Branding & Marketing. Are you confused about these 2 important elements of business? You are not alone. Nowaday, 94% of business owners, entrepreneurs & business tycoons do not know the difference between Branding and Marketing. So, they are not maximizing the corporate profits that they could have generated. They are losing 37% to 370% sales that belong to them daily. If you want to stop losing all these

sales/profits, keep on reading.

So, what is Branding?

The American Marketing Association (AMA) defines a brand as a "name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods & services of one seller or group of sellers & to differentiate them from those of other sellers. Branding is all about differentiation. It is what you do to differentiate your brand. It is what you do to differentiate your company from other companies.

For instance, Apple brands itself as "COOL". Apple differentiates itself from competitors by creating COOL products. FedEX brands itself as "Overnight delivery". FedEX differentiate itself from all other postage service companies by being the first company that dedicates to overnight delivery.

Why is branding important?

In today competitive business environment, businesses have to position themselves strategically in order to compete. Branding is what makes you stand out from your competitors. Why the customers choose you instead of your competitors?

Let's use the same example, FedEx & UPS. FedEx's brand is all about fast delivery, overnight delivery. If you need to deliver an urgent document fast, FedEx will pop up in your mind immediately. Whereas for UPS, it's brand is all about security & protection. UPS promise to keep every day & the people that stand behind the UPS shield. If you have an important document, you will choose UPS.

Then, what is Marketing?

Marketing is strategies or tactics to communicate your differentiating idea (your brand) to your target clients. Without marketing, your differentiation or your brand is only known to you or few people around you.

For instance, the founder of Apple can brand itself as "COOL". Without marketing this idea to his target clients, Apple's cool products could have been only known to Steve Job.

There is a lot of well-known marketing tactics, such as advertising, public relations, direct marketing, referral marketing & online Marketing. All these tactics are channels for you to communicate with your prospects.

So which is more important? Branding or marketing?

Both are equally important. There are just like twin brothers. Without branding, all you marketing effort will be wasted. Basically without any branding, all your marketing efforts are just like shout out loud to the crowd for nothing. Without marketing, your branding is only an idea that sits in your office. You need communicate your Unique Selling Proposition message to your prospects

To summarize, Branding is Differentiation. It is USP (Unique Selling Proposition) for your business. Once you identify your brand USP, then you implement marketing strategies to communicate your Brand to your target clients