Essential Perspectives: Branding versus Marketing versus Sales.
The idea of branding is at once a common one and an amorphous one. It’s one of those concepts that most people feel like they understand, yet surprisingly many people find it challenging to define succinctly. Many would consider it to be your logo and name; others talk about their image, and till others their marketing messages. The reality it is all these and more – which is understandable, but not very succinct.
When it comes to generating new business or building an audience, having clearly delineated missions and goals is essential. This is an essential imperative; without a clear vision of what needs to get done, it will be harder to progress. Succinct, clear definitions of concepts as broad as “branding,” it’s cousin “marketing,” and it’s spouse “sales” is probably a good idea.
I have had to bring many client up to speed on understanding their branding, marketing, and sales terrain, and it starts with a clarification of what these three terms even mean. Sure, we think we know, but as I just mentioned, often they seem too broad and amorphous to define. But that’s just how they seem; in truth there is an easier way for a small business to wrap their head around these ideas:
Your BRANDING is your promise.
Your MARKETING is explaining how you will meet that promise.
Your SALES are the fulfillment of that promise.
Simple enough right? But not quite clear what that means on first pass. Let’s unpack those ideas a little more:
The Promise: Branding
The emotional part.
Conviction is an emotion, not a thought. I remind clients of this all the time; conviction is not the result of logical thought, but rather it comes from impulsive responses to input. Certainty is a primarily emotional thing; the hormonal burst, the slight pulse increase, the whole emotional thing. We decide what we prefer, what we pay attention to and what we favor according to how we feel more than according to logical explanations.
This is where brand steps in. When your customers, clients, or audience encounters your enterprise, what can they expect to feel? What ideas and notions will they become convinced of? What is their experience when they engage what you offer?
“Conviction is an emotion, not a thought. I remind clients of this all the time; conviction is not the result of logical thought, but rather it comes from impulsive responses to input. ”
These sound touchy-feely, but the idea is actually pretty straightforward. Will your audience feel passionate? Will they feel secure? Will they perceive that they re being taken care of? Will they sense that they're understood? These kinds of ideas are what your brand promises; engaging with you means feeling or experiencing certain things.
Think of some branding success stories. For our purposes, let’s go with big examples. Let’s take Apple Computers; let’s think of they’re brand, and what it promises. Apple communicates to it’s audience that their products are well designed, accommodating, and sophisticated. Their brand promise is that Apple product users are hip, intelligent, and have a touch of prestige.
Now, we know that buying something from Apple doesn't instantly make you sophisticated. Purchasing their phones or computers doesn't actually make you hip. But for a lot of consumers, they do feel that way – just a little bit – when they make their purchase. They are emotionally convinced that the Apple products added something emotional.
The irony here is that they are sort of right. What we believe becomes our reality, so if we believe we’re now sophisticated because we purchased an Apple product, well, then the brand promise held true. The branding promise isn’t a fake-out. It’s not a lie (even if some brands liberally use a bit of hyperbole). A brand is a promise that gets delivered.
When developing your brand, this is where we always need to start: what do you expect your audience to feel when they engage your product, your service, or your message? This is what shapes your brand, and guides all the creative representation of the brand. For example, if your brand is meant to make people feel passionate and powerful, maybe we use reds or oranges, and our imagery is sharp and bold. Or if your branding is intended to make people feel informed and intelligent, we may use forma ideas and scholastic-inspired imagery. The brand promise sets the theme for the creative development.
The rationale to support the Promise: Marketing
The logical way you’ll maintain their emOtional conviction.
“Marketing” covers a lot of ground. it encompasses many things. Here. we’re just referring to it conceptually; understanding what separates your formal marketing from your branding.
When you “market” yourself, you are explaining what you have to offer to an audience who you have (hopefully) strategically targeted for that message. That explanation can come in may forms: advertisements, testimonials, promotions, brochures, websites, social media, event sponsorships, logo placement, even within forms of entertainment like film. Over and over you present what you’ve got; your value, your difference from other similar products or services, and how people can get yours directly.
“Effective marketing always provides a logical follow through from the brand promise. The brand literally shapes the marketing strategy, determining what types of marketing to prioritize.”
Recall the emotional “promise” that got built up by your brand. Your marketing is the logical rationale behind that promise. The marketing is the “because” or the “therefore” that turns the conceptual brand promise into a potential reality for your audience. This is the goal of marketing; to explain exactly how your brand is the one who will make that promise come true. This is why you often see metrics, numbers, demographics, and lists become such a crucial part of developing marketing strategies; these are logic-based concepts. To determine the correct message you need to understand the themes of the audience, and those themes are arrived at logically even if we are appealing to the individuals in that audience emotionally.
Logical ideas behind marketing can look like this:
“You will feel happier because you will learn these things.”
“You will feel more relaxed because it is easier to get this thing.”
“You will have more confidence because you will have attained this.”
And so on, and so on.
Effective marketing always provides a logical follow through from the brand promise. The brand literally shapes the marketing strategy, determining what types of marketing to prioritize. If you want your company to seem more human, you might market through direct contact methods before brand advertising. If you want your brand to seem larger, you might use marketing tactics which spread your name out across several forms of media. There’s all different options for marketing but your brand helps create an hierarchy of priority.
Marketing strategies may be based in sound logic, but they require creative insight to develop with confidence. It’s the kind of creativity behind ingenuity; being able to pre0guess a probably outcome based on experience and reference. One way to keep on track to developing that intuition is to double back on the idea of “the brand promise” as the way to build perspective on marketing efforts.
The literal delivery of the Promise: Sales
Ensuring your enterprise’s future.
The “sale” can mean many things, depending on the nature of the enterprise. A company that sells products regards the “sale” as the literal purchase of the product. Similarly, a professional service provider may consider a “sale” to be the purchase of their services. A club may consider a “sale” to be an enrollment of a new member. A political group may consider a “sale” to be a vote for their platform.
The way we need to think of “sales” goes beyond just the transaction of money. The sale is where that emotional conviction we talked about earlier becomes quite literal; the audience is ready to experience the emotions promised. Taking this broader idea of a sale helps understand the flow of your branding and marketing; it helps you streamline your process to generate more business by better understanding the finish line.
“The way we need to think of “sales” goes beyond just the transaction of money. The sale is where emotional conviction...becomes quite literal; the audience is ready to experience the emotions promised. ”
Where most smaller businesses go wrong is believing that the sale is “the final step.” It seems logical at first; once someone makes a purchase, the goal is achieved, right? Well, not quite. The sale – and more specifically, how it is executed – actually becomes a vital component to both the branding and the marketing of your enterprise.
The sale is the fulfillment of your brand promise, and that brand promise worked emotionally for your audience. Their expectations are set according to emotions they anticipate. If your sale process falls. too far short of that anticipated emotional expectation you have a rather unsatisfied customer. Your brand promise feels false, your marketing was inaccurate, and you can expect to lose follow-up sales from that party. And that is not a good thing!
Keeping your sales process as “on brand” as possible is the creative component to the sales portion of the process. You may have a specific way your product gets delivered, or a follow up check-in. You may open the communication for the response, and cater to suggestions. You may give buyers purchase advantages or incentives that non-buyers don’t receive. There’s all sorts of ways to execute a sale that go beyond just the taking of the cash.
Which sales options should be built in to your process relies on your brand, obviously, but also on matching the messaging in your marketing. It is a cohesive component tooo many companies neglect, to their own future stability.
Branding, Marketing & Sales flows are created, not chosen
There’s more creative thinking to the process than you might think.
“Most of [the necessary] creative thought lies in...overlaps between brand promise, marketing logic, and sales execution.”
Many brands, marketing strategies and sales methods will seem very similar to each other, especially on the surface. Companies have been borrowing ideas from each other for literally centuries, sop it is rare that something purely unique is evolved. However that shouldn’t lead you to the incorrect conclusion: that you just need to copy whatever you see to put your brand to effective use.
The reality is that there is a lot of creative thinking involved in the process. Most of that creative thought lies in the overlaps between brand promise, marketing logic, and sales execution. Making sure you are not just carbon-copying a method and expecting it to work is essential. Likewise, only partially developing one phase will collapse the whole system.
Meanwhile, do not confuse improvisation for creativity. These pieces are best executed under planning, rather than as an ad hoc approach. Many small enterprises require people to wear many hats and play many roles in the process, and that can often lead to the “oh, it’s all in my head” logic. Trust me when I say that your brain is one of the worst containers for your game plan, because it can accidentally warp or misperceive the next required action.
Finding the right balance requires creativity, intuition, and experience. Do not under-estimate the three elements of this process. Your enterprise’s future quite literally relies on it. I promise.