What About Brand Building?

Brand building is often touted as the cornerstone of successful marketing, but in reality, it has kept many businesses stuck in outdated practices. While branding is important, it should never be the primary goal of your advertising efforts—especially if you’re working with limited budgets.

Branding as a Secondary Priority

Branding should be viewed as a byproduct of successful marketing, not the end goal. The primary objective for any marketer should be to sell. When you focus on making sales, brand building naturally follows as your audience becomes familiar with your products or services. Big companies like Coca-Cola or McDonald’s didn’t start with massive brand campaigns; they started by selling and building their brand through those sales.

The Cost of Focusing Solely on Branding

Brand-focused campaigns often come with enormous budgets that most businesses simply don’t have. Even if you could afford a large-scale branding campaign, it’s unlikely to yield immediate, measurable results. Unlike sales-driven campaigns, where success can be tracked and quantified, branding campaigns often rely on vague metrics like “brand awareness” or “top-of-mind recognition,” which don’t translate directly into revenue.

Sales First, Brand Second

For most businesses, particularly those that aren’t flush with cash, the focus should be on selling. Every dollar spent on advertising should be aimed at generating measurable returns. Branding, while valuable, should be a secondary consideration—something that develops naturally as your business grows through effective sales strategies.

The Myth of Big-Brand Success Stories

People often point to companies like Google, Amazon, or Uber as examples of businesses that invested heavily in branding and still became successful. However, these companies had access to almost unlimited capital, allowing them to burn through millions of dollars without turning a profit for years. This is not a sustainable model for most businesses, especially those that need to generate revenue quickly to survive.

The Bottom Line

At the end of the day, businesses survive and thrive by making sales, not by building brand awareness alone. While branding has its place, it’s crucial not to let it distract from the primary goal: selling products and services. Successful marketers understand this and prioritize measurable results over vague concepts like brand recognition.