interacts with a customer/employee/non-customer (also referred to as moment of truth or point of contact). This interaction, experience can be before, during or after a transaction.

TRADEMARK (TM)
A name, color, symbol, sound, phrase, design, or other intellectual property that is protected by a brand for its exclusive use and aids in recognition.

TRIANGLE SENSORY TEST
This is a discrimination test where respondents are presented with three products, of which two are same. Using one's senses of touch, taste, sight, smell and sound- respondents have to recognise the unique product

TYPOGRAPHY
Typography is the technique of forming and placing fonts and defining type styles for brand communication.



U

UNIQUE SELLING PROPOSITION (USP) UNIQUE SELLING PROPOSITION (USP)
A tangible feature, quality, quantity gains that a brand offers to its customers uniquely. All such things that are intended to benefit the customers and not offered by competition qualify to be called as USP.

UNSOUGHT GOODS
The products that customers don't normally think about and are not keen to buy. These products may require extensive marketing and need-generation campaigns.

UP-MARKET
A brand developed for customers that have large disposable income to purchase products/services that are relatively expensive.



V

VALUE PROPOSITION
This is intangible value received by purchasing a brand. Value Proposition may not be unique to a brand. Two brands can promise to deliver the same value. The amount of value delivered by their offerings, however, may be different.

VERBAL IDENTITY
A brand name and other verbal elements like the tagline, sound, jingle, word mark etc that reflect a brand's promise/proposition.

VIRAL MARKETING
Use of the internet to reach out to more prospective customers and communicate about brand's promise and experience.

VISION
A company's Vision is its long-term goal that defines the direction of the company in the future. At Mahyar Nazemi | Brand Consultant, we think that vision statements have become boring, uninspiring and a thing of the past, as they don't compel the employees. Therefore, by means of our Brand Iceberg Model, we articulate what brands truly stand for and why it exists. Also check: Brand Iceberg Model.

VISUAL IDENTITY
All the visual elements of a brand, such as a logo, symbol, icon, colors, mascot etc. that serve as recognisable elements and reflect brand's promise/proposition.



W

WANTS
When basic human needs are more defined and direct. Example: Quenching thirst is a Need, decision to drink juice is a Want, and buying XYZ brand of juice converts it into a Demand.

WORDMARK
A Wordmark, also referred to as logotype is a distinct typographic treatment given to a brand name, or any organisation's name.



X

XENODOCHIAL
An adjective that describes us, meaning - friendly to strangers.



Y

YOUTH BRAND
A brand that talks to and serves young generation as its primary Benefit Group.



Z

ZERO-LEVEL CHANNEL
A manufacturer selling products directly to its customers without involvement of retailers/wholesalers. This is like direct selling.