Marketing vs. Branding
Posted in: Marketing Management
Am i a zebra or a horse?
What is Marketing or Strategic Marketing and what is Branding? Are they the same? These are some of the questions that many are still not sure of the answer or have confused these two concept to be one. Therefore, we would have to begin from the very basics to answer these questions.
What is Marketing to me? Marketing is the management process that identifies, anticipates and satisfies customer requirements profitably. Therefore, it forms a social and managerial process which individuals or businesses finds an unsatisfied need or want, creates a product or service and supplies it in the most efficient manner and price to provide value to the consumer or buyer and earn a premium or profit in the process. In short, the Marketing process places customer or consumer satisfaction in the focal point of all business activities.
Some of the important elements in the Marketing philosophy or concept are as follows:
- Marketing focuses on the satisfaction of customer needs, wants and requirements.
- The philosophy of marketing needs to be owned by everyone from within the organisation.
- Future needs of the market have to be identified and anticipated.
And what is Branding or what is a brand? A brand is a name, term, sign, symbol, design or value, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services or businesses that differentiate one from another. Therefore, it is understandably that branding is about getting the potential customers to notice you as the most suitable solution provider to their needs and wants. Thus, the objectives of branding or a brand should be:
- To delivers the message clearly.
- To confirm your credibility.
- To capture the emotions of your target prospects.
- To encourage or motivates potential buyers to act to your benefit.
- To create and strengthen loyalty or emotional attachment.
- To generate value to the brand.
Therefore, to succeed in branding your business or products, one must first understand the needs and wants of your target audience or market and create something that can satisfy and give value to the target market.
To summarise, Marketing is the social and managerial process of satisfying customer needs and wants, and branding is the process of persuading your target audience to choose you from the others.
