Branding and Advertising. What comes first?

Let’s begin with understanding the definitions.

Branding is the beginning of a product’s journey into the market. It’s the name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers.

On the other hand, advertising is a marketing tool which involves paying for space to promote a product, service, or a cause. The actual promotional messages are called advertisements, or ads. The goal of advertising is to reach the target willing to pay for a company’s products or services hence provoking them to buy.

Branding and Advertising are often considered to go hand in hand, but, they are both the independent aspects of any business. Advertising and Branding, are important aspects for one to come up with effective and creative ideas to promote a company’s product or service in the market.

Branding as a whole means who you are and what you provide to your customer that helps you build your brand. Whereas, advertising means increased sales, educating the consumers and combat competition, apart from other benefits.

E.g. Surf Excel is a strong brand name in the South Asian countries it is present in. The brand was launched way back in 1947 and since then has been able to gain credibility with the customers. It has created strong advertising campaigns which have also contributed immensely to creating a strong brand name.

Hence Branding is what people say about you when you even if you are not present and advertising is what you convey about your product to the people. The impact of advertising is temporary I.e If businesses stop advertising, their brand recall diminishes with time. However, if a business can set a strong branding, customers remember that based on the quality of the products and services offered by that business from the start.

To conclude as a part of marketing strategy, a Brand is driven by both branding and advertising. Branding means the quality you give to your customers, the customers will give you feedback based on that. While advertising is what you intend the customers to know about your brand or service and how that attracts new customers while maintaining the existing customer base.

To sum up all, Branding (Quality) should be strong enough to form a solid foundation. Later, the communication, i.e., product advertised to the targeted consumer base in order to attract new customers and create a satisfactory customer base.

Pic Credits: InnoServ Digital