A fine line between marketing and branding
Apr 11, 2018 — Branding
Building a prosperous, thriving, and sustainable business is on the forefront of minds of business owners. Along with building great products and services, it is important to reach customers. To achieve this, you opt for various marketing strategies. Marketing strategies can give you results, but only up to certain extent. There are things that matter beyond marketing because you need your business to work despite those marketing strategies. That is where branding begins. Before you brand your business, it is essential to know what branding is and how it will be beneficial for your business. Branding helps in establishing a presence for your business along with attracting and retaining loyal customers. Branding involves choosing the right color for your business, designing an appropriate logo, creating a website, and setting up social media accounts. But it is not limited to that. To know what branding is, it is necessary to determine how branding differs from marketing and how branding is helpful.
How marketing differentiates from branding:
Marketing involves using various tools to promote the business such as social media, search engine optimization, and others. On the other hand, branding is about the culture of the business and the message it sends across the world.
Marketing involves active promotion of the product or service with the help of many tools. However, branding is nothing but expressing values of an organization, product, or service. It is about communicating what a particular brand represents. Marketing involves asking people to buy the products, whereas, branding involves telling them ‘this is who I am’.
Marketing is a tactical approach, while, branding is a strategic approach. Branding is deeper than marketing. Marking entices people into buying a product or service, while branding helps in gaining loyal customers and form a sustaining relationship with them.
Customers define the brand:
You do not have an authority over defining your brand. There is a misconception that branding helps in defining business. Branding involves telling people ‘this is who I am’, but businesses do not have an authority to define the brand. People may buy products from great marketing tactics, but gaining loyal customers will not be possible with only marketing. When customers will trust the brand that fulfills their expectations and aligns with their values, they will become loyal customers. This is why businesses need to keep an eye on customer expectations and listen to them closely. Because they define the brand. Another point to be noted is, there is no single strategy of branding that fits all the businesses. Each organization is unique and needs to convey that authenticity to the audience. The success of the brand can be measured. The brand needs to determine behavior and interests of the target audience are.
What needs to be done for branding:
Building a brand is not a cakewalk. It takes a lot of time and effort along with strategic thinking. There are three essential things to be considered. First is determining the purpose of the business. The core of the brand needs to be determined. Second is, determining the personality of the brand. It is about determining how you want your business to be accepted and understood by the audience. The third is, communicating the personality well. It involves choosing the right strategies through market research and analysis. Being one of the leading branding agencies in Pune and gaining wide experience in helping brands create awareness, Kaizen Design Studio helps companies in choosing right strategies for branding and creating presence across local as well as international markets.