26/11/2024
WHEN TO HIRE A MARKETING OR A BRANDING AGENCY?
By: Xerex V. Faustino
There’s much debate about whether marketing is more important than branding or vice versa. I hope we solve this dilemma with the hope that this explains everything from a layman’s perspective.
MARKETING
Let’s first discuss marketing from a historical fact and how it was invented.
According to Philip Kotler, an American marketing author, marketing was invented only a hundred years ago by economists. Market or Agora in ancient Greece is not similar to Marketing, which is defined as the activity or business of promoting and selling products or services, including market research and advertising. This means that before marketing, most products were sold almost like a barter system where your product is exchanged for another product with a similar value.
A piece of chicken is equivalent to 2 kilos of rice, which is almost P120 in Philippine currency. Similar to coffee served in a paper cup, it will give an idea of the rational value of coffee as P10 and the paper cup for P5 plus an approximate reasonable profit of P5 for a value of P20 in total. However, this is not the present reality since Starbucks sells its coffee for more than P200/cup. This is where marketing happened to exist, and amazingly, people buy products more than the rational value of the product.
Economists discovered that humans buy products not only based on their rational needs but more on their emotional needs as well. They discovered that these needs are from the biological origin of humans to dominate to become an alpha. Just like lions and peacocks longing to attract more to reproduce. This subconscious part of the mind influences the way we choose the products that we buy or associate ourselves with.
Imagine a guy driving a Rolls Royce in the middle of the road against all Toyota owners around. There is no doubt that the status symbol achieved an alpha feeling for this guy and the respect from people around him. We can say that people who are attracted to Rolls Royce not only have the money to buy but also have the emotional need for a status symbol. We humans have a different dose of longing for a status symbol based on the capacity to spend.
One person may not afford a Rolls Royce but has the better budget to buy a BMW and not still go for a Toyota. Some people have better means that they would spend to get a Bugatti, which is better than a Rolls Royce. Some people cannot afford an iPhone, but that doesn’t mean that they will go for the cheapest phone, like Cherry Mobile, but afford a Samsung. It’s now fair to say that not only the rich people have a marketing mindset, but all humans in general. All of us have this subconscious yearning to buy products not only rationally but based on our emotional needs, We realize that most products at home that we buy are not the cheapest, but we consider our feelings before buying, and this feeling is emotional.
In marketing, the value of a product is “now” not limited to the rational but is also considered to deliver an emotional need.
BRANDING
In this marketing field comes Branding as a tool for marketing. It was given birth due to the invention of the internet. The big question is why? The rise of marketing happened along with the invention of mass media, where big capitalists invest their money for bigger returns, such as communicating their products to customers on television, magazines, newspapers, radios, or any form of mass media tool. The probability of such massive exposure can result in a bigger return.
However, the internet, with its global computer network, provides a form of communication which also results in faster exposure to both good and bad feedback from the people who can either make or unmake your product, especially from netizens who are using the internet.
Unlike one-way communication (mass media), the internet has provided us with a 2-way communication called (micro media). People can now react, and this can affect how people decide on every product they buy along with the vast amount of information, such as competition for each product where brands can simply become a commodity, which leads to a price war.
Most SMEs don’t have enough funds to sustain themselves, which leads to closing down their businesses compared to those competing big capitalists. In fact, most big brands like Apple, Nike, and Starbucks shifted their marketing strategy to branding, where they focus their business not on the product but on their customers. As a great example: Apple doesn’t sell computers but style, Nike doesn’t sell shoes, but the culture of athletes, and Starbucks doesn’t sell coffee but the customer’s 3rd Place. Due to the fame of Starbucks, a lot of businesses invested in the coffee business, and most of the SMEs’ mindset is to improve their coffee quality. It is surprising to discover that Starbucks’s business is not coffee but providing a place to those 3rd place customers. This is how they communicated their brand. Your 1st place is your home, and you want to set an appointment to meet another business person. Home can be not available due to personal reasons; maybe the house is not cleaned or not available for some personal issues. This can lead you to the 2nd place, which is your office. But the office requires booking to ensure no conflict with other meetings, plus the consideration of who’s preparing snacks or coffee. This leads us to the 3rd Place called Starbucks. All you have to know is the other person’s availability and directly use their available conference area while keeping the business environment, connectivity to juice-up laptop and wifi connectivity, and coffee and snacks for a more engaging business conversation. This is achieved by the research team based on data they’ve gathered from the power of the internet. The precise data like psychographic, age, and rational and emotional desires. The demographic includes geo-tagged locations like work or places he goes, like the gym, magazines he reads, or any activity that can be seen through data, unlike the data gathered for mass media, which is very speculative.
Through branding, marketing is made more effective. It creates that distinct identity for your business in the minds of your target audience and the general population. It is more than just saying that your product is good. Branding creates that appeal to human emotions that makes the target audience crave to identify themselves with your product. It makes them feel good.
Businesses soon discovered that customers don’t like being sold a product, but they like buying things based on their own feelings. They are proud to say that it was their own decision that they bought such products or patronized such establishments.
Economists conducted psychological research where a person is placed in an open environment like a mall or a park whenever a stranger approaches them. Regardless of their educational background, they have this strong defense mechanism to alert them if the person is a danger or a threat or rob or get something out of their pocket like selling. They get defensive or allergic to any salesperson that approaches them in that personal space.
That lone person could simply be browsing social media, playing a game, or watching p**n at that moment when he suddenly gets distracted by an irritating advertisement that disrupts his personal space. So, the marketing amplification could be more annoying and amplified negatively.
Marketing is the communication or the talk, while the talk and walk is called branding. Marketing focused its priority on “external communication,” where branding ensures internal communication is being walked at the organizational level.
Questions like: Is the vision and mission designed in the way the employee easily understands the goal or inspires them to wake up every day to their job the next day? Does your logo create a reputation based on value? Do your fonts and color palettes represent the right psychology of your audience? Does your merch empower your team to achieve high morale to service customers? Branding enables your business to answer such questions. Branding is achieving the intangible through tangible materials like the creation of a Brand Guideline, like a user’s manual to operate new appliances like an electric fan. A company also requires a manual or a bible to serve as a reminder during difficult times during daily operations and troubleshooting.
CONCLUSION
If you are an organization that has a crystal clear designed value, then a Marketing agency works for you. But, if you are a company that is still trying to find your unique value. A Branding agency will serve you better to discover your “unique value” or field of specialization to set you apart from competition or commodities.
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