Brand vs Branding vs Positioning

Ahhh, marketing, the land of an ever-growing pool of unclear concepts. Where a conversation about branding could potentially mean the colour of the logo or the overall positioning of the company.

So let’s go back to basics and explore those catch-all terms to bring some clarity.

Disclaimer: The best way to understand each other is to have a conversation about the real needs and goals we try to achieve, rather than nitpicking over words. This is merely an attempt to help you have more effective research and conversations when building your Marketing.

What is a brand?

Your brand is a person's gut feeling about your company. It’s not what you do, the colour of your logo or your tagline. It’s the perception of your company in people’s minds.

• How do they feel about your company?

• How do they describe it?

• What’s their impression of it?
  

It might not always sound like the homepage you so carefully put together. People will have their own thoughts on your company.

Here’s what it means:

Think of HubSpot.

What do you feel? How do you describe it?

Be honest, does your internal monologue sound like this? 👇

“Where my go-to-market team goes to grow”

Or does it sound more like “A complicated tool where you can’t find the info because your sales team half uses it”? That's the brand!

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What is branding?

Branding is what you do to influence people’s perception of your company. This is where the logo, tagline, and marketing campaigns come into play. It’s the sum of your actions that creates your branding.

I’ll add a caveat here:

All those client-facing activities are the translation of your identity as a company. Your DNA is not the particular shade of blue of your logo. Your overall vision, values and approach are what really matter here. Once this is clear, your ability to translate this identity into visuals, pitch and campaigns is a work of its own.The trick is not to fall into the trap of thinking a good tagline is your branding; the tagline is the translation of your DNA. The clearer your identity, the better the branding.

In the same vein, what you do (or don’t do) matters as much as your curated branding. Actions speak loudly! If you want your branding to reflect a family-oriented value, but you don’t give decent parental leave to your employees, it doesn’t add up.

Branding shouldn’t be left only in the hands of your designers and marketing department. It’s the impression your company creates as a whole.

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What is positioning?

Positioning is how you differentiate yourself from the competition in the prospect’s mind. Again, this is what THEY think when comparing your company vs the competition. A simple comparative table is not a positioning strategy (even if it’s a great tool when done right).

Reminder that your competition is not the list of similar tools available. It’s whoever your ideal customer is comparing you to at the moment they’re deciding to buy.

This is where you’ll hear advice like “niching down”. Finding a way to be the obvious choice for your ideal customer. In other terms, don’t be the best, be the only one.

That’s a tricky one. Because it’s not about your features or amazing customer support. That’s just what you do. It is also not about a time-saving one-click solution. This is the benefit. At any point, the competition can become faster and even build the same features as you. So, how are you unique?

You’ll find it easier to answer this question when you are very precise about the problem you solve and for whom. Thus, the “niching down” advice.

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Branding vs Positioning

You can view those concepts like blocks that fit inside each other.

1. The big block is the positioning. Who are you? What makes you the obvious choice?

2. Then, the branding. How do you actively translate this DNA into your collaterals and the company’s actions?

3. And finally, the brand, how do people feel about your company?
   

Remember that all those blocks are part of a living organism; things will change and evolve. You can’t expect your positioning to be static, just like you can’t have a product without updates.

Don’t waste months crafting the perfect tagline. Get your message out, test it, and see how the market responds. Reality is the best feedback loop you’ll ever have.