Branding VS. Marketing

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What is Branding?

The term “brand” was derived from the color of cattle, which indicates how much you care about your product. Before modern technology and fast transportation were available, people had to rely on signs and symbols that would let them distinguish one town from another. The best way to do so was by using a symbol or sign, which would inform the passersby about the town’s identity and its uniqueness.

Signs and symbols were therefore used as an “identity card” for each city. It was essential for people to be able to identify the places they traveled to and communicate this information (so that their relatives and friends could find them).

The production and communication of signs and symbols in towns and cities were very important for each economy, especially in the middle Ages. People needed communication to be able to trade goods and services with each other. With the rise of modern machinery, transportation became faster and communication was made even quicker by using different types of media (electronic media such as radio and TV, and written media such as books and newspapers).

What is marketing?

Marketing is a social and managerial process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating, offering, and exchanging products of value with others. Essential steps in marketing include product development, promoting the product, setting a price, distributing the product via channels to buyers, and recovering costs.

The whole process is derived from one simple idea: people who need and want things will buy them if they benefit from the purchase.

For example, let’s think of a family that needs to drink water. They go to the supermarket and see two types of water bottles on sale: an expensive one and a cheap one (not realizing most likely that both were produced by the same company). The family buys the cheap one. Why? Because they want water, see it is cheaper so they benefit from the purchase, and are not aware of quality differences.

To summarize, marketing is a concrete process in which companies create value by designing bundles of goods and services that meet consumer needs while they also promote these products to consumers through various tactics to help establish the product in the consumer’s minds as one that will provide sufficient utility (or benefit) for them to purchase it.

That is essentially what marketing is all about. It is the process of designing products and services, promoting their value, and ultimately selling or exchanging them with other individuals or groups for money or any other type of reward that may benefit someone.

Of course, this definition does not come without its challenges. But that is what makes marketing so intriguing in the first place. People are at the heart of it all and understanding how they act in regard to various products and services defines the success or failure (statistically speaking) of any business’ product offering.

Why both are important for any business success

“We need both branding and marketing because if we have neither, our products won’t sell”

This statement is very common among people running businesses. But to be frank, the only truth in this statement is that we do need both of them. The problem with many entrepreneurs is that they think they can start a business and create a product without doing any form of market research.

Brand refers to the name, logo, or identity of a business in general while marketing. Is all about creating brand awareness and getting people to buy your product over other brands. Now, when you think about it, they are basically two sides of the same coin. You can’t have one without the other, but that’s not to say that they are interchangeable or replaceable.

An example of when branding is important is when you want people to recognize your product in the market. Take Apple, for instance, if you want people to buy an iPhone. Then all you need to do is show them the apple logo and it’s good enough for them to choose. This product is over other similar products.

On the flip side, marketing is all about getting people to buy your product through effective advertising. Marketers have a better understanding of consumer behavior. With regards to buying decisions and the psychology behind it which is why branding will fail without marketing. This makes branding more of an art that’s closely tied together with business growth. While marketing is more of a science that can be honed with practice.

Marketing is about creating demand for your product. Whereas branding helps you identify the market need to be filled by your product. So, if you think there’s not much difference between the two, it’s because they do overlap each other so much. The bottom line is that business owners need both branding and marketing. Because without either, you can’t expect to sell your products.

How to combine them – some tips and best practices

One of the biggest debates in the branding world is around the question – what is more important, branding or marketing?

Before attempting to answer that question it’s worth noting that branding and marketing are two very different things. Marketing can be seen as a subset of branding. The Oxford English Dictionary defines branding as “the process of publicizing and promoting a company. And its products by creating an identity in the customers’ minds. Which is strongly linked to the company’s products and goals.” (Branded, 2017)

In other words, branding is all about making your business memorable. Marketing then takes that brand awareness and promotes it.

The debate surrounding branding vs. marketing is as old as the hills. One camp says that branding is more important than marketing. And they can cite Aesop’s “The Fox and the Crow” fable to prove their point.

In this story, a crow becomes locked out of its nest and sees some delicious-looking cheese on top of a shop. It wants the cheese but doesn’t have the strength to fly up and get it. The clever fox spots the crow and tells. If they can help in return for some cheese when they get up there.

The crow agrees, so the fox gets a long stick and flicks the cheese down towards the crow. But always just out of reach. The crow tries again and again to grab the delicious morsel. But because it’s always just out of reach, its beak remains clean.

Eventually, the cheese melts in the sun and the crow gives up trying for it. The fox eats his fill and walks away without giving anything in return.

In this story, branding is the crow. It wants to get up to that delicious morsel of cheese, but it lacks the marketing strategies to do so. Marketing is the fox – it has all sorts of tricks and tips. But what it really wants is for you to buy its own products or services – not yours!

However, another school of thought is that marketing is more important than branding. They argue that a business must promote its services before they can be seen as valuable. This is like the fox in Aesop’s fable. Even if your business has the best branding strategy in the world. Nobody will know about it unless you market yourself!