Entrepreneurs must understand many things to run a prosperous business. Although there are many concepts that many people think of as the same thing — a prime example of this is branding & marketing. Both of these concepts are essential tools for highlighting and supporting your business. However, in essence, they are completely different, though closely intertwined. What are branding and marketing, and can one concept exist without the other? Let’s break it down in more detail below.

Branding — a characteristic of the concept

A company’s identity as well as its brand(s) represent who it really is. It is your corporate and business identity, which has for its purpose to stand out among the competition and be remembered for a long time. A no-frills brand can tell customers exactly what you have to offer and builds your reputation.

A well-formed product branding strategy resonates in the minds and hearts of customers wherever they go: perhaps they would see color combinations that remind them of your company and immediately think of you. McDonald’s was able to build its brand very well. The catchy song and red and yellow color scheme can be easily remembered by visitors.

If you’re having trouble building your brand, you have to answer these questions for yourself:

What are your core principles and values?

What are your core values?

Identify what is fundamentally feasible for your company

What do you want to accomplish by providing your services?

How exactly can you help this world be a little better?

What feelings do you want to evoke in your customers?
What makes you stand out from the competitors?
What do you want people to associate your brand with?

Note down your main ideas for highlighting

What is the character of your brand? Is it more carefree and fun, or smart and reserved? You must determine what language and tone you will use to address your audience

Being clear about your nature and acting accordingly will attract as many loyal customers to you as possible. However, you should be aiming not only at external consumers but also at the internal culture of your office, because your brand starts from within. If your team better understands what they are here for, they will start investing time & effort in their brand initiatives, creative ideas, and their work much more willingly.

Marketing — a characteristic of the concept

If branding is your strategy, then marketing is your tactical goal. The concept of marketing consists of many tools, including branding itself. It processes and strategies everything you use to promote your brand in the market. The way your market is changing to keep up with growing trends. Marketing is flexible and uses all kinds of methods to reach your target audience, be it content (text, video, photos, diagrams), paid channels, SERM and SEO or other tools. The process of promotion is carried out in a huge number of ways:

Native & direct advertising on television, radio, in printed & online media
Offline (flyers, billboards, handouts, booklets, display stands, branded merchandise, etc.)
Social Media
Websites & Landing Pages
Email
Blog, etc.

With the help of marketing, the price of the service, the target audience, and its desires are determined. After that, it becomes easier for marketers to navigate which promotion method to choose.

The main differences between marketing and branding

Branding and advertising can form a single mechanism to complement each other. While marketing attracts as many customers as possible with its publicity, your brand works to retain customers. Moreover, more than 70% of people tend to avoid seeing ads. They use various software to block it or simply pay no attention to nicely designed banners & ads. The well-branded company though will appear to a user even when they don’t see paid ads directly — through its messages, symbols, logo, word of mouth, reputation, etc. The brand is something you work on every day: every phone call and every meeting must show and prove that you are who you say you are. Marketing processes in small or mid-size companies, on the other hand, are often outsourced to professionals who do the work within the basic marketing & corporate strategies.

Marketing aims to increase sales, and branding in turn creates positive impressions and increases the company’s visibility. This concept is set up for the long term.

Which is more important: Branding vs. Marketing

Considering that branding is the face of your company, your mission, and how you want to be perceived by your customers, it is definitely more important than marketing. Having strong branding allows companies to gain loyal customers for years. This is just as important as the number of your sales.

The importance of branding strategy lies in consistency. Keep your word, and with all your actions show that you are what you promise. Remember that every great brand developed gradually. It takes years for your brand to become recognizable and recognized by many people. The important thing is not to stray from your intended brand path.

Can branding exist without marketing?

You can not promote a brand that does not really exist, because your clients should have a coherent picture when presenting your services or goods. Therefore, aspiring entrepreneurs, firstly, should make an effort to self-identify their services.

Nevertheless, by simply creating a brand, you also will not go far. The services of your company should be actively promoted. Otherwise, how will your customers know about it? Branding is part of the marketing tool. Without further promotion, the corporate identity will not bring you much fruit.

Nevertheless, successful marketing is also about leveraging directly the individual traits of your brand. What exactly does this mean?

Use the right tone

What terms or jargon you use should be completely consistent with the personality of your brand. Social media posts or ads should be in the same tone of voice. The call to action should also be in your individual style. Your customer needs to see you from afar, so marketers need to make sure they get the company concept right.

Designing the perfect image

When you promote your content in the digital space, you have to create some sort of image for your potential customers. To do this, you need to think about your company’s color palette, typography, and logo.

Choosing the right target audience

A company shapes & grows business based on a certain type of people who may definitely need your services. Knowing what this or that audience wants is a great foundation for your brand and image because you will know exactly what people will respond to.

Conclusion

Branding and Marketing are two important business concepts that many people confuse. However, they are two different concepts that work closely together. One cannot exist without the other, and by successfully engaging both processes, companies can not only improve their sales performance but also gain thousands of loyal customers to further grow and prosper their business.

Branding vs. Marketing. Is one possible without another?

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