The difference between marketing and branding

Marketing is the process of taking products and services to market.

Branding is the process of creating brands. 


Simples! 



Marketing is therefore a commercial activity, focused on getting customers to buy your products and services, which can involve some or all of the activities of: identifying potential markets; researching customers' and consumers' desires, needs and wants; analysing competitors; creating or developing new products and services; redefining their distinctive qualities and benefits; packaging, positioning, pricing and promoting those products and services; engaging staff, distribution channels, customers and prospective customers though advertising, social media and experiential marketing; monitoring how well all these are doing in growing sales and profits; learning from this and doing it all again to continue to grow. 



Branding is the activity of creating distinctive reputations for organisations, products, services, people and places. It is not necessarily a commercial activity. It can be a particularly powerful tool for marketers. It can also be a powerful tool for leaders engaging many different stakeholder groups, not only clients and consumers, but also shareholders and analysts, employees and candidates, suppliers and partners, patrons, patients, voters, viewers, visitors, members and followers.

It is also clear from these definitions that branding is not a sub-set of marketing, for their are many non-commercial brands that are not consciously 'marketed', nor bought or sold - Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge would be one example, and there are many more from many different fields. Similarly marketing is not a sub-set of branding, as there are things, commodities for example, which may have some marketing activity but are not brands.