Let’s say you have come up with a great product, you’ve secured a manufacturer and they are set to start production. A great product doesn’t always mean success in the market place. Branding and marketing are crucial!
The success of most businesses is dependent upon mastering the art of branding and marketing. In fact, this may be more important than the service or product being offered. Even with the accessibility of manufacturing flooding the market with products, branding and marketing of the utmost importance to reach potential customers.
While branding and marketing go hand in hand, they are not interchangeable. Branding is strategic. Marketing is tactical.
Your brand is not your logo, your website, your name, or your product. Your brand needs to have a purpose behind its promise. While making money is important, brands that emphasize their willingness to achieve more than just profitability draw people in. A business vision that includes enriching the lives of others is appealing to customers!
Your brand must be consistent. This includes your logo, the colors and style of your website and how you conduct yourselves when you interact within your company and publicly. Emotion comes into play when you touch on a customers need to belong, to be loved and to be a part of something. Flexibility needs to be added within consistency to keep things fresh. Employees should be well versed in how to communicate with customers. You should reward loyal customers and look at your competitors experiences to learn from them. Check out this article on 7 Brand Strategies.
Within marketing you find the development of your product, the determination of its price, the selection of a distribution channel to reach your customers and the development and implementation of your promotional strategy. Marketing contributes to your brand, but your brand is bigger than any marketing campaign. However, it is the marketing that brings out and activates your buyers!