Often, people confuse the words branding and marketing with each other. However, knowing the difference between the two can help you define your business' value proposition and product placement. The end goal of both, as with any business, is to increase profits and attract new customers.
What is Branding?
Branding is a business' representation of itself. It goes beyond product and often includes a name, logo, color scheme, language, and culture. A brand can be expressed through a company's personality and characteristics which are communicated through visual branding elements.
Branded products elicit feelings of loyalty, trust, and long-term relationship between you and your customers. Just look at Apple, for instance. It has garnered for itself a wide fanbase that makes sure to purchase every new product released by them, and that's the power of branding.
Another example of branding lies with Nike. Nike has been branding itself as being an athletic company and has a well-known swoosh in all its products, which has given it an edge over other sports companies.
What is Marketing?
Marketing is the process of promoting and selling a product or service. It goes beyond how a business looks and includes activities such as advertising, public relations, media buying, strategic planning, and customer engagement. Marketing is responsible for positioning a brand in the marketplace. A lack of marketing has also been known to lead to a company's demise.
Marketing is often described as a mix between art and science to get your customer's attention without sacrificing the quality of your product.
Examples of marketing are advertisements, promos, and videos on online platforms like Youtube and Instagram of a company like Nike.
Key Differences Between Branding and Marketing
- Branding comes first. It is the initial definition of your business, product, or service. Marketing follows branding. Through promotions, advertisements, and brand awareness initiatives, you are able to communicate with potential consumers about who you are as a company and what makes you different from other options.
- Marketing increases sales while branding builds loyalty among customers. Branding helps build a company's image and reputation while marketing allows it to communicate its strengths effectively. When a new business enters an industry, branding creates a customer base quickly by giving them a solid understanding of who they are. Marketing adds to the brand's reputation by letting them communicate how they are different from their competitors and why customers should choose them over others in the industry.
- Marketing catches a customer's eye, and branding keeps it. Branding is an ongoing process of building your image while marketing is a one-time task of getting your message out there. Branding requires constant effort, particularly for new businesses. Marketing is a short-term effort that can be used to establish your brand, build awareness about who your company is and why you are different from the competition.
There are key differences between branding and marketing, but they work together with one another to bring your business further success.
How Do Branding and Marketing Work Together?
The two go hand-in-hand, but the relationship is different for new businesses. For a newcomer to the industry, branding helps make them more competitive by getting customers' attention quickly. This is accomplished through paid advertising campaigns and promotional offers specifically designed to communicate their value proposition.
Marketing requires that providers know their audience well before they can start targeting them effectively. This is why branding efforts are crucial to the marketing process. By defining your audience ahead of time, you are able to create a more effective sales approach that will do better once the marketing phase begins.
Your brand's image needs to match up with your product or service's value proposition if it is going to be successful. You should be able to clearly identify what makes your business unique and how it helps solve your customers' problems. When these two elements are connected, it creates a powerful brand that communicates effectively with the right audience.
For example, if you run an online travel review website, your branding should communicate customer benefits like convenience and savings because this is what your value proposition is. If you utilize marketing, it will make the advantages of your brand more apparent by explaining them and helping your audience understand how they can benefit from doing business with you.
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