“I know I need some marketing, but truthfully, I’m not sure what the difference is between branding and advertising. These words all seem to blur together.”
I was a bit taken aback by the question from a CEO who reached out to me to help with some marketing. He was a super-intelligent technologist who never gave much thought to how to market his software business. In the beginning, he didn’t have enormous overhead and had plenty of work from his former employers as a contractor. As his business slowly grew, he has gotten to the point where he wants to generate more leads, gain more awareness, and grow his business.
He isn’t sure what to invest his marketing dollars doing since there are so many choices and, with great humility, admitted he needed help. I patiently explained the differences between advertising, branding, and marketing.
Then, our work began as we focused on strategy – what could he do that is difficult, differentiated, and would provide amazing value to prospective clients. I wish before I spoke to this CEO, I knew the tow truck story to illustrate my points.
How The Tow Truck Story Can Help
People who reach out to me tend to be CEOS, owners, presidents, or founders. They are excellent at what they do, like software, architecture, engineering, or people with specialized expertise. To them, marketing is an afterthought. Owners assume that like Field of Dreams – if they build it, they would come.
There are lots of ways I explain branding, marketing, and advertising. I have many metaphors to explain the differences, but I recently stumbled upon a simple story that perfectly illustrates this point.
It is so clear – that with permission from Bill Harper, a fellow Raleigh-based marketing consultant, he has allowed me to repost his story. Thanks, Bill.
The Tow Truck Story
Imagine you’re going to an event that is so important to you.
It could be a career-changing interview or renewing wedding vows, or being the emcee at your parent’s fiftieth wedding anniversary.
It doesn’t matter except for two things:
1. It’s essential to you.
2. You MUST be there, in person and on time.
So, you’ve spent weeks or months preparing for the big day, and it’s finally here. You’re dressed in your Sunday best and have all the paperwork ready to go. This is it.
It’s raining like crazy when you get into your car. You look at your watch, and everything is going as planned. You’re leaving an hour early, and it only takes 30 minutes to get there.
But as you pull onto the highway, the worst possible thing happens. You get a flat. Usually, you’d change it yourself, but it’s raining like mad, and you’re in a nice outfit, so you call for a tow truck.
It takes the driver 15 minutes to get to you, cutting your 30-minute cushion in half, and that’s before any work has been done. At that moment, the driver taps on your window and asks,
“Did you call for help?”
“Yes, yes. That’s me,” you say.
The driver cracks a huge smile and says the following:
“You know, you made the right decision calling Our Towing Company. We’ve been in business longer than any other towing company in the area. Truth told we’ve been in business longer than any other company in towing history.
But that’s not all. Our people are better trained than any other towing company. We do twice as much training as any of our competitors. Our people are the very best and go through a rigorous evaluation process before they’re hired because we want you to have the very best towing experience possible. Because of these two things alone, we have become the most awarded towing company in history. We’re incredibly proud of that achievement.
Now, you see that truck I brought here today? We worked exclusively with Miller Towing Equipment to develop that truck. No one else has anything like it. We did this because your car is the second most expensive purchase most people make, and you’ll want to know it won’t be damaged due to a faulty truck experience.
The tires on that truck, well, we worked with Michelin on a proprietary formula to ensure our trucks won’t slip on a rainy day like today. Our trucks will always be there when you need us. That’s how much we care for our clients.”
Now, I ask you. What are you thinking about the entire time this clown is speaking?
“Shut up and fix the damn tire.” That’s what you’re thinking.
Now imagine the same scenario. Same truck. Same driver. Same timeframe. Only this time, it happens like this:
The driver knocks on your glass. “Did you call for a truck?”
“Yes, yes. That’s me,” you say.
“Great.
Our motto is On the Road in 10 Minutes or Less. We know you’re busy. Sit tight.”
And he goes to work.
Who will you recommend to your friends? And who will you avoid like the plague?
That’s the difference between advertising and branding.
Breaking it Down
Truck Driver No. 1 exemplifies 99% of businesses that believe their competitive advantage is innovation, team makeup, technology solution, or promotion that everyone can see is to their advantage.
These businesses believe the role of sales and marketing is to create a laundry list of their features and benefits. The longer the list, the better it demonstrates how they’re better than the competition.
Truck Driver No. 2 is the 1% of brands every company leader dreams their business will one day become, namely Nike, Disney, Apple, etc.
These companies understand no one cares about their innovations, promotions, features, or benefits per se—unless expressed as a reflection of what their target audience values most. In the example above, this means getting to the important meeting on time.
You want to be the tow truck whose promise is to get you on the road in ten minutes, not the other one who wants to tell you how.
Is your marketing like Tow Truck #1 or Tow Truck #2?
Thanks to Bill Harper at wmHarper for permission to reshare this great story about the tow truck. It is a succinct way to understand the value of a powerful brand that solves a customer’s problem.
Photo by Mathias P.R. Reding on Unsplash
