“Branding” = ?

About a month ago, the following question was posted on Linkedin: “What is the difference between MARKETING and BRANDING?” Here are excerpts from four of the first five responses, admittedly taken out of context:

1. “branding [precedes] marketing…”
2. “Marketing is just one component of your brand.”
3. “…branding is one of the many important components of marketing.”
4. “marketing is about product information…but branding is about the product uniqueness…both are about positioning of the product”

My response came next. Here’s part of it:

So far you’ve got a response that says branding is just a part of marketing, marketing is just a part of branding, branding is about your product, branding is about how you run your entire company. It seems this term is creating more confusion than clarity.

I think the word “branding” has been misused and over-extended to the point that its originally intended meaning is obscured. It would be easier to avoid the word entirely and talk about how the era of “brand thinking” has impacted marketing and advertising.

After my response came another 105 different points of view on how to answer this question. Reading them is not fun. Most answers are either academic diatribes (how many of these P’s are there, anyway?), haiku-like attempts at simplification, or metaphors that probably just make things more confusing (e.g., “branding is not your rolling wheels, it is a highway”…name that tune). I’m not saying all these answers are wrong or misguided—I’m sure there are some real pearls in there. But the sheer number of wildly disparate answers reveals some serious issues (not to mention the fact that the question had to be asked at all).

One reason it’s confusing is because “branding,” the way most people I know use it, refers to a set of activities, all of which can be categorized under different headings. When you say “let’s brand this” (a sentence that makes me a little bit nauseous every time I hear it) you might mean:

• “Let’s give this a name” = naming, which could also be part of product marketing;
• “Let’s design a logo for this” = logo design, which could also be part of graphic design;
• “Let’s create a recognizable color palette, typography, and other design elements for this” = graphic design;
• “Let’s register this name/logo for a trademark” = trademarking;
• “Let’s try to make people want this” = …marketing? advertising? hypnosis?;
• or “Let’s devise a strategy for this that builds on its uniqueness and relevance” = strategy, or positioning.

And so on. Or you could mean all those things and more, in which case using a single word like “branding” is pretty convenient. But the activities included under that word overlap with other words, and the edges are fuzzy, so no one knows what you mean. Solution? Try to be more specific.

I once told the principals at a brand consulting firm I worked for that I thought we should completely discontinue using the words “brand” and “branding.” Instead, we could say we did things like “strategy” and “graphic design.” I think they thought I was joking.

Another issue is that for those of us in the “branding industry,” a lot of these words have been elevated to the point that they take on almost spiritual connotations. To the MBAs I know, “positioning” means doing some competitive analysis and figuring out a unique angle to use in selling your product. And it’s probably something simple, like using a different pricing strategy or targeting a certain age range. But at the brand strategy firms I’ve worked at, “positioning” can refer to a deeply moving idea—something inspirational, if not magical—that can focus a company on a single goal, articulate a higher calling for management and employees, drive customer loyalty, and so on. The MBAs are rolling their eyes. (But customers might not be.)

Confusion like this means the words themselves need to be tossed out, in my opinion. Most of them, anyway. But some of the ideas should live on. One opportunity for them (the ideas…to live on) is in “design thinking,” a term that’s gained a lot of popularity recently—more or less what I referred to as “brand thinking” in my LinkedIn comment. The rest of my response takes a stab at one way this concept should impact marketing and business, even if we can’t get the terminology right:

The biggest lesson for marketers and brand managers is simply to step back from media and tactics and minutiae and look at the big picture again. Not “What should we say about ourselves, and how?” but “How are we different? What do we stand for? Why should anyone care?” Answering these questions before examining something like the 4 Ps will ensure consistency in messaging, but also in actions, which is increasingly where brands are winning or losing.

So, if you were to ever hear me say “let’s brand this,” I guess that’s partly what I’d mean.