Does advertising without branding makes sense?

The explosion of social media and video sharing platforms in India have enabled crores of people to board the digital train. Everyone wishes to have his/her own reserved seat there, without realizing that its is overcrowded. This is specially true for many businesses in the traditional industries as well as in the small and medium scale sector.

The perception that has been created is that posting on Facebook and Instagram will give overnight success. They directly wish to start with advertising, without realizing that the Brand needs to be created first. Often I interact with prospects who want to do social media promotion. They have been doing their businesses successfully for many years and now they want to do advertising (many of them for the first time in their lives) on Social Media because they have heard that it is cheaper than mainstream media like Television and Newspaper.

When discussion takes place regarding the basics like Positioning, Value Proposition etc, it seems trivial to many. Many people in their impatience want to bypass the steps of Strategy and even Design. Better late than never, some come back to us after having lost their money in senseless advertising. By then they have realized that boosting posts and paid promotion is not tantamount to branding.

We then get back to the drawing board and then start with the basics again. Is the brand positioned right or needs to be repositioned? Is the Visual Identity in the right place and are the Design elements including the Logo and Corporate Identity properly created? Is the Packaging design making an emotional connection with the target audience? Is the Brochure design creating that intended impression on the B2B/B2C clients?

This process goes again and again and when the brands created by us become successful, it adds to our conviction of Brand Building.