Branding vs Marketing (a quick guide)

Branding

Cambridge Dictionary defines Branding as – “the activity of connecting a product with a particular name, symbol, etc. or with particular features or ideas, in order to make people recognize and want to buy it”

Positioning

Brand positioning is all about finding where you fit in within your industry / target market, for your brand just to be in the public domain is simply not enough. The link between brand positioning and brand loyalty is strong so using your position to create loyal clients should be one of your key aims and should be part of your brand strategy.

You should put together a brand positioning statement, this won't be published publicly anywhere and will only be for internal use but it should include who you are, what you do, you you target and the benefits of your brand.

Logo

A logo is what people typically think when they want a “brand”, there are varying ways this can be achieved through logo or wordmark and many different factors that come into play when looking at the design.

For instance, the use of colour has a major influence on how your target market will perceive your company, colour phycology should be used in the planning and development stage of any logo creation to reinforce both personality and the qualities of the company / product.

Equally, if the colours used or even the design of your logo doesn’t appropriately represent what you do then this can do more harm than good and can confuse and damage a brand’s sense of personality.

The main aim for a logo is to be one that people will identify anywhere they go.

Image

This is where we get to tap into people’s feelings.

In order to connect with your clients/customers you need to make sure that your brand image gives out a positive impression of your business. It's that simple!

Using your social media, website and advertising campaigns to show the world who you are is the best way to get across your message consistently and turn that into customer trust and loyalty.

The take away point here is how do you want your customers to feel when they see/hear about your brand? Use that as a starting point and work backwards to create the steps required for people to get to that place.

Purpose

Although similar to Brand Image, the purpose of your brand is to get across your main goals, your mission statement and ethos/company expectations (We're building trust here!).

Your brand purpose should be clear and should be one of the main elements in your brand strategy. Ultimately this is your guarantee to customers/clients that they will receive what you have promised, this seriously builds trust.

Guidelines

Guidelines are fun! I love putting them together for companies and projects!

Essentially they are a set of rules relating to your brand.. Everything from the use of the logo/wordmark, correct use of typography and colour down to the tone of voice and associated design elements.

Once you have a brand and a set of brand guidelines it makes working with external design companies easy, both parties know the score in regard to the use of your brand assets and the outcome? A uniformed cohesive product which sits comfortably in your family.

How about Marketing?

Marketing  – “the business activity that involves finding out what customers want, using that information to design products and services, and selling them effectively” Cambridge Dictionary Definition.

So, we have our brand now we need to use this to spawn engagement and push sales.

Research

Research is a key part of marketing. Knowing your target audience makes things a lot easier, putting together a typical profile for an “audience” in regard to location, interests, age etc will make advertising a lot easier and should mean that you are able to see a ROI (return of investment).

Direct Marketing

I previously mentioned advertising in the last section, this is a form of direct marketing!

Direct Marketing is where you seek to achieve a specific action with a selected group of customers (this could be a sale, website visit, subscription etc) based on an action by you the marketer.

There are many different ways in which this can be achieved, popular methods include online advertising (google / social media etc) but other approaches also include email marketing and postal.

Social Media

Social is split between organic and paid content, you can spread your purpose and communicate with you target audience without spending a penny! But in order to reach potential customers further afield then this is where paid marketing comes in.

If you’ve got your target audience identified (Market Research) then creating ads on social platforms just needs to you allocate budget and content.

Beware! it doesn’t matter if you are using organic or paid social marketing if you are posting bad content.

Making sure you have great, engaging content which reigns supreme over your competitors is key here! Make sure you post regularly and offer valuable information that you target audience can make use of.

Making use of your own graphics and photos/videos is also a good way of showing your investment in your social platform and your business.

Product / Service

Something New? I must have it!

Product marketing is all about getting a product / service in front of your customers and generating sales.

You’ve got your target audience down, now we need to take it to the next level and get to know their buying habits so you can develop your product positioning accordingly and make it appeal to that audience.

Product marketing isn’t all sunshine and iPhones though, sometimes taking a step back and looking at whether the product is ready for market, if the product is suitable for today’s economic climate (post COVID-19?) and what differences your product has over a competitor will all help you place well against everyone else and ensure sales are successful.

So in summary,

• Marketing is what you are saying about your company.
• Branding is what you want your customers to say about your company.

Maybe I should have opened with that!

www.wearecardinal.com