Branding and Marketing

There’s a bit of confusion mostly in the inter-change of functions of marketing and branding.  Any business always has marketing embedded in their corporate structure but few has brand management incorporate in their companies.  How important is branding and is it really a necessity to have such a department or could it just be included as a sub-classification under their marketing department.

For all multinational companies that gives so much importance and value to their market position, branding is very important, equally if not more important than marketing.  Their corporate brands are considered as an asset that needs to be protected and retain market position thru the efforts of marketing avenues.

Here we differentiate and delve into the two contrasting and yet parallel world of branding and marketing, what makes one equally important in any company organizational structure.

Branding is strategic. Marketing is tactical.

Marketing may contribute to a brand, but the brand is bigger than any particular marketing effort. The brand is what remains after the marketing has swept through the room. It’s what sticks in your mind associated with a product, service, or organization—whether or not, at that particular moment, you bought or did not buy.

The brand is ultimately what determines if you will become a loyal customer or not. The marketing may convince you to buy a particular Toyota, and maybe it’s the first foreign car you ever owned, but it is the brand that will determine if you will only buy Toyotas for the rest of your life.

The brand is built from many things. Very important among these things is the lived experience of the brand. Did that gadget deliver on its brand promise of reliability? Did the maker continue to uphold the quality standards that made them what they are? Did the sales guy or the service center mechanic know what they were talking about?

Marketing unearths and activates buyers. Branding makes loyal customers, advocates, even evangelists, out of those who buy.

This works the same way for all types of businesses and organizations. All organizations must sell (including nonprofits). How they sell may differ, and everyone in an organization is, with their every action, either constructing or deconstructing the brand. Every thought, every action, every policy, every ad, every marketing promotion has the effect of either inspiring or deterring brand loyalty in whomever is exposed to it. All of this affects sales.

Branding is as vital to the success of a business or nonprofit as having financial coherence, having a vision for the future, or having quality employees.

It is the essential foundation for a successful operation. So yes, it’s a cost center, like good employees, financial experts, and business or organizational innovators are. They are cost centers, but what is REALLY costly is not to have them, or to have substandard ones.

Marketing vs Branding

There is a spectrum of opinions here, but in my view, marketing is actively promoting a product or service. It’s a push tactic. It’s pushing out a message to get sales results: “Buy our product because it’s better than theirs.” (Or because it’s cool, or because this celebrity likes it, or because you have this problem and this thing will fix it, etc.) This is oversimplification, but that’s it in a nutshell.  This is MARKETING.

Branding on the other hand, should both precede and underlie any marketing effort. Branding is not push, but pull. Branding is the expression of the essential truth or value of an organization, product, or service. It is communication of characteristics, values, and attributes that clarify what this particular brand is and is not.

A brand will help encourage someone to buy a product, and it directly supports whatever sales or marketing activities are in play, but the brand does not explicitly say “buy me.” Instead, it says “This is what I am. This is why I exist. If you agree, if you like me, you can buy me, support me, and recommend me to your friends.”

Is marketing a cost center? Poorly researched and executed marketing activities can certainly be a cost center, but well-researched and well-executed marketing is an investment that pays for itself in sales and brand reinforcement.

Is branding a cost center? On the surface, yes, but the return is loyalty. The return is sales people whose jobs are easier and more effective, employees who stay longer and work harder, customers who become ambassadors and advocates for the organization.

Conclusion

Branding isn’t the same as marketing – branding is the core of your marketing strategy. In order to build an effective brand, you need authenticity and clarity in each of the steps discussed earlier, allowing your target market to identify with your brand personality and values successfully.

One final thing to remember – and a very important point – is that branding isn’t a one-time thing that you do at the beginning of establishing your business. It is an ongoing effort that permeates your processes, your culture, and your development as a business, and it requires your dedication and loyalty in order to reflect in your work. At the end of the day, the true measure of your branding success is in earning loyal customers who become your brand ambassadors as well.

Brands you would wear on your T-shirt

Just a thought, since there are countless brands and products in the market today, and most of us have preferences and are even loyal to those brands, the question just came to mind is, what brands would we would wear on a T-shirt. We pay a little more to get them, go out of our way to find them, even wait in line for them.  Please note that what I am talking about are brands that are not related to any apparel lines that we can easily purchase in the department stores or clothing boutiques.

These non-apparel line brands that has endeared us if given a chance to be on a T-shirt, would we want to flaunt and walk around in them.  These can be our favorite online games, what we eat or drink, our favorite catsup, favorite energy drinks, electronic gadgets, beer, liquor, cigarette, automotive, hobby thing etc.  Some brands may be bizarre looking to be on a T-shirt, some may look cool and hip, others may be an attractive colorful design to be worn.  Whatever that favorite brands we have, wouldn't we be glad if we can wear them too.

It was interesting to discuss the reasons we would wear a T-shirt advertising a brand—particularly for people in the branding industry who, ironically, seem more hesitant to wear a branded T-shirt. For some it was about a niche product they were fans of.  The brand is almost like a tribal affiliation. For others it was the graphics. They liked the design of the mark and were not particularly interested in the product. For more than a few it was about the ironic value. For all of us it was a very personal story. When we wear a T-shirt advertising a brand, it means we have an emotional connection to that brand.

If we think about it, these are brands that defines us, that speaks best of our culture, our belief and most of the time it attracts us because of their colorful graphics and designs, thus we want them to be on our T-shirts that we can deliver the message of loyalty and our emotional attachment towards that particular brands.

So whether your T-shirt says Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, Honda, Mercedez-Benz, Intel, Lotte, US Robotics, Walmart, Watson’s, Mitsubishi, Coke, Pepsi, Gillette, it means something to you. And the reasons may be ineffable. But one thing is clear: Whether it stirs a feeling or creates an association with a community, or something else entirely, the T-shirt signifies your connection to a brand that goes beyond a transactional product-consumer relationship. It’s branding at its best.

Weigh in on our social channels: What are your favorite branded T-shirts, and why would you wear them?