What is The Difference Between Branding, Marketing, and Advertising?

When it comes to marketing and advertising, and sometimes even branding, many small business owners consider the terms to be interchangeable.

Of course, that excludes those who think branding is having a company name and a logo…

The reality, however, is that knowing the differences between each of these will allow you to formulate a more effective plan to not only generate business, but to build a name for your business (or yourself, if you ARE the brand).

Let’s see if we can break it down to the point where it makes sense for everyone.

Simple definitions:

1. Branding refers to the public perception of your business. Do potential buyers know about your business? Do they trust your business? What does your company represent, and what is the reputation you have, or want to build?

This perception is influenced by everything people say about you when you are not in the room.

Then of course there is your basic brand identity, which refers to things like your name, logo, brand colors, and your unique brand voice.

2. Marketing is a strategic plan, resulting in a specific set of actions, all of which relate to acquiring and retaining buyers, encouraging word-of-mouth, and keeping unhappy buyers to a minimum.

This can encompass a very wide range of actions, ranging from advertising and content marketing to publicity and the whole customer experience.

Many small business owners think that marketing stops once the prospect walks through the door. However, how they experience doing business with you will determine whether they will do business with you again, or tell their friends to come and do business with you, or whether they will tell their friends to avoid doing business with you.

That pretty much makes it part of marketing.

Scary fact: 94% of people interviewed in a marketing study admitted that they have avoided doing business with one or more brands after reading a negative review. This does not mean that you will lose 94% of your buyers because of a single negative review, but if any of your prospects reads a detailed negative review from someone they resonate with, the damage will be notable.

It has also been said that every unhappy buyer can influence, directly and indirectly, up to 250 other potential buyers. You may want to keep the number of unhappy buyers to a minimum. That’s probably where the expression of “the customer is always right” came from.

Because even if the customer is wrong, the damage they can do to your income is usually much worse than what it takes to satisfy that one unhappy buyer.

On the flip side, happy buyers refer others, reducing advertising costs.

The bottom line is this: What you do after acquiring the buyer will have a direct impact on how many people walk through – or return to walk through – your door.

3. Advertising relates to activities that promote specific products or services.

This could be paid ads like Google- or Facebook ads, highway banners, radio or flyers, print- and newsletter ads, and sponsored content – content on social media or blogs which include a specific reference to a specific offer, products or services.

It could also include unpaid forms of advertising like classified ads, ads on Facebook groups, and physical advertising boards.

Here is a simple analogy to differentiate:

a. Branding is all about your reputation.

b. Marketing is about how you build relationships with strangers, and maintain them with buyers.

c. Advertising is about promoting products, services or specific offers.

For instance:

John just started a micro-business. To build his brand, his van and clothing bear his company name, logo and slogan. At a later stage, when he can afford it, he will place some ads that promote only his brand, and nothing more.

Taking into account how much time and money he has available, and what it would take to keep his customers happy, he has compiled a marketing plan that requires relatively little daily time inputs, but it likely to reach his target audience.

To kickstart his business, since he is still building his reputation and growing his social media following, he decided to run an opening special, and put paid ads on Facebook to make people aware of it.

Of course, as part of his branding campaign, he also adds his name, logo and brand colors to every advertisement and marketing content piece that he puts out. He is already doing the work to create them, so why not use it to promote his brand too?

4. How branding, marketing and advertising work together to grow your business:

Advertising captivates attention. People become aware of what you do and offer.

Marketing, including the portion that happens after making the sale, builds relationships. Some of your buyers come back for repeat business, and some tell their friends.

Branding, which includes being consistent in everything you do, builds trust. As your name becomes well known among people that haven’t done business with you yet, and people who have done business with you speak highly of you, your perceived reputation makes more and more people trust you.

Remember that branding, marketing and advertising combine into a machine that helps you grow your business and market share. If you remove any one of the three, you will stifle – or even stop – your growth.

5. Common mistakes small business owners make:

a. Spending money on ads without clear branding. Doing this means you throw away a free opportunity to make your business identity.

b. Running promotions while not having any real marketing strategy. If you don’t have a strategic plan in place, you are just “throwing stuff at the wall to see if anything sticks”. There are many variables associated with any marketing activity. Familiarize yourself with them, and take them into account when developing your marketing plan and -strategy.

c. Changing your logo or messaging too often. Changing either of the two will alter your perceived brand identity. If your new logo or brand message is too far removed from your precious one, people who previously resonated with your message, or remembered your old logo, may find themselves unsure about whether your brand still represents the values they care about.

6. When should you focus on each one?

If your business is brand new, you have two challenges: First, people don’t know who you are yet, and two, you need to generate leads or buyers in a hurry.

That makes the initial push a tie between branding and advertising. The logical choice would be to combine them. If you can, try to generate some publicity as well, which can be used for both, but will reach substantial numbers of people in a short time.

Whether you focus more on the brand or the advertising at this point in time will depend on your reserves, or lack thereof.

Advertising also becomes your number one priority when you want to promote a specific limited-time offer.

Marketing becomes your main priority when you want consistent growth, and you want to build long term trust.

For instance:

If your business runs good ad campaigns, but your branding is weak, you will probably experience short term success, with little chance of converting prospects into buyers in the medium- or longer term – unless you keep paying for ads. If you only put ads on social media, you can only scale it so far.

If you have built a strong brand, but you don’t market consistently, it may be easier for people to trust you, but your growth is likely to be slow.

If, however, you combine all three – advertising, branding and marketing – you can build the perception of your brand, while steadily growing your business, while leaving room for using advertising to quickly generate traffic to specific offers.

8. In conclusion

a. Branding is about your brand identity and values, and how people perceive those.

b. Marketing is the strategy and actions you use to grow your business.

c. Advertising is what you use to promote specific offers or products or services.

Now, the million-dollar question:

Are you using all three of these as best as you can?

If you are unsure, let’s talk. Click Here to talk to us.