Difference Between Branding and Marketing… Let’s Get Into It.
If you’ve ever found yourself wondering what the difference between branding and marketing is… you’ve come to the right place. Let’s get right into why branding and marketing are very different, but crucial to any brand.
What is Branding?
Branding is about defining who you are as a company, business, ministry, or non-profit and what you stand for. If your company were a person, how would that person speak, think, look, and solve problems? What are your company values? What is your company vision and internal culture? It’s very important to create a clear picture of who your company is from colors and logos to specific ways of communicating to your core audience.
People should have a strong and clear sense of who your brand is over time when they think of it, see it, or hear of it… that’s the goal.
What is Marketing?
Marketing is the tools and actions taken as a company or brand to promote your products, services, or content. You want your marketing tactics to be effective in reaching your ideal avatar or core audience, so that they interact with your platforms and buy what you are selling quickly. Marketing is how you advertise your brand. It’s about growth, sales, and developing awareness that your brand has the best products or services to offer in the marketplace.
What should be your focus right now, branding or marketing?
Branding and marketing are both equally important but the focus may shift from time to time, depending on where you are at with growth and expansion.
Developing a strong sense of your brand matters as this is what is going to attract and retain loyal customers. The values and foundation of what your brand is and what it represents builds trust for your audience.
When you know you have a good viable product or service, want to expand into new markets, or want to reach more of your ideal client, marketing comes into the picture. Having a good marketing plan that is on brand is just as important. Your marketing tactics will be what drives sales. Want your customers to engage with what you’re selling? You need strong marketing tactics that represent your company values. For example, a major sale could be good marketing for a clothing line that sells at Walmart, such as seasonal end of summer sales before fall clothing drops, but it would be shocking to see a major sale for a luxury or high end brand such as Chanel.
Brand Identity and Brand Trust
Creating your brand identity is like creating a personality for your brand. It is of foremost importance because you are building what you want your brand to be and represent. Your identity will be: what you say, what you believe in, how you want people to feel when they think of or interact with your brand and how you communicate your content or product.
Brand trust is most definitely something you should strive for and desire. Brand trust is the confidence instilled in your customers that they can trust and rely on you to deliver what is promised in the time frame you say you will deliver it. Establishing brand trust over time will lead to more customers continuously supporting you.
To Wrap Up
Branding and Marketing both play a role in generating sales and customer retention, but in different ways. Branding matters for the internal culture that you set up for employees and partners, as well as influencing how your ideal customer follows, likes, trusts, and feels about your brand over time. Staying in alignment with your company values and communication style from the photos you use to the colors that represent your brand visually really matters.
Marketing has its place for generating leads, sales, and expanding into new markets. It’s important to stay on brand with your marketing, so having a strategy and knowing the values of your brand comes into play with marketing yet again. You always want to be swaying and influencing how others perceive your brand even when getting new sales.
If you want help unpacking any questions that may have come up for you about your brand strategy, then use our contact form here or go ahead and schedule a FREE 20-min brand breakthrough strategy call where our experts can help.
Additional Resources:
- https://99designs.com/blog/marketing-advertising/marketing-vs-branding/
- https://www.outbrain.com/help/advertisers/branding-vs-marketing/
- https://emeritus.org/blog/what-is-the-importance-of-marketing-for-business/
- https://blog.hubspot.com/agency/develop-brand-identity
- https://www.qualtrics.com/experience-management/brand/brand-trust/
