Audience vs bullseye (target) customer

What it means

Your audience is the broad group of people your product, service or marketing may need to reach.

Your bullseye customer (sometimes referred to as your target customer) is the person within that audience you most want to appeal to. They are the customer whose needs, priorities and preferences have the greatest influence on your marketing decisions.

A business may have several relevant audiences, but the bullseye customer gives its marketing a clear focus.

In plain English

Your audience is everyone who might reasonably be interested

Your bullseye customer is the person you imagine speaking with directly

Choosing a bullseye customer does not mean preventing anyone else from buying. It means making clearer decisions about who matters most.

Why it matters

Trying to appeal equally to everyone often leads to generic marketing. Messages become broader, distinctive edges are sanded down, and the brand begins to look and sound like many of its competitors.

A clearly defined bullseye customer helps you decide which benefits to emphasise, which language to use, what the brand should look and feel like, where to reach people and which objections need to be addressed.

Where people get confused

Audience and bullseye customer are often treated as interchangeable terms.

An audience may be very broad, such as homeowners, gardeners or parents. That may identify the overall market, but it is rarely specific enough to guide meaningful marketing decisions.

People also worry that defining a bullseye customer will unnecessarily restrict the market. But there is an important difference between deciding who can buy and deciding who the marketing should speak to most strongly.

An example

Imagine a company selling premium modular sofas.

Its audience may include a wide range of people furnishing or updating their homes.

Its bullseye customer might be a design-conscious homeowner who wants a sofa that looks stylish but can also cope with the realities of family life. They care about comfort and quality, but practical features such as washable covers, durable fabrics and flexible configurations may strongly influence their choice.

Other customers can still buy the sofa. But focusing on the bullseye customer helps the brand decide which benefits to emphasise, how the product should be styled and photographed, which language to use and where to reach them.

What to ask in the meeting

Who could buy this product? Who do we most want to appeal to? What matters particularly to them?

Choosing who to speak most strongly helps create a more compelling message.

Awareness

What it means

Awareness describes how familiar people are with a brand, product or message.
It can range from vaguely recognising a name or logo to remembering the brand without prompting and understanding what it offers.

In plain English

Awareness means people know you exist

But it is important to be clear about what they actually know and remember.

Why it matters

People are less likely to consider or choose a brand they do not recognise.
Creating awareness can help a new brand enter the market, introduce a product or make an established brand easier to recall when someone is ready to buy.

A business might decide to run an awareness campaign. But not all awareness is equally valuable.

Recognising a brand name is different from understanding what it offers or forming a gut feeling about the brand.

Where people get confused

Awareness is often used as a catch-all objective without defining the intended result.

Reaching a large number of people does not necessarily mean they noticed the brand. If the message doesn’t resonate or command attention, it may simply be passed over.

Reach describes the opportunity to see something. Awareness describes what, if anything, stayed with them.

People may also be aware of a brand but have no clear understanding of what it sells or why they might choose it.

An example

A new home storage brand runs a campaign that reaches one million people.

That figure shows how many people had the opportunity to see the campaign. It does not show whether they noticed or remembered the brand.

If research later finds that more people recognise the name, associate it with stylish storage for small spaces and think of it when planning their homes, the campaign has created more useful awareness.

What to ask in the meeting

What do we want people to know or remember?

If the objective is simply “to raise awareness”, it probably needs to be defined more clearly.

Brand building vs activation

What it means

Brand building is the long-term work of creating awareness, familiarity, meaning and preference for a brand.

Activation is marketing designed to encourage a more immediate action, such as making a purchase, requesting a sample, visiting a retailer or responding to an offer.

In plain English

Brand building gives people a reason to think of you

Activation gives them a reason to act now

Good marketing strategies often use both.

Why it matters

Customers are more likely to respond to an offer when they already recognise, understand or trust the brand behind it.

Brand building creates that familiarity and preference over time. Activation turns existing or developing interest into a more immediate response.

Focusing entirely on activation (tactical activity) can produce short-term sales without creating a lasting reason to choose the brand. Focusing entirely on brand building (strategic activity) may create positive feelings without making it clear what customers should do next.

Used together, brand building can make activation more effective, while activation can convert the value created by the brand into sales.

Where people get confused

Brand building and activation are sometimes treated as competing approaches.

They do different jobs and often work over different timescales, but they should support each other.

Activation is also frequently reduced to price promotions. A discount is one way to encourage action, but so are a product launch, demonstration, free consultation, limited-time bundle or invitation to visit a retailer.

Brand building does not simply mean making people aware of the brand. It should help create useful associations, expectations and reasons to prefer it. We cover this in more detail in our article The best time to invest in your brand.

An example

A paint brand runs a campaign showing how colour can transform the feeling of a room. Over time, the campaign helps people recognise the brand and associate it with confidence, creativity and inspiring homes. This is brand building.

The brand then offers free colour cards and encourages people to order samples before starting their decorating project. This is activation.

The sample offer prompts an immediate action, but the customer may be more likely to respond because the wider campaign has already made the brand feel relevant and desirable.

What to ask in the meeting

Are we trying to create future preference, encourage an immediate action or do both?

If every piece of marketing is expected to produce an instant sale, the brand may never create the familiarity and preference that make future sales easier.

Brand, branding and brand identity

What it means

Brand identity is the recognisable system used to express the brand. This usually includes elements such as the logo, colours, typefaces, imagery, language and tone of voice.

Branding is the deliberate work used to shape that perception. It helps create a consistent personality, point of view and presence across the business.

A brand is the sum total of everything people consider about a business, product or organisation. It is created through everything they see, hear and experience, then distilled into a gut feeling.

In plain English

A simple way to think about it is:
Brand = what people feel about you
Branding = how you help shape that feeling
Brand identity = how people recognise you

A brand is not simply a logo. The logo is one part of the identity that helps people identify the brand.

Why it matters

People form impressions of a brand through many different interactions. These might include the product, packaging, advertising, website, customer service, sales team or experience of using the product.

Branding helps these interactions feel connected. It gives the business a consistent underlying character, even when it is communicating in different situations or through different channels.

A useful visual metaphor is a stick of rock. No matter where you cut it, the same pattern runs through the middle. In the same way, the brand should remain recognisable wherever and however people experience it.

Consistency does not mean always behaving or communicating in exactly the same way. It means responding to different situations from the same underlying character.

Where people get confused

The word brand is often used when people really mean logo or visual identity.
Changing a logo does not necessarily change what people feel about the business. Equally, keeping the same logo will not protect the brand if the product, service or customer experience consistently disappoints.

Branding is also sometimes treated as a one-off design exercise. In reality, the perception of a brand continues to be shaped long after the identity has been created.

A business can control its branding, but it cannot completely control its brand. The final impression exists in the minds of customers, employees and everyone else who encounters it.

An example

A company might create a new logo, colour palette, typeface and packaging system. Together, these form part of its brand identity.

The company may also decide that it wants to be known for being straightforward, supportive and willing to challenge accepted ways of doing things. Expressing that personality consistently through its messages, behaviour and customer experience is branding.

Over time, people may come to see the company as distinctive, trustworthy and refreshingly direct. We refer to that accumulated gut feeling as the brand.

What to ask in the meeting

Are we talking about the brand itself, the work we do to shape it, or the identity used to express it?

Being clear about the distinction helps prevent a visual identity project from being expected to solve a deeper product, service or reputation problem.

Campaign

What it means

A campaign is a planned series of connected marketing activities working towards a defined objective.

The activities are usually linked by a central message, creative idea or theme and run over a particular period of time.

A campaign might use several channels, such as advertising, social media, email, retail displays, PR or events.

In plain English

A campaign is a group of connected marketing activities designed to achieve a particular result

Each part should contribute to the same overall objective.

Why it matters

A campaign allows individual pieces of marketing to work together rather than appearing as isolated activities.

Repeating and developing a clear message across different places can help it attract attention, become more memorable and encourage a response.

A defined objective also helps the business decide what the campaign needs to communicate, who it needs to reach, which channels to use and how success should be measured.

Where people get confused

The word campaign is sometimes used to describe a single advert, email or social media post.

One piece of activity can form part of a campaign, but a campaign usually involves several connected communications or interactions.

A collection of marketing materials is not necessarily a campaign either. If the activities do not share a clear objective, message or idea, they may simply be separate pieces of work produced at around the same time.

A campaign does not have to be large, expensive or use every available channel.

A small, focused campaign can be effective if its different elements work together and reach the right people.

An example

A home storage brand wants to increase sales of a new modular range designed for small spaces.

It creates a campaign around the idea of making more of the space you already have.

The campaign includes room-makeover videos, before-and-after social content, advice on the website, displays in participating retailers and an offer encouraging customers to book a free storage consultation.

Each activity performs a different role, but they share the same audience, idea and commercial objective.

What to ask in the meeting

What is the campaign intended to achieve? Who is it for? What’s the overarching theme that connects the different activities? How will we know whether it worked?

Claims vs proof

What it means

A claim is a statement a business makes about its product, service or performance.

Proof is the evidence that backs the claim up.

In plain English

A claim is what you say

Proof is what supports it

The stronger or more surprising the claim, the more important the proof becomes.

Why it matters

Claims can give customers a compelling reason to choose a product, but they also create an expectation that the product must meet.

A clear and credible claim can make an advantage easier to understand.

An unsupported or exaggerated claim may create doubt, particularly when it goes far beyond what customers would normally expect from the category.

Proof helps reduce that doubt. It shows that the claim is more than marketing language and gives the customer greater confidence in the promise being made.

Where people get confused

A feature or benefit is not automatically a claim.

A feature describes something the product has or does. A benefit explains the value the customer gains. A claim makes a specific assertion about the product or its performance.

Reassurance is closely related to proof, but it is not quite the same. An endorsement, guarantee or trusted certification can reduce doubt, while proof provides evidence that supports the particular claim.

An example

Imagine a company selling a home dehumidifier.

Helps reduce condensation and damp is a benefit.

Removes up to 12 litres of moisture per day is a performance claim.

The results of controlled product testing, including the conditions under which the 12 litres was achieved, provide the proof to back up the claim.

An independent endorsement or a five-year guarantee may offer additional reassurance, but doesn’t directly prove how much moisture the product removes.

What to ask in the meeting

What are we claiming? What evidence supports it? Under what conditions is it true?Will an ordinary customer understand what the evidence means?

A claim should be strong enough to persuade, but realistic enough that normal use does not end in disappointment.

Conversion

What it means

A conversion happens when someone completes a desired action.
That action might be making a purchase, requesting a quote, signing up for emails, downloading a guide, booking a demonstration or visiting a retailer.

In plain English

A conversion is when someone does the thing you wanted them to do

What counts as a conversion depends on the objective.

Why it matters

Marketing is usually intended to influence some form of behaviour, not simply attract attention.

Defining the desired next step or outcome helps clarify what the activity is trying to achieve and how success should be measured. That desired action is the conversion.

Not every conversion has the same commercial value. An email signup may create an opportunity to develop a relationship, while a completed purchase produces an immediate sale. Both can be useful, but they represent different stages and outcomes.

Where people get confused

Conversion is often used as another word for purchase, especially in digital marketing.

A sale is one type of conversion, but the term can describe any clearly defined action the business wants someone to complete.

People may also celebrate a high conversion rate without considering the quality or value of those conversions. A campaign that generates many low-value enquiries may be less successful than one producing fewer enquiries from people who are much more likely to buy.

The desired action should therefore be specific and connected to a meaningful objective.

An example

A fitted-kitchen company runs an online campaign encouraging homeowners to book a free design consultation.

People seeing or clicking the advert show interest or engagement.

Completing the booking form is the conversion.

The eventual kitchen purchase is a later and more valuable conversion, but the consultation booking moves the customer meaningfully closer to it.

What to ask in the meeting

What specific action do we want people to take, and how valuable is that action to the business?

If the conversion cannot be clearly defined, it will be difficult to judge whether the marketing has worked.

Customer journey

What it means

The customer journey describes the stages and interactions someone may go through before, during and after choosing a product or service.

It can include becoming aware of a brand, researching the options, comparing alternatives, making a purchase, using the product and deciding whether to buy again or recommend it.

In plain English

The customer journey is the route someone takes from discovering you to becoming a customer and beyond

Why it matters

Looking at the journey from the customer’s perspective can reveal what they need at different stages.

They may need inspiration at the beginning, clear information while comparing options and then reassurance before committing to a purchase.

Mapping the journey can also expose unnecessary friction, gaps in communication or points where the experience does not live up to the marketing promise.

Where people get confused

The customer journey is often presented as a simple, orderly sequence.

In reality, people may move backwards and forwards, pause their decision, consult other people, encounter the brand several times or enter the journey at different points.

There is rarely one journey followed by every customer. The purpose of mapping it is to understand the likely stages, questions and interactions, rather than pretending every decision follows an identical route.

A customer journey is also more than a list of marketing channels. The channels are places where interactions happen. The journey describes the customer’s changing needs, thoughts and actions across those interactions.

An example

Someone looking for a new sofa might first notice one in a social media post or a friend’s home.

They may visit the brand’s website, compare different styles, order fabric samples, read reviews, measure their room and visit a showroom before making a purchase.

Delivery, assembly, customer service and the experience of living with the sofa all continue to shape the journey after the sale.

Understanding those stages helps the brand provide the right inspiration, information and reassurance at the right time.

What to ask in the meeting

What might the customer need to know, feel or do at each stage, and what could prevent them from moving forward?

A useful customer journey should help you improve the experience, not simply produce an attractive diagram.

Differentiation vs distinctiveness

What it means

Differentiation is what sets a product, service or brand apart from the alternatives. It’s what makes it different.

Distinctiveness is what makes it easy to notice, recognise and remember.
Differentiation may come from the product itself, the way it works, the service provided, the price, the customer experience or another genuine advantage.

Distinctiveness is created through recognisable features such as colour, shape, imagery, language, personality, sounds, characters or a consistent creative style.

In plain English

Differentiation gives people a reason to choose you

Distinctiveness helps them recognise and remember you

The two can work together, but they are not the same thing.

Why it matters

A genuinely differentiated product offers something that some people will value. But if that difference is not communicated clearly, customers may never notice it.

A distinctive brand can attract attention even when the underlying product is not dramatically different from its competitors.

Ideally, a brand will have both: a meaningful reason to choose it and a recognisable way of presenting itself.

However, in established categories, competing products may perform similar jobs in similar ways. In those situations, distinctiveness can become especially important because it helps the brand stand out from otherwise similar choices.

Where people get confused

The terms are often used interchangeably, particularly when someone says a brand needs to “look different”.

Looking different may create distinctiveness, but it does not necessarily make the offer meaningfully different.

Being unusual is not enough on its own either. Distinctiveness should be relevant and resonant of the brand, it should help people recognise and remember the brand.

An example

Imagine two brands selling cordless drills with similar prices, features and performance.

One brand develops a bold and consistent visual identity, a recognisable tone of voice and a memorable style of advertising. That makes it distinctive, even though the product itself is not substantially different.

Another drill includes a genuinely new battery system that provides twice the working time of the alternatives. That is meaningful differentiation.

If the second brand communicates its advantage clearly and presents it in a recognisable way, it can benefit from both differentiation and distinctiveness.

What to ask in the meeting

What is meaningfully different about the offer? What will help people notice, recognise and remember it?

If the only difference is how the brand looks, it may be distinctive rather than differentiated.

Engagement

What it means

Engagement describes the attention or interaction someone gives to a brand or piece of content.

It might include watching a video, clicking a link, leaving a comment, saving a post, visiting a website or taking part in an event.

In plain English

Engagement means someone has responded in some way

Why it matters

Engagement can show that marketing has attracted attention or encouraged participation.

But the important question is: what did they actually do?

Different forms of engagement have very different value. Watching a video for a few seconds is not the same as requesting a sample, visiting a retailer or making a purchase.

Being clear about the type of engagement you want helps you judge whether the activity is achieving anything useful.

Where people get confused

Engagement is often treated as though it is a single, clearly defined result.
In reality, it can describe anything from briefly noticing a post to having a detailed conversation with the business.

High engagement does not necessarily mean strong commercial performance. A piece of content may attract large numbers of comments without increasing interest in the product. These are sometimes referred to as vanity metrics, high numbers but with little commercial value.

The word is most useful when the specific response is clearly defined.

An example

A homeware brand publishes a video showing different ways to style a dining table.

The video receives thousands of views and hundreds of likes. That is one form of engagement.

But if the objective is to encourage people to explore the new collection, visits to the product pages or clicks through to retailers may be more meaningful measures.

What to ask in the meeting

What do we actually want people to do?

If the answer is simply “engage”, the intended response probably needs to be defined more clearly.

Features vs benefits

What it means

A feature is something a product or service has, contains or does.

A benefit is the positive difference that feature makes to the customer.

Features describe the “thing”. Benefits explain why it matters.

In plain English

A feature tells you what it is or does

A benefit explains the value you will gain from it

The bridge between the two is often the question: So what?

Why it matters

Customers need enough information to understand what they are buying, but features alone do not always give them a compelling reason to choose it.

Turning a feature into a benefit helps connect the product with a real consumer need, problem or desire.

This does not mean features are unimportant. In some categories, a particular ingredient, material or piece of technology may strongly influence the decision. But its value should still be made clear to the customer.

Where people get confused

Features are often presented as though their value is self-evident.

A business may be very proud that a product contains a particular material, technology or ingredient, but the customer may not understand why that should matter to them.

People also sometimes mistake the product’s function for the customer benefit.

For example, “removes stains” describes what a cleaning product does. The wider benefit might be keeping clothes looking good for longer or avoiding the cost of replacing them.

The most useful benefit is not always the most dramatic one. It should be the benefit that is most relevant and compelling to the customer you most want to reach.

An example

Imagine a company selling interior paint with a highly washable finish.

Highly washable finish is a feature.

Marks and spills wiped to good as new is a benefit.

For a busy family, the benefit makes the feature much more relatable.

The feature provides the reason. The benefit connects it with the customer’s life.

What to ask in the meeting

What does the product have or do? What difference does that make? Why would the customer care?

The more tangible the benefit, the more strongly it is likely to resonate with the customer.

Insight

What it means

An insight is a new and useful understanding that reveals something which was not immediately obvious.

It may come from looking more deeply at research, data or behaviour, spotting a hidden pattern or seeing familiar information from a different perspective.

In plain English

Information tells you what is happening

Insight reveals something new beneath the surface

Why it matters

An insight can change how you understand a customer, market or problem.

It may uncover an overlooked need, explain an unexpected behaviour or reveal an opportunity that was not apparent at first.

Where people get confused

A statistic, observation or research finding is not automatically an insight.

The information becomes insightful when it reveals a pattern, connection or perspective that adds something genuinely new to your understanding.

An example

A furniture retailer discovers that many customers look at its made-to-order sofas but do not complete the purchase. That is a finding.

Looking more deeply at the research reveals that customers are not mainly worried about the price. They are worried about making an expensive choice they cannot easily reverse.

That new perspective is the insight.

What to ask in the meeting

What has this revealed that we did not already know or see clearly?

If it simply repeats the research finding, it may be information rather than insight.

Omnichannel

What it means

A channel is the place where a business interacts with its customers. That could be sales, communications or support.

Channels might include a website, physical shop, retailer, social media, email, telephone, catalogue or customer service team.

Omnichannel describes an approach in which these different channels work together to create a connected and consistent customer experience.

In plain English

A channel is one place where a customer interacts with you

Omnichannel means those different places are joined-up

The customer should be able to move between them without feeling as though they are dealing with separate businesses.

Why it matters

Customers rarely experience a brand through only one channel.

They might discover a product on social media, research it on the brand’s website, see it in a retailer, ask a question through customer service and eventually buy it somewhere else.

A joined-up approach helps ensure that the information, experience and character of the brand remain consistent throughout that journey.

It can also reduce friction. Customers should not have to repeat information, search for conflicting answers or start again simply because they have moved from one channel to another.

Where people get confused

An omnichannel approach is often used when a business operates across several channels.

Having a website, shops, social media and an email database makes a business multichannel. It becomes omnichannel when those channels are connected and work together from the customer’s point of view.

Omnichannel does not mean every channel has to do exactly the same job. A social media post, product page, retail display and customer service conversation may each serve a different purpose.

The important thing is that they feel like connected parts of the same experience.

An example

A customer sees a dining table on a homeware brand’s Instagram account and visits the website to check the dimensions and available finishes.

They save the product to their account, then visit a shop to see it in person. A member of staff can access the saved details, answer their questions and arrange delivery to their home.

The customer later receives delivery updates by email and can contact customer service without having to explain the entire purchase again.

Each channel performs a different role, but they work together as one connected experience.

What to ask in the meeting

Can the customer move easily between our different channels, or do we make them start again each time?

Being present in several places is multichannel. Making those places work together is omnichannel.

Positioning

What it means

Positioning is the place you want your brand or product to occupy in the minds of the people you most want to reach.

Positioning is shaped by the choices a business makes about its audience, offer, price, personality, messages and presentation.

In plain English

Positioning answers the question:

Why should someone choose this rather than the alternatives?

It helps people quickly understand what kind of product or brand they are looking at, who it is for and where it sits in the market.

Why it matters

Customers rarely consider a product in isolation. They compare it with other choices, even when that comparison happens quickly or subconsciously.

Clear positioning helps a brand establish a recognisable and meaningful place within those choices. It can influence whether the product feels premium or budget, specialist or mainstream, traditional or progressive.

Good positioning also guides marketing decisions. It helps determine what to emphasise, how the brand should look and sound, which customers to speak to most strongly and which opportunities may not be right for it.

Without clear positioning, brands often move towards the middle of the market. They try to appeal to everyone, avoid making definite choices and begin to look and sound like their competitors.

Where people get confused

Positioning is sometimes mistaken for a strapline, headline or positioning statement. These may express the positioning, but they are not the positioning itself.

People sometimes refer to positioning solely as a pricing choice: premium, mass market or budget. Pricing is part of positioning, but it’s just one of the defining choices.

It is also different from simply identifying a target audience. Knowing who you want to reach is important, but positioning must also explain why the product is particularly relevant to them and how it compares with the alternatives.

A brand cannot create its positioning through words alone. The product, price, packaging, availability and customer experience must support the position it wants to occupy.

An example

Imagine a new plant food entering an established market.

It could position itself as an affordable, general-purpose product for everyday gardeners. Alternatively, it might position itself as a premium, natural solution for gardeners who care deeply about soil health and the wider garden ecosystem.

Both products may perform a similar basic function, but their positioning will influence the audience they speak to, the benefits they emphasise, their price, packaging, language and retail presentation.

What to ask in the meeting

Who is it for? Why should they care? Where does it sit compared to the alternatives? What are we doing to express those things?

If your answers could describe any product in your market, your positioning needs to be tighter.

Proposition

What it means

A proposition is the offer or promise you put in front of the customer.

It explains what you are offering, what value it provides and why someone should consider choosing it.

A strong proposition is usually based around a clear customer benefit, supported by a reason to believe it.

In plain English

The proposition is what you are offering, and why someone should care.

It turns the wider positioning into a clear and persuasive reason to consider the product.

Why it matters

Customers need to understand the value of what is being offered quickly.

A clear proposition helps a business decide which benefit should lead, which supporting messages matter and what evidence is needed to make the promise credible.

Without a strong proposition, marketing can become a list of features, claims and messages with no clear priority. The customer is left to work out for themselves what the main reason to buy might be.

Where people get confused

Proposition and positioning are closely connected, but they are not the same thing.

Positioning defines where the brand or product should sit in the market and in people’s minds. The proposition is the particular offer or promise presented to the customer.

A proposition is also more than a strapline or headline. Those may express it, but the wording itself is not the underlying proposition.

People sometimes mistake a list of product features for a proposition. Features explain what a product has or does. A proposition makes clear the benefits, why that matters to the customer.

It’s also good to know that a business may also have an overarching brand proposition alongside more specific propositions for individual products or services.

An example

Imagine a plant food containing a slow-release formula that continues feeding plants for six months.

Slow-release formula is a product feature.
Feeds plants for six months is a benefit.

The proposition might be:

One application for six months of thriving plants

This brings together what the product offers and why it matters to a gardener who wants good results without repeated feeding.

The wider positioning might establish the brand as the easy, dependable choice for busy gardeners. The proposition gives the customer a specific reason to choose this particular product.

What to ask in the meeting

What are we offering? What is the strongest customer benefit? Why should they believe us?

If the proposition is trying to communicate several competing reasons to buy, the main value of the offer may not be clear enough.

Purpose, mission and values

What it means

Purpose explains why the business exists and the difference it wants to make.
Mission describes what the business is here to do in order to fulfil that purpose.

Values are the principles that guide how the business behaves and makes decisions.

In plain English

Purpose = why we exist
Mission = what we are here to do
Values = how we choose to behave

Together, they help establish the foundations of the business and the brand.

Why it matters

A clear purpose, mission and set of values can give a business direction and help people make more consistent decisions.

They can influence the products it creates, the customers it serves, the people it employs, the way it communicates and the opportunities it chooses to pursue.

They also help shape the character of the brand. When they are understood and applied throughout the business, customers experience them through its products, communications, service and behaviour.

Where people get confused

The terms are often used interchangeably or written as a collection of impressive-sounding statements without a clear distinction between them.

Purpose does not need to involve changing the world. It simply needs to express a meaningful reason for the business to exist beyond making money. It is sometimes confused with vision, which usually describes the future the business hopes to create.

A mission should describe what the business is committed to doing, rather than becoming a list of short-term targets.

Values should be more than generic words such as quality, integrity or innovation. They become meaningful when they help people decide what to do, particularly when the easiest or most profitable option conflicts with them.

Your purpose, mission and values should be written in such a way that everyone in the business can understand them and use them to guide their actions and behaviours.

An example

A furniture company’s purpose might be:

To help people create homes that work beautifully for real life

Its mission might be:

To create thoughtfully designed, adaptable furniture that lasts

Its values might include designing around real customer needs, being honest about materials and quality, and taking responsibility when something goes wrong.

The statements are only credible if they are reflected in the products the company creates, the claims it makes and the way it treats its customers and employees.

What to ask in the meeting

Why does this business exist? What are we committed to doing? Which principles should guide our decisions and behaviour?

If the purpose, mission and values make no difference to how the business acts, they are statements rather than foundations.

Sell-in vs sell-through

What it means

Sell-in is the process of persuading a retailer, distributor or other trade customer to stock a product.

Sell-through is the process of helping that product sell to the end customer once it has been listed.

In plain English

Sell-in gets the product onto the shelf

Sell-through gets it off the shelf and into the customer’s hands

Getting ranged creates the opportunity to sell. It does not guarantee that the product will sell.

Why it matters

Retailers need confidence that a product deserves space within their range and has a realistic chance of selling.

A strong sell-in story should explain why the product is relevant, what makes it commercially attractive and how the brand will support sales after the listing has been secured.

Sell-through may depend on awareness, packaging, pricing, availability, staff knowledge, merchandising, promotional activity and the customer’s reason to choose the product.

When products sell consistently, retailers are more likely to reorder them, give them continued space and consider other opportunities with the brand.

Where people get confused

Businesses can treat securing a listing as the end result rather than the beginning of the next challenge.

Sell-in figures show how much product has entered the retail or distribution network. They do not necessarily show how much has been purchased by the end customer.

A large initial order may look like a success, but poor sell-through can leave the retailer holding too much stock and make future listings or reorders more difficult.

Sell-through is not solely the retailer’s responsibility. The brand should have a credible plan for creating demand and helping customers notice, understand and choose the product.

An example

A new cookware brand persuades a national retailer to stock its range across 100 stores. That is sell-in.

The brand then supports the launch with distinctive packaging, staff training, in-store demonstrations, recipe content and marketing that gives customers a clear reason to choose the range.

If customers buy the products and the retailer replenishes the stock, the range is achieving sell-through.

What to ask in the meeting

What will persuade the retailer to list the product? What support will help the product continue selling after launch?

Getting ranged gives you access to the customer. Sell-through proves the product deserves to stay there.

Strategic vs Tactical

What it means

Strategic activity supports the longer-term direction of the business or brand: the strategy.

Tactical activity is designed to achieve a more immediate, shorter-term result: the tactics you use.

In plain English

A simple way to remember the difference is:
Strategic = long-term
Tactical = short-term

That explanation does not cover every nuance, but it will take you a long way.

Why it matters

If you are being asked to work on something that’s strategic, it should mean that it’s related to the long-term strategy of the business. It might be a project that helps take a step towards achieving a long-term goal. Or it might help reinforce a message or a value that the brand wants to become synonymous with.

Tactical projects are usually short-term, looking to make immediate impact. They may be tied to the long-term strategy, but sometimes they are stand-alone projects.

Where people get confused

People generally understand what a strategy is. Confusion often begins when the word becomes strategic.

A campaign may be described as strategic because it is important, expensive or ambitious. But that does not necessarily make it strategic.

To earn the description, the activity should support a clear longer-term direction or choice.

Strategy is not simply a long list of things the business intends to do. Those are usually actions or tactics.

Strategy involves making choices. It should help you decide what to prioritise, what not to do and where you believe the greatest opportunity lies.

A tactic does not become strategic simply because it matters to the business. The important question is whether it supports the longer-term strategy.

An example

A product brand decides it wants to become the trusted premium choice for environmentally conscious gardeners. That is a strategic direction.

Finding a lot of stock in the warehouse and needing to put on a promotion to get rid of it is tactical.

What to ask in the meeting

How does this activity support our longer-term strategy?

If nobody can answer that clearly, the word strategic may simply be making the activity sound more important.

Tone of voice

What it means

Tone of voice is how a brand’s character and personality are expressed through the words it uses.

It influences the language, rhythm, level of formality and attitude used across marketing, packaging, websites, social media, customer service and other communications.

In plain English

Tone of voice is how your brand sounds when it speaks

It’s not only what you say, but how you say it.

Why it matters

The words a brand chooses affect how people understand it and how it makes them feel.

A clear tone of voice can help a brand feel more recognisable, distinctive and consistent. It can also make complicated information easier to understand and help communications feel appropriate for the people they are intended to reach.

Tone of voice should reflect the underlying character of the brand, rather than being applied as a decorative writing style.

Where people get confused

Tone of voice is sometimes reduced to a short list of describing words such as friendly, confident or professional.

These can provide useful direction, but they do not show how the brand should actually communicate. Many businesses describe themselves using similar words while sounding almost identical.

Consistency does not mean using exactly the same tone in every situation. A brand may sound enthusiastic when announcing a new product, reassuring when handling a complaint and clear and direct when explaining instructions.
The situation changes, but the underlying character remains recognisable.

An example

Imagine a paint brand whose character is knowledgeable, encouraging and refreshingly straightforward.

On social media, it might use lively, inspiring language to help people feel confident experimenting with colour.

On the back of the tin, the language would be more practical and instructional.

When responding to a complaint, it would become more measured and reassuring.

The tone changes to suit the situation, but the same helpful, straightforward character runs through each communication.

What to ask in the meeting

Does this sound like our brand, and is it appropriate for the audience and situation?

Remember: personality should help communicate the meaning, not get in its way. We talk more about Why the words we choose matter on our blog.