I was recently working with a client who wasn’t quite sure what she needed. She heads a family foundation and wanted to expand her awareness to attract additional donors as well as potential benefactors that her foundation could help. I was talking her through what a brand workshop could do for her organization and she said, “We’re a non-profit foundation I don’t want to do advertising.” This got me thinking. First of all, I do believe non-profit foundations could still use some form of advertising. More than that though, it seemed she was conflating brand development with advertising. And she certainly isn’t the only one. I have had many other clients, mostly startups, who want to jump right into “advertising” without having a brand established because they didn’t really understand the difference, or the importance of brand.
So what is the difference? Can you have a brand without advertising? And can you have advertising without a brand?
I would argue no and no. A brand without advertising is you talking to yourself. And advertising without a brand is you being a hot mess in front of everyone.
Here’s the difference.
Brand: This is you (when I say “you” I mean your company or organization) and your personality and what you stand for. You find and develop your brand first before you do anything else. It informs your advertising. It tells you what direction to go before you head off a cliff. So when you get to the advertising part, you largely already know what you want to say and who you want to say it to so it makes everything so much simpler. It also tells you who you are not. So when you evaluate new business initiatives or even new hires you can evaluate them against what your brand stands for. And if they don’t fit with that, then it’s easier to say “no” and not chase shiny new trendy things because it seems like it will make you money or save you money. It won’t. It will water down and kill your brand. It will make you appear inauthentic, like you don’t stand for anything and today’s consumer can smell that a mile away. A brand helps you establish what you believe in and then helps you do the activities that uphold and demonstrate those beliefs.
Advertising: This is everything that comes after you figure out your brand. Advertising IS the thing. At it’s most basic, you create an ad and then pay a third party platform to run it for you. Broadly speaking, it is all the activities that uphold and demonstrate your brand beliefs. It’s the part that connects with the people you want to connect with, in the places where they are, with the content they want to engage with. (This gets into marketing too, I think of advertising as one part of a larger marketing strategy.)
Whether your audience visits your website, sees you on social media, watches your ad on YouTube or any number of other forms of media, they will recognize you—if your advertising is consistent with your brand. It makes it easier for them to feel like they know you, that they can trust you, that you have the same values as they do, and they are more likely to buy your product service or engage with your organization because “you get them.” So if your brand is funny and creative, and those are part of your brand pillars or personality, then your advertising can be funny and creative, too. But if you launch right into creating a funny TV spot and later discover your brand is really more sincere and serious, and that is more authentic to your company, and what you stand for, and the initiatives you support, then it’s very confusing and difficult for everyone. Plus, it’s difficult to evaluate if your advertising is “good”. Like, if I develop a campaign for you with a website, print and display ads, a TV spot and some streaming radio, and you don’t have a brand, I might create the the best darn campaign ever in the history of the universe and your feedback will be “Meh. I don’t know, it just doesn’t feel like us.” Again, more difficult than it needs to be.
Now there is a lot of nuance and play in here. There’s no strict structure, it’s a framework. There is currently a lot of talk about “headless brands” which I totally get. You don’t have to be exactly the same across all channels to have a strong, authentic brand. You can dial up or down aspects of your brand depending on your medium, and let different creative teams call the shots. So then your website may be more professional and buttoned-up than your Instagram, for example. But it all still feels like you.
The most important thing to know is that your brand comes first. Then you’re off and running and can go be a hot mess in front of everyone if, in fact, that turns out to be part of your brand.
Needless to say, we built a meaningful brand for my foundation client. She enjoyed the process; calling it “clarifying and rewarding. “ She’s even thinking about doing a little advertising.
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