This wisdom comes from Marc Petock, Vice President, Chief Marketing & Communications Officer Lynxspring :
You may be asking yourself: what is the difference between branding and marketing and which of the two should my company be focusing on? The answer is BOTH. They are similar in the sense they are about getting a company noticed, but different implementations of recognition. This includes different practices in the entire process of keeping a company competitive, unique and customers coming back.
Branding deals more with an image or the quality and assets that go along with it. These may include a company logo, company values, a message that should resonate with a desired company audience and things of this nature. Marketing, on the other hand, deals with tasks and activities in terms of communicating with an audience or making the company’s presence felt. It is getting a message out there to prospective audience or customers. It is also about capturing leads and includes aspects such as social media coordination or email campaigns.
Both aspects are important for successful companies to thrive and expand their customer bases. A successful or thriving company should have a message that resonates with an audience and makes its values known through branding. It should also have assets, such as a logo, which become part of this message and image. However, it also needs effective marketing to showcase its brand to new audiences and expand in reach. Once branding and marketing is done in an effective fashion, the third step in the process takes place and that is sales.
‘If you don’t have a brand, you are not in the game”.
Marc Petock
Customer Engagements
When it comes to engaging with customers, there are two sentences that are most important to every customer and every prospective customer, and you should be ready with answers:
“Our clients/customers hire us to provide [benefit(s) to the client.]”
“They hire us, rather than somebody else, because [something unique that the competition doesn’t have but the customer values.]”
Communications
The biggest communication problem that occurs every day, in any business is not listening to understand. We listen to reply. Instead, listen to understand.
Price
When it comes to price:
You don’t pick the cheapest car You don’t pick the cheapest house You don’t pick the cheapest doctor You don’t pick the cheapest vacation You don’t pick the cheapest education
When the decision is price, everyone loses in a race to the bottom.
And finally, when it comes to marketing my personal approach is to start from humility, not grandiosity; learn everything you can from everyone you can and then and only then — look for gaps and opportunities to innovate.
