Brand Vs Company: The Ultimate Face-Off!

Woah, hold your horses! This is not a fight but a comparison…

You might be wondering at this point, a comparison. Aren't those two almost the same thing? Well, the keyword is “almost”. In a nutshell yes companies and brands can be the same but there are some differences. Understanding these differences between brands and companies will help you to place importance on whichever aspect of a business you want to develop!

Now to begin with let's get to meet our fighters… I mean the two aspects of a business.

What is a company? Well to put it simply a company is an organization of people who aim to create, market, and sell a product to earn a profit. The company is the cogs of the business; they manage employees, create new products and generate revenue. I know it's pretty boring but they are crucial regardless. 

A brand is the public's perception of the company, product, or service. Just like how when you walk into a party there is one social guy talking to everyone and is so likable that you can talk to them for hours and then there is Bob who is creepily sitting at the corner with his “miniatures”. The likable guy’s personality is fun and easygoing as opposed to Bob who always talks about how the world is ending. Who would you go and talk to? The likable guy right? Well in any case that is what a brand is in general the personality of the company. 

A brand’s personality has a lot of routes to showcase itself. It can present itself through the name of the brand, the marketing it does, its social media presence, and essentially how it interacts with its customers. Many companies offer skin care products but what separates the best from the rest is a good brand. Look at Proctor and Gamble for example. Many people don't even know who they are and some people like Bob think that they are a satanic cult. However, you have heard of Ambi Pur, Tide, Pantene, and Pampers all are household names, and all are brands owned by Proctor and Gamble. All these brands have different personalities. For example, Pantene is much more feminine and aims to have an aura of luxury as opposed to Head and Shoulders, another PnG brand that is much more energetic, youthful, and full of vigor.

Brands help a company stand out and both work hand in hand in developing each other. If a company can grow and develop its brand to be unique and fresh then it will garner great customer attention which if done properly can generate revenue. You can use more revenue to grow your company which will allow you to grow your brand even more and so on. 

However, it is important to know that a company may be fully under your control but a brand is a public’s perception which means that a brand might not be fully under your control. Meaning you can’t fully control how the general public sees your brand as it is true that people can have perceptions about a brand even if the company makes no effort to brand itself, to begin with. A good example of this is Dominoes, they branded themselves as a pizza chain that prides itself on fast deliveries but over time their brand has been associated with stale boring pizzas because public perception and tastes have changed.

So to recap, a company is the people that you work with, it's the product that you make and it's the money that you earn. Whereas the brand is the face of your company or the product that you’re selling. You may have a great product or you may be a great company that provides the best service but people won’t know that if you don't have a brand to make yourself known.

Written by Muqaddim Jawad Noor

Reference

Starbucks Coffee Company. (n.d.). Starbucks. https://www.starbucks.com/