Marketing is different from branding. Marketing is a series of tactics. Branding is residue of the strategy. Marketing is a series of actions that PUSHES the consumer or business along to buy your product. Branding is about creating A MAGNETIC PULL that creates loyal customers from those who buy. And a great brand turns those loyal customers into advocates, helping you spread the word.
Branding has to come first because it defines the essence of your product or service. It defines and describes the DNA of your origin. Or, as Simon Sinek would say, it expresses your WHY.
How Is Marketing Different from Branding?
Marketing can happen over years with advertising, digital campaigns, promotions and live events. But after all of the activities are done, what remains is the brand.
How do customers feel and think about your product beyond the noise and the hype?
Marketing encompasses the products you sell, but product is still in the land of tactics. The coffee you serve at your neighborhood café, the blend of wine you create for the 2012 vintage, the cut of the dress or the color of the hat for the fall collection – these are all a part of the marketing universe. They are important tactics but they are part of your transactional eco-system of commerce.
What I tell myself or my friends about your shop, products or services is the trace element of your brand.
Like CSI, you find the DNA all over a brand experience that makes you happy or fulfills a need. Brands aren’t often about the products, but they cause you to want to be part of the Starbucks, Apple or Lululemon community. Just watch the Apple stores the night before a new product is launched. That’s what a brand creates.
Dyson, Kind & Ken
I bought my first Dyson vacuum cleaner about 10 years ago. That was the result of their marketing. I am a loyal, proponent of their brand talking about them because their brand connected with me. Check out the great work of their foundation. My loyalty is rooted in the brand, not the marketing.
I consumed Kind bars for years but in the last few months I learned about the program called kind causes, donating $10,000 per month to a kind project. The product was well marketed to me. I love the taste. I love the places I can find it. But now, the brand has secondary meeting that goes beyond flax, almonds and honey. The brand lives within as a feeling that nourishes me in a deeper way than the product.
Ken Wright Cellars is a one of my favorite wines. His pinots from Carlton, Oregon are spectacular. I got to know Ken through my work at Nomacorc, my employer. He is a loyal customer, and I appreciate that very much. His wine has won awards and was Wine Enthusiast #1 wine in 2014. But that’s all part of marketing.
What I love about his brand is that he doesn’t want to expand because his wife cooks lunch for everyone nearly every day. And, she can only make food for so many people. I love that about his brand, that it is so centered on the people who make the wine with him. That leaves a real taste in my mouth for his brand.
Marketing helps you find customers. Brands make them evangelists.
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Are you interested in learning more about the tactics of marketing or what it takes to build a brand? Give me a call, I’d be delighted to chat with you.
Photo courtesy of Ken Wright Cellars
