Business glossary terms
Table of Contents
A
ADVERTISING
Paid communications are aimed at persuading an audience to buy a product, use a service, change behaviour or adopt a viewpoint.
ADVERTORIAL (NATIVE ADVERTISING)
A paid advertisement in a newspaper, magazine or website deliberately styled to look like the editorial content of the medium. Its television equivalent is ‘infomercial’.
ARTWORK
Illustrations, photographs, graphics or other non-textual material prepared for inclusion in a publication or advertisement.
ASSETS
Images, graphic elements, audio, video, text content, databases and other valuable materials are needed to successfully complete a project.
AUDIENCE
The group of people for whom a product, service, message or experience is designed. See: ‘Target Market’.
B
BENCHMARK
The process by which information is collected and new ideas are obtained, by comparing aspects of a business with the leading or the strongest competitors in the market.
BRAND
A person’s perception of a product, service, experience, organization, company or institution (such as a university). A reputation.
BRAND ADVOCATE/AMBASSADOR
Also known as ‘Brand Alignment’ is anyone who promotes a brand through interactions with constituents, partners or the media. The practice of closely linking constituent experience and brand strategy across all touchpoints.
BRAND ASSETS
Aspects of a brand that has strategic value, including brand associations, brand attributes, brand awareness or brand loyalty. Unique brand elements that make it recognizable and different. (Logo, colours, typography, taglines, etc).
BRAND ATTRIBUTE
A distinctive feature of a product, service, company or institution. A set of characteristics that identify the physical, character and personality traits of the brand, similar to attributes that allow us to identify individuals.
BRAND AWARENESS
A measurement of how well a product, service, company or institution is recognized by its audience.
BRAND CAMPAIGN
A coordinated effort to increase brand awareness, brand equity or brand loyalty.
BRAND EQUITY
The accumulated value of a company’s or institution’s brand assets, both financially and strategically; the overall strength of a brand.
BRAND GUIDELINES
Guidelines provided by a business’s strategic communications that provide direction on the proper use of the brands’ Marks, graphic elements and identity systems, and furnish elements to align and unify the brand.
BRAND IDENTITY
The outward expression of a brand, including its trademark, name, communications and visual appearance. A brand identity is expressed through its name, primary logos, marks, colours, communications, and much more.
BRANDED CONSUMER PRODUCTS
Any goods (including, but not limited to, clothing, souvenir items, gifts, and any other emblematic merchandise) bearing a Mark, whether such goods are commercially or personally produced, regardless of commercial intent.
BRANDED HOUSE
A brand architecture model where the organization itself is the brand (also called Masterbrand, mother or umbrella brand). Its products and services don’t have separate identities and all contribute to the masterbrand.
BRANDING
Any effort or program designed to increase the value or avoid commoditization by building a differentiated brand.
C
CMYK
A system of colour management for printing: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black.
COMMUNITY OUTREACH PROGRAM
An organized way of providing services to community members in need, both on- and off-campus.
CONSTITUENT
A member of a body of customers or supporters.
CONTENT
In marketing, the editorial or message portion of what is being communicated that engages an audience.
COPYRIGHT
The exclusive rights granted to the owner or creator of an original work — typically a book, play, motion picture, sound recording, computer program or trademark.
COPYWRITING
The discipline of developing verbal content for marketing and related communications.
CORE IDENTITY
In marketing, the central, sustainable elements of a brand identity, such as a name or trademark.
CREATIVE BRIEF
A document that outlines the parameters of a marketing project, such as its context, goals, processes and budget- ary constraints.
CUSTOMER JOURNEY
A model or story of how a customer/constituent might experience a product, service or organization over time.
DEMOGRAPHICS
Statistical data on populations, including categories such as age, ethnicity, gender, marital status, income and education level; an approach to defining a market segment.
DISPLAY ADVERTISING
A type of web advertising that can accommodate text, images, logos and other elements in the same space.
DOMAIN NAME
All or part of an electronic address is used to identify and locate an Internet site or service, such as a website. A domain name is hierarchical in nature and often conveys information about the type of entity using the domain name.
E
EARNED MEDIA
Positive news coverage of newsworthy achievements, as opposed to paid media such as advertising.
EMAIL SIGNATURE
A block of text appended to the end of an email message, which often contains the sender’s name, business contact information and website URL.
ENGAGEMENT
In marketing, any action by a user that creates or deepens a relationship with a constituent, such as clicking, bookmarking, liking, subscribing, attending, donating, and so on.
EXPERIENCE DESIGN
The discipline of creating user experiences rather than products and services, with a strong application in interactive media.
F
FUNCTIONAL BENEFIT
The value is derived from what a product or service does for a constituent.
G
GRAPHIC ELEMENTS
The basic elements of design, such as a button, gradient, logo, other shapes, objects, etc., that combine to create visual and verbal designs.
H
HASHTAG
In a Twitter message, a word or phrase is preceded by the # symbol to make it easily searchable, along with other Twitter messages using the same word or phrase.
HEX (COLOUR HEX CODE)
A way of specifying colour using hexadecimal values, generally associated with HTML and websites and expressed as a six-digit combination of numbers and letters.
HOUSE OF BRANDS
A company or organization in which the products or services, rather than the organization itself, have the dominant brand names. An organization that markets a range of separate brand names, such as Procter & Gamble.
HSL
HSL expresses a given colour according to its Hue, Saturation, and Lightness components.
HSLA
HSL expresses a given colour according to its Hue, Saturation, Lightness, and Alpha components. The alpha component represents the colour's transparency.
I
ICON
In marketing, the visual symbol of a brand, usually based on a differentiated market position.
INFLUENCER
A person with the power to sway members of a group, especially through social media.
INTEGRATED MARKETING
A collaborative method for developing a consistent branding/messaging across disciplines, audiences, media and touchpoints.
K
KEYWORD
In search advertising, a word or phrase is used to locate information with a search engine; also called a search term.
L
LAYOUT
The positioning of elements or information within a larger work, such as an ad, brochure, website, computer file or architectural interior, to name a few.
LOCKUP (SIGNATURE)
In identity design, the defined visual relationship between a logotype and a symbol.
LOGO
A symbol or other design adopted by an organization to identify its products, uniform, vehicles, and much more.
M
MARKETING
The process of developing, promoting, selling and distributing a product or service.
MARKETING CAMPAIGN/PROGRAMME
A designed and coordinated set of marketing activities with/without a specific end date, which helps a unit achieve its marketing/business goals. Can be focused on the internal or external audience.
MARKETING INITIATIVE
Any type of single marketing effort designed and implemented to achieve a marketing goal.
MEDIA
The channels through which content and messages are delivered, such as the Internet, television, printed publications, direct mail and outdoor posters.
METADATA
Data about data, such as its purpose, authorship, network location, time code or date of creation, usually hidden.
MISSION STATEMENT
A concise statement of the core purpose or aspirations of an organization.
MOOD BOARD (SWIPE)
In design, a physical or digital collage that arranges images, photographs, materials, text and other design elements to determine the feeling or mood to be projected by a print design, website design, and much more.
N
NARRATIVE
In marketing, an organization’s long game, its far-reaching vision and its long-term plans are its narratives. This not only includes the organization’s origins and its present and future goals but also its core ideology and beliefs.
O
OPINION LEADER
A person whose viewpoint exerts an influence over other members of a population or tribe; an influencer.
ORGANIC SEARCH RESULTS
Listings are returned by a search engine based on their relevance to the search terms.
OUT-OF-HOME (OOH) ADVERTISING
Also known as outdoor advertising or outdoor media. This is advertising that reaches the consumers while they are outside their homes and ‘on the go’ in public places, in transit or in specific commercial locations.
P
PANTONE
A standardized, colour-matching system utilizing the Pantone numbering system for identifying colours.
PARTNERSHIP
An association of two or more people for mutual benefit.
PERSONAS
In marketing, imaginary characters represent potential users or target markets for a product or service.
POSITIONING
The process of differentiating a product, service, company or institution in a constituent’s mind to obtain a competitive advantage.
PROGRAMMATIC BUYING
In advertising, an algorithmic bidding system for targeting individual consumers instead of aggregate audiences.
PROOF
In printing/press, a sample of printing before the print job is started. The most accurate way to preview the output of a commercial print job, including colours. Used to show and approve general appearance, margins and colours.
PSYCHOGRAPHICS
The study of personalities, interests, values and lifestyles is often used to define market segments.
PUBLIC RELATIONS
A strategic process of building a mutually beneficial relationship between an organization and its public to enhance and maintain the organization’s reputation.
Q
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
Research designed to provide insight into consumer behaviours, often drawn from one-on-one interviews or focus groups.
QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
Research designed to provide numerical data on consumer behaviours and market phenomena, often drawn from polls or large-scale studies.
R
REACH
In marketing, the number of people exposed to an advertising or brand message.
RGB
A colour model and three-channel format containing data in which the colours red (R), green (G) and blue (B) are added together at different intensities to produce millions of different colours.
RGBA
An extended colour model and four-channel format containing data in which the colours red (R), green (G), blue (B) and alpha (A) are added together at different intensities to produce millions of different colours, whilst also specifying the opacity for a colour.
RICH MEDIA
A range of motion-based media such as streaming videos, embedded animation and synchronized slide presentations that enliven web pages or downloadable files.
ROUTING
The path or sequence of steps to be performed in obtaining feedback on marketing creative content or assets from key stakeholders.
S
SANS-SERIF
In typography, a serif is a small line attached to the end of a stroke in a letter or symbol. A typeface without serifs is called sans-serif or sans serif, from the French sans, meaning ‘without’.
SCOPE OF WORK (SOW)
The description and division of work to be performed under a contract/agreement in the completion of a project. Contains tasks, milestones, timelines, deliverables and end products that are expected to be provided by a party.
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO)
The process of improving the visibility of a website or web page in organic search results.
SERIF
In typography, a serif is a small line attached to the end of a stroke in a letter or symbol. A typeface with serifs is called a serif typeface.
SIGNAGE
One or more signs are used to identify, direct, locate or persuade people in the physical environment.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Web-based and mobile technologies that use multi-way communications to build communities and tribes.
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
A business discipline that uses social media to establish brand tribes and communicate marketing messages.
SOCIAL NETWORK
A community of individuals or organizations, technically known as nodes, that are connected through ties of friendship, kinship, economic interest, status or other interdependencies.
SOUND BITE
A brief quote is taken from a speech or interview to capture its essence.
SPONSOR
A person or organization that pays for or plans and carries out a project or activity; specifically, one that pays the cost of a radio or television program in return for advertising time during its course.
SPONSORSHIP
Financial or in-kind support is given to an event, organization or activity in exchange for acknowledgement, recognition or promotion.
STAKEHOLDER
Any person or entity with a vested interest in an organization or brand, including employees, students, partners, community members and other constituents.
STRATEGIC PYRAMID
A hierarchical chart for mapping an organization’s purpose, mission, vision and goals.
STRATEGY
A plan that uses a set of tactics to achieve a goal, often by outmanoeuvring competitors.
STYLE GUIDE (CAMPAIGN/EVENT)
Marketing initiative or campaign guide for applying brand elements. See ‘Mood Board’.
SYMBOL
A mark or character is used as a conventional representation of an object, function or process.
T
TACTICS
Actions were taken to support a strategy.
TAGLINE
A sentence, phrase or word is used to summarize a market position in advertising.
TARGET MARKET
A group of constituents an organization would like to serve.
THIRD-PARTY PARTNERSHIP
Collaboration between one business unit/entity and another business entity. This is any entity that a brand does business with. This may include suppliers, vendors, manufacturers, affiliates, brokers, distributors and resellers.
THOUGHT LEADER
A person or organization whose ideas exert an influence over others, especially through publishing or public appearances.
TOUCHPOINT
Any place where people encounter a brand, including service uses, events, advertising, websites, direct mail and any type of conversation or communication.
TRADEMARK
A symbol, word or words legally registered or established by use as representing an organization or product.
TREND
A behaviour that spreads through a population slowly (as opposed to a fad), based on underlying shifts in demographics, economics or ideology.
TYPEFACE
A specific style or brand of typographic letterings, such as Times Roman or Helvetica, is identifiable by its distinctive shapes; a set of digitized characters sold as a font.
TYPOGRAPHY
The art of using typefaces to communicate messages, stories or ideas in print or on-screen.
U
UX (BRAND EXPERIENCE)
Brand experience and user experience should work together to engage and delight customers. The aim is to convey the desired brand perception to a target audience when defining and designing the characteristics of products.
V
VISUAL MARK
An icon, a logo.
VOICE
In branding, the unique personality of an organization or brand as expressed in its verbal and written communications; the verbal dimension of a brand personality.
W
WAYFINDING
The discipline of designing architectural signage to help people navigate their physical environment.
WORDMARK
A trademark represented by a distinctive typeface or lettering style; a logotype.
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