Think of a slice of pizza with its delicious, fresh-baked dough, sumptuous tomato sauce, and gooey cheese. It's pizza perfection.
Without the dough, you merely have sauce and cheese on a plate. Not such a delicious sight unless you are a fan of tomato and cheese soup. Without the sauce and cheese, you have… bread. You need all the things to make the perfect slice of pizza.
My fellow business owner, I'm here to present you with a pizza rich in ingredients called branding and marketing! Delicious!
Before you dig in, let's go through the difference between each and why you need both to make the perfect concoction of yummy goodness to satiate your business's hunger for sales, brand loyalty, and advocacy.
Branding and marketing are in a symbiotic relationship. Both serve an essential purpose in getting your business out there to be seen and loved. As a result, branding and marketing are key ingredients to business success. They need each other.
Branding: The Pizza Dough
I define a brand as a combination of four things:
1. Your Reputation - Essentially, your brand is what people think of when they say or see your business' name or likeness (logo, signage, etc.).
2. Your Differentiating Factors - Several coffee shops exist, but there's only one Starbucks. People used to make fun of Starbucks' Tall, Grande, and Venti size system, because it was so different than what we were used to seeing. Still, this one element, among other things, helped Starbucks stand out, generated buzz, and caused people to give it a try leading to loyalists who would never show up to work without a Starbucks in their hands.
3. Your Ideals - This is otherwise known as what you stand for. Several businesses sell computers, but there's only one Apple Store. There are several cell phones in the market, but only one iPhone. Apple is a brand because it stands for something more than just computers and phones. The store and the products themselves exhibit core qualities, values, and ideals that the brand architects at Apple successfully infused into every commercial, every ad, every store, and every package. Apple stands for more than just the actual products it sells. It extends past the existing products to mean innovation, a lifestyle, and a "cool factor" that has created a population of loyal consumers.
4. Your Look - All of the cool threads your brand wears, like your logo, color palette, fonts, and icons!
Branding aims to create a strong and positive perception of your business and its product(s) or services to persuade your audience to choose you over your competitors.
The logo and visuals will get your audience's initial attention, and the brand message is what gets them to contact you. It's what enters and stays in their minds and shapes how they perceive your business.
Marketing: The Toppings
You created the foundation and dough of your pizza, your brand strategy. Now, it's time to add the colorful topics and get people to crave your pizza. That's where marketing comes in.
Marketing refers to the tactics or tools you use to reach audiences and get your brand message to the masses. Marketing encompasses various methods, but each strategy should focus on your target audience and, most of all, represent your brand.
Marketing methods include but are certainly not limited to:
Social media
SEO
Pay Per Click
Television Ads
Print Campaigns
Although your marketing tactics may change or evolve based on data and results from your campaigns, your core brand messaging should remain relatively the same.
We recommend re-evaluating your brand quarterly or yearly, but massive brand overhauls should be few and far between if you dedicate enough time to build your brand.
It's time to chow down!
Marketing is what you "do" to get your audience's eyes on your brand. Branding is what allows your audience to connect with your business and message.
You can invest a million dollars into your marketing efforts tomorrow. Still, you won't convert a million people if your brand messaging and visual expression are lackluster, mediocre, and devoid of emotion and passion.
In the same vein, you can invest all your energy into brand development and have the most fabulous logo around, but no one will ever experience or get to know your brand if you don't invest in marketing tactics to be seen and heard.
Hungry yet? Dig and indulge in our branding and marketing pizza!
With gratitude,
P.S. Put your chef's hat on and start creating your branding and marketing pizza. First, create a brand book! A comprehensive brand book will give you the strategies and messaging structure to establish and communicate your brand personality, purpose, and values on various platforms. HALCON makes impactful brand storytelling and stunning design accessible to all businesses and budgets. Learn more HERE.
