Difference between brand marketing and lead generation marketing.

In a world where consumerism is increasingly driving everything and businesses struggle hard to ensure their product gets sold over their competitors’ products, branding is one of the most important factors to consider when it comes to marketing. It has also got to do with how consumers are increasingly becoming brand conscious to the extent that many people identify themselves with the brands they use.

Brand image and brand identity are what matters the most, to the extent that even in the instances where a competitor’s product offers a better experience, customers tend to choose a brand that they know and trust, in a modern-day version of ‘known devil is better than an unknown angel.’ A tee-shirt with the Nike swoosh automatically fetches more money than a shirt without the logo, or that’s un-branded - this is a phenomenon so widely accepted that it is even a subject of thousands of widely shared online memes.

But what exactly is a brand? The American Marketing Association (AMA) defines a brand as,

“A name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers.”

                                                                                                                                            SuccessWise

But it is a lot more than just a logo or a color as it also includes the approach the company takes in making the products. When one looks at a logo, chances are high that he/she would immediately associate with what experience one has with a product of that brand. This is where brand awareness strategy that focuses on building an image around the brand and increasing the brand’s exposure and visibility over competitors matters the most.

For example, Apple, a company that has been a leader in innovation around the world, and highly popular for offering the best user experience, tend to do the same when it comes to their brand identity as evidenced by the ‘shot on iPhone’ advertisements seen all across the world. Instead of asking people to buy their phones, they just showed that their phones were capable of producing pictures that could be viewed not just on 5-inch phone screens or 16-inch laptops but possess the quality of being blown up into life-size hoardings without compromising on quality. The phone appealed to the fact that anyone could click high-quality pictures like that, irrespective of whether or not they were professional photographers. This kind of positioning in conjunction with a top-class product is a sure shot way of ensuring brand loyalists stay loyal.

But, this kind of campaign can also be aimed at getting new customers, in other words - generating new leads. While brand positioning and lead generation are usually seen as things on the opposite ends of the spectrum, it need not be so, as getting new customers and retaining them to stick to your brand requires a perfect blend of these two strategies of marketing.

When it comes to strategizing a successful brand awareness/brand positioning campaign, the factors

to be considered are the target segment and their demographic; definition of the market and competitors; your brand’s USP and advantage over competitors and a compelling reason for consumers to believe in your product. By considering these factors, a brand positioning statement can be made. An excellent example of this would be Amazon’s statement when it sold only books.

“For World Wide Web users who enjoy books, Amazon.com is a retail bookseller that provides instant access to over 1.1 million books. Unlike traditional book retailers, Amazon.com provides a combination of extraordinary convenience, low prices, and comprehensive selection.”

American Marketing Association

Here, it talks about the target segment and the demographic, defines itself and its USP and also talks about why it is better over the competitors. That is why it is an excellent example of a compelling brand voice.

Giving useful, impactful taglines also go a long way towards brand positioning as these taglines instantly pop into peoples’ heads when they see or hear the brand name. If you see the words Nike or L’Oréal, chances are high that you find yourself saying ‘Just do it’ or ‘Because you’re worth it,’ which are the respective taglines. These taglines appeal to the audience in addition to giving the brand a voice as Nike is all about sports and movement while L’Oréal is about looking good. The taglines reflect just that.