Do you know the difference between marketing and Branding? Most people think that marketing and Branding are the same things, no, they’re not.
What is Marketing ?
Marketing is a series of value-adding steps that you implement to generate profits (Hippos to Horses Marketing definition). Oddly enough, Marketing ensures that an organization puts the consumer at the centre of its strategy.
Therefore, Branding will be?
Branding or Brands, on the other hand, is something totally different. Brands are assets. An asset is something of value a resource. Notice that the word ‘value’ it also makes an appearance in our in-house definition of Marketing. We can safely conclude that Brands are as a result of practising Marketing management. Brands are among the many assets that a business acquires or develops by having a marketing concept mindset. Brands are assets that help a company generates profits and differentiate itself from its competitors.
Branding is an outcome of Marketing. A Business that practices Marketing concept is the one can build brands. Branding and Marketing are not the same. This blog will illuminate more on marketing, Branding and their synergistic relationship.
Don’t take our word for it lets see what the marketing Gurus have to say
Felton’s definitions: – A state of mind
One of the earliest definitions arose when marketing was becoming a discipline that was termed as ‘the marketing concept’. Felton[1]over 50 years ago, proposed that the marketing concept is, a corporate state of mind that exists to integrate all the marketing activities and merge them with other entrepreneurial functions to produce long-range profits.
Kotler’s definition: – Goals achieved by satisfying customers
Another Marketing legend, Kotler (1996)[2] , has this definition as well, ‘The marketing concept holds that achieving organizational goals depends on determining the needs and wants of the target market and delivering the desired satisfaction more effectively and efficiently than competitors do.
Marketing is a state of mind that helps you solve your Tribe’s problems!
We see the recurring theme of process and value. The value is profits for business and products for customers (which could be a Brand!). You know that we live in an increasingly dynamic and competitive environment. As a small business owner, you are more likely to succeed and thrive if you understand your customers so well that know their fears, desires, wants, needs almost to the point that you know them more than they know themselves. You have to be the one to satisfy your tribe.
American Marketing Association definition: – The activity, set of institutions that create value
Finally, what does the American Marketing Association (AMA)[3]defines marketing as the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large?
These definitions have one thing in common, and they position marketing as rooted within a business’s core ethos. And as something with wide-ranging influence outside your Hustle. These definitions highlight the significance of the marketing concept, value creation process, mutually beneficial exchange and customer relations.
Marketing leads to mutually advantageous value exchanges.
Application of Marketing in the day to day running of a Small business?
As a fellow Entrepreneurs, we are aware that the reality of what marketing is in theory and what it means in our daily grind is a far more complicated. It could be the reason many people find it hard to differentiate between the two—the disparity between the theory and the actual running of small business. We should add that most of the studies often have big corporations in mind, not small enterprises.
Marketing is multidimensional
Webster (1997)[4] points out that Marketing has the most difficulty defining its position in a business because of its multifaceted. It is simultaneously culture, strategy and tactics of a company. Your business’s culture influences how you conduct business; the values and beliefs you hold are what drives your plans.
A business can only profit from the Marketing concept if they are fundamentally committed to solving customer needs to create and sustain a profitability enterprise.
A business can only profit from the Marketing concept if they are fundamentally committed to solving customer needs to create and sustain a profitability enterprise
Marketing concept should make your business agile!
As a business owner, you must develop an agile marketing strategy. What does agile mean? An agile business is one that actively pursues to develop tangible responses to the ever-changing marketing Ecosystem. During the COVID pandemic, many offline small businesses were closed, and those that survived were able to pivot. In an article by Emily Guerin, she writes that a survey of 22,000 entrepreneurs carried out in California’s small business development centres, found that over half of the small business owners changed how they served customers. These changes were to accommodate social distancing. Another 40% began offering a new service or product. It is no surprise that business owners unwilling or unable to innovate were likely to be closed.
Agility in Practice
An agile company is Wanderlust Creamery, an artisanal ice cream shop in Los Angeles County. Before March 2020, the in-store experience was core to their business model. Employees encouraged customers to linger in line, sampling as many unusual flavours (like sticky rice and mango) as they wanted.
When stay-at-home orders were instituted, Lopez realized that offering unlimited samples, indoors, was risky for his employees. So, Wanderlust temporarily stopped offering scoops, instead of selling pints of ice cream to go. Lopez also re-built his website so people could order pints online. He had no idea what to expect, but it was shockingly well-liked.
“For four years, online wasn’t even a thing on our radar,” he said, “and now that the pandemic is here, I can have a conversation about e-commerce with people, which is crazy, because I sell ice cream!”
He estimates that 30% of his business now comes from shipping hand-packed pints of homemade ice cream around the country.
For four years, online wasn’t even a thing on our radar,” he said, “and now that the pandemic is here, I can have a conversation about e-commerce with people, which is crazy, because I sell ice cream!”
Self-analysis
Have you defined your market segments? Who are you planning to target? Can you niche your customers? Are you developing products that meet the needs of your ideal customers better than your competitors? Are you willing to change when the circumstances around you change to survive?
Entrepreneurs know that in addition to planning for the long term, i.e., strategy, you have to use marketing as a tactic. Marketing tactics are the way you run your business on a day-to-day basis. Marketing tactics would include your marketing Mix, Branding, marketing communication, sales distribution of your products, etc.
Food for thought.
How do you as a business owner ensure that your business, Strategy, tactics and external environment align so that all your activities are centred on your ideal customer? It a challenge to simultaneously build a customer orientation and developing value proposition and define your competitive proposition and, and … You get the picture. It is not easy, but what is life if it not a challenge? It’s tricky, that’s for sure. it’s perhaps unsurprising, but the reality of marketing often falls short of the demands adjusted previously.
Life ain’t no crystal stair – Mother to Son (Langston Hughes)[5]
Life is not linear, at H2H – Marketing we realize that everything in life is a mix of science and art. A simple illustration, baking a cake all you have to do is follow the recipe, right? Wrong! You are creative, you add more ingredients, some cinnamon, lemons rinds, nutmeg … you know to add some, ‘je ne sais quoi’ to the cake. In business as in Baking, you must have the mental strength to handle the multifaceted nature of running a company; you must embrace a growth mindset and grit [Full disclosure this is an affiliate link for Amazon][6]
What are Brands? Brands are us !
Some people say a brand is a promise. Other people say a brand is a set of beliefs. At Hippos to Horses Marketing, we define a brand as you and me, i.e., Brands are us! Because they reflect who we are or who we aspire to be. Brands are also multifaceted, and it is the associations that we link to the name, mark, or symbol associated with a product or service that define a brand.
The keyword in this definition is associations. A brand is all the things you think when you see a name, mark, or symbol. When you see Tesla, you might think innovation, simplicity, green Energy and design. You might think of the Elon Musk and his distinctive attitude towards engineering.
A brand is much like a reputation. Just like reputations, brand associations may not always be positive, however, because associations can be positive or negative
Many brands have a mix of positive and negative associations. Pepsi can be refreshing, tasty, a source of joy, and on the flip side, Pepsi has negative associations around health. Virtually everything can become a brand, People, pets, concepts, Presidents etc. Today, the notion of a personal brand is not uncommon. Again, this goes to prove our point that brands are us!
Brands simplify decision making
Brands help people filter information, simplify choices, and make decisions. If you know and trust a brand, it will be your first port of call when you need to buy a product or service.
Brands Add Value to your Business
A strong and appealing brand is a powerful asset.
Brands Shape Perceptions
Brands have a remarkable ability to impact the way consumers view products. Consumers rarely see only a product or service; they perceive the product together with the brand. As a result, how they perceive the brand shapes the product.
Perceptions, of course, matter most. How people perceive information is far more than the absolute truth. Or is it? The question generally isn’t which product or service is best; the question is which product or service people think is best.
Brands Differentiate Products and Services
Brands add value is by differentiating products and services. In the current global environment, it is tough to succeed without differentiation. When customers realize that the offerings are all similar, they tend to focus on price.
Companies are forced to reduce prices (and margins) to secure market share, which reduces profits. Taken to an extreme, companies run at a break-even level, with virtually no profits at all.
Brands help to solidify the definition of the marketing concept, which is all about making profits. Without Brands, they are no profits.
Profits are not evil, and you should use profits to pay yourself, invest some of it back into your Hustle so that you have superior products, donate to a charity and the invest in your future (Stocks, ETFs, Index funds, Bonds, real estate etc. etc.). An excellent book to read if all this is new to you is Stock Investing For Dummies by Paul Mladjenovic [Full disclosure this is an affiliate link for Amazon][7].
Brands provide a clear basis for differentiation. With a distinctive and valuable brand, people will pay more. We are partial to Apple products here at Hippos to Horses Marketing, but again we tend to think of ourselves as smart shoppers so, we never buy any Apple product on the year that it is launched.
How are Brands Valued?
Brand valuation is a convoluted process. In its 2018 list, “The World’s Most Valuable Brands,” Forbes listed Apple’s worth at $182 billion, Google’s at $132 billion, and Microsoft’s $105 billion.[8] These are not trivial numbers.
Just recently, Nestlé paid $7.2 billion to license the Starbucks brand for use on coffee. Nestlé didn’t pay for the technology or sourcing, nor did it receive any physical assets in the transaction. Nestlé paid for the brand.[9]
Brands have value and Brands assure us that the quality will be consistent. You can read more about Branding here.
In conclusion, the Marketing concept is the philosophy of putting the customer at the centre of all business activities. One of those activities is to give to customers Brands that meet their needs, wants and desires in a better than competitors. So Marketing is the umbrella that houses Brands. Brands help businesses make profits. Profits are the long-term goals of a company’s that practices the marketing concept.
[1] Felton, A (1959), ‘Making the Marketing concept work’, Harvard Business Review, 37 (4) , 55-65.
[2] Kotler, P.C., Armstrong,G, Saunders , J.A and Wong , V.(1996), Principles of Marketing : The European Edition , Hemel Hempstead , UK : Prentice Hall.
[3] AMA (2008), ‘American Marketing Association releases new definition of Marketing’, Ad Age, Https://adage.com/article/btob/american-marketing-association-releases-definition-marketing/2710184 [accessed January 2021]
[4] Webster, F.E.(1997), ‘The future role of marketing in the organisation’, in D.R. Lehmann and K.E. Jocz (eds), Reflections in the Futures of Marketing , Cambridge, MA : Marketing Science Institute, pp.- 39-66
[5] Poem by Langston Hughes – Mother to Son.
[6] Full disclosure this is an affiliate link for Amazon. I get a teeny tiny commission if you use this link to buy this book at no cost to you. You will only benefit by enlarging your knowledge by reading the great content.
[7] Full disclosure this is an affiliate link for Amazon. I get a teeny tiny commission if you use this link to buy this book at no cost to you. You will only benefit by enlarging your knowledge by reading the great content.
[8] Forbes (2018),“The World’s Most Valuable Brands,” Forbes, May 23 https://www.forbes.com/powerful-brands/list.
[9] Mulier,Thomas, and Corinne Gretler (2018),“Nestlé Bets $7 Billion on Starbucks to Revive Coffee Sales,” Bloomberg, May 7. www.bloombergquint.com/business/ nestle-enters-7-2-billion-global-coffee-alliance-with-starbucks#gs.qx=c38M.