In business, success depends a lot on finding the right approach to attract your target customers, keeping them engaged, and retaining their loyalty.
Two strategies that often come up during these conversations are brand marketing and product marketing. But what exactly makes them different? And how can understanding these differences help your business succeed?
In this guide, we'll explore the key differences between brand and product marketing, their influence on each other, and how combining them can support your long-term success.
What is brand marketing?
Brand marketing is the process of creating a unique and compelling identity for a business so that it can differentiate itself from its competitors who sell similar products or services.
It involves defining key elements such as the brand's name, logo, mission, values, and unique features so that they earn a permanent space in the target customers' minds and become their go-to option.
What is product marketing?
Product marketing is the strategic process of bringing a product to market and making sure it resonates with the right audience.
It involves figuring out what the customer needs, using that information to position the product, and sharing messages that show its value.
Difference between brand and product marketing
It’s easy to confuse product marketing with brand marketing, but each has its own role in your business success. If you want to make the most of your marketing efforts and truly engage your audience, understanding these differences is essential. Here’s the breakdown:
| Aspect | Brand | Product marketing |
|---|---|---|
| Goal | Aims to increase brand awareness, build emotional connections with customers, and stand out in the market. | Concentrates on achieving product-market fit, supporting sales and customer success teams, and driving product adoption. |
| Messaging | Communicates the brand's story, values, and mission to create a lasting impression in the customer's mind. | Highlights product features and benefits in a persuasive, direct way to incite action. |
| Measurement of success | Success is determined by long-term metrics such as brand awareness, customer loyalty, and overall brand equity. | Success is determined by long-term metrics such as brand awareness, customer loyalty, and overall brand equity. |
Which comes first—the brand or the product?
You need both brand and product marketing—but doing both at the same time isn’t always possible for several reasons. Here's how to assess which strategy might be the best fit for your business:
Product first
When you prioritize "product first," it means your focus is on marketing the product itself, with the brand gaining recognition through the product’s success. This approach works best if:
You’re in the early stages and need to sell a product to build momentum.
You’re working with limited resources and need a solid offering before investing in marketing.
You're testing market demand and need immediate feedback on your product.
Brand first
When you prioritize "brand first," the focus shifts to building a strong, recognizable brand identity that creates trust and loyalty over time. The product becomes secondary, gaining recognition through the brand’s reputation. This approach works well if:
When a business has established a solid customer base and aims to strengthen long-term relationships.
When your business expands into new yet crowded markets and needs to differentiate.
When the business has sufficient resources to invest in consistent and strategic brand development.
How brand and product marketing influence each other
The ideal scenario is to focus on both brand and product marketing simultaneously. This is because they are closely interconnected, with each influencing the other in significant ways. Here are three key ways they interact:
Brand authority builds trust for product adoption
Customers often rely on the reputation of a brand to trust its products. A well established brand can make potential customers adopt new products quickly because they already trust the brand's overall expertise and reliability.
Take Apple, for example. Its brand authority is built on decades of delivering high-quality tech gadgets. When Apple launched the iPhone 12, it sold out in just a few hours, with millions of units flying off the shelves within the first 24 hours of availability.
Product success reinforces brand credibility
A successful product boosts a brand's credibility and reputation. When your product works well, it shows the customer that your company can deliver on its promises and innovate. This, in turn, makes customers more confident in your business and makes future product adoption easier.
When Zendesk first launched its customer service platform in 2007, its success in digitizing support systems for businesses reinforced its reputation as a customer experience leader. As the product gained traction and demonstrated value, Zendesk's credibility as a brand grew. In 2008, Zendesk saw an average of 2,500 new customer support requests each day, which increased to 25,000 by 2009.
Brand messaging drives product positioning
The overarching brand messaging helps to define a product's positioning in the market. Your brand's mission, values, and understanding of its audience guide how your product is communicated, including how it addresses customers' pain points.
Nike is a great example of this. Its brand message, "Just Do It," is all about empowering people and pushing them to achieve their goals. This message shows up in all of Nike's products and makes customers feel like it's designed just for them to succeed.
How to sync brand and product marketing
Now that you understand the importance of both brand and product marketing, here is how to combine both strategies into one to drive greater impact and minimise resource usage.
Develop a core message
Your core message is the go-to starting point for how you will attract and drive emotional connections with customers. This message communicates why your brand matters, what it stands for, and how it is different from other brands.
For example, Trello's brand message clearly explains what its purpose is and what unique value they provide. Their homepage says, "Trello brings all your work, teammates, and tools together," with a tagline, "Keep everything in the same place—even if your team isn't.". The rest of the website reinforces the same idea—that they help in project management, such as "workflow for any projects big or small" or "see your projects from any angle."
All this means that when you establish a core message, you create consistency across all your marketing efforts, which in turn helps customers understand and remember your business.
To get started with a brand message, ask yourself:
What qualities are solely unique to my product?
What are my company's values and mission?
Who are my target customers, and what do they care about?
Set shared goals
The next step is to establish a shared goal. This is the common goal both your brand and product marketing are committed to achieving.
For example, you might run brand marketing campaigns to improve your business's reputation and product campaigns to highlight certain features. However, your ultimate goal behind both of these campaigns is to convert prospects into customers.
To set shared goals, bring your entire marketing team to the table to discuss and agree on a business objective. Next, break it down into smaller, manageable goals for both brand and product marketing teams— so each participant knows their role and contributions. For example:
Business Goal: Increase the customer base by 20% in the upcoming year.
Brand Marketing Goal: Increase brand awareness in the target demographic by 15%.
Product Marketing Goal: Launch product marketing campaigns that generate 1000 qualified leads each.
Map the buyer journey
A buyer's journey helps you visualize a buyer's path to purchase. This includes all the decisions and actions a prospect takes from the moment they identify their problem to the point they purchase the solution, with the possibility of post-purchase engagement for customer loyalty and advocacy.
Mapping the buyer journey is essential to know how both strategies should be aligned to address customer needs at specific stages effectively.
Your brand efforts should focus on top-of-funnel awareness and credibility, while product marketing should address mid- and bottom-of-funnel needs. This will create a seamless transition for the customer.
- Dan Ben-Nun, Founder of AdSpace.
Build a continuous feedback system
Your product and brand strategies won't always be perfect, which is why it's important to create a system for team feedback. It helps you keep both strategies aligned and improve the process moving forward.
Start by setting up weekly meetings where both teams can chat about campaign updates, customer feedback, or even the latest trends in the industry.
Also, consider using business intelligence software to track the progress of both brand and product marketing efforts.
- Dan Ben-Nun, Founder of AdSpace.
Final thoughts
Brand and product marketing are two essential pillars for driving sustainable business growth. A strong brand nurtures trust and emotional connections, while product marketing makes sure your products are meeting customer needs.
As you navigate the debate between the two, it's important to recognize that no matter which side you focus on, one principle remains constant: your customer is the king. When you focus on solving their problems and delivering consistent value, you not only attract new customers but also encourage them to keep coming back to your business.
