Contributor Writer: Trejsi Hushi

Let’s start off by saying that a great logo, beautiful bright colors in your designs will bring you success because that’s exactly what most people want to hear. Everyone wants the easy way out but that’s not the case when it comes to building a business. Not only does it take a lot of planning and effort but the key success is branding and marketing. Now let me answer a question that people tend to ask the most. “What is the difference between Marketing and Branding?” They don’t sound alike but many people confuse their purposes for the business.

Marketing is simply the process a product or service goes through from the moment it was created until it is sold. Another way of explaining it would be a promotion. We use marketing techniques such as promotion to sell products. How does that work? Simple, we as marketers develop a great message that will result in sales. So basically, we push this message out and try to gain the attention of consumers until they like the product and consider purchasing it.

Branding is another concept, it is a story. Imagine the culture behind your business, who you are. It doesn’t tell you to buy products the business offers, but it tells you its value and what it can offer. Branding is so much more than that. Since marketing is like a “one night stand,” branding is always there and motivates you as a consumer to buy their products. A good, strong brand will determine how loyal your customers will be based on what you offer them. It doesn’t push you to simply buy a product like marketing does but it pulls the consumers closer to the brand.

I call them a sisterhood even though they are very different from each other. Yet without both of them, the business will not grow. The bond they have is very strong and that’s what we need both in order to succeed.  We first need branding in place, then Marketing comes after. Without branding, marketing doesn’t work and vice versa.

By having branding and marketing connected to each other, the business can benefit in different ways. When we try to market a product of a brand that is very strong and has many loyal customers, it is more likely to succeed because the consumers are more likely to be involved with this brand. In this situation, while marketing takes over, we can gain as many sales as possible which is the goal of any business and is much easier to accomplish in this case.

Even with a weak brand, this can still work as long as the marketing strategy is strong in this case. If marketers are able to go all the way to gain our consumers’ trust and be able to sell, we not only will gain loyal followers, but it will also help us to meet their needs as well.

Being that marketing and branding can lead to a successful business, we need to make sure that we go through each step to get a positive result. You simply won’t earn much in sales if marketing is not taking place and cannot be as confident and strong if the branding process hasn’t taken over.