When it comes to branding and marketing, the waters can become muddy in determining the differences, similarities, and relationships between the two.

Have no fear! We’re here to clear some of that up for you! 

We’ve even heard people use branding as simply a synonym for marketing and vice versa. The confusion only becomes a problem when you’re implementing efforts to market your business! 

To truly understand branding and marketing, let’s start by gaining a better understanding of each term.

Branding

When you think of branding, a logo might come to mind, which is a great start. Branding certainly includes a logo – as well as colors, fonts, and other visuals that represent your company. BUT it doesn’t stop there! It is actually the entire essence of your business. 

Branding is a term that refers to the overall identity of your business! The visuals are a huge part of it, but equally important are things like your messaging, website, social media, and even how your business functions!

Marketing

Marketing is the umbrella under which branding falls. Marketing refers to any efforts by your business to promote your sales or services. 

You can think of traditional advertising, networking, promotional merchandise, events, etc.  Most recently this has grown to include content marketing, like social media and SEO. Marketing should INCLUDE branding, the two are often thought of as separate but tend to be mutually beneficial.

Why do you need both?

While you technically can market your business without investing in branding, it is much less effective.

More People Will Remember You

You don’t want to invest in advertising or marketing to make one teeny-tiny sale, do you? No! You want your customers to recognize your business so they come back more than once. 

With branding, you can cultivate a relationship, a familiarity, with your audience so they want to support you in the long term. 

It Will Build Trust With Your Audience

Branding presents the opportunity to maintain a strong connection with a previous or future client, even though they may not be ready to invest or make a purchase. In other words, it makes your company recognizable and memorable. 

If you were walking down the bustling streets of Downtown St. Petersburg looking for a good coffee, would you rather choose the cute and professionally branded shop or the one that has made no effort? The choice is usually unanimous.

Studies have shown that over half of all consumers are more likely to frequent a business that shares unique content with a brand they know and trust. But we don’t really need to say that, do we?

Branding Creates Company Culture

Is your team looking to grow? Branding can help with internal marketing efforts as well! I can help you create like-minded visions and goals and create a work environment that people want to work for. Companies that have strong and strategic branding often attract higher-quality team members. 

Solid branding creates the perfect foundation for a successful marketing campaign. At The Mug, we consider it a prerequisite- a necessity you must have in order to build trust, credibility, and recognition with your audience.

Branding is your opportunity to build relationships and connections with an audience – even if it starts out small! Logos, colors, and brand fonts/marks promote easy recognition across platforms. Consistent branding across all platforms (website, social media, traditional advertising, etc.) has been shown to increase revenue by 23 percent!

Not convinced? So much of branding is achieved visually through the design process.

Branding begins with strategy, without a strategy, marketing has very little direction!

If you’re reading this wondering what you can do to improve your branding, we’d love to help!

Email me at meghan@themugcreative.com to set up a discovery call!