As a business owner, one of the most important things you can do for your company is to make it visible online. While there are a number of tools you can take advantage of in order to achieve this, knowing what each accomplishes, as well as which tools to use and when, can be a difficult task. One example of this is the question of branding vs marketing—that is, what each accomplishes and how they should be leveraged to grow your business.

At LA Creative Marketing, we are here to help you determine exactly that. Our team specializes in providing branding and marketing services to companies, and we can do the same for you. By assisting you in defining your brand identity, creating brand messages and marketing your services, our goal is to remove any confusion you may be feeling from the equation.  

What is Branding?

A brand is a collection of concepts and visual elements—your company’s mission, values, priorities, initiatives, voice, color palette, logo and more—that tell the story of your company. An established brand identity allows your business to be quickly identified by consumers, carve a place for itself in the online marketplace, and appear as attractive as possible to target audiences. 

Branding is the process of creating this identity, crafting a story about your purpose and goals while focusing on the unique features of your company. When done well, branding not only creates a positive perception of your business in the minds of audiences, but also helps them to connect your brand to your products.

Some key elements of branding include:

• Your brand name. While it is important to choose a name which stands out, it shouldn’t be too convoluted to remember. Also ensure that your name conveys something about your brand identity in order to make forming a connection between your brand and products easier.
• Visual elements. These include your logo and color palette, as well as any consistently used shapes or fonts. Utilizing visuals like photographs or graphics can also help to convey your brand identity to audiences.
• Brand personality. What makes you relatable to your target audience? Think of a few traits you would like your brand to convey, and inject them into your communication, content and design.
• Brand purpose and story. Why was your company founded, and what is its goal? Focus on being authentic, as this may allow you to create an emotional connection with your target audience.
• Brand positioning. In other words, the what, who and how of your brand. What are you offering, who are you offering it to, and how are you different from your competitors?
• Brand promise. What can audiences, clients and employees expect from every interaction with you? Once you have decided on your brand promise, make sure to stick to it—perceived dishonestly may drive audiences away.  

What is Marketing?

While branding gives you something to sell to your target audience, marketing is the process of actually selling it. In other words, marketing is the actions businesses take in order to promote their brand and encourage the buying of their products or services. These include search engine optimization, social media and email marketing, print campaigns, and commercials. 

Some key elements of a successful marketing plan include:

• Consistent brand voice and personality
• Target audience. Knowing who you are talking to allows you to create a direct and persuasive marketing strategy. Consider traits including age, location, career, gender, interests and values in order to determine how to segment your target audience and shape content for each group.
• Marketing objectives. While you can begin marketing your business without set objectives, you may quickly lose track of what you’re trying to achieve. Instead, start by considering your goals. These may include driving sales, utilizing different platforms in order to reach new audiences, and building brand awareness and loyalty. 
• Consider what platforms your target audience prefers, and begin your marketing efforts there.
• Set a realistic budget that will allow you to meet your goals without spending more than you make.

Above all, remember that marketing plans are flexible. Popular platforms and methods differ from year to year, and you need to be adaptable in order to shift with your audience. Otherwise, you might risk getting left behind.  

Better Together: How Branding and Marketing Serve Your Business

When considering the benefits of branding vs marketing strategies, it is important to remember that these tools function best when you use them together. Marketing your business without a brand identity is a difficult endeavor—you can sell your products, but no one will know anything about the company they are supposed to be trusting. And without marketing, it will be difficult to attract attention from your target audience. 

In short, once you engage in a brand strategy comparison of these two methods, it is easy to realize that they need each other. In order to effectively grow your business, make sure to use branding and marketing in tandem, rather than as two entirely separate strategies.

Contact LA Creative Marketing Today 

On a surface level, branding and marketing may seem almost entirely different. Your brand identity demands constancy, while your marketing efforts demand change. Branding is a primarily internal effort to shape and define your business, while marketing is an unceasing effort to garner audience attention. However, in order to catch and hold the interest of your audience, you need to be able to use both of these methods in service of the other. And when you work with LA Creative Marketing, we can help you achieve this. A one-stop-shop for services including brand development, content writing, website design and marketing assistance, we offer all the help you need to build your business in one place. So if you’re ready to see what branding and marketing can do for you, reach out via our website today.