Marketing vs Branding

Is there any difference between Marketing and Branding ? Sure there is, a big one. And it's easy to answer that question.

Long story short :

- The brand is the why. It is your DNA, what you are.

- The marketing is the how. How do you bring you brand to you clients and customers. All the tactics you want to put in place, and measure how much of an impact they have toward your goals for your business.

Branding : Building your brand image

It is your essence, not copiable. It has it's personality. And all around, culture, company, HR politics, products/services experiences all over the customer's journey should be consistent with the values and its personality.

A brand should have, like a person, a personality. Because, that is why people like or not. Because it is unique. Different. This personality will be the reason why people will buy the product/service when not just because of the lowest price.

Thus, it should be trustworthy, reliable, consistent and qualitative regarding the product it sells. But not just that ! The brand is the universe within your product/service/company live. It has a personality and a culture. Values. Messages.

The brand is the only this that it not copiable but the competition.

Prices are. Technology is. And love is an irrational emotion.

A bit of methodology :

- Define the brand : what are the core values which will always be claimed whatever the format. To do so, it is important to understand and know what your customers are expecting, sensitive about and your competition's position.

- Find the levers. Make a list of what is important for your customers. And do not put yourself in their shoes. Go and ask : to the commercial person, to customers, conduct surveys. and pay attention to the verbatims you get. Because, there are ideas to claims your values and your brand benefits/promesses in a way that is ringing a bell to your clients. Define your clients. Get to know them.

- Define the architecture. Like for a house. It is a Brand, a Master-Brand, Hybride. Examples :

- What does it look like and how does it speak. The logo, colors, moodboard. On which tonality. Familiar, Sophisticated, Super expert and technical, distant.

One word : consistency !

How cool is that for a brand to be known before the customer actually uses it ? He/she starts to use your service/product because they think everyone already does. Take Slack as a good example, or Netflix.

Then, define the point of contact within your customer's journeys.

Where and how are you going to tell you about your brand ? This is marketing.

Marketing : bringing your message to the interested communities

Be authentic, powerful, and tell your story.

Begin with what you know about your clients to understand and define the different touch points.

This should help you answer : Where can we get in contact with them ? Where can they hear about us ? Do you notice specific behaviors to build personas to be as close as possible by your customers and prospects' expectations ?

If you are addressing either a B2C or a B2C market, you need to be clear about the customer journey. It usually looks like that :

Keep in mind the "Before", "During" and "After" action from your customers or prospects. This is important to try to be in his/her shoes to deliver the best/ a better experience each time they are in contact directly or indirectly with your brand.

Then you have a lot of different channels : direct marketing, indirect marketing, what we could call inbound marketing (contents strategies to drive MQL lead and nurture them to convert them on SQL) , outbound marketing (including displays, emailing, direct sales...). Lots of formats : audio, video, pictures, textes, street action (example : Tinder went to universities to get girls, then get boys claiming they would find girls).

My advice would be to work on an integrated/360° marketing communication. Given all your previous analytic work :

• What are your main objectives ? My main value proposition ? The story* I want to tell.

• What are your ressources (persons, time and budget) ?

• What claims / messages have the most impact ? What are my personas (max. 5)

• What channels do you want to prioritize given the ratio value/effort ?

• How are you going to plan and measure your communication ?

* Why a story :

• Establish a brand identity

• Justify the existence of a product / service

• Exit the market relationship to go beyond a short-term action

• Create support or even affection (eg Mac, Apple)

Get Inspired : Couples of contents I found useful

• Video of Liam Boogar, head of brand strategies @MadKudu " Building a brand that your users will love"

• Video of Simon Sinek, "Start wicth Why"

• Couples of pretty cool brands that I think have a good sense of consistency and prioritizationo on messaging : Alan, Doctolib, Redbull, Nike

• Article from the Hubspot blog here