Marketing and Branding. Which would you say comes first? This “chicken-and-the-egg” type question may seem trivial, but it is one of the most important questions marketers and business owners alike need to ask when planning a successful marketing strategy.
Let’s take a closer look. In the question of who came first, the chicken or the egg, the answer can most times be divided due to the complexity of all of the factors that need to be taken into consideration. If the egg came first, who laid it? If the chicken came first, was it ever an egg? And of course, beliefs and education influence the answers to the question every time.
When it comes to marketing and branding, the answer can also be divided. What factors do business owners need to consider when making the choice? “Just to settle it once and for all: Which came first, the chicken or the egg? The egg, laid by a bird that was not a chicken.” — Neil deGrasse Tyson Let’s say that branding is the egg, and marketing is the chicken.
What is an egg? Other than being a delicious, and well-rounded dietary staple, the egg is a vessel that carries all of the information needed to produce a chicken.
How does this relate to branding? Just like the DNA inside the egg determines all of the characteristics of its future chicken down to the color of its feathers, branding, most specifically the brand identity and story, serves as a guide for all marketing efforts to be built upon.
In other words, branding creates the “DNA code” that your marketing campaigns should use in order to maximize results. Consistent branding creates recognition, recognition creates trust, and trust creates brand awareness when your clients interact with your brand and refer people to your business.
For example, if you are planning a social media campaign, that campaign may follow your business’ branding or follow a unique branding structure that unites that specific social media campaign with efforts being made on a separate platform. On the other hand, a marketing campaign that does not follow a set of branding guidelines, may cause confusion within your audience and produce the inverse of the results you are looking to get.
Branding is the guide; marketing is the action. Here’s another way to look at it. Let’s say that branding is a GPS map and marketing is the vehicle you are driving. The GPS map will guide you in which routes to take, but the vehicle is the object making the trip happen. Your destination is your marketing goal.
By putting branding first, you are creating a foundation for all of your marketing efforts. You are taking a unified approach to marketing your business in a way that creates trust within your targeted audience. More importantly, you are ensuring the highest level of success for your marketing campaigns.