What is the difference between branding, PR, marketing and advertising?

Many people use the terms branding, PR, marketing and advertising interchangeably but they are not the same. All of these disciplines use different tactics, resulting in different outcomes. They can be used individually or together, depending on an individual business and scaled according to business size. This handy graphic describes these differences very quickly.

Marketing

Marketing is the process of getting a customer interested in and eventually purchasing (which can be called sales) your product or service. This is a core business discipline, which is underpinned by the four P’s: product, price, place and promotion. Marketing is the complex combination of wearing both a business and customer hat, to come up with an offering that satisfies a business requirement for profitability and a customer requirement for a product that they need, want and can justify paying for.

PR

Public Relations, PR or communications focuses on persuasion, reputation and publicity. Have you ever wondered why some newspaper articles about a certain business are glowing or how public figures can always make amazing speeches that deliver a message clearly and leave people feeling good? That is all thanks to the amazing writing of their PR team. A large business can also separate out internal and external communications. Internal communications are important to keep employees engaged and invested, as they are fully aware of what is happening, what the goals are and what behaviour is expected of them within a company.

Advertising

There are many forms of advertising, which you may have seen including TV, radio, newspaper, and outdoor advertising on banners and billboards. Advertising uses short and sharp messaging to improve business visibility or promote a specific offering which can be very effective, especially if it is using a medium seen by the target customer. Advertising often uses strategies such as repetition, bold design, music, images and interesting language to be memorable and lead to a sale. The next time you find yourself singing a tune from an advert, you know why!

Branding

The holy grail of our industry is establishing a strong brand. Branding is how your customer feels about your company and product. When you think of a Ferrari, regardless of knowing whether it has been well built, you just know it’s going to an amazing car. Branding is the process of building assets, imagery, a unique position in the market and creating a customer expectation of what they will get every time they use your company. To establish a strong brand, you need to use all the previous three tactics as well as using strong design and strategy. This is best done in partnership with a strong experienced marketing agency, such as JFM.

Luckily, you don’t need to be an expert on these disciplines or how to execute them. JFM Marketing and Design are specialists in all of these areas and can help you tailor the right solution for your business.

New Zealand Trustee Services

JFM Marketing and Design worked with New Zealand Trustee Services Ltd to create a new brand identity and website last year.  

 The overall feel for the new brand was one of clarity, energy, trustworthiness, professional integrity, and structural accuracy.  Their approachable “New Zealand” character was also represented in the brand work.

The use of blue in depicting an iconic silver fern is a reflection of New Zealand sky and water, and the bright energy going into a new phase of a brand.  

A suit of collateral was created for use across the business; imagery was carefully selected to reinforce the importance of relationships. 

The new website design is clean, minimal but not sterile. Utilising the bright blue as a pop colour through the website allowed the vibrancy to be balanced off with a grey.

The website was created using a sectional scroll with responsive functionality, which allows large amounts of content to be accessed seamlessly and intuitively, on any device.

Want to find out more about how the team at JFM Marketing + Design can refresh your brand or build your new website? Give us a call today on 03 308 6272.

 

Mail Chimp and Facebook Ads, together at last!

Mail Chimp is an online tool to build attractive emails to send to your customers. The system templates allow people to create well-designed eDM’s (electronic direct mail) to send to their email list of customers.

Mail Chimp has now partnered with Facebook for Ad Campaigns. This means, if you already use Mail Chimp and are thinking of using Facebook Advertising, life just got a whole lot easier! You can use the same interface you know and love to build your Facebook Ads.

This relationship is a great idea for small business, as users of Mail Chimp will already have their photos and customer details loaded into the system. The reporting tools of both platforms are integrated, so you get smarter data to give you an idea of return on investment.

For more information on this feature, read the blog post from Mail Chimp here. If you would like to use email or Facebook Advertising as a tool for your business but would prefer we implement it for you, give us a call at JFM Marketing & Design.

Train people well enough so…

Quote of the Month

“Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so that the don’t want to.”
– Richard Branson

The perfect font for editorial with a difference…

Font of the month – Yuzu

Yuzu is a soft sans for branding and editorial. It features rounded stroke-endings, slightly narrow caps and smooth terminals. Yuzu is the perfect font for editorial with a difference with light to extra bold options( 5 different weights).

Click here to find out more or purchase…

Welcome to our new look e-news

Welcome to our new look e-news

Welcome to our new look JFM E-news.  We decided we would take some of our own advice about keeping your brand and communication refreshed, up to date and relevant. So here it is… I hope you will enjoy it and would love to hear what you think, or what you might like to see included in the next edition.I have managed to chat to a few clients about James and my exciting news, but for anyone who I have not been able to catch up with just yet, we are expecting a new addition to our family, a baby boy who is due in August. Please let me reassure you that you will see no change in the service offered by JFM. JFM will continue to operate as normal assisting our clients with their marketing requirements while I am away from the office. I am planning on finishing in late July and returning in November.

One of the conversations I am having increasingly with clients is about their customer segmentation and how they gain a better understanding the different segments and in turn, manage their customer data. In todays marketing world it is important to have brand presence, however the business needs to be able to address the ‘customer of one’ or in other words make it personal to each customer. Knowing and understanding each customer will enable a business to be competitive and acquire and retain business.

Looking forward to the future of marketing and being able to take ‘knowing your customer’ to the next step is being able to predict your customer requirements or next purchase. As an example I have just purchased a cot and nursery furniture, so if the business that I purchased these from know that, they could then also market baby clothing and toys to me – it is not just about knowing your customer today but predicting what they want next from your business and into the future.

It is also important for any business to understand the fundamentals of their marketing and why they should continue with their marketing activity regardless of the economy. Remembering that customers come in and out of the buying cycle as their life changes and develops. Price is not the number one motivator for most purchases, its more about a need and want.

Kind regards,
Jo Foster
Founder + Marketing Consultant

What makes a great brand?

What makes a great brand?

We can all think of brands that we like in the market and when thinking of these it maybe the shape or color of the logo or the service or product that you get from the business. Our thoughts and feelings on a brand can make it complex for any business to understand.

One of the things when developing or refreshing a brand is understanding who buys your products or services and how, what, when and why they purchase is critical because it provides direction for the tone and reach, along with the overall identity of a brand. Great brands go beyond the brand to understand its real value to existing customers but also to tomorrow’s customers.

Clear Brand Strategy

For a brand to succeed, a strong undiluted brand message must exist internally but must also consistently connect with customers through various touch points. They also demonstrate a clear story delivered with passion about who they are what they do and why they matter. This focused and consistent message is not just a marketing message but an ingrained set of values which consumers buy into with passion.
Everyone Must Live the Brand
In line with the brand strategy, a vital aspect of any brand success is that the people within that brand actually demonstrate what they preach; in essence they live that lifestyle, support that brand and contribute to its success.
Uniqueness
Great brands also develop their own uniqueness, not just the product or service but the whole package.
Unfortunately, too many business’s fall in love with their brands and believe the brands speak for themselves. Having a strong point of difference in your brand is a major advantage, and developing a great messaging platform will keep your brand unique. The more distance you have from your competition, the tighter your connection will be to your customers. Do you know what your unique product, service, or selling point is? If you think you would like to know more talk to us today.

Thinking about writing a marketing plan?

Thinking about writing a marketing plan?

Without a solid marketing plan, too much is left to chance. When you rely on “hope based marketing” you’re at very high risk of losing money, time, and traction, because nothing is strategic and everything is reactive. As the old adage states, “A failure to plan is a plan to fail”

Developing a marketing plan will allow a business to plan the majority of its marketing and communication activity for the year. However it does need to be flexible enough to be able to make the most of market opportunities that may arise after the plan is developed.

A marketing plan is a detailed roadmap that outlines your marketing strategies, tactics, costs and projected results over a period of time. Your marketing plan and budget keeps your entire team focused on specific goals – it’s a critical resource for your entire business.

Some statistics have shown that up to 85% of small- to mid-size companies operate from a budget only — without a written plan to accompany it. This explains why so many marketers are tactically focused – they’re figuring out how to spend a defined budget, instead of thinking about goals and strategies.
Writing a marketing plan is a time-consuming exercise, but it forces you to think through your strategies and relevant tactics.
It takes time to develop a good marketing plan and budget, but it’s important because it ties all of your activities to tangible goals.
It’s also a great opportunity to focus on the future, generate new ideas, and inspire your team. Even a simple plan is better than none, but when you invest more effort upfront, you’ll have a better roadmap toward your goals.

JFM brand refinement

JFM brand refinement

You may have noticed over recent weeks we’ve made a couple of refinements to our logo.

The new look was all about refining our identity without losing the connections to our past whilst making sure we’re more than ever connected to our clients and prospects, values and expectations.

We came to understand our points of difference, competitive advantage and core values more intimately, thanks to our client’s feedback from a recent “Think Actual” survey. This totally shaped our thinking, strategic direction, and conversations within the studio. In practical terms this shaped and guided our creative thinking and selections for our own logo; font choice, icon adjustment from a square to a conversation bubble and the imperative of staying within the same identity, colour range and over all logo shape.

How can we help grow your business…Opportunities into ideas into stories into visuals into hearts and minds into customers who are into you!]

A brand…

Quote of the month

“A brand is the most valuable piece of real estate in the world: a corner of someone’s mind”
– John Hedarty