What’s the difference between Product Marketing vs Brand Marketing, and which one is better?
You may already be familiar with the terms ‘brand marketing’ and ‘product marketing’. But what is the difference, and which one is better?
Let’s take a quick look at the difference first.
Product Marketing
Product marketing is exactly what it says: your marketing message is all about the product. This could be the benefits of the product, a special offer or even a case study, but whatever tactic you use the message is predominantly about the product and not the company.
Brand Marketing
This type of marketing is focused on the values, beliefs and voice of the company, rather than a specific product.
It is used to create buy-in and loyal customers and promote your brand as one that customers would want to be aligned to.
A product is what you need. A brand is what you want.
Which is better?
In short, I would say you need both. Each one does have its own advantages over the other and, depending on how established you are, you may choose to prioritise one over the other.
Product marketing is certainly better if you have a unique product. If you can solve a problem no one else can, then promote that!
However, if you sell an identical or similar product, then differentiating yourself by using brand marketing may be the best way to go.
Established companies who have a product everyone already knows often do more brand marketing than product marketing.
One major advantage of brand marketing is that even when a product becomes outdated or no longer needed you still have your brand. Products can become obsolete but a brand can stay timeless allowing you to easily diversify.
This video from Apple is a great example of Brand Marketing. While it is featuring lots of images of their computers the idea behind the video is to influence you into believing that to be as cool and creative as those featured in the video you need to use Apple Macs. It creates an emotional attachment to the brand.
