Brand Marketing vs Demand Marketing

Collaboration is the new black when it comes to brand marketing and demand marketing.  

At one time, these two approaches battled against each other.  

But today, companies are finding success when the two work together. 

Here’s a look at what brand marketing is and how demand marketing works, along with an inside look at the results when you put both to work. 

What Is It? 

Brand marketing is the process of building a relationship between the consumer and a brand. Instead of pushing a service or product, in this case, the company promotes itself, what it stands for, and its values. The products or services are secondary actors supporting the promise that the brand espouses. 

Demand marketing is a process where the marketing team comes up with a strategy to create interest in or demand for its services or products. Consumers must become aware of the brand and what it has to offer in order to be interested in buying. 

The Collaboration 

Many organizations are finding marketing success when they link up these two approaches.  

Combining brand marketing and demand marketing, companies avoid the problem of silos and waste. And lack of results. 

In a time when every marketing dollar counts and buyers are reluctant to spend, here’s how you combine demand and brand marketing to maximize the value each brings to the table. 

  1. Bring teams together. They should function together in order to support a shared goal and purpose. Empower your teams to work together as priorities shift and to improve marketing processes continuously while measuring campaign performances with your business goals. 
  2. Plan. Start with the customer journey, and integrate all of your marketing for the upcoming year. Do this for all product lines. Consider if and how campaigns support overall business objectives, along with marketing goals and initiatives. 
  3. Experimentation. This is an important element of success. Your team should have a budget for experimenting in order to learn what works. 
  4. Measure. Lastly, be sure your approach includes tracking the performance of both brand and demand marketing, integrating the two as a unified system. 

Collaboration in Action 

As an example of how impactful a collaborative marketing approach works, Ulta Beauty changed its marketing model from category- and product-focused to an integrated method, which kept its customers at the center of everything.  

They wanted to balance brand and demand efforts of all its brands.  

As a result, their vice president of marketing, Karla Davis, reports:  

“We pushed to think differently about our structure and what would serve us best in 

the short- and long-term. This effort led to greater synergy, efficiency, and, ultimately effectiveness across our growing marketing organization. And it did so in ways that benefit our teams, brand partners, and ultimately our guests.” 

A collaboration of the two approaches is helping many companies adapt to the ever-changing, challenging market and succeed. 

Your organization can benefit from rethinking how it does brand and demand marketing. Need help? Contact our team today!