Many think that the difference between branding and marketing is like saying ‘six of one, half a dozen of the other’. In reality, these two concepts are indeed different. When you are establishing a business, it is a common incorrect practice to merge them together. This incorrect practice is aided by the fact that often branding and marketing share overlapping goals – which are achieved by them working together. But branding and marketing are two distinct concepts with individual goals.
In our previous article, we dealt with explaining why brand strategy matters for your business. But if you do not understand how brand strategy is different from your marketing strategy, you will be back in square one.
We are hopeful that this article will help you to understand the difference between branding and marketing. By understanding this difference, you can effectively utilize the concepts to help you take your business to the next level.
To understand any difference, we first need to understand the involved concepts separately.
So, what is branding?
“Branding is endowing products and services with the power of a brand” (Kotler & Keller, 2015)
When you are branding, you are actively shaping your brand. You are using a process that would give a specific meaning to your organization, your company, your products and services. It helps you to define who you are in the eyes of the consumers and your target audience. Branding clarifies your mission, your values and your speciality and unique nature to consumers. You utilize several elements like your logo, your website, your guidelines to help consumers quickly identify your brand. Through branding, you are trying to attract and retain loyal customers and other stakeholders.
In simple words, branding is the strategy to create a perceived image of the product you are offering.
Brand Strategy – Brand strategy is the long-term plan of developing a brand to achieve specific pre-conceived goals successfully. When you have a brand strategy, you have a foundation over which you create subsequent building blocks to show what your brand represents.
What is marketing?
“Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.” (American Marketing Association, Definitions of Marketing, approved 2017)
Marketing encompasses all the activities and tactics that you utilize to actively promote your brand in the market so that consumers are influenced to buy from your brand. All the actions like social advertising, content promotion, promotional emails, search engine optimization are all forms of marketing. Any action that you take to connect with your customers and which leads to sales, comes under the purview of marketing.
In simple words, marketing is the strategy to attract potential consumers and convert them into customers.
Marketing Strategy – Marketing strategy is the process through which you understand your market and decide which method to apply in order to influence the consumers. It allows you to concentrate your limited resources on the greatest opportunities to increase sales and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage.
Branding or Marketing – Which comes first?
You may think that marketing comes before branding as marketing drives sales and provides the initial traction for the brand.
In reality, any business needs to first build a brand with a clear brand strategy in place to guide brand expression. This will then guide the formulation of marketing and its associated strategies.
What is the difference between branding and marketing?
Now that we are aware of the concepts of branding and marketing, the question arises – what is the difference between branding and marketing?
Definition based
Branding answers the question WHY.
- Why does your company exist?
- Why are your products and services different from your competitors?
- Why should consumers notice you?
Thus, branding is defining the trajectory that your business, your company will take.
Marketing answers the question HOW.
- How can you, your company, your services and products get noticed?
- How can you attract consumers to become customers?
- How can you increase your sales?
Thus, marketing is defining the tactics like measurable goals, deadlines and budgets that you should adopt in order to increase your sales and profits.
Branding is your story, while marketing is how you deliver that story.
Aim
Branding aims to build loyalty and trust among customers. It allows you to build recognition in the market by helping customers connect and get inspired by your brand.
Marketing aims to cultivate customers. It is the response from customers which leads to results. These results are aimed at one goal – to increase your sales and thereby the profit.
Long term vs short term
Branding is a long-term concept. As your company grows, your brand will evolve along with your company. The basic identity will remain constant, but with increasing brand loyalty, you will work on defining who you are as a company. You will have to ensure that the customers perception of your brand is deeper and more meaningful with time.
Marketing is a short-term concept. Since it concentrates on sales-based results, most of the tactics involved in marketing have a clear beginning, middle and end.
Macro vs Micro
Branding covers the broad goals of your company. It is macro in approach and deals with your company’s beliefs, culture and voice.
Marketing, on the other hand, covers your micro goals. It determines what audience to target, how to target them. It determines the short-term action plan to drive sales and what should be used to achieve the goal.
Value
Branding creates and reinforces a product’s value; marketing promotes and extracts a product’s intended value.
End Result
The end result of branding is creating a relationship between products and consumers driven by loyalty.
The end result of marketing can be either positive (when your sales increase) or negative (when your sales decrease).
Brand strategy vs Marketing strategy
Both brand strategy and marketing strategy share similar goals. The difference lies in how they are developed and their end result.
Brand strategy is all about creating a relationship. When you develop a brand strategy you need to define the mission of your business along with your vision. The mission and vision together create your business goals. These goals allow you to develop a positioning statement for your business regarding the unique space your business will occupy in the operational market. The mission, vision, and positioning statement then define your brand’s personality, voice, and visual expression.
Marketing strategy is all about creating transactions. Your marketing strategy should actively promote and sell your product or service by putting it in the right place, at the right price, at the right time. Marketing strategy is dependent on brand strategy. All marketing initiatives and campaigns should reinforce and support the brand essence.
On the issue of brand strategy vs marketing strategy, it can be concisely said that marketing strategy is shaped by brand strategy.
Conclusion
The ultimate aim of branding and marketing is to grow the business by attracting customers. This overlapping goal, along with the shared responsibilities lead to the confusion and comparison between branding and marketing.
Hopefully this article has been able to set the record straight regarding the difference between branding and marketing!
How can Sunnyday Consulting help you?
At Sunnyday Consulting we provide our clients first with a branding strategy and then we build the marketing strategy over it. And we do this because we understand the difference between branding and marketing.
The branding strategy covers aspects like –
- Creation of a unique brand identity
- Creation of brand story
- Identity design
- Brand activation
The marketing strategy build on the basis of your branding strategy would cover –
- Advertising strategy and implementation
- Social Media Marketing
- Search Engine Marketing
- Email Marketing
- Content Marketing
So, drop us a line today at support@sunnydayconsulting.com or call us at (+91) 79777 31552 to help your business flourish!
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FAQ
1 What is the difference between branding and marketing?
Branding is the process of creating a unique identity for your business, while marketing is the strategy used to promote that identity and drive sales.
2 How can branding and marketing work together to grow my business?
Branding and marketing are two sides of the same coin, and they should work together seamlessly to create a consistent message and image for your business. A strong brand identity can help your marketing efforts by making it easier to create compelling campaigns and build customer loyalty.
3 Why is branding important for a business?
Branding is important for a business because it creates a unique identity that sets it apart from competitors and helps customers to remember it. A strong brand can also increase customer loyalty, attract new customers, and drive sales.
4 What are some common branding mistakes that businesses make?
Some common branding mistakes that businesses make include being inconsistent with their messaging and imagery, failing to define their target audience, and neglecting to differentiate themselves from competitors.
5 How can I develop an effective marketing strategy for my brand?
To develop an effective marketing strategy for your brand, you should start by defining your target audience, setting clear goals and objectives, and creating a unique value proposition. From there, you can choose the marketing channels and tactics that are most effective for reaching your audience and achieving your goals. It's also important to measure your results and adjust your strategy as needed.
