The terms “branding” and “marketing” are often times used interchangeably, but these concepts are more than buzzwords. While marketing and branding are connected, they are not the same. When businesses evaluate their marketing goals and throw in branding as an afterthought, they miss out on the benefits that come from individually establishing both. Separating these terms, though, requires businesses to understand how each exists on its own.
Branding
Like the foundation of a home, branding acts as a platform for marketing to be built off of, said Andrea Billups, a journalism professor at the University of Florida who previously taught personal branding.
“Branding is how a company or business agency creates a foundation for what it stands for,” she said. “What it values, how it will operate and how others in the external world will view it.”
Matt Steel, the creative director at branding and design agency Parisleaf, said branding starts by establishing values.
“For some people, branding just means a name, a logo, a tagline, some colors and fonts,” he said. “But, we think branding starts with the mission — an organization’s purpose — its answer to ‘why do we exist?’”
In 2017, Parisleaf went through what it calls a full-essential branding process with Walker Architects. Parisleaf began by helping the firm establish a verbal identity. Before the visual aspects of brand redesign took place, using the new mission and vision alone, the architecture firm successfully closed an
eight-figure project with a new client.
“For the first time in his career as an architect, our client had the clarity and the confidence to express what sets (his firm) apart, why they exist and why it matters to their clients,” Steel said.
This is proof that branding is so much more than just the look of a business. After the goals of a business are defined, the brand should permeate everything it does. This also includes its representation on social media.
“Thirty years ago, you didn’t need to define audience in online space,” Billups said. “Now, it’s the first layer of communication. It’s the audience’s first vague connection to what you look and feel like.”
From Facebook to Twitter, online branding is the basis for what people think about a business.
“Social media is like your billboard — it’s your town square for your company,” Billups said.
While branding displays itself online and through other external means of communication, it is also internal. The company culture, how employees dress and workplace values are all part of a brand, too.
Most importantly, a strong brand is authentic. It’s not just using flashy coding or making a business appear better than it is.
“Branding helps businesses show their integrity – how they are really,” Steel said.
While marketing plans change, brands stand the test of time. Apple and Ford still exist today not only because of their products but also because their brands have shifted to fit the culture and times they exist in, Billups said.
Marketing
In simple terms, marketing is all about pushing a business’s brand out into the world. “The goal of marketing is to reach an audience and move it to act,” Billups said.
Marketing is the communication of a message. It’s why customers should support, share and use the services or products of your business. It includes things like determining strategies to bring people to a website, how to use print collateral and what tradeshows to attend, Steel said. In the past, marketing focused on a company’s needs, but in today’s world, successful marketing focuses on the needs of the customer.
Richard Lutz, a marketing professor at the University of Florida, said that marketing is based on exchange.
“Historically, companies would come up with a new technology or product in their research and development and say, ‘Let’s go out and sell it,’” he said. “Businesses used to look internally at the organization, but sometime in the late 1950s, companies began to have a marketing orientation.”
Rather than focusing on internal development, businesses began to pay attention to their audiences. Marketing focuses on the customer experience. It deals with how a brand can successfully be promoted to and received by customers.
Strategy
“Branding and marketing are complicated,” Billups said. “There are people in this world who have great expertise in both of these lanes, and it would be valuable for business people and owners to pay attention.”
Establishing a brand begins with understanding the qualities a business hopes to advance. Does it want to be viewed as energetic? Elegant? Innovative?
“You decide to think about what you stand for and work to infuse (that in) all of your marketing materials and qualities,” she said.
Businesses build an audience around their brands — their symbols, images and goals — and can push those brands out through marketing. Once a brand has been determined and the direction of the company begins to change, the marketing team needs to evaluate how to promote it.
Brand development and marketing should be priority investments. They are important at the start of a business and throughout its lifetime, Billups said.
“Branding is about building and reinforcing the foundation,” Steel said. “The process never ends. You’re always refining your brand.”
Similarly, marketing strategies must constantly be redefined by a business. What works now is going to be wildly different five, 10 and 15 years down the road.
Branding allows the audience to understand a business while marketing allows the audience to encounter it. So, why not develop branding and marketing strategies separately? When businesses individually establish both, they will be even stronger when brought together in the end.
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Brooke Bajgrowicz is a senior journalism student at the University of Florida. She loves going to concerts, taking road trips and rewatching episodes of The Office. Upon graduation, she hopes to move to a big city and write for an entertainment magazine.