As a creative agency, we work on both the branding and marketing of our customers’ businesses. From logo design through to social media, we do it all, and yet so many customers ask us “what’s t difference between branding and marketing?” This is why we’ve put together this blog post – to explain what they are and how they differ from one another.
What is Branding?
According to our team of graphic designers, branding is:
- Everything that you see about a company
- Creating a strong, positive message for a business
- Everything from a business’s logo and colours to its tone of voice
- The idea or image people have in mind when they think of a business
- What you visually associate with a company
- Both physical and emotional
Your company’s branding should represent who you are and what you do, accurately reflecting your mission and values. Whether it be the colour palettes and fonts you use in your logo or how you communicate with your customers, it all stems from your branding.
What is Marketing?
Our Marketing Manager, April Trigg defines marketing as “the processes undertaken to identify, anticipate and satisfy customer needs, wants and demands with a product or service”.
Marketing can take place both online and offline with multi-channel marketing campaigns typically including:
- Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
- Pay-Per-Click (PPC)
- Social media marketing
- Email marketing
- Content marketing, including blogging
- Video marketing
- Audio and radio advertising
- TV advertising
- Print campaigns
Marketing can also be broken down into inbound and outbound marketing. Inbound marketing includes content marketing, SEO and social media. However, outbound marketing refers to channels such as TV and radio ads, print campaigns and cold calling.
How Are They Different?
In short, your branding is who you are, and your marketing is how you build awareness of what you do. Your branding is the core of your business and your marketing is the means by which you promote it in order to achieve your goals. Branding refers to your business’s identity, whereas your marketing is your tactics.
Which comes first?
Without a shadow of a doubt, branding comes before marketing. As branding is at the core of who you are as a business, it is one of the first steps you must take to develop your company.
Once you have developed your brand identity, your marketing follows. Your marketing is where elements of your branding such as tone of voice, colours and logo are used to produce materials that will build awareness of and generate leads for your business.
To find out more about our branding and marketing services, get in touch with our team today. Give us a call on 01452 729 953 or drop us an email at hello@brace.co.uk.
