Branding and marketing – the two terms are very close. In many companies with small communications departments, the two even mix. But, as a matter of fact, each of the two requires different research and processes. Sound too abstract?
In short, a branding strategy consists of attributing value and credibility to a brand. In marketing, strategies to promote products and services are discussed and put into practice. But it’s not that simple. The two terms are quite complex. So, let’s detail each one separately so you can understand the difference.
Branding
When designing a branding strategy, there are some questions that are not very easy to answer. See below for some of them.
Who?
Who are you? What are your main characteristics, strengths, and weaknesses? What sets you apart from the world? It’s not easy to answer these questions about yourself, is it? Because you will have to find those same answers for your company. After all, if your brand were a person, what would it look like? And more: who would the audience want her to be?
It’s time for you to roll up your sleeves and describe your brand person, answering all of the questions above. The fewer blanks and unanswered questions, the stronger your branding strategy.
Who is my audience and what does it want?
This question will help you answer many others, like what is the purpose of your brand, how it expresses itself, what promises it makes. This is the step where you define your persona. What are their interests, their biggest fears, what they do, like and dislike. It is as important a step for the branding strategy as for the marketing one.
Why?
Why does your brand exist? What is your purpose, that is, your mission? Once you’ve defined your audience and their interests, it’s time to spell out a mission that aligns with these issues.
The purpose of your brand is one of the characteristics of its personality that promote identification with the consumer. So, think not just about your own business, but how your company can impact the world and make a difference. Nowadays, consumers want something more than “selling brands”. They identify with companies that embrace causes, whether environmental or social, depending on the target audience.
What does your company believe?
What are your brand values? Honesty? Integrity? Determination? When you define and communicate these values, it’s like telling the customer that they can trust your business. They can buy your products or services not just for the quality or the price, but because your brand has values that humanize it. They will not only be buying products or services, but ideals.
How does it show?
This is an important part, which is mainly linked to the visual elements that are part of the brand. All communication must follow a specific pattern of use of logo, slogan, and colors. Think about those brands that, when you see an advertisement, even before you see the brand name, you identify it only by its colors. This happens because it has a striking visual identity, very well crafted.
Of course, all visual specifications must be aligned with the personality, purpose, and values of the brand. For you to have a good branding strategy, nothing can contradict you.
All the “rules” of the visual identity are usually set out and justified in a Visual Identity Manual or Brandbook, which serves as an important source of reference for anyone working with brand communication.
Conclusion
Thus, defining a branding strategy means planning how you want your brand to appear in people’s memories, even creating emotional bonds with them. And this is different from marketing, which means establishing communication strategies to associate all the values attributed to the company in the branding stage to its products or services. That is, convert to sales.
Now, let’s talk about marketing for you to understand even better.
What is marketing?
Philip Kotler, renowned theoretician of marketing, gave a simple definition: It is meeting needs while generating profit, he stated in his book Marketing Administration. This definition summarizes a very comprehensive concept. So, let’s build on it to further explore marketing objectives.
Marketing is about meeting needs
The first part of Kotler’s definition already talks about consumer needs. These are needs that already exist, they are not created by advertising, as is often heard out there. Based on this premise, a good marketing strategy involves research, which investigates what consumers need. In branding, you already understand who they are, what they characteristics are. Now, you will find out which products or services make their life easier and better.
Once you’ve made it clear what those needs are, you’ll use marketing to convert them to desire. How will you do this? Publicizing its solutions in an interesting and persuasive way, through the most accurate channels to reach the consumer. In other words, you are going to advertise, one of the marketing tools.
Marketing is to generate profit
Interestingly, this is the second part of Kotler’s definition. The word profit is the first word that comes to many people’s minds when they think of marketing. However, the primary concept of this field of communication is not to generate profit at any cost. Meeting the needs of the market comes first.
Profit is important, of course, and it is one of the main objectives of companies (unless NGOs, for example, which can use marketing for other purposes). The question, then, is to combine the most important needs and desires of the public with the creation of innovative solutions that allow your company to guarantee sales and generate profit.
Once these solutions are created, you communicate them, guaranteeing their value and attributes, taking into account the 4 P’s of marketing or Marketing Mix, a concept created by Jerome McCarthy and spread by Philip Kotler, one of the most basic and important to this day. objects of study of the Advertising and Marketing courses. Let’s understand what these 4 P’s are.
The 4 P’s of Marketing
Product, Price, Place and Promotion – four very important elements for strengthening your brand in the market. When the four have strong and defined strategies, there is a much greater chance that the public will be won over.
Product
As the name already helps us to assume, “product” is what you are offering to the market. But it’s not just a matter of communicating what your product – or service – is, but of saying what are its characteristics, its functionalities, who it is intended for and in what situation, what are its advantages over other similar products.
Price
Stipulation the amount that will be charged for your product also involves analyzing how much your audience can and is willing to pay for it. Also think about how you want your brand to be seen, as the price also influences your image. Other questions you should ask yourself are: can there be price variations depending on the distribution area? How is your price compared to the competition? Will it be necessary to create differentiated prices for certain audiences?
Place
Here, you define the way in which the consumer will access your solution. Will it be in a physical store or in a virtual environment? What is the channel with the most visibility and easy access for the public? Think about where the consumer could or usually look for what they like. That’s where you should target your product.
Promotion
Despite the name, this is not a discount or sale. In fact, we are talking about the sense of promoting your company and its solutions, of showing the public that your brand offers what they need. Therefore, you should think about which channels will be ideal for your business. Radio, TV, internet, printed media? How does the competition do this promotion? What is the best period for these promotional actions?
Conclusion
You may have already understood or are almost there: branding is how you attribute value to your brand, create memories and affective bonds with your audience, define how you will be seen in the market. Marketing is how you use your company’s image (created in the branding stage) to communicate your product to the market (using the 4 P’s), meet the needs of your customers and generate profits.
But to make it all black and white, let’s take an example from one of our clients. So, you see how everything works in practice!
Mavalério’s Communication – from image construction to sales
Mavalério, a Bee client, is a company that operates in the sweets and confectionery segment. It is also present in other countries through exports – the United States, Chile, Ecuador, Argentina, Korea, Fiji Islands, Japan, among others. Its main audience is confectioners, cooks, wholesalers, and other professionals in the candy business.
The brand not only sells its products, but has a strong presence in the digital environment, with content, tips and recipes, maintaining constant communication with its market. But how does this happen? How do branding and marketing fit into this story?
Mavalério works with the slogan “Present in the sweet moments”. Note how the phrase is emotional and affective, promoting the idea that the brand is always present. Now why buy Mavalério? “This is exactly why the company seeks to be part of its history, its memories. Because it can be present in your bakery, increasing your profits; or in the decoration of a party; or in the best recipes you make for the children”, explains Nathália Galvão, a copywriter who writes the company’s digital materials and social media publications.
More than being present, Mavalério is part of the sweet moments. In addition to being a word that refers to the company’s segment, it is closely linked to the moments you want to keep in your memory, those that you miss and that you want to relive. Reliving good moments is counting on Mavalério! See how just the slogan gives value to a brand? That’s branding!
And the concept of the phrase is also taken into account at all times in the brand’s visual identity, as explained by Danilo Rolim, creative responsible for the graphic arts that involve the company:
“Communication seeks to awaken a good memory in the spectator, making this clear association between sweets and happiness. Hardly a memory related to a candy will be an unhappy memory. In the case of Mavalério, it is essential that there is no lack of a good dessert image with the applied products or an image that translates a sweet moment, relating the product to an affective memory of the consumer.”
In relation to marketing in visual communication, Danilo highlights the importance of Mavalério’s packaging, for example, causing desire in the consumer, something very common for companies that work in the food industry. But this is always being linked to Mavalério’s values. “Visual communication helps to build and strengthen Mavalério’s identity, positioning the company for a specific market niche. In this way, we are present in the minds of consumers, increasing brand recognition and recall”, continues Danilo.
Júlia Groppo, responsible for planning the brand’s communication on social networks, brings us the perspective of Mavalério’s constant presence in the digital environment. For Júlia, on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, Mavalério seeks to make itself present in people’s memories “as the brand that is part of the sweet moments, as the slogan itself says! And these sweet moments are the simplest of everyday life. Those who use a recipe made with Mavalério products will be even more special”.
Also read: Learn how to use social media for business.
And now, talking about revenues, they are also a way to leverage sales, in other words, marketing! “We teach step by step these recipes and how our audience can use each of our products in them. Our consumer can see beyond the product, understand? He already sees it in a context, in a very incredible result”, continues Júlia.
In short
Mavalério’s branding consists of associating the brand’s presence in people’s best moments, through the slogan “Present in the sweet moments” and visual communication, which seeks to associate sweets with joyful moments.
Marketing, on the other hand, takes place in visual communication, through packaging and other persuasive arts, which arouse the desire of the consumer, and also through publications on social networks, especially when there is disclosure of recipes with Mavalério products. And all of this, of course, is much easier since the branding stage has already fixed the brand in the public’s memory as something of value.
Anyone who thinks that this is a simple process is wrong. It involves a lot of research and immersion in the consumer and business world. And the work is constant, as communication must always be built on the basis of defined concepts. Furthermore, the market is always changing, consumers have different needs and are increasingly demanding. For your brand to always be at the top of your audience’s wish list, it’s worth investing time and dedication to branding and marketing.
