Branding and advertising are the terms used in the context of marketing products as well as services. Branding and advertising are both important elements of marketing, but they have different goals, purpose, and focus when it comes to the overall marketing strategy of the company. In order to get a better idea about both concepts one should look at some of the differences between branding and advertising –
Branding Vs Advertising
Purpose
Branding is focused on creating and maintaining a unique identity and reputation for a company or product, while advertising is focused on promoting and selling that product or service. Hence in simple words, branding is often done for the whole company so that customers can have that image of the company when they see the products or services from the company while advertising is often done for individual products or services.
Long Term and Short Term
Branding is an ongoing process as the goal of branding is to create a long-lasting image of the company in the minds of the customers hence branding is often a long-term investment that will continue till the company is in existence, while advertising can be more short-term in nature and focused on specific campaigns and that is the reason why advertising campaigns have a specific start and end date.
Type of Customers
Branding is directed at both current and potential customers because if the company stops branding then current customers will think that the company has some problem and may go towards other brands as human beings have this tendency to associate themselves with strong brands while advertising is primarily directed at capturing new customers for company’s products.
Goals
The goal of branding is to create a strong and familiar identity for the company and establish a long-lasting relationship with consumers, while the goal of advertising is to increase awareness and interest in a specific product or service and hence increase the sales of an individual product or service. In simple words branding often focuses on creating an emotional connection with the consumer, while advertising focuses on individual products or services.
Channels of Marketing
Branding is a complete package in the sense that branding is present everywhere whether its the name of the company, the logo of the company, products packaging, business cards and so on while advertising is typically done through outside agencies on various channels of marketing like television advertising, digital advertising, radio advertising, newspaper and so on.
Levels of Management
In the case of branding, it is largely under the control of the top management of the company in the sense that all decisions related to the branding of the company are taken by the top management of the company, while advertising decisions are often delegated to middle-level management who in turn appoints outside agencies for advertising the products or services of the company.
Result Orientated
In the case of branding the results of a branding campaign are difficult to measure or asses because branding takes years and one cannot judge branding over a short period of time but when it comes to advertising the success or failure of advertising can be measured by metrics such as reach, frequency, and the response of the advertising.
As one can see from the above differences that branding and advertising are miles apart but when it comes to long-term marketing strategy of the company branding and advertising are both important aspects of marketing that work together to promote and sell a product or service. Hence one can say that both branding and advertising are interrelated because a strong brand creates a base for a company’s reputation and makes advertising of a company’s product more effective, while without advertising the brand will not be able to succeed.