The difference in plain terms
Brand strategy decides how the business should be perceived, by which clients and why. Marketing strategy decides how the business reaches those clients: the channels, the budget, the timing and the campaigns. The first is about identity and position. The second is about reach and activity.
They depend on each other. A brand strategy that is never marketed stays invisible. A marketing strategy without a clear brand promotes a different message every time, so buyers struggle to remember what the business stands for.
Why brand strategy comes first
Marketing needs something clear to promote. When the position is agreed, every post, advertisement and email can reinforce it. When it is not, each campaign is written from scratch, and the business presents itself slightly differently each time. It is common for an established business to invest steadily in marketing while its message drifts, because nobody decided what the marketing was meant to make people remember.
Short-term and long-term effects
The two strategies also work on different timescales. Marketing activity often aims at people ready to buy now. Brand building aims at the much larger group who will buy later. The Ehrenberg-Bass Institute’s 95:5 rule suggests that only about 5 per cent of business buyers are in the market at any given time.
The IPA’s long-running analysis of advertising effectiveness, summarised in The Long and The Short of It, found an optimum split of about 60:40 between brand building and activation. The exact ratio varies, but the principle is consistent: businesses that only chase immediate sales tend to grow less over time than those that also build lasting recognition.
What this means in practice
For most established businesses, the right order is to agree the brand strategy, then build a marketing plan around it, often including a social media strategy, with a small number of channels the business can sustain. The brand strategy is reviewed when the business changes direction. The marketing plan is reviewed every month or quarter, based on what is working. Zelexis works on both, and keeps the marketing tied to the position, so each campaign adds to the same impression.
A useful next step
Something to try this week.
Write down the one thing you want buyers to remember about your business. Then look at your last five marketing posts, emails or advertisements. Count how many of them support that one thing. If fewer than four do, the marketing is running ahead of the brand strategy.