Answers
Jul 19, 2017 - 03:59 PM
I've always believed that marketing and branding are interconnected and aren't two separate pursuits. In the early stages of a company, an entrepreneur should be thinking about both.
When I think of branding, I think of what you do to infuse your company with meaning and consistently express what you stand for in everything that you do. Creating a strong and distinct brand is one of the most important ways you can differentiate yourself from your competition, and it has lasting competitive advantage. A startup should be thinking about branding on Day 1. Your brand strategy will inform key decisions from the look and feel of your product to how you express yourself with your consumers. Every interaction a consumer has with your company or product will be influenced by your branding. In that sense, your branding decisions will impact how you go to market.
When I think of marketing, I think of decisions involving product, placement, price and promotion driven by a deep understanding of consumer and competition. Philip Kotler, a well known professor at Kellogg, wrote that "Marketing starts before a product exists. Marketing is the homework your company does to figure out what people need and what your company should offer." Its integral to any business plan. Having solid marketing is key to building a great product that addresses a consumer need and driving awareness and adoption. Layer branding on top of that and you've supercharged your total value proposition. Pure functionality can only get you so far. In the long run, people fall in love with brands, not features.
When I think of branding, I think of what you do to infuse your company with meaning and consistently express what you stand for in everything that you do. Creating a strong and distinct brand is one of the most important ways you can differentiate yourself from your competition, and it has lasting competitive advantage. A startup should be thinking about branding on Day 1. Your brand strategy will inform key decisions from the look and feel of your product to how you express yourself with your consumers. Every interaction a consumer has with your company or product will be influenced by your branding. In that sense, your branding decisions will impact how you go to market.
When I think of marketing, I think of decisions involving product, placement, price and promotion driven by a deep understanding of consumer and competition. Philip Kotler, a well known professor at Kellogg, wrote that "Marketing starts before a product exists. Marketing is the homework your company does to figure out what people need and what your company should offer." Its integral to any business plan. Having solid marketing is key to building a great product that addresses a consumer need and driving awareness and adoption. Layer branding on top of that and you've supercharged your total value proposition. Pure functionality can only get you so far. In the long run, people fall in love with brands, not features.
Jul 22, 2017 - 02:59 PM
The Dan Kennedy (a direct response marketer) school of thought is that new ventures should focus on sales above all else. Branding happens as a by-product of profitable sales and not much effort should be expended in doing it. Small businesses make mistakes when they try to copy what big companies do. Big companies generally waste money on unproductive campaigns because the people paying for those campaigns are not spending their own money.
Oct 18, 2017 - 05:02 AM
Both are important. As a young company they are not easy to decouple. I think branding is crucial before you dive into your marketing strategy. They can be developed simultaneously but I think by establishing a foundation for your brand it will make your marketing efforts come off more effective and cohesive.
Branding- you can put lipstick on a pig but that doesn't change the fact that it is still a pig (if your product is sub par)
Marketing- If a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it, did it make a sound? (great product-possibly, solid branding- possibly..... failed marketing/sales efforts- probably)
I often view branding as the "spirit" of your company and or product. Some effort can and should be spent on branding but it needs to be flexible as your product/service evolves and you work towards product/market fit. It can be huge time suck early on so you need to do your best to not become fixated on it. I have noticed there is a flow to constantly refining your branding & messaging as you build your product or company. As your product matures your branding should mature along with it. On a base level I would look at "branding" as the look and feel of the company. How you present the value you will be delivering to end users or partners. I would lean towards a more minimalist approach early on. That will allow you to tweak things as you clarify your target audience, what messaging resonates, what is the true value of your company and so on.
Marketing would be the vehicle used to get your brand in front of customers/partners. I think the goal is to develop a fairly straight forward approach to marketing early on leveraging your branding efforts. Select a few channels and focus on them, see what is working and what isn't. At the end of the day people want something that is valuable, it is up to you to deliver that value. A solid product is the core and branding should compliment your product. They should appear to be of similar and consistent quality.
Each is essential but they can often pull you away from focusing on product dev/sales. I suggest time boxing each exercise daily/weekly. Eventually you will come to accept that you can't wear every hat required. Your goal is to get to the next step where people like your product and other people are interested in helping you fill in the gaps related to the non-technical areas of your business.
Branding- you can put lipstick on a pig but that doesn't change the fact that it is still a pig (if your product is sub par)
Marketing- If a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it, did it make a sound? (great product-possibly, solid branding- possibly..... failed marketing/sales efforts- probably)
I often view branding as the "spirit" of your company and or product. Some effort can and should be spent on branding but it needs to be flexible as your product/service evolves and you work towards product/market fit. It can be huge time suck early on so you need to do your best to not become fixated on it. I have noticed there is a flow to constantly refining your branding & messaging as you build your product or company. As your product matures your branding should mature along with it. On a base level I would look at "branding" as the look and feel of the company. How you present the value you will be delivering to end users or partners. I would lean towards a more minimalist approach early on. That will allow you to tweak things as you clarify your target audience, what messaging resonates, what is the true value of your company and so on.
Marketing would be the vehicle used to get your brand in front of customers/partners. I think the goal is to develop a fairly straight forward approach to marketing early on leveraging your branding efforts. Select a few channels and focus on them, see what is working and what isn't. At the end of the day people want something that is valuable, it is up to you to deliver that value. A solid product is the core and branding should compliment your product. They should appear to be of similar and consistent quality.
Each is essential but they can often pull you away from focusing on product dev/sales. I suggest time boxing each exercise daily/weekly. Eventually you will come to accept that you can't wear every hat required. Your goal is to get to the next step where people like your product and other people are interested in helping you fill in the gaps related to the non-technical areas of your business.
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