Which activity should be the starting point for your company Branding or Marketing?  Which came first the chicken or the egg? (Spoiler: The eggs came first).

Without further due, when embarking on a new entrepreneurial experience, you should know that Branding should always come first, while marketing will be built upon a successful branding campaign. Following the metaphor: Branding is the egg and marketing is the chicken. 

This is because after figuring out the branding ideology of your company, creating a marketing strategy will become much easier. In this article you are going to view what branding and marketing have in common and what differentiates between them in their ultimate goals and methods.

  What is Branding?

Branding is a very critical and powerful aspect of the business’ communication with its market. The mere act of effective branding could result in your product being sold at a higher price with no change in its quality. This is, however, just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to naming, branding, and typography. A brand is comprised of a multitude of factors. Have your brand colours and voice figured out? What about your mission statement and vision statement? What about your promise and core values? To create an effective brand, you need to combine all of those ingredients into a singular and unique brand. 

Customers are more aproned to be more loyal to your company if you have a strong brand identity. The goal of this process is to have the customers think of your company when they are hungry or looking for a specific solution which translates to higher sales and customer loyalty.

Branding is practically the customers’ collective perception of your company as a whole. A successful branding process would be assess essential elements like the feeling you convey, the picture you paint, the promise you make, the beliefs you represent, and the experience you create.

 What is Marketing?

Marketing is a name given to a vital battle of perceptions between businesses and themselves and their customers. After you implement your brand’s DNA in place and defined, the next step becomes how you display it to the world, which -to be done correctly- needs a strong marketing plan. In marketing, you’re promoting and advertising your product or service in front of the world. For example, consider billboards, social media ads (such as Facebook), posters, discounted sales, and so forth. The ultimate goal of an ad is to raise public awareness. When you see a great ad, you feel compelled to act immediately.

Customers grow to perceive your brand by how you’re marketing and displaying it:

An ideology they do or don’t share with the company, an exciting or boring experience that relates to it, an accurate or inaccurate design, an image that’s clear or confusing, a feeling that’s positive or negative, a message that’s simple or difficult. All of these are ways in which the company’s name or brand sticks with the consumers, and how they decide on dealing with the company.

‍Practice Time

You can start by answering the following questions to yourself. And answer them as thoroughly and honestly as you can. This will serve as a road map to figuring out what your brand is. 

 Branding is why:

• Why do we exist?
• Why should people care?
• Why are we different?

 Marketing is how:

• How do we make progress?
• How do we measure things?
• How do we get results?

 Branding is long-term‍:

• What is the company vision?
• What can we disrupt in our industry?
• What long-term impact will we make?

 ‍Marketing is short-term:

• What will bring immediate results?
• What will get our messages heard?
• What tools will we use to do it?

 Branding defines trajectory:

• Where are we going?
• Why are we trying to go there?
• What is the intention of our goal?

 Marketing defines tactics:

• What is a measurable goal?
• What are our deadlines?
• What is the size of our budget?

 Branding builds loyalty:

• Why will people connect with our brand?
• What can we do to delight our customers?
• What will make them feel inspired?

Marketing builds response:

• How can we get more clicks?
• How can we get a greater open rate?
• How can we generate leads?

 Branding creates value:

• Who are we speaking to?
• What value can we give?
• What impact will it make?

 Marketing extracts value:

• How many people responded?
• How do we increase engagement?
• How will this data help us?

This sums up Branding vs Marketing in a nutshell. Don’t stress too much on the details, nothing has to be set in stone. You can always go back and change things. And if you don’t know how to go about answering some of these questions, that’s okay. The goal of this is for you to take baby steps and get ideas flowing through your mind.

 What Makes a Brand unforgettable?

A great brand is one that reflects who they are at their core and surpasses expectations in terms of customer service. How does your company’s image come across? How interesting, lively, and relatable is your brand? To build relationships and engage with people, to create a successful relationship, you don’t want your customers to be bored with it. Winning people’s hearts will lead to winning their minds (along with their wallets).

 If you’re still facing a problem with the differentiation between the two activities, fret not, as this is actually extremely normal. Numerous marketers will actually deal with them as if they are of the same category.

Putting Theory into Practice

You now know that branding is the personality and identity of your brand, whereas marketing is simply promoting it to the world. This is just the beginning of what’s to come! Now is the time to act! What your brand is can be determined by looking at the list in front of you. If you don’t get started, none of this will matter. Is it really of any use to keep information in your head? Use it! Visualize yourself a year from now when you start and stick with your branding strategy. As a result, you can better predict your own future by imagining it.