The difference between marketing and branding

As a branding and marketing consultant, I am often asked to explain the difference between marketing and branding. In this post I will do better than that- I will explain the difference between sales, marketing and branding, from a layman’s or small business owners perspective.


Have you ever heard the saying: “You can bring a horse to the water but you can’t make it drink”?. Well, to realte that saying to marketing, we can explain that marketing clears a path to the water. It lets the horse become aware of the water and makes it as easy as possible for the horse to get there and drink. It makes sure the water is drinkable and will actually quench the thirst of the horse. Branding makes the water beautiful and tantalizing so that the horse desires it and wants to drink it. Salesmanship takes the horse by the arm (or its mane), drags it to the water and tells it to drink. Now I’ll elaborate.
1. Sales: Simply put salesmanship is methods or tactics that guide a person to take the specific action you want him to take. By nessesity, all sales pitches end with a call to action. Salesmanship includes showing someone all the possible benefits they will get by taking a specific action and the loss they will incur by not taking that action. Proofs and tactics may be employed to signal to the client that the action you are asking them to take is correct. A direct link can be drawn between sales efforts and results. If there is no call to action or there isn’t a direct link between the effort and its result- it is not salesmanship.

2. Marketing. Marketing is one-step removed from salesmanship. It is indirect salesmanship. With marketing there is no call to action and there is at most an indirect link to the desired results. Marketing sets the stage for the sale to take place. Remember the 4 p’s of marketing- product, place, price and promotion. If you have the right product, sell it in the right place (or distribute it properly), have it priced right and promote it well- you should make a sale. And although we test all these parameters, tracking and then researching patterns and trends, there’s no definitive link between these things and the resultant sale. For every pattern and trend, a hypothesis has to be developed and hypotheses can be argued. John Wanamaker famously said “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half” (Do not confuse this with trackable advertising – trackable advertising always has a sales component with a specific call to action-it is sales, not marketing). I would argue that John Wanamaker was lying- it is impossible for him to have definitively known that half his advertising wasn’t working. However, he was correct in thinking that it was possible that half his advertising wasn’t working- because the bottom line is, there is no way to know for sure. The same could be said for all of marketing. Marketing is logical and intuitive and is based on a keen understanding of human nature. Is it measurable? Not really. Marketing definitely works- but because there is no direct call to action, there is no way to prove it is definitively working in a particular circumstance.

3. Branding is based on human laws of attraction. Try articulating why a particular person is more charming than a second. Now write a rulebook to teach people how to become charming. Well, that’s exactly what branding is all about. Often, it is not about being right or wrong, its about being cohesive and becoming a significant component in people’s lives and purchasing habits.
 Branding helps people draw the conclusions you want them to draw- but they do it on their own. It creates positive feelings in people’s minds and hearts for your business, product or service. It doesn’t push, coerce, compel or sell, rather it allows people to feel positive when identifying with you. Branding has the ability to create a fan club and fans are likely to buy, refer friends to you and even feel lucky they are able to purchase into you. Branding is based on the premise that if people have positive feelings for your business, they are likely to buy from you. Additionally, great selling skills may close a sale, but without branding to support it, people would feel like they were taken advantage of upon completion of that sale.

In an ideal setup, branding, marketing and salesmanship all work in sync to improve sales but each plays a distinct role in the process. Branding wins over people’s minds and hearts, building people’s desire for your product or service. Salesmanship closes deals and yields immediate, trackable results. Marketing bridges the two. It makes your business accessible and noticeable to your prospects so that they are impressed by the branding, which allows salesmanship to easily close the deal.