The 4 Differences You Must Know Between Branding & Marketing
Branding and Marketing are two common terms that are frequently used in place of each other in many scenarios. Surprisingly, these two seemingly identical expressions are actually very different in nature. In fact, many so-called "Marketeers" or "Branders", just like you, may not be able to distinguish the clear differences between the two terms.
However, if this article is only about the definition of Branding and Marketing, what is the point of wasting your time on this article when you can find that out yourselves in the dictionary. What I am trying to present in this guide is how Branding and Marketing contribute to different areas of
business success by exploring the unique nature and crucial impact of each element have on a company. Through different analogies and comparisons, you will be able to understand the correct way that you should be looking at Branding and Marketing for your business.
1.
Branding is the Strategic Goal; Marketing are the Tactical Goals
The strategic goal is a long term objective that is accomplished with various combinations of tactical goals & steps. Strategy and tactics are just like the relationship between Branding and Marketing. A Brand pinpoints the direction and the objective of a company. It is the destination that a business is heading towards while Marketing is all the necessary steps to get to that point.
This is similar to the analogy of war. We use strategy to win a war, we use tactics to win a battle. While every battle requires different tactics, it all works together to fulfill the same strategy. Winning war requires consideration about the supplies, politics, infrastructure, foods, security, morale, finance, military, civilians, propaganda of the entire clan for a course of 10 to 20 years, while battle only focuses on the tactics to win a specific battle base on the current environment which may include, the type of landscape, the weather, the armies etc.
Can you now see the correlation between Branding and Marketing? Branding is like building the container of a water bottle while marketing is all the ways to fill up that bottle.
2.
A Brand is a Stable and Constant Destination; Marketing is all the Flexible and Adaptive Methods to Get There
There could be an endless number of marketing tactics that are different in type, in the audience, in competition, and in style, but the brand values that they should create for the customers must be constant.
Julius Caesar Famous quote “I’m as immovable as the northern star, whose stable and stationary quality has no equal in the sky. The sky shows countless stars. They’re all made of fire, and each one shines. But only one among all of them remains in a fixed position” This is one of the most important quality that a Brand should carry.
3.
Branding builds trust with customers; Marketing builds awareness in the community
To make this more clear, branding is the making and delivering of a promise while marketing is the finding and connecting of people who will benefit most from this promise. One is acquiring, the other one is maintaining.
This is similar in getting into a relationship. You need that attraction and appeal for your first impression to make him or she be interested in you, but you need a period of time to gain trust, to get to know each other before making the choice of getting into a relationship.
This is exactly like the effect of Brand and Marketing. You need Marketing to let people know about your products or services, and on the other hand, you need Branding to gain trust for the longevity of your business.
4.
Branding is Nurturing; Marketing is Outreaching.
Branding is an incubating process that sets the 5Bs of business: The Brand Style, Brand Values, Brand Personality, Brand Voice, and Brand Strategy. Branding is a process of creating the soul of a company to help businesses recognize themselves and add qualitative values to the business. A great brand specialist is like a wizard creating innovative and unique characteristics to an entity.
On the other hand, marketing is an ongoing process from setting goals, to study competition, from addressing a target audience to measurement & analysis of each campaign. Marketeer is like a tactician, studying the trend in their market, in their competitors, and in their customers to come up with the most suitable Game Plan.
To Understand About The 12 Steps That Every Marketeer Does For Their Campaign in 2020
Branding and Marketing?
Is one of them more important than the other?
People may ask which one I should focus more on. The question is not about which one is more important it should be in which order should you do it in.
CASE 1:
TOO MUCH ON BRANDING
Establishing a good brand is important, but seasonal business opportunity is just as important. Don’t miss that perfect timing, because you think your brand is not 100% perfect
Because branding is a planning process that takes place before the actual launch of a new business, focusing too much on branding can delay the launch of a business. A delay in the launch of the business means a missed timing or a missed business opportunity. One needs to understand that a missed opportunity may lead to a delay in the entire operation. It could be a week, a month or even the entire year, and I am sure a lot of you who are reading this article right now have been in this kind of situation, and I am sure no one wants to be in that place again.
Don’t overspent time to construct a 100% perfect brand. Leave some spaces and rooms for improvements and change base on actual market feedback.
Although branding is a long-term goal that need to be set at the start of the course, but its difficult to set a 100% perfect brand guideline before any actual business operations. Big corporations like Starbucks and McDonald undergoes many reconstructions of their brand to get to where they are now.These tweaks and fine tuning are all based on the market’s reaction to their products and services. Through these data they can continually improve their brand. Therefore, when designing a brand, don’t stress yourselves too much to create a perfect brand strategy or a flawless brand guideline in the start. You need to always remember to give some spaces and rooms for improvements and changes according to market’s response.
At the end of the day SURVIVAL is the most crucial aspect of running a business
At the end of the days, business need to make profits, branding is a long-term goal and a long period of trust building. A business needs different short-term marketing tactics to drive sales, to improve outreach, to bring profits into the business, and most importantly to survive until they can meet their long-term brand goals.
CASE 2:
TOO MUCH FOCUS ON MARKETING
Lose Directions --> Lose Motivation --> Lose Trust --> Lose Customer --> Lose Money
Focusing too much on marketing can lose directions. Losing direction can be a catastrophic scenario for any business owners. The business would not be a sustainable one, and customers will begin to lose trust, the market will lose focus, and eventually your competitors who have a better long-term strategic plan will surpass you, stealing profits from your company.
Brand add invisible values to a product, even if it’s more expensive than its competitors, people still buy it for the added value.
A product with no brand, has no uniqueness. Similar to a product or service that only relies on cheap price, once a competitor came up with a new pricing that is more appealing than yours, you lose all your sales, because other than the affordable price point, your product has nothing else to offer, and pricing is the most easily replaced attributes for any kind of products and services. When a business does not have uniqueness, you lack the sense of bond, sense of community, and the sense of exclusiveness. Other than finding new customers, another very important business action is to maintain your current customers, and to maintain them there got to be a unique attribute that is keeping them on your side. Therefore, branding can not be forgotten. You need to remember, by maintaining your existing customers successfully, you are promising your business to receive consistent profits. It is always easier to sell to someone who has already used your service and products than selling to a new person that you never met.
Where should I start? Branding or Marketing?
A very great question that many people would ask. Think about it this way, when you are coming up with a solution for a math problem, do you start by pinpointing what are the deliverables for the question to set a game plan, or do you just start writing the questions. Of course, the best approach will be the first method. (Picture of Math Problems)
The first stage of starting a business is the same, we always start with planning. A good planning will help you avoid a lot of obstacles and save you a lot of precious time when you are operating the business. Planning always start from the destination to the actual step by step plan, but when we are at the execution stage, we begin from the step by step plan to get to our destination. (Picture of Business Plan)
Branding and marketing are the same as the example above. We need a clear Brand strategy for us to come up with a set of effective marketing tactics, and we need to start with the step by step marketing tactics to achieve each tactical goals and slowly refine and progress to our final brand objective.
Additional Resources
The 5Bs of a Business Brand | Journey to Brand Master II The 12 Steps That Every Marketeer is Taking in 2020