This series revisits the basics of branding and marketing by answering questions marketers, entrepreneurs and small business owners face when growing their business. I hope this series provides you with knowledge to think smarter and a nudge to make stuff happen.
What’s the Difference between Branding and Marketing?
In a previous article, I explained how the simplest definition of a brand is equating it to reputation. It’s how someone feels and what someone thinks about a company. Branding is about understanding. As in, how a person understands what a business believes in and why it exists. Which brings us back to brand equals reputation.
Marketing is different.
Marketing is everything a company does that touches a customer. EVERYTHING.
Which includes, but not limited to… a television commercial airing during Young Sheldon … an a-frame sidewalk sign promoting a lunch special … an educational pamphlet sharing nutritionals … a quarter-page print ad in a High School football program …. the design of an employee uniform … a response from an employee to a question from a customer on Twitter … the cleanliness of a store’s parking lot … the price of a product … the copy on a tabletop tri-fold sign … a company’s business card design … an employee twirling a banner sign on a busy corner … etc.
EVERYTHING that communicates ANYTHING about a business to a customer is MARKETING.
Marketing communicates things a business is doing. Branding is how a customer understands what a business believes in and why it exists.
REVISITING THE BASICS | archive
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#01 | How Should a Brand be Defined? #02 | What’s the Difference between Branding and Marketing? |
