Brand vs. Product Advertising. What’s the Fuss?

There’s no argument, really . . . just some differences to keep in mind.

By Mark Semmelmayer, CBC
Chief Idea Officer
Pen & Inc. Marketing Communications

Maralah Rose-Asch has been Editor and Publisher of the Gardner Manufacturing Marketer for more than 30 years. We’ve been friends longer than that. We share a passion for excellence in B2B marketing. Sometimes, our catch-up phone conversations turn to that topic. That’s the birth of this blog.

Maralah said a Gardner sales rep had recently asked her which is more effective, brand or product advertising? She’s from Cincinnati, home to some of the globe’s best-known brands from P&G. I spent 30+ years with Kimberly-Clark, another brand powerhouse. I worked in Atlanta, home of the Coca-Cola Company, needing no explanation where brand marketing is concerned.

Game on!

It’s an interesting debate. Richard M. Weaver, a noted professor and expert in persuasion, established a hierarchy of persuasive arguments in his book “Language is Sermonic.” The top of his pyramid? Argument from genus, or definition. Let’s start there.

Author Lateeka Sabharwal, of Great Learning, defined it this way: “The distinction between the two is straightforward – products are objects sold for money, brands are the embodied persona of the companies that sell them.”

I can buy that, but this blog is like “compare/contrast” essay questions we hated on college exams. Brand or product marketing are two sides of the same coin. Like “heads or tails,” there are some differences. Let me explain my bi-polar perspective.

I worked for Kimberly-Clark. Some will ask “who?” If I said I worked for the Kleenex® company, the name gets instant recognition. Probably one of the top ten “brands” in the world, but it’s a product. (Authors note: for fun, look up what Kleenex® started out as . . .) I spent my career on their B2B side, most notably in professional health care. While we sold “named” products, we marketed them collectively under the Kimberly-Clark brand banner, with good recognition for the corporate brand.

See my point? Let’s see if we can make some sense . . . and distinctions . . . between the two approaches.

Product Marketing Best Practices

• Introducing product to a large audience
• Re-introducing/revitalizing product to a target market
• Promoting new or unique features, benefits, and services

In my experience, all these held true at K-C, in introducing new, “named” health care products, with quick success, under the Kimberly-Clark banner. Their Sterling® and Lavender® nitrile gloves leaped into global leading shares, in a very few months, with a focused, product-oriented approach.

Brand Marketing Best Practices

· Provides positioning in crowded marketplaces

· Builds customer loyalty over time

· Helps to change perceptions or introduce new ideas

Again, reverting to my K-C experience, these are true as well. By positioning all their surgical and infection control products under the umbrella of “Kimberly-Clark. Protection. For Life.”, significant traction was achieved. It allowed K-C to expand beyond product sales into broader, brand building programs, like accredited (CEU) healthcare education programs and other promotions. K-C became perceived as the go-to resource for these products as trusted, clinical solutions.

Brand or product marketing are two sides of the same coin. Deployed separately or together, both can lead to marketing success. The big take-aways:

· Brand marketing takes time. Its objective is to build confidence and trust in the brand and product persona

· Product marketing is more immediate . . . a kick-start for sales. Unless the product is the proverbial “better mousetrap,” it’s best deployed in conjunction within a patient, brand-building approach. But, if the product’s a stand-alone star, go for it with guns blazing!

Perhaps the most cogent delineator between a brand or product marketing approach is the number of “products” involved in the effort. And the resources available to put behind marketing. Stated differently, if you have many products to support in many market segments or niches, you better have plenty of ammo (read “dollars”) to provide suppressive fire on all fronts.

Competitors are looking for weak spots in your battle line. They’ll exploit if you can’t hold them off. In a way, marketing multiple, named products under a brand umbrella, as Kimberly-Clark Health Care did, is like entrenching your line. Gaps may still exist, but the overall strength of position makes the line tougher to break.

Across the marketing landscape, you’ll find examples of both approaches. A couple for reference. Eveready is an example of product marketing. They are batteries, and Energizer® is pretty much their identity. Contrast that to Clorox®, once a “one trick pony” that now (especially since COVID) markets multiple products under the Clorox banner. Both have been astute in understanding and capitalizing on customer attitude, perception, and awareness, and acted accordingly.

But scan the same marketing landscape and you’ll see brand and product marketing casualties.

Two of my favorites: Compaq and Kodak.

Compaq, focusing too much on their Presario PC, ignored other product needs and niches in the then-infant PC market, and was quickly eclipsed by other brands. Kodak’s brand culture was so centered on traditional photographic products they missed the digital boat and got swamped by competitors.

Over-simplifications, to be sure, but you get the point.

Which is the preferred approach? Neither and both, depending on the situation. If you’re like Eveready, with a single product type regardless of application, product promotion is appropriate . . . but bear in mind, Energizer has become as much a brand as a product. Multiple products in multiple markets for multiple applications? A brand umbrella approach, like Clorox, probably pays greater dividends.

My thinking? Use both. A strong corporate, or brand, identity is like a castle that protects your primary identity assets, allowing you to assemble and equip an army of named product “knights,” to conquer the surrounding countryside.

Intertwined, brand and product marketing form a strong rope. Twisted together, they’re certainly stronger than the individual strands. In the end, that yields a very flexible and usable tool.

Need more information?

Mark Semmelmayer, CBC
Chief Idea Officer
Pen & Inc. Marketing Communications
Saint Simons Island, GA
770-354-4737
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About the Author

Mark Semmelmayer, CBC

Mark is a past international chairman of the Business Marketing Association (BMA), the 2015 recipient of BMA’s prestigious G.D. Crain Award and an Inductee into the Business Marketing Hall of Fame. A 40-year B2B marketing pro, including 32 years with Kimberly-Clark, he’s the founder and Chief Idea Officer of Pen & Inc. Marketing Communications, a consultancy in Saint Simons Island, GA.