It can be confusing sometimes, especially since there are different ways of doing each. There is a good bit of overlap and the points are not exactly linear. Branding encompasses all the intangibles  (the “why” of the company – beliefs, vision, values…) crafted into something tangible (logo, tagline, ad copy…) that can be marketed (communicated) to the right people at the right time to engage them in relationship. The goal of brand marketing is to link your identity, values, and personality with communications to your audience.

Simon Sinek compares it to a personal relationship. This is a great analogy.

– Simon Sinek interview with Marketing Magazine

Let’s take this a step further. I like to think that marketing is dating. Branding is falling in love.

Branding is all the little things that build feelings of connection. Marketing is the action you take to initiate that connection. Essentially, the brand is the heart of the company and marketing is the hands. What’s missing from this analogy is the brain of the process and this is exactly the reason that it gets so confusing. This critical thinking and planning work is usually being done by both the branding and marketing parts of the company.

Once the brand is established, managing the brand is the priority and roles shift slightly. Keeping in mind the goals of each, marketing is the ongoing communication with your customers for the sole purpose of selling, since without sales there is no company. Branding is what builds the relationship (using marketing channels) so that your customers think well of you and want to do business with you repeatedly. Many companies focus on marketing first and branding second. It can be done that way, but it’s much more difficult. Why push the boulder up the hill any further than you have to? Plus, that particular boulder will only let you go so far. Once you hit a plateau, and you just don’t have the strength to take it any farther, then what?

Ongoing branding fosters loyalty and long-term commitment. It promotes and protects the brand. It is the consistent treatment of your customers that communicates expectations of value for them. Consistency means that they know and expect that they will have a pleasant experience when they buy from you. That makes an impression that is not only memorable, but instinctive.

In a perfect world, before you do any marketing, you will have a clearly defined brand. Before you tell the world who you are, it helps to know and define those intangibles. The more people you have working on your product or service, the more ideas and personalities you will have shaping your corporate identity. If you don’t have one clearly defined corporate identity that everyone is grounded in, then you will have many ideas of who your company is and your brand will run wild. Multiple corporate personality disorder also happens when marketing decides to change the messages and suddenly the identity gets lost. We’ll talk about what to do in a brand identity crises in a separate blog. That’s a whole other conversation…

What you need to know now is this: branding goes deeper than social media or digital marketing. And more importantly, it’s where you should start from. If you don’t have a clear brand identity, take a step back and do that now. I promise, your marketing will be much more effective for it. That’s why we’re here, after all.