Brand vs Business: What is the difference?

A brand is to business what a seed is to a tree.

Just as a seed contains the potential for growth and development into a strong and resilient tree, a brand represents the core identity and potential of a business.

It’s the foundation on which the business grows, branches out, and establishes itself in the market.

As a brand owner, it is crucial to understand the difference between a brand and a business.

These are terms often used interchangeably but are two distinct things.

A brand and a business are two different things.

Though reliant on each other, a brand is a gut feeling someone gets about your business.

It is a broader expression of the business, which includes the identity and emotional connection that customers have with the company.

A business is the foundation of the company, including the products and services that it offers and its business model.

Simply put, a business is focused on sales, while a brand is focused on the emotional connection.

Growing your brand can bring in more income than growing your business.

According to Customer Thermometer, customers are willing to pay 50% more for businesses making an impact.

Making an impact in this case is talking about brand purpose which I’ve talked about quite a few times.

A reason for your business to exist.

A property of branding that could increase your customers’ willingness to buy by 50%.

Growing your business would take; improving the current skillset that you have to make your product or service better which may incur costs.

I’m not saying to focus on growing your brand only. It is possible to have a business with a strong brand; however, this does not come easy because it requires some amount of effort to build a brand while building a business.

Growing your brand alone won’t grow your business. Having a business model, marketing strategy, and visibility plan with a solid and trust-building brand identity, will.

A business model is the strategy that a business uses to create, deliver, and capture value. It encompasses the way a business operates, generates revenue, and sustains itself in the market.

Just like you pick a seed(knowing well what fruit it’ll bring) you need to imagine what type of brand you want to create.

It involves clearly defining your brand purpose, vision, mission, and values, which I have outlined how to do here.

The purpose drives the vision, which inspires the mission, guided by the values.

Understanding what sets you apart from others and how you want to be perceived by your target audience.

Your brand image is the perception your audience has about your brand, and you can influence this perception. This is why branding is not just about what you say it is; it’s about what they say it is (Marty Neumeier)

Let’s be real; even if you build a business and it fails, no problem there. You have a whole lifetime to keep trying. If you build a business without a brand, you won’t have anything to place that success on. It’ll just be gone.

The point I’m making is, your brand is your own.

No one, not one person, can take it away from you. Forget about your competition and worry about what makes you happy.

Rather than seeing your competition as your enemy, rather, adopt the mindset of learning from them. Life’s too fun, to spend it worrying about what someone else is doing that you’re not.

Keep in mind that there’s always going to be someone to worry about if you choose to worry about them in the first place.

You might fail to build a business, but a brand doesn’t work that way. Your brand is fundamentally about building community. A brand can only fail when you don’t find the right community.

Instead of trying to build a business all the time, try finding the right community for that business. If it doesn’t work, sit down, rethink, and change the focus.

Your brand can only be stolen if you assume that “you” can be stolen.
A brand is an expression of who you are. Your values, your perspectives, and your objectives rather than a service or product.

With that, I’ll leave you to think about whether you want to put the focus on your brand or your business.

See you later!

© 2024 Tifu Kelison’s Newsletter.

Originally published at https://tifu-kelisons-newsletter.beehiiv.com.