Your marketing strategy is the bread and butter of your business. Good marketing can elevate a company and increase sales exponentially. Bad marketing can completely tank an organization. It’s an important factor in growing a business, to say the least.
As a business owner, you may have heard about brand marketing and performance marketing and the conversation surrounding these strategies. Which is best? What are the main functions of each?
What is Brand Marketing?
Think big names. Take Coca Cola as an example. Their ads are fun and aren’t asking for anything. They’re inviting you to have an experience with their product. The company has a big following, and everyone knows their name. Brand marketers strive to create a familiarity or image in their customers’ minds. Brand marketing relies on just that – using a brand to drive marketing.
A company utilizing brand marketing strives to cultivate long-term relationships with their loyal customer base. Some brand marketing strategies are as follows:
- Loyalty programs
- Billboards
- Slogans
- Differentiation from their competition
They also rely on user experience. McDonald’s advertises that it is kid-friendly and a great place for whole families to go, for example.
What is Performance Marketing?
Performance marketing may be a better strategy for smaller companies or those just starting out. Since they may not have an established customer base yet, they can’t rely on their brand to do the talking. Organizations using performance marketing are aiming for lead generation and may use:
- Webinars
- Promotions
- Email marketing campaigns
- SEM ads – The prices for the ads taken out are based on how well those ads do. How well the ads do can mean how many clicks they get or how many sales they generate.

Which is Best for You?
The bottom line is that brand marketing is better used for cultivating long-term relationships with customers, and performance marketing is used more for creating that initial client-base. Companies using brand marketing are trying to keep their existing customers as happy as possible while performance marketing wants to create as much traffic as possible.
At DotEdison, we strive to create memorable customer experiences by keeping the design, messaging and voice of your marketing strategy uniform and clear. Whichever method is best for your company, we’re here to position your brand with success. Click below to contact us!