Understanding Their Roles
Marketing and branding are both effective when it comes to reaching your target audience and can increase your revenue.
Now that the obvious is out of the way, did you emphasize the “and” when reading that last sentence ( Good Monster’s copywriter hopes you’re nodding your head)?
You did? Great!
That was the intention because marketing and branding are two different things. In order to maximize both, you must understand this and their roles in growing your business.
If you already do, start reading at the “Brand Before Marketing” section.
If you don’t already know this, have no shame. It is a common mistake, and one you don’t have to worry about making again
Marketing
– A set of actions intended to communicate the benefits of your company’s products or services to your target audience
Branding
– The marketing practice that shapes your brand, including defining your values and mission and finalizing a logo
Allow us to be a little more specific.
| Marketing | Branding |
| SEO | Logo |
| Paid Media | Tagline |
| Lead Campaigns | Personality |
| SMS Campaigns | Reputation |
| Email Campaigns | Colors |
| Social Media | Fonts |
| Advertising | Voice |
| Promotions | Style |
| Video Production | Culture |
| Influencer Marketing | Values |
Now, let’s examine where both branding and marketing belong and what they accomplish.
Branding Before Marketing
Since it’s impossible to market a brand that doesn’t exist (did that blow your mind or what?), you must focus on your branding before you can think about which marketing strategies will share your message with the world.
Without an identity, your marketing strategies will be hollow. Your target audience will have nothing to resonate with, and all of those efforts will end up being a waste of time.
Marketing communicates your branding efforts to your customers, so, naturally, one comes before the other. Similar to how you walk before you run, your brand before your market.
That’s how you go home with a bigger ROI.
Branding Affects Employees, Marketing Affects Customers
In an era when customers are choosing brands based on trust, employees are choosing employers based on their values.
What your brand stands for influences whether the right or wrong type of person applies to help you grow it, and, ultimately, employees’ wellbeing. Ensure your values attract people you want on your team in order to build the culture you aspire to create.
Instilling the right values and culture benefits your employees in the immediate future, but down the line, it will also enhance your brand’s marketing. Having people who share your values makes your marketing campaigns more effective because they better understand the message and your target audience, another group of people who share your values.
Everyone being on the same page is how you achieve results.
Ah, what a perfect segway to our next topic.
Marketing Drives Revenue, Branding Earns Trust
Every marketing campaign tells a story. Most include the hope that orders will soon follow, and this is how you measure their success.
With that being said, you’ll do yourself a favor by acknowledging killer marketing campaigns do not boost revenue, but instead, killer marketing campaigns with quality branding at their core boost revenue.
On the surface, it may appear like your marketing campaign is doing all the work. After all, your team spent weeks wordsmithing the copy to complement those gorgeous graphics, but remember, it’s what’s on the inside that matters .
Sure, a customer may make a one-time purchase with a company that comes out with one awesome marketing campaign, but if the customer does not have visibility to its values, this one-time purchase will be the extent of their relationship.
Demonstrate to your target audience you have a brand they can trust by flaunting it in your kick-ass marketing strategies.
This will inspire loyalty and separate you from the competition.
Marketing is Temporary, Branding is Permanent
Compare “Ice Ice Baby” by Vanilla Ice to The Rolling Stones.
Is “Ice Ice Baby” an amazing song? Hell yeah it is, but can you name another song by Vanilla Ice?
We’ll wait.
Okay, now, think about the Rolling Stones. Songs recorded in decades before you were born (sorry for making you feel old if this isn’t the case) probably just popped into your head.
Now, finally, here is the metaphor you’ve been waiting for
Great marketing will get you recognition, but great branding will make you a legend.
There will be times when what leads to immediate success will seem like the better option, but, this is a promise, make your branding decisions based on your long-term goals. Your company will go further because of it and have plenty of groundbreaking marketing campaigns to look forward to.
Just ask Mick.
Brand Your Identity, Market Your Legacy
Powerhouses like Nike and Apple continue to captivate their respective audiences because they know themselves and what their customers want more than most companies ever will.
Neither came to prominence by getting lucky with a couple of cool ads. They reached the heights they have because they created an identity, and when it was time to reveal it to the world, they knew how to market the
If nothing else in this article made you realize how important understanding the roles of branding and marketing is, that should.
