My first is an email from Sharon at a chamber of commerce on the East Coast of the USA, “Some members of our Board are confused about the difference between branding and marketing a city. I am finding it hard to explain. Can you help me?”We receive many emails from city leaders, practitioners and students around the world. I have decided to start sharing some of the responses with readers of this blog.
Sharon, your Board members are not alone in their confusion because I often hear dicussions where the terms “branding” and “marketing” are mistakenly used interchangeably. They shouldn’t be. There are distinct differences.
City branding provides a framework for organizing, differentiating and focusing around the city's competitive and distinctive identity to ensure that its messages and experiences are as distinct, compelling, and rewarding as possible. Most importantly, it is a promise that must be grounded in truth and reality.
Marketing comprises the processes and actions for communications, product development, pricing, and promotions directed toward facilitating transactions with end customers. It involves conveying the brand strategy elements such as positioning, personality, core experiences and tone of voice.
On one hand, branding is long-term and strategic. Marketing is supposed to be strategic (or at least should be), but it is usually short-term and mainly tactical. Brands are distinctive, where marketing isn’t.
Marketing is a part of branding. Not the other way around. And marketing alone can’t build your city’s brand. Branding requires that you orchestrate the on-brand actions by a wide variety of stakeholders and partners to ensure that you deliver the promise that has been made. In essence, marketing is what enables you to communicate your brand messages or promise to customers, while branding relates to your competitive identity and how you keep the promise.
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