The terms marketing and branding are often closely related, but understanding the difference can add more value to each element. As a business owner, you probably have a reasonable grasp on some definition of branding and marketing. Perhaps something like “Branding is the promotion of the identity of a business, and marketing is the forms of advertising you use,” is a simple enough explanation. However, a deeper investigation into each of these terms can help you use them effectively. Marketing and branding both have important value in promoting your business, but intertwining the two can offer valuable advantages that neither component can provide alone.

Why Branding is Important

Branding is a vital part of promoting your business. Loyal customers rely on brand recognition when purchasing everything from groceries to automobiles, and everything in between. So, if branding is a company’s identity; What makes one identity more attractive than another? Unfortunately, there’s no simple answer to this question.

What is Branding?

BusinessDictionary.com defines branding as “the process involved in creating a unique name and image for a product in the consumers’ mind, mainly through advertising campaigns with a consistent theme.” Basically, every business with a name, logo, and particular theme for advertising has a brand. Yet, not every brand attracts and retains customers. Creating a memorable brand requires more than a name and a logo. It demands that a business understands the needs and desires of its ideal customer and how they relate to the product.

Three Elements of Creating a Memorable Brand

To create a brand consumers will remember, you need to combine the customer’s needs with the reason your business exists. It’s not an easy task. If you ask consumers why they remain loyal to a certain brand, the number one answer would probably be quality. Quality is definitely important, but it could easily be argued that a customer who has been using the same brand for a decade or more has no idea how the current competition stacks up. An effective brand must communicate your company’s values and the feeling your product will evoke from the customer in a memorable way. To do this, your brand needs three important elements.

• A memorable face – Creating a logo is an important task. If you hope to maintain a brand consumers will remember, you need your logo to remain recognizable. Choose colors and fonts carefully to align with the personality of your product.
• A great personality – If your company creates a product that saves lives, you probably maintain a somber personality in all of your advertising techniques. Yet, this doesn’t mean you can’t have an uplifting personality to elicit hope from consumers.
• An important purpose – It’s been said that necessity is the mother of invention. Obviously, your product has a purpose, but how is it different from the competition? What made you want to create an entire business around this product?

Effective Marketing for Business Growth

You depend on your marketing system to generate new leads and engage potential customers. If you’ve already created a brand, is there more to marketing your product? Effective marketing is always changing because it relies on the needs and emotions of consumers at any given time.

What is Marketing?

Shopping and communication network concept.

Investopedia defines marketing as “the activities undertaken by a company to promote the buying or selling of a service.” This means branding is a part of marketing. However, there is much more to marketing than branding. Marketing includes finding and targeting ideal customers, careful pricing, and advertising. If you hope to retain customers who will remain loyal to your brand, customer service even becomes a vital part of marketing. For marketing to be effective, you must do more than create a brand and announce to consumers that your product exists. Marketing must explain why your customers need a specific product from your company.

Creating an Effective Marketing Campaign

There are millions of products and services being broadcasted to consumers at any given moment. Effective marketing will make your business stand out in the crowd. A successful marketing campaign uses certain techniques to share your brand with your potential customers.

• Audience identification – Not every consumer will need your product. Before you begin advertising, be sure to understand the customers you’ll target.
• Valuable content – Providing valuable content targeted to your ideal customers is a way to engage their attention. Your intended audience will determine the type of content you choose.
• Effective Distribution – Posting content online doesn’t ensure anyone will ever see it. Learning more about your potential customers is one way to decide what manner of distribution will be most effective in reaching them.

The Power of Uniting Branding and Marketing

Uniting your brand with an effective marketing campaign can provide an unstoppable solution for business growth. A business that has carefully curated an excellent branding technique can’t succeed without a marketing plan that matches the company mission. Conversely, an amazing marketing plan without a clear brand is like a sturdy building with no foundation. To promote a business with longevity that will attract and retain customers, your marketing style should take cues from your brand.

Consider a product most people use every day. Paper towels have one job; to clean up messes. However, two companies manage to market their paper towels in very different but still effective ways. Bounty assures customers their “thicker quicker” paper towels will save the day by protecting expensive clothing and quickly removing germy spills. Sparkle takes the opposite side of the spectrum, asking frugal consumers how much they really need from a paper towel and comparing the competition to dressed up chicken nuggets or paper clips. Everything about the product, from packaging to advertisements, clearly show that each of these two companies understands the market and has a specific brand to target an ideal customer. When you introduce the why behind your company (brand) to the promotion of your product (marketing), the two form a bond that resonates with potential customers.

Vigor Seorchers is a full-service digital agency that unites design with marketing to multiply traffic with online exposure. Whether you’re seeking help with branding, social media marketing, video production, or any marketing service in between, we can help you find the combination that will help you stand out in a crowded market. Fill out our free discovery form to share your unique business needs and see if we’re the perfect match to help you obtain your branding & marketing goals.