Branding and marketing are two different things, as most PR experts would claim. Several companies will still stick to the age-old adage that they are the same. This is a fatal error when it comes to today’s market. With the advent of technological advancements, one after the other, PR marketing has become social media dependent to a major extent. Remember that the market is oversaturated already with brands vying for the first position. Therefore, just manufacturing the best products in the business is no longer the only way to a secure branding experience.
In such a high-stakes scenario, you must understand the differences and the fine line in marketing vs branding and focus on each separately to bring in the best results.
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What is branding?
Branding in one sentence is all your brand is about. What does your company stand for? What do you sell? What kind of customers do you intend to reach? Where does your core customer base lie in? All these questions will provide you with enough details regarding how to go about your entire branding. Branding involves all the messages that you consistently send and the things that make your company unique and hence high visible and a place of curiosity for potential customers.
Branding is not just the logo or the voice of your brand. It is the experience you promise your customers and the relationship you forge with them through branding exercises.
Earlier, all you needed to do to get your brand seen and heard by the general public was to put a well-placed advertisement in the avidly read newspapers, and magazines or get a jingle to play on the radio or the television. This was a hands-off marketing strategy that played its part without the need for engagement or new creative content.
But now, with the advent of social media and the contact-based approach that it has introduced, all brands are more responsible for their products, but most of all for their branding experiences. Successful branding requires you to ensure that certain elements are included for maximum effect. These include brand design, brand voice, user experience, brand identity and customer service.
Branding is like storytelling except here you have more than just your words acting as the storytelling tools. It enables you to tell your story the way you would like it to be told. Customers understand your motivations and consider you an evolving identity rather than just a simple interface hawking its goods.
Look at Maruti Suzuki for instance. It evokes the ethos of utility with comfort. Its personality engages the middle class who look for budget-friendly automobiles which are steady and comfortable and yet have a long life. Maruti Suzuki’s branding has a lot to do with this feeling that it exudes.
What is marketing?
So, you now know what branding is and how important it is as a medium to make your business stand out in a saturated marketplace. Then you must be also wondering if is marketing branding. Both branding and marketing serve a similar goal – they both are essential in bringing you business. They enable you to connect to your audience and get customers who bring profits. However, where branding is a definition of what your company stands for and how and what you intend to communicate to your customer base. Marketing on the other hand is a total of all the methods you employ to reach your customers. Based on the brand strategy you employ, your marketing strategy will be developed. Social media marketing, content marketing, SEO-based email marketing and link-building formulae all fall under marketing tactics.
Marketing is as complicated a process as branding. There are a lot of strategies and processes involved in it. Marketing helps you find your target audience and creates a hook based on how you have built your brand. The customer gets reeled in and voila, you have profits!
Is marketing branding then? No, marketing involves all the technicalities that keep your branding and customer base intact!
Marketing vs Branding – The Differences
Now that you know marketing and branding are not the same, it is essential to get a clearer idea of marketing vs branding to close all further dilemmas when it comes to the question – is marketing branding?
Marketing Reels in Customers
Even after you have your entire branding essentials properly in place, you will still need to communicate them to your audience. Marketing plays an integral part in doing this. Marketing includes all the strategies that will help your brand message reach a wider audience and take your company to greater heights. Major brands such as Cadbury employ such technicalities to plan out how to reach a wider audience and maintain their customer base. Tailoring your brand identity to the technicalities is the work marketing involved.
Branding Keeps Customer Attention
While technicalities are essential in luring in a wider range of people to your company, it is the branding that ensures they stay associated with the company in the long run. Marketing methods and channels may change over time (as is now the case with social media marketing replacing traditional marketing ventures). Even the keywords you use now may become useless over the next couple of years. But branding remains consistent. Branding is not stagnant and must adapt according to the ages, but the core values and purpose of the company remain the same over time. Titan will continue to sell watches and promise elegance and a dignified look even if you fast forward to 2024. There might be newer content or even a new brand logo, but that does not indicate the company has changed its principles overnight. This enables customers to find you trustworthy and keeps them hooked for the long haul.
Conclusion
To ensure your customer base is protected, instead of asking is marketing branding, ask yourself which you should handle first to not only bring in new customers but also make sure that they stay with you even if your competitors flood the market with goodies that look the same and even have discounts attached to them.
It is always better to focus on branding first as it enables the marketing division to curate content and put their SEO skills into use such that the target audience is hooked and their curiosity makes them want to try out your products over and over again. Invest time in what the purpose of your company is, what your story is and what your target audience looks like. Then just tailor-make your marketing tactics and beat the market at its own game.