What is the difference between ‘branding’ and ‘marketing’? And ‘marketing’ and ‘advertising’ for that matter?
TL;DR
- Your brand is the STORY. Branding is the act of creating the story.
- Marketing is TELLING your story.
- Advertising is PAYING to tell your story.
- PR is having SOMEONE ELSE tell your story.
Your brand is the story.
All of the components of a great story are considered here. Main characters, supporting characters, scenes, origins, challenges, conflicts, aspirations.
The story is brought to life into the physical world through your visual identity (your logo, your colour palette, website, etc.), your products and services, staff, your social media posts and engagement. You get the idea.
It’s not one element on its own.
Your product can’t tell a story without the rest of the pieces of the saga in place.
Your sexy looking Insta feed isn’t going to tell your story on its own.
Alone, they’re not your brand. Together, they are a total narrative. All those elements work together to create your cohesive and unique tale.
Brand strategy is mapping out how your story evolves.
It’s about taking your story’s foundations and working out where they’ll be in the next chapter.
What goals will your brand will strive for and which challenges it will overcome. Which characters will *gasp!* die in order to make way for new ones.
A brand strategy is about how to achieve your brand’s higher order vision.
Marketing is telling people your story.
The avenues you choose to get your message out there into the world. AKA the media channels.
It’s about connecting your story to your audience in the most effective and efficient way. It’s about creating that relationship and driving that engagement.
It’s the ongoing experimentation to find what works to cause the most potent reaction. It’s the cycle of learning and adding to your knowledge bank so you can find those new and exciting ways to tell your brand story.
Marketing strategy is planning how to use your story to create an ongoing relationship with your audience.
A marketing strategy is guided by what’s going to best help you achieve your brand vision.
Brand and marketing go hand-in-hand. Well, I for one am glad we got that all cleared up.
If you’re still not quite feeling like you’ve got this nice and clear, I’d love to hear from you. What’s got you the most stuck? I’m here to help you get unstuck and on the path for creating an impact with your brand.
