Branding’s the name, marketing’s the game! 

When it comes to labeling and defining your business, there is a very thin and fine line between the branding of your business, and the marketing of your business. In this article, we are going to identify more closely why branding and marketing are so different, but also how they use each other to achieve the common goal of growing your business. 

Branding and marketing intertwine to build strong, connected, and dedicated businesses and franchises. The only way to understand how these two differ is to examine the individual importance of both, and watch as they work together to make each other more successful and impactful.

Branding

The intention of branding your business is to specifically lay out the identity of your company. The brand is the identity, personality, and mission that your company lays out for its consumers and clients to relate to and believe in. Your business’s brand is who you are, and it’s the way that you want the outside world to see your company. 

Your company’s brand is what strengthens the relationship you have with your customers and clients. It openly expresses your business’s values and personality, building loyalty and trust. Most of the strategies a business uses to market themselves will align closely with the goals and objectives of the business. 

To put it simply, to brand your business is to define it. Branding is the portion of your business that uses logos, colors, and even identifying slogans to set itself apart from competitors. Branding is incredibly important to creating an individuality for your business, defining exactly who you are and why your business follows the values and beliefs it does. 

By branding your business, you are rigidly establishing who you are, what you stand for, and why you’re a clear, optimal choice for consumers. 

Marketing

The marketing side of your business is equally important, but entirely more fluid than branding. Marketing is the advertising tactics you use to promote the brand you have established. Marketing can include promotions, advertisements, sales tactics, and it works on a much more short-term basis than branding does. Marketing ebbs and flows as necessary, dependent on how the business is performing, as well as to help the business gain traction in the community. 

While branding is much more focused on defining exactly who you and your business are, marketing is focused on explaining what it is that your business does. It allows you to get your brand name out in the community, promoting the aspects of your business that set it apart and that the following may not yet know about. 

While marketing your business is focused on using advertising to show what your business does, branding is used to set up the guidelines for marketing. Marketing uses the colors, attitude, and expressions that are dictated by the branding to define the tactics that will help advertise for your business. 

Marketing for your business helps to reiterate the brand by promoting its beliefs, color scheme, and establishes other defining characteristics, all of which remind the consumer of the core values of a given brand. 

How Marketing and Branding Work Together

Now that we have an established understanding of the difference between branding and marketing, we can truly understand how the two work together to grow a fruitful and lucrative business. When you define your brand, you’re establishing a sense of trust and promising the consumer that by investing in you, they are making a good decision for themselves. Marketing is the medium through which customers and clients will typically find your brand and learn more about its defining characteristics.

Marketing is often a consumer’s first interaction with your brand, which is why it is so important to utilize the same principles in marketing as you do in branding. Promotions, testimonials, and advertisements all speak volumes about what a brand stands for, and the role of marketing is often to form that first line of communication and connection that an unfamiliar party would not immediately have with brand interaction. 

So, which is more important for my business?

The answer to this question is: both. 

Branding and marketing work so closely together to bring in customers and define your business. Without branding, marketing has no traction or ground to work with; and, without marketing, a brand is simply a collection of promises to already familiar parties. 

In short: marketing discovers buyers, and branding builds trust.