Your Branding is determining what makes your business or organization unique from others like it. How do customers or clients experience your business in the market? That’s Marketing.
Simply put, marketing is how you represent yourself in the market. This should always line up with your branding.
If your branding is that you’re the fastest in your industry, then maybe your marketing takes the form of answering the phone after 1 ring, or delivering a purchased product that same day or lighting-fast reposes to questions on Facebook.
If your branding is that you’re a specialist in category A, then your store only stocks category A, and doesn’t carry anything from category B so that customers get that you’re a specialist, and not a jack-of-all-trades. If your branding is that you’re the one stop shop in your industry, your retail showroom may include something from every category.
If your branding is that you’re the highest quality, then your invoice would be printed on thick high quality paper, in colour, not hand written on a black and white photocopy on news print like the lower quality competition does…
The interesting this is that EVERY BUSINESS has a marketing department – the people who interact with your customers. When a customer walks into your business, calls, or visits your website, they get a first impression from whoever or whatever they connect with. If that first impression doesn’t line up with the branding you’re portraying, there’s an instant trust factor that’s lost.
Take a few minutes and find a way to be sure your customer’s experience matches up with what you want them to say about your branding.