In the comparison between branding vs marketing, branding might be the more difficult one to define. Branding is that crucial element that informs the way that your target audience feels about the brand, which isn’t always easy to put into neat quantities or words. According to Entrepreneur, “The goal is to build such a strong connection and such strong belief that the consumer takes on your brand identity as their own. They use your brand to help define who they are as a person.” While the effect of branding might feel a little nebulous to describe, the steps to cohesive branding are anything but. It involves developing a symbiotic system that entails positioning, brand concept, brand narrative, brand identity, and various messaging components.
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On the other hand, marketing is a little more tangible, dealing with concrete ways to get your brand in front of people. According to the American Marketing Association, “Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.” Marketing includes everything from social media posts, an email newsletter, or even a blog post like the one you’re reading now.
So what’s the difference between marketing and branding? Keeping in mind that branding is our area of expertise, you might think of branding as the why and marketing as the how of a brand. Branding defines the “why” behind your company, upholding your values, intentions, and purpose. Marketing then relays those brand values to your target audience using tools and hard data.
So what does all of this mean for your company, and what are their roles in growing your company? Read on for the lowdown on branding, marketing, and how they work together.
Branding: the Why
Branding supplies the big-picture (within the company and to your consumers) of who you are, what you stand for, and the passion for what you do. This is the content that fills up your website’s “Our Story,” “Our Values,” and “Our Mission” sections.
Branding then helps put this “why” into cohesive brand guidelines that ensure others see you the way you see your company. This is done with consistent expression of visual identity and messaging through the logo, voice and tone, color palette, typography, messaging, layouts, positioning, and more. It defines your company and creates an ecosystem from which to launch your marketing.
Marketing: the How
Without marketing, your hard work on branding would hardly see the light of day. Marketing encompasses a plethora of tools and tactics (e.g., event, video, and email marketing) that get your brand seen by your target audience. Working from HubSpot’s definition of marketing, marketing uses smart messaging to meet the long-term goals of the company, which are specified by branding work (like defining company values, building customer loyalty, etc.).
Depending on the needs of your company, marketing is dynamic and varied, differing from campaign to campaign and platform to platform. Consider two differing Squarespace campaigns, for example. While Sally’s Seashells features Zendaya and Andre 3000 and a fresh take on a silly tongue twister around a fictional seashell business, the All You Need to Launch a Celebrated Art Career reads more like a how-to guide from your average struggling artist. Even though the campaigns differ in their approach, they both celebrate the entrepreneurial spirit using consistency: a whimsical tone, similar lighting and color correction, the same logo, and of course, the creation of a website on Squarespace as the hero of the story (secondary to the entrepreneurs themselves of course).
It’s All Relative
When discussing branding vs marketing, it’s important to remember that the two are far from being two separate entities. While there are certainly differences in perspectives and roles, the two are an interrelated system that need to collaborate in order to produce great results for your company. Rather than asking “what’s the difference between marketing and branding?,” here are some ways that branding and marketing overlap and support each other:
Goals and Vision: The core values behind your company are stable throughout the years, so while a brand refresh might address changes to the visual components or slight tweaks to the brand personality, it usually stays consistent for many years. Marketing campaigns are shorter term, but operate under the umbrella of that clear mission set during the branding process.
Target Audience: While branding might entail defining your target audience, marketing would help determine which platforms your audience is using, how they use them and how to drive traffic. Using hard numbers, marketing gives that much needed feedback to branding, informing branding decisions through real data from the audience.
Consistency: Branding provides the skeleton for all future collateral. Your Google display ad will use the brand color palette, your Facebook post will be guided by your brand tone of voice, and your logo will be used in a standardized way as set by the brand guidelines. While each marketing campaign can be new and different, all campaigns should be united by those carefully thought-out brand guidelines.
So What’s the Difference Between Marketing and Branding?
While there are key differences between branding and marketing, brand success depends on a combined effort of the two. With solid branding as a blueprint, marketing can make a more targeted impact toward a specified consumer base, using a consistent tone, voice, and visual system.
Anastasia Salazar Ltd. is an independent design studio for tailored branding and digital designs. Reach out to learn how we can help you fuel growth and maximize your brand’s impact.