Lost in translation: how ‘brand vocabulary’ is breaking measurement

By Mofeoluwa Awe

Language is the foundation of marketing. It’s not just a tool for persuasion; it’s the entire discipline. The words we choose to describe our work affect its execution, evaluation, and defense.

However, here is the catch: the “vocabulary of brand” can add unnecessary complexity to measurement.

The Polarisation Problem

In recent years, debates over short-term versus long-term success have become increasingly polarized. The nuances are fading, leaving marketers with a false choice: either chase immediate gains or pursue distant, undefined goals.

This disagreement isn’t just intellectual; it also affects how we measure things. When a plan relies on absolutes, it sets proof standards that are too high. For example, if you see “brand” as only a long-term benefit, it’s easy to understand why CFOs have trouble seeing its short-term worth.

The Semantics Trap

Words like “love,” “trust,” and “engagement” sound good, but they lack clear, measurable meanings. Even standard measures like knowledge, impact, and consideration get tracked in different ways. Each firm, platform, or even team within the company uses its own method.

This semantic problem causes two issues:

Lost Comparability: You can’t compare similar ads, dates, or outlets without an agreed-upon meaning for what “like” means.
Boardroom Friction: If marketing’s wording is vague or unclear, it sounds less responsible. This makes it more likely to lose money.

The Impossible Standard

Marketers often feel pressure to prove their brand’s effects. They feel they must do so in the same clear, click-to-sale way that people measure performance marketing. This sets a bar many marketers find hard to meet. In fact, you do not need a single KPI to measure a brand; instead, you need a mix of intuitive and quantitative methods.

Still, when we talk about brand in a way that makes it sound like a general, nice idea instead of a measurable business driver, we encourage the very doubt we’re trying to get rid of.

Rewriting the Dictionary

What’s the answer? We need a clear, agreed-upon language for brand measurement. This language should connect artistic goals with business responsibility.

From “Awareness” to “Mental Availability”: Think about awareness as entering a group and being remembered. This makes it easier to measure and gives it more value.
From “Brand Love” to “Customer Preference”: You can use polls, behavioral data, and rates of return purchases to track how people feel about a brand.
Moving from “engagement” to “meaningful interaction”: This means focusing on actions that are linked to future buying intent instead of meaningless measurements.

The Takeaway

The language we use shapes how we determine a brand’s value. We will inevitably make measuring more difficult than necessary as long as marketing lingo remains a divisive topic.

We can easily show that investing in brand creation is a worthwhile endeavor. To do so, our terminology must be more consistent, accurate, and tailored to our company’s needs.