What do planes have to do with marketing, branding and your business?

Initially, the connection between the concepts of this blog post’s title is not evident. But if you read the article, you will soon understand this mess. And, overall, you’ll learn the difference between marketing and branding and the importance of each concept for the the success of your brand or your business.

 

Differences between marketing and branding

 

It’s common to confuse marketing and branding, even among many professionals in the sector.

Nevertheless, understanding that they are different things which have distinct goals is crucial when managing a business. It is even more essential if you’re thinking about hiring an expert in this field or finding an agency which offer this kind of services.

 

If you don’t want anyone to fool you with marketing and branding (there are a lot of fake gurus), the first thing you should do is understanding the definition and the goals of each concept

 

Before going on, let me remind some basic ideas:

 

• When you have a company, you have a brand. Si tens una empresa, tens una marca.
• When you don’t have a company because you’re a freelancer, you have a brand.
• When you have a brand, you have to take care of it.
• When you don’t look after your brand, your chances to success get notably reduced.

 

A brand is what others think it is. A perception based on how they see you, which feelings you cause and what they say about you.

 

If your brand is well defined and it’s been built with a strategic vision, it can bring great benefits to your business

 

Contrarily, when a brand has not been well planned since the beginning, or when there’s no clear strategy to take care of it along time, consequences are usually disastrous for the business.

 

What is branding?

 

Branding is, without further ado, the task of building and managing a brand.

 

 

A brand is not what you think it is, but what others feel it is. The goal of branding is to make both things match so they bring value to your business.

 

What are the goals of branding?

 

The GOAL of branding, in capital letters, is to make the brand sell more. To sell through brand positioning. For it, branding finalities are:

 

1. To define and shorten a unique value proposal for your brand (business), which includes the differentiation from competitors.
2. To generate deep connections with your target (your real or potential clients) in the values plan, beyond the product or service you offer.
3. To give a defined and recognizable personality to the brand with concrete values and attributes.

 

Apple, for instance, is a brand which has done a great branding work: there are technically better smartphones and computers, but those who buy a Mac or an iPhone feel something special. Even if they are conscious or not, consumers feel the brand matches with her/him.

 

What is marketing?

 

Marketing is the set of techniques a brand uses to promote a product/service and increase short-term income.

 

 

What are the goals of marketing?

 

The ultimate GOAL of marketing is to make the brand sell more. Exactly the same as branding. With this purpose, marketing uses branding and involves the following actions:

 

1. To properly segment the target to which the brand is addressed to.
2. To develop promotion actions of the products and services based on the goals and needs of the segmented target.
3. Follow the consumer up along his/her journey through the brand (before and after buying) to detect opportunities along the way.

 

The plane metaphor

 

If we had to define marketing and branding with a metaphor, it would be simple:

 

Branding is the landing track for marketing’s plane to depart and fly as high as possible

 

What was first, the egg (branding) or the hen (marketing)?

 

What came firstly, marketing or branding? Unfortunately, in some companies marketing starts without branding. In both cases, the result tends to be very negative.

 

The logical order of things is: branding firstly, marketing secondly

 

This is to say, first you have to define your brand’s value proposal very well, connect it to your audience and then think of techniques to promote your products/services.

 

If you are looking for success, take note

 

If you want to increase your business’ success, you have to take the potential of branding and marketing into account. The key is:

To include branding to your digital marketing strategy to get short-term and long-term profitability.