Branding Strategy as Your Secret Marketing Weapon

5/13/2014 Branding Strategy As Your Secret Marketing Weapon

http://www.business2community.com/branding/branding-strategy-secret-marketing-weapon-0845694#!MYJzS 1/4

ALL POPULAR ARTICLES

BRANDING By Liz Papagni, Published April 12, 2014

POPULAR TODAY IN BUSINESS:

Branding Strategy As Your Secret Marketing Weapon

Image source

Marketing without branding is like fishing without a hook.

You’ll be distributing your message, sure. You may see results in the forms of sales closed and new customers. But

is there even anything behind the words? As expert James Heaton eloquently puts it, your marketing is a method of

pushing your message out, while your branding is the pull that attracts customers. While a marketing campaign may

convert a prospect into a buyer, your brand is what retains their business for life. In an ideal scenario, it’s so much

more than pure messaging. Branding strategy allows you to position your business in your market solidly, build

meaningful relationships, and retain customers over time.

‹ ›10 Steps To Use LinkedIn To

Help Grow Your Small

Business

5 Elements of an Effective Call

to Action

Brand Journalism > Content

Marketing

5/13/2014 Branding Strategy As Your Secret Marketing Weapon

http://www.business2community.com/branding/branding-strategy-secret-marketing-weapon-0845694#!MYJzS 2/4

In an ideal world, a solid brand should precede your marketing. However, that’s not to say it’s ever too late to begin

developing a branding plan for the future. No matter when you start, it’s sure to offer immense benefit to your

marketing program and outcomes. The following are some of the ways that defining your organization’s core can act

as your marketing secret weapon:

Branding is About Experience

Humans aren’t spurred to purchase because of a really catchy slogan. While it can’t hurt, it’s actually a lot less

meaningful than you think. According to neuroscientist Douglas Van Praet, motivation is actually driven by far more

visceral things, which are primarily ideas of motion and memory. While a great marketing campaign may be

memorable, a well-defined brand is far more likely to stick with a person because it’s about creating an experience.

Related Resources from B2C

» Free Webcast: Social Listening - Gateway to Innovation

Expert Steve Manning believes that a brand can be the difference between a commodity and an experience. People

purchase products based on factors like price or convenience, which are often conveyed during marketing that’s not

connected to a larger strategy. However, branding can transform your company into an experience, and your products

into a tool for your customers to achieve a certain lifestyle.

By defining a 360-degree view of who your company is, you’re able to integrate more sensory experiences in your

marketing messages that reflect your core values, mission, and essence. You can define how your product fits into

your customers lives, instead of just emphasizing attributes. These experiences can trigger memories, which are far

more likely to inspire a purchase than well-written, but disparate, marketing communications.

Brand Positioning Matters

5/13/2014 Branding Strategy As Your Secret Marketing Weapon

http://www.business2community.com/branding/branding-strategy-secret-marketing-weapon-0845694#!MYJzS 3/4

Liz Papagni

Papagni

on

the

Web

Papagni

on

Google

Plus

Papagni

RSS

Feed

Driven by a passion for marketing and 25 years helping companies of all sizes drive awareness,

engagement, response and ROI, I launched Marketing Initiative Worx to help companies and

agencies drive their business by taking their marketing to the next level. I founded the company

on the belief that defining a... View full profile

More White Papers ›

Image source

Every well-written brand strategy should include brand positioning. It can be affected by the following factors:

1. Buyer persona and Target Market

2. Product or Service

3. Differentiating Factors

4. Unique Value Proposition

Is it possible to market without establishing these factors, or to determine these each time you create a piece of

content? Possibly, but it’s not going to work especially well.

Advertisers have long used a concept called “effective frequency,” which is a measure of how many times a potential

buyer must be exposed to a brand before they become familiar or trusting. In many cases, it takes at least 3 separate

instances of exposure for someone to feel comfortable with an organization. If you’re having trouble broadcasting a

unique value proposition, differentiating factors or your target audience consistently, you’ll have a great deal of difficulty

achieving effective frequency.

Branding Creates Evangelists

If a truly clever piece of content marketing converts a few customers, what’s the return on investment? It can range

from minimal to profitable, but are you really earning any dividends over time? As Heaton highlights, marketing is a

way to capture sales, but branding is a way to make “loyal customers, advocates, even evangelists.” Your content

marketing is an owned asset, so ensure it’s a meaningful investment.

The difference between marketing and branding can be in how your customers are treated or feel once they’ve made

that inaugural purchase. An effective branding strategy won’t just affect your marketing messages that your prospects

engage with on a constant basis. It’s going to infiltrate every level of your business, from your customer advocates to

your policies. The kind of cohesive experience that comes from branding and is embraced by all levels of your

company is what creates customers for life.

For more insights on the benefits of branding, check out our recent article 3 Reasons Your Brand Always Comes First.

This article originally appeared on MIW Insights and has been republished with permission.

Find out how to syndicate your content with Business 2 Community.

Related White Papers

Author:

5/13/2014 Branding Strategy As Your Secret Marketing Weapon

http://www.business2community.com/branding/branding-strategy-secret-marketing-weapon-0845694#!MYJzS 4/4

B2B Selling inthe Age of theCustomer

Calculating ROIto Make theBusiness Casefor SocialMediaMarketing

EnterpriseSocialCollaboration:What's HR GotTo Do With It?

Comments on this Article: 3 Add a Comment

Recommended Reading

April 27, 2014 at 10:45 am

Hi Liz, Great piece.It was helpful in getting the different views of the effectiveness of Marketing Vs Branding. It is

particularly challenging, to have a consistent messaging across all channels of communication and create

consistently high and same quality of experiences.

Reply

April 28, 2014 at 3:45 pm

Great article. Picked a few things. Thanks!

Reply

April 28, 2014 at 4:47 pm

Thanks, and glad you found it helpful.

Reply

Hardik Vaidya

Emeka Mba

Liz Papagni