Business vs Brand: 9 Key Differences You Should Know

Business vs brand: What’s the difference, and why should a business owner care?

That’s the question I often get from my business clients who want to know why they need a brand story.

The biggest difference between a business and a brand is that a business refers to a practical foundation with products, operational, and sales aspects, while a brand refers to all the visual and emotional aspects as well as perceptions that your audience has about the company.

The two concepts are closely related and have some crossover between them, but they are not the same.

And you should know about their differences because you need business strategies and brand stories to drive success.

In this blog post, I’ll dive into:

• 9 ways that a business and a brand are different
• Business vs branding examples
• Why you need to know the differences

Business vs brand – 9 key differences you should know

1. Business vs brand – Fundamentals

The basic premise of a business is that it has products or services to sell.

On the other hand, your brand is all about a story.

It’s about your mission, brand purpose, values, and unique approach to solving customer problems. Your story should be authentic and reflect who you are as an organization.

Your storytelling should also help differentiate you from competitors with similar products or services.

2. Business vs brand – Objectives

The primary purpose of a business is to make money with the products and services it sells.

But a brand goes much deeper than that.

It exists to connect with people on an emotional level by providing them with something meaningful beyond just products or services.

It could be information, entertainment, inspiration, knowledge, or hope…it exists to serve. And because it does that, a brand can get its audiences to engage with it.

Branding aims to create loyalty among existing customers while attracting new ones through its messaging and visuals.

3.  Business vs Brand – Tools

A business might need to rely on tactics such as discounts and promotions to increase sales.

But a brand focuses on establishing its values, such as trustworthiness, integrity, etc., to encourage its audience to buy from it.

That’s why a business may target more short-term goals of driving immediate sales, whereas brand-building is more of a long-term effort.

It requires more effort upfront but will pay off significantly longer term since it creates a true customer following.

4. Business vs brand – People

Since businesses rely on products and sales, they always focus on providing the best value to their customers.

However, next-level customer loyalty and repeat purchases come from strong branding efforts.

A product can have many competitors, but a brand has fewer.

That’s why a brand strives to gain a following and build a community.

When people become loyal to your brand, they become fans instead of simply customers – which means they will remain loyal even when competitors offer lower prices or better features than yours.

That’s because people identify with brands on an emotional level – not just because of their features or prices – so when someone identifies strongly enough with a brand, they won’t switch to another one easily (if at all).

This is why creating strong branding for your business can be so important for long-term success.

5. Business vs brand – Audience needs

A business understands the needs of its target audience from a functional standpoint. What products or services are its audiences looking for, to make their lives better?

A brand tries to understand WHY its audience looks for these products. What are their frustrations, desires, and challenges in life?

That’s why before you build a brand, you must create a buyer persona that will help you understand your audience more than just their functional needs.

6. Business vs brand – Characteristics

In business, striving for operational efficiency is essential to save time and resources. Everything should work like a well-oiled machine.

On the other hand, creating an identity is far more important for brands.

You should create consistent brand imagery (look and feel) across all your marketing channels—including social media, website design, print materials, and more—to ensure customers recognize and remember you when they need something you offer.

Read my post on how to choose the words to describe a brand based on your brand personality.

Also, check out my posts on what is a brand kit and branding kit examples to know more about how to set guidelines for your brand designs and identity.

7. Businesses vs Brand – Messaging

Product or sales copywriting is about writing products and offering descriptions to encourage your audience to buy.

These kinds of copy are very important for businesses.

However, to build a brand, you must create high-quality content to establish your credibility and expertise and build topical authority and trust.

So you must provide helpful information that solves their problems quickly and easily.

Quality content can come in many forms—blog posts, white papers, eBooks, videos, etc.

Most importantly, your content should be based on your brand messaging pillars and engaging enough to keep your audience hooked.

Additionally, SEO is key here — optimizing content to appear at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs).

So when potential customers search for information online, they will find your brand and engage with it.

In the long run, as your brand evolves over time, these prospects could become actual customers.

8. Business vs brand – Customer interaction

A business focuses on increasing efficiency and cutting costs while providing customers with a smooth purchase process.

A brand focuses on providing a comfortable, engaging interaction with the audience at every brand touchpoint. A brand will provide these experiences without even talking about sales.

9. Business vs brand – Entity

A business entails day-to-day operations, infrastructure, logistics, and people powering it.

A brand is what customers remember when they think about a company – from experiences and messages crafted from those business fundamentals.

Business vs brand – Examples

At the risk of being cliche, let me share some examples of business vs branding with global brands that almost everyone has heard about.

1. Apple

When we think of Apple as a business, we refer to phones, laptops, watches, and more.

But when we talk about Apple the brand, we think of the Apple logo, innovation, style, Steve Jobs, high quality, and inspiration.

2. McDonald’s

Mcdonald’s makes us think of burgers, chicken nuggets, milkshakes, drive-throughs, and in most places, free wifi in their restaurants terms of their business offering.

But as a brand, we think about it as family-friendly, unhealthy (delicious?), cheap, and of course, the red color and the golden arches.

3. Louis Vuitton

Luxury brands like Louis Vuitton have a much higher brand aspect than more mass brands like Mcdonald’s.

Though they have excellent high-quality products, especially in leather, it is more the aura, the aspirational aspects, and the fact that they are not accessible by everyone that gives them the edge.

The brand story for such brands includes their origins, attention to detail, and the story of each product that makes them popular.

Business vs brand – Conclusion

If you want to grow your business, you need to understand how a business and a brand work and their differences.

You must create your business strategies and marketing campaigns based on fully understanding how these factors relate to your small business brand, which ultimately forms customer perception and makes your audience buy from you.

You win in business by doing two things well:

• Offering and delivering great product/ service offers that is relevant for your audience
• Being different from your competition and building a unique identity
• Offering value to your audiences through content
• Creating valuable customer experiences and relationships

It might look like extra work up front, but that is the formula for success.

That is how you will drive more sales in the short run and more customer loyalty, engagement, and positive reviews to generate more sales and growth in the long term.

Thoughts? Comments?