The Relationship Between Marketing and Branding
Learn how to strengthen the relationship between your business’ marketing and branding efforts for business growth.
Dollar Shave Club: A brand with a strong marketing and branding relationship
Ways to strengthen your marketing ↔ branding relationship
We recently heard a phrase that caught our attention: “Marketing is like asking someone on a date. Branding is the reason they say yes.”
Many business owners and executives loop branding into the word “marketing,” and although they have a strong relationship, they are not the same. Understanding the distinction between marketing and branding will transform how you think about your business or organization, allowing you to strengthen the relationship between these two critical functions and ultimately improve both areas of your strategy.
Marketing versus branding
Your brand is at your core, and your marketing is how audiences learn about it. When you look up “marketing” in the dictionary, it says it’s “the process of attracting, fulfilling, and retaining customers.” Essentially, it’s how you get your offerings in front of the right folks.
Branding, on the other hand, gives meaning to your business: the raison d'être. It’s the ethos and identity, complete with a distinctive logo, packaging, colors, messaging, and cultural components that make it unique, recognizable, and resonant. Imagine if Coca-Cola had a different logo every time you purchased it from the grocery store; without the curly white font on a red background, it would be quite a bit harder to find.
Marketing is the various touchpoints on different channels—like social media, email, flyers, and print and digital ads—that connect with your audience. When your branding is consistent and engaging, it improves your target audience's recall. The better recognition and the more high quality touchpoints you have, the more likely people are to purchase your products and services.
Dollar Shave Club: A brand with a strong marketing and branding relationship
Dollar Shave Club is a subscription service that delivers razors and other shaving and grooming products to customers on a monthly basis. One of the brand’s goals rings clear in its name: low cost. The brand sets itself apart in three specific areas that address its audience’s pain points: they make their own high-quality blades, they reduce costs by cutting out the cost of the middlemen, and they offer a money-back guarantee for customers who aren’t happy with the product. These three commitments are a strong part of Dollar Shave Club’s branding strategy, as they directly share why their audience should choose their products over similar brands. This messaging—paired with the brand’s signature navy blue and orange color palette and a name that’s easy to recall—helps Dollar Shave Club stand out in a crowded marketplace.
Now, let’s take a look at their marketing tactics. Michael Dubin and Mark Levin founded Dollar Shave Club in 2011, and the brand first went viral in 2012 for an ad called “DollarShaveClub.com – Our Blades Are F***ing Great.” You learn a lot about Dollar Shave Club’s branding just from this title, and the advertisement delivers. The messaging is blunt, directly sharing the brand’s goals and systems and why the viewer should choose the shaving subscription service over other razors. Essentially, it labels other razors as expensive, overcomplicated, and inconvenient, and shares how Dollar Shave Club solves all of these problems. On the day the ad was launched on YouTube, 12,000 people subscribed.
On social media, the brand prioritizes funny trends, skits, and influencer marketing to go beyond showing product value. Dollar Shave Club’s content not only fits with its brand voice and tone, reminiscent of what we saw in the “Our Blades are F***ing Great” ad, but also strategically reaches its target audience. It fits the humor of the viewers the brand wants to attract while incorporating popular figures as influencers to boost trustworthiness and authority.
A few years ago, in 2021, Dollar Shave Club had its own podcast called “I Learned a Thing In The Bathroom,” (again, another humorous title), where they taught listeners about interesting topics in the time it takes to shave your face. Example episodes include “What are human beings supposed to look like?” and “How long would Santa survive at the North Pole?” While these topics don’t directly relate to shaving, the episodes were only three to four minutes long, which means people could listen to them while they get ready for work in the morning. Again, this podcast showcased the brand’s funny side and got audience members habitually listening to it during their morning routines, encouraging brand loyalty.
These are just three examples of the great marketing Dollar Shave Club has to offer—all three of which incorporate the brand’s voice, tone, and messaging seamlessly.
Ways to strengthen your marketing ↔ branding relationship
Take a page from Dollar Shave Club’s book. Come up with ways to strengthen both your marketing and branding in order to create a better relationship between the two. Here are some tips:
- Ensure your marketing team has a strong understanding of your brand, its value, and its value-add. Develop a brand voice and tone guide for use across channels and campaigns.
- Marketing isn’t always promotional. Find creative ways to connect with your audience and show your brand values without directly telling people to buy your products.
- Create a cohesive brand with easily recognizable colors, fonts, and messaging, and use them throughout your marketing efforts.
- Use storytelling strategies that authentically reflect your brand’s origin story, mission, and customer success stories.
- Regularly gather customer feedback to understand how your brand is perceived versus how you intend it to be perceived, then adjust your marketing efforts accordingly.
- Collaborate across departments—ensure your product development, customer experience, and marketing teams are all aligned on brand promises and delivery.
Like any great relationship, your marketing and branding strategies should be communicative, cohesive, and authentic. When these two elements work in harmony, they create a strong foundation for business growth. Your brand is the promise you make to your customers—the personality, values, and experience they can expect every time they interact with your brand—and your marketing is how you deliver that promise consistently across every touchpoint.
Ready to strengthen the bond between your marketing and branding? Get in touch with us.