Branding vs. Marketing: Know the Critical Difference

Are branding and marketing the same thing to you? In reality, they are not.

Branding defines who you are as a business; marketing is how you share that identity with the world. Branding tells your identity as a business, and marketing helps you promote this identity. Branding is the character of your business. Marketing is a set of tactics you use to make your brand known. Branding answers the “Who are you” aspect, while marketing answers the “How do you make your brand known” aspect.

Now that the difference between branding and marketing is clear, let’s explore why working on both is important. We will discover how these concepts are used in a business. We will also delve into their role, stages and dependency on each other –

Branding is ‘Who’ You Are

Branding creates an identity for your business. It’s how your customers will remember you. For instance, what do you think of when you read “Domino’s”? It’s obviously a Pizza brand. But to make it so ‘obvious’ that people would relate it directly to Pizza, you need to position your brand correctly. Branding, in essence, is only about what you are. Branding captures the emotions, values, mission, beliefs and desires your product or services evoke.

Branding is associated with components like your logo design, your brand’s colour palette and other visual representations. Through branding, you can learn about what customers expect from you. For effective branding, your questions should centre around the following-

• What is my brand’s mission? 
• Who am I serving? (Your core audience)
• How did this brand come about? (Inspiration behind)
• What makes you unique? (Differentiation from your competitors)
• How should your customers describe you? (You’re a clothing brand, food brand, automobile, etc.)
• How should your customers remember you? (Your USP)

You need to be able to dictate what your brand offers. By clearly defining your brand, you will be able to build a strong foundation to market your products effectively. 

Marketing is ‘How’ You Promote Your Brand

Marketing deals with the tactical methods, tools, and strategies you can use to communicate your brand identity to drive customer engagement, interest and eventually sales. Marketing is focused on driving brand visibility among a new audience.

Marketing is a vast umbrella which incorporates several methods, tactics and strategies depending on your audience. There are different marketing methods through which you can promote your brand, including ad designs, SEO, SMO, etc.

In recent times, businesses are realising the importance of digital marketing, where they use social media channels for marketing to reach potential customers. Along with this, they also leverage performance marketing to drive measurable results. Performance marketing companies in India help brands in choosing the right tools and channels to target potential customers. Some common channels include content marketing, display advertising, search engine marketing, social media marketing, paid promotions and affiliate marketing.

Marketing, in a nutshell, promotes and sells your products and services to customers using a variety of promotional channels and tools.

Know the Critical Difference – Branding vs Marketing

Now that we have looked into the Branding and Marketing, which of these do you think comes first?

Your marketing foundation is centred around your brand. Hence, branding comes first. Without your brand, you have nothing to market. Brand is your unique identity, and you take that identity forward through marketing. Irrespective of the size of your business/brand, you must define who you are. What do you sell? Who do you sell it to? How are you different from others? Without including these aspects in your branding, your marketing efforts will be in vain.

To understand the difference between marketing and branding more deeply, one must remember that without proper branding, people cannot make sense of your marketed products.  It means that a business creates marketing strategies on the foundation of its brand identity. Any marketing material or ads we stumble upon on Instagram, Facebook or any other social site, the very first thing we look for is “which brand is promoting this product?”. People instinctively seek out the brand name when they see an ad.

A product without a brand name evokes no feeling in the user’s mind. It is just a random product they saw in an ad. But with a proper brand identity, people can form a sense of attachment. Because brands build loyalty, marketing gets you visibility. For more engagement and conversions, you need to evoke a sense of attachment in customers’ minds. They should know your brand through its values, USP and mission. Only then, your marketing can be truly successful and drive you measurable results. 

To Sum Up

Branding is about creating your business identity, while marketing is the process of promoting and selling the product to customers. You can develop customer loyalty through branding, while marketing can help improve your overall sales. Your marketing efforts drive people to see the products and make a purchase, but your branding connects them to you. It is how the customers stay loyal. 

Customers resonating with your brand’s mission, values and beliefs will stay connected to you. Hence, you need a strong foundation of marketing for your business growth, which is not possible without branding. You can catch the audience’s attention through marketing and maintain it through branding. To create a strong brand identity for yourself, you can outsource experts from VerveBranding for branding consultation. We also help in logo designing, digital presence, digital marketing and performance marketing to drive measurable growth.