Brand Vs. Demand - Which Marketing Approach is Superior?

Often in the B2B marketing world, the debate between “brand or demand” can elicit a variety of strong opinions, some leaning towards one or the other depending on who you talk to. Some marketers believe demand generation is key, while others swear by brand-building tactics. My answer: It Depends.

After over 10 years in a variety of industries and verticals, I believe you need a mix of both, depending on what your situation is. I’ll explain why I think this way but first, let’s sync on syntax: what are we actually talking about here? 

What is Brand Marketing and Demand Gen?

Brand Marketing - often thought of as “top-of-funnel” tactics, brand awareness building tactics. Brand marketing is the process of establishing and nurturing a relationship between a brand and its customers. Brand marketing is higher level than any single product or service, but rather the overall essence/story of your brand in the marketplace. It also involves maintaining your brand’s story and authority over time, often with tactics such as paid media, public relations, and social.  

Demand Generation -  sometimes mistakenly thought of as direct-response or bottom-of-the-funnel tactics only, demand generation is a strategy that drives awareness and interest in your product or service. True demand generation programs consider the entire buyer’s journey from the first touchpoint all the way through to conversion and customer LTV (lifetime value) and can involve a mix of tactics such as paid media, social, content, email, etc.

Both involve looking at and optimizing for the full customer journey, or buyer’s cycle. Both involve creating awareness, engagement, affinity, and ROI. But demand generation gets into the details of generating awareness, engagement, affinity, and ROI for specific products or services. Both may involve a variety of tactics such as paid media, content, email, social, etc. 

While many marketing practitioners might say demand gen is a shorter time-to-ROI than Brand Marketing, I’d say it depends based on your industry, your brand, and your products, and that demand gen can very much serve your long-term pipeline generation, especially at B2B brands with higher ACV (average contract values).

Brand Marketing and Demand Generation Work Together

Zero investment into brand marketing will make your demand gen more expensive and challenging, and vice versa. People don’t buy features and specifications, they buy story, and based on emotion. Without brand marketing, you are just selling a list of product or service features. Without any demand gen, you are missing out on product marketing and educating your prospect about how your various offerings can solve their problems, and optimizing and iterating that digital journey. 

Ultimately, as a marketing leader, I look at both demand gen and brand marketing strategies and select a combination of tactics and activities that make sense for the brand, industry, market, and business goals to determine what mix can generate the impact and ROI we need. 

TL;DR

While demand marketing is often geared toward generating immediate results, brand marketing is more focused on building a strong foundation for the long-term success of a business. Both approaches can be effective in their own right but are more effective when implemented together and it's important to understand the differences between the two and choose the right approach for your specific marketing and business goals.