Branding vs Marketing: It's Kinda Like 'The Girl Next Door'

Go to any online dating site and you can immediately view thousands of profiles. So many fish, so little time. Welcome to the Market-place, where there are way more than 31 flavors. Real talk, good-looking and good-sounding choices are a dime a dozen these days, and when you get tired of ‘swiping right’ enough times, our bet is that you’ll be thinking back to the good ol’ days…about ‘the girl next door’. She wasn’t the glam girl in school, but she knew who she was and what she stood for. I mean, let’s get real…whether we're takin' about Match, Tinder, or any other dating smorgasbord, unless you’re a little slow, you’re already hip to the game that the reliability of someone presenting their true identity ain’t the best. What you see isn’t necessarily what you get. What really feels good in a relationship are things like Connection. Loyalty. Trust. She rocks her own unique style and doesn’t apologize for it; nor does she put on a facade or try to imitate her wishy-washy friends <competitors>. You know she’s gonna pick up the phone every time because she’s consistent, and let's face it...that matters. She keeps you coming back after the other girls crash and burn because she’s timeless. Good branding looks and feels like the girl next door. A solid understanding for a company’s culture, principles, values and vision is the foundation for generating a brand that can withstand the test of time and competition.

So, there ya go. If Branding is the Girl Next Door, then Marketing must be the method(s) of introducing her and showing her off to the world. How? Well, you can talk about her. You can film her. You can put her on TV. Hell, you can even create an online profile of her.

But whatever the tool or tactic that’s used - and whatever you do…make sure you know who she is, and for God’s sake, be sure to get her name right.