A Simple Definition and Differentiation of those three.
You must have heard those three words if you are a businessman, entrepreneur, or anyone. You may have a preconceived notion of those three words. We will uncover what is the difference between Marketing, Advertising, and branding (Save it if you can't read it now).
The Overview:
All 3 words are under the one word called advertising and started to branch on their own when everything started to change in society over time. First, we need to discuss what it is mean when we use the words Branding Marketing or Advertising. These are buzzwords and everyone starts to use them but very low people understand them. Let's first uncover those here.
Advertising:
According to Kotler:
Advertising is any paid form of non-personal presentation & promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor.
According to me, Advertising is a way someone tells you or sells you their Idea, Product, or service whether you care or don't care. They just want to let you know that they exist with a product, service, or Idea they want to tell you or sell you. Ads are annoying we all can agree to that. People are constantly bombarded with ads every day whether inside or outside you are constantly shown ads.
People start to get Immune to advertising and started to reject most parts of it. No one like to see an advertisement but everyone loves to put an advertisement. It may look contradictory but it is what it is. Today It's gone too far and started to put us in a "Do or Die" situation through the urgency ads. As ads cant be avoidable in today's world it is not getting any better.
Marketing: According to Seth Godin, A Marketing genius:
Marketing is the generous act of helping someone solve a problem
According to me, Marketing is helping someone (usually target customers) get aware of the problem they are not aware of and putting our product or service as a solution. Messages are what makes marketing and those messages are geared towards a specific audience who would be ideal people that need the product and are ready to buy it. When cleverly done it will bring loyal customers that stay with your company for life. It's like telling them if you have a lock we have a key.
Image source: Unsplash
Marketing is just an upgraded version of Advertising where they ask about your concerns and your point of view of their solution because they show only what you wanted to see. Companies just what to let you know that they believe in what you believe and their product would be a good fit for your problem you are free to neglect it or not look at it if it doesn't suit you.
While nothing is wrong with marketing, it becomes wrong when people started to use it without any understanding. Today marketing word becomes diluted and people start to exploit the word. Digital advertisers started to use the word Digital Marketing as a word to describe themselves. Even though it blends into one when it comes to the digital area there is still a big difference.
Branding:
According to Marty Neuimer a well-renowned brand strategist:
A person's gut feeling about a product, service, or organization, it's not what you say it is; it's what they say it is.
According to me, Branding is asking people do they feel as we (Our Company) feel and asking them to join us (or Buy from us or Work with us, etc.) if they do feel the same. To simplify it Branding is creating a strong perception in a prospect or customer's mind there is no replacement for it other than us. Even though this word is being present for a longer time and still people are iterating more on this you can see a similarity in their description. The similarity is 'It's all about the customer and their choice'.
As all the 3 words are under advertising, Branding is also under marketing before it becomes something to talk about and worth noticing on its own. It just feels more like marketing with a slight difference. Marketing is telling people they have a problem and you are the better solution but branding is making them feel that you are the better solution.
When it comes to Branding It is all about loyalty and Customer satisfaction. As this is fully based on the customer's perspective and makes them feel good about their purchase with us. Even a really small business can become a brand, Just need a little effort and consistency to do so.
Conclusion:
What is Best? or is it bad to do advertising? No one knows. Even if we detest Advertising, it will be a part of your overall business when you start to grow. Advertising is unavoidable. A clever move would be using as there and make them function with each other as you cannot do only branding (If you can, It takes so much time which we can afford in today's world).
But building a brand is something that takes time and energy. We need to be consistent in our efforts to build our brand. Branding is all about consistency in the strong belief that we can change and upgrade our consumer's life and lifestyle. It's all up to you to decide the direction. If you have different thoughts let us know as well.