In a perfect world, branding, marketing, and sales can be broken down into different domains based on their usage, application, and purpose. However, this is not a perfect world, which is why these concepts are intertwined.

But that doesn’t mean they are the same. If you have pursued a marketing and branding course, you already know that there is a high-level breakdown of the difference between each of these concepts. Let’s break this down and uncover the difference between branding, marketing, and sales.

Branding vs Marketing vs Sales

• Branding

What it Doesn’t Involve

Most people think branding involves logos, colour schemes, website design, social popularity, and other promotional efforts. If you think so, too, then you’re looking at branding the wrong way. These items are just marketing tools and strategies, and they only scratch the surface of branding.

What it Does Involve

Branding is a culture; it is the communication of the message that fills and rules all the processes of your organisation. It is the process of knowing what your brand is, who does it help, and why should people care about it.

At its core, branding is about understanding what your clients need from you and showing how you can help add value to their lives, above and beyond just the product or service your organisation is offering. From logo, a website to manifesto and pitch, there are several components that help communicate your brand’s value to the world.

What is Branding All About?

While the visual and verbal elements of a brand are crucial, so is the brand’s story. And this is often where companies go wrong the most, thinking that their brand is about them. But in reality, your brand is actually about your customers, how you can help them, how they perceive your brand, and why your brand makes their lives better.

You can portray your brand in any way you want, but at the end of the day, the most important part about a brand is what your customers say it is. If you strive to thrive in this domain, consider enrolling for a credible marketing and branding course.

• Marketing

Marketing is more of a communication method. It involves all the tasks, activities, and messages you curate to get your message out there and build awareness.

Marketing is the process where most people want to start because it looks all bright and shiny, but effective marketing is often based on a solid brand and sales strategy. This is where these 3 concepts intersect.

Social media, SEO, advertisements, PPC are all just marketing tools. You have to know how and why you are using them and what you aim to do with them. Hence, a good strategy ensures all the marketing efforts are working in the right direction to achieve a specific, measurable goal.

In its essence, marketing is simply how you communicate your brand. It is the process of sharing what you have to offer, making it easy for the target audience to find and interact with your business. The MICA digital marketing course can help you understand the ins and outs of marketing and advertising. And not just that, the MICA digital marketing course can also help you understand the benefits of financial management in marketing and advertising.

• Sales

Sales is simply the process of how you sell the products or services that your organisation has to offer.

With so much focus on marketing and branding, organisations often neglect sales strategy, especially small businesses. This is ironic because sales give the true picture of who is running the show. No advertisement or marketing efforts will matter if you don’t have sales to show for it.

Without sales, what is even the point of branding or marketing?

Sales is often thought of as an end result. However, it is a crucial part of the entire process. You need to answer the following questions to stay on top of your sales strategy:-

• Do you know your organisation’s sales goal?
• Do you know how many leads your marketing efforts are creating for your sales pipeline?
• Do you know how many repeat purchases have you had?

Maybe your marketing efforts are driving in a lot of leads. However, no one is completing their purchase journey. That’s a problem. Or maybe your newsletter is generating the majority of sales leads, so you may want to put in a little more effort into it.

A good sales process can help you understand what you need to do to drive your organisation’s revenue. And lucky for sales, marketing is here to help support the process.

Let’s Reiterate

The purpose of branding is to establish trust within your customers and create royalty. A brand not only gives them a way to remember you but also creates an identity for your business, setting you apart from competitors.

The purpose of marketing is to research and analyse your consumers by monitoring their online shopping habits, sending out surveys, and conducting a focus group to answer the underlying question – where, when, and how your consumers want to communicate with your brand?

You may think that the purpose of sales is to get the buyer to buy, get the sale, and have the buyer hand over money. But this is where you are wrong; the purpose of sales is to improve things for the buyer. It may not sound radical but consider the implications. Just think about it, if your organisation doesn’t improve things for the buyer, why will he/she purchase it in the first place.

Bottom Line

It is evident now that branding is definitely not the same as marketing, which is not the same as sales and vice-versa. Branding is the core of the marketing strategy, which is based on your organisation’s sales strategy. You need authenticity and transparency in each of these concepts before you start formulating a strategy for your business.

This is where a credible marketing and branding course can come in handy. These courses enable you to identify the ideal way to brand, market, and sell your product by helping you understand the meaning and application of these concepts.

One such online program you can rely on is the MICA digital marketing course. Offered in collaboration with Talentedge, the marketing and brand management program from MICA is ideal for marketing and sales professionals aspiring to hone their knowledge and skills to thrive in this domain.