View examples of LCI’s marketing and branding work.
It’s all about the message: how to say it, how to engage, and where to engage. These days, communicating with consumers about a company’s product or service means more than traditional marketing. It’s about communicating value to help sell, but it’s also about motivating customers and educating them about why they should act – and doing so where they look for information.
With the multitudes of new communications channels, it helps to have an expert guide your business through its marketing maze. LCI’s Chief Marketing Officer, Sean Dowdall, has spent more than 30 years doing just that – everything from overall brand management to marketing to the customer experience for well-known brands such as Walmart, Match.com, Wells Fargo, Old Navy, Bank of America, California Academy of Sciences, and the Oakland Museum of California, as well as a number of startups including Clickworker, Loans.com, and more.
So, what is branding? And how does it relate to marketing?
According to Wikipedia, “Brand management is a communication function in marketing that includes analysis and planning on how that brand is positioned in the market, which target public the brand is targeted at, and maintaining a desired reputation of the brand. Developing a good relationship with target public is essential for brand management. Tangible elements of brand management include the product itself; look, price, the packaging, etc. The intangible elements are the experience that the consumer takes away from the brand, and also the relationship that they have with that brand. A brand manager would oversee all of these things. “
In contrast (again, from Wikipedia), “Marketing can be looked at as an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, delivering, and communicating value to customers, and customer relationship management that also benefits the organization. Marketing is the science of choosing target markets through market analysis and market segmentation, as well as understanding consumer behavior and providing superior customer value. From a societal point of view, marketing is the link between a society’s material requirements and its economic patterns of response. Marketing satisfies these needs and wants through exchange processes and building long term relationships. “
What services does our San Francisco Public Relations Agency include? Services such as: email marketing, lead generation, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Search Engine Marketing (SEM), customer engagement and retention, traditional and online advertising, marketing collateral, brochures, and more.
According to Sean Dowdall, “Branding is the strategy and marketing is the overall driver. What companies often overlook is directly addressing the question, ‘What is our value to our customers?’ Then, you have to determine how best to convey that message to the appropriate target audiences. What differentiates successful businesses from those that struggle is a strategic and informed marketing plan.”
What’s the difference between marketing, branding – and for that matter, public relations & advertising? Read about each in the LA Business Journal.
For a free marketing consultation, please contact LCI’s Sean Dowdall at: 415-561-0888 or email him at: [email protected].
