A Perspective - Branding v/s Marketing !!

Branding is an identity and a reflection of your goals, vision, and strategy of a business. While Marketing is an activity to target the customers through various online/offline actions towards your products, services, or solutions you offer to customers.There is a thin line between Branding and Marketing which gets misinterpreted by many of us and it's important to understand to set the strategy. 

Just Imagine that when you look at the google logo or Facebook logo you will automatically recognize it. This is nothing but the branding of Facebook or Google. But it doesn't stop there; just by looking at the logo, you understand that both are social media platforms. Because they have created awareness of their services through various marketing actions. So, branding defines who you are and marketing defines what you offer !! 

For creating your brand you must have to understand; what is your company's objective, services, target market, long-term vision, and strategy. According to that, you will define your actions to create your brand journey. Marketing refers that what kind of mode you need to use to reach out to the target audience to convey your brand's message. Here you can use Online Mode; Offline Mode or Hybrid Mode of marketing. Most of the business falls under the third category where a business owner has to define marketing actions online and offline both which is hybrid. For online (Digital) marketing you should leverage social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, and many more. 

Marketing is dynamic in nature which can be changed as per the situation and various factors of business and services. Also, in various modes of marketing like in digital marketing we need to leverage Social Media Marketing, Search Engine Optimization techniques, Content Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Email & Whats app kind of tool marketing, blogging, and other techniques. However, the Brand journey has to define along with your company's long-term vision and cant be changed at least for a few years after implementing. A brand builds customer trust. It is a slow and steady process.

Branding always comes first before marketing. Assume that you start your business; you need to create your identity which is nothing but a brand. Branding defines by asking questions like Who are you as a brand? What do you want to bring to the marketplace? What are your core values? And, most importantly, how are you going to communicate that to your target customers? If your customer gets the answers to these questions just by looking at your brand then your brand efforts are successful. 

So it's clear that you must have to understand a thin line between brand and marketing and set your strategy accordingly. You can leverage subject matter expert services to define your brand strategy as that's the only way to succeed. When subject matter experts understand your goals clearly and define the brand journey and actions; it would be easy for you to stay focused on Core business services.!! 

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