By John Murinye
A familiar pattern repeats itself in boardrooms: new websites launch, social campaigns run, digital ads flood inboxes — but nothing moves. Sales cycles drag. Leads are low-quality. Price becomes the only differentiator.
This isn’t a marketing failure. It’s a brand failure. And its cost is far higher than most leaders realize.
The problem is simple but rarely acknowledged: businesses confuse the amplifier with the message. They mistake how they talk for who they are — and that’s one of the most expensive errors a business can make. This confusion often begins with the very definition of strategy itself.
Business schools teach that strategy is the set of choices that determine where and how a company will compete — what it will and will not do. This is a functional, but incomplete, view.
At Zarura, we see it differently:
Strategy is why we exist in a specific market and how we will create value for customers — better than anyone else. It’s not a checklist. It’s the blueprint for advantage.
Understanding this distinction is critical. Because the principle that follows is what separates thriving businesses from those just making noise: Branding is who you are. Whilst, Marketing is how you talk about it. One defines your identity. The other amplifies it. Get this wrong, and even the most expensive campaigns become noise.
This Insight | Deep Dive unpacks the distinction between branding vs marketing, and exposes the real costs of misalignment. It shows why treating your brand as a core business asset, is the only way to make marketing investments truly pay off.
Bedrock and Megaphone: Foundational Split
Sustainable growth begins with a critical distinction: branding and marketing are not the same. One is the long-term, strategic work of building an identity; the other is the short-term, tactical work of driving action. One builds the asset; the other leverages it.
Your Brand is Your North Star
The term ‘branding’ is often misunderstood from the start. The conventional business school definition sees branding as the collection of symbols, messages, and experiences that shape customer perception. This definition mistakes the outputs for the source.
Our perspective is more fundamental:
Branding is identity. It’s who you are, why you exist beyond profit, and the beliefs that guide you.
Logos and taglines are expressions, but they are not the brand.
Branding is frequently reduced to its most visible artefacts: a logo or a colour palette. In Zimbabwe, it’s often taken a step further, with branding being equated to merchandise like branded cups and signage. True branding, however, is the disciplined exercise of defining an organisation’s essential truth. It is the rigorous work of answering the fundamental questions that must precede any discussion of “How?” or “What?”.
It’s the process of establishing a “North Star” — an unwavering guide for every decision your company makes.
This work forces leadership to look beyond quarterly numbers and confront vision at its core. It means wrestling with questions like:
- Who are we — really?
- What purpose do we serve beyond profit?
- What transformation do we deliver to our customers?
- When we’re not in the room, what do we want people to say about us?
- What does wild success look like five years from now?
Answering these questions forges an identity that works for you. Take Bible Society Ireland, with a legacy dating back to 1806, they needed to connect with a new generation without losing two centuries of history. We helped them reimagine their brand to feel both timeless and alive — giving them a clear pathway to the future.
Perhaps consider Discovery Gospel Choir, Ireland’s leading intercultural choir. They needed a unified voice. The process began by defining their core values: Diversity. Joy. Empathy. That simple foundation became the framework for their entire brand.
This is the bedrock. Campaigns will always shift with the seasons. But your brand, your core identity, must remain constant, evolving only when the business itself takes a new direction.
Marketing is How You Tell the World
If branding is the foundation, marketing is the amplifier. Branding gives meaning; marketing creates momentum. It answers the how: How do we reach the right people, at the right time, with the right message?
Effective marketing is never a collection of random acts, like posting on Instagram just because it’s Thursday. It’s a deliberate set of activities; SEO, social, ads, email, all working in service of the brand strategy. Marketing only amplifies a message that’s already been defined.
But technology has blurred the line. Tools like Canva let anyone jump straight to execution, skipping the strategic groundwork. The result? A flurry of disconnected activity and a brand presence that’s forgettable. For most struggling companies, the issue isn’t a lack of marketing. It’s the absence of a brand worth marketing in the first place.
The Inviolable Sequence: Brand First, Always
A business cannot effectively market what it has not yet defined. The sequence is non-negotiable. Running campaigns without a clear brand identity is like writing a dating profile before you know who you are or what you have to offer. The result is predictable: you attract the wrong people, or no one at all.
Every marketing strategy rests on brand identity. You can’t build a consistent tone of voice without a defined personality. You can’t stand apart in the market without clarity on your who and your why. Skip this work, and you drift into the sea of sameness — indistinguishable from competitors.
Take Billout, a fintech platform we partnered with from day one. Our work carved out a distinct identity and user experience, giving them a clear voice in a crowded market. As their co-founder put it, the work “complimented our business objectives.”
When marketing doesn’t convert, the problem is rarely the channel or the tactic. The problem is strategy or the lack of it.
The Domino Effect of a Weak Brand
When a company is unclear about its identity internally, it can only project incoherence externally. This isn’t a minor operational flaw. It’s a cascade that erodes trust, drains resources, and stalls growth.
From Internal Confusion to External Chaos
Without a North Star, every department navigates by its own map. The breakdowns are predictable and expensive.
Symptom 1: Mixed Messages and Vanishing Trust
When your core message isn’t clear internally, your external communications become a mess. The website sounds different from the sales deck, which feels disconnected from your social media. This makes you look unreliable and disorganized. Customers notice. They start to wonder, “If they can’t get their story straight, what else is wrong?” That doubt is a trust killer. And you’re losing revenue before the conversation starts because,
81% of consumers need to trust a brand before they’ll even consider buying
Source: Edelman
Symptom 2: Wasted Money and Pointless Campaigns
The disconnect between sales and marketing is a classic symptom. Marketing complains about generating low-quality leads; sales complains the content is useless. This isn’t just a culture issue; it’s a financial drain.
Misalignment costs B2B companies 10% or more of their annual revenue
=
wasted ad spend, rogue sales materials, and a pipeline full of dead ends.
Source: DemandBase
Symptom 3: Internal Friction and a Toxic Culture
Constant misalignment is toxic. It creates a culture of finger-pointing and demotivation. When teams have conflicting goals, collaboration dies. A company that can’t talk to itself can never talk to the market with a clear voice.
The Bottom Line: Stagnation
These symptoms are not isolated operational headaches. They are a direct drag on your finances.
52% of business leaders point to low revenue as the single biggest consequence of sales and marketing misalignment.
Source: HubSpot 2023 Sales Trend Report
A confused customer journey leads to longer sales cycles. And without a strong brand to justify your value, you’re forced to compete on price—a race to the bottom that destroys margins.
This triggers a destructive loop. Poor marketing results lead to demands for more short-term tactics—more ads, more posts. This “tactical desperation” starves the budget for long-term brand-building, which is seen as “fluffy.” As the brand foundation weakens, the next round of tactics is even less effective. The cycle repeats, leading to burnout, wasted money, and strategic paralysis.
The solution isn’t to market harder. It’s to brand smarter.
Your Brand is a Financial Asset. Treat It Like One.
The conversation about branding must be elevated from the marketing department to the boardroom. A strong brand isn’t a creative luxury; it is a hard-working financial asset that drives revenue, commands pricing power, and builds real enterprise value. This requires a more sophisticated understanding of brand strategy.
A business school would define brand strategy as the plan for managing brand perception to drive preference and loyalty, focusing on positioning and touchpoints. This view is tactical.
We believe:
Brand strategy is where identity meets advantage. It defines who you are, why you exist, and how you will create value in the market. It turns brand from art into a core business asset.
The Hard ROI of a Coherent Brand
When viewed through this lens, the return on brand-building becomes profound and measurable. The data presents a clear business case:
- Direct Revenue Growth: A consistent brand presence across all platforms can increase revenue by an average of 23%. Recognition builds trust, and trust makes it easier for customers to choose you.
- Pricing Power: Strong brands can charge more. Warren Buffet calls it the single most important quality in a business. A landmark study found that strong brands command a 13% price premium over weaker ones and, remarkably, capture three times the sales volume.
- Marketing Multiplier: Good branding makes all your marketing more effective. Brand-focused messaging outperforms performance-focused messaging 80% of the time in driving sales. The optimal budget split for long-term growth? 60% to brand-building, 40% to short-term activation.
- Better Leads: A trusted brand is a magnet for qualified leads. Companies with brand consistency and an active blog generate 67% more leads than those without.
From Line Item to Balance Sheet
To fully grasp its importance, leadership must shift its perception of brand from a marketing metric to a core component of enterprise value. In 1975, intangible assets like brand equity made up just 17% of the S&P 500’s market value. By 2020, that number had skyrocketed to 90%.
Brand value alone accounts for over 30% of the stock market value of companies in the S&P 500 index. If your brand represents a third of your company’s worth, its stewardship is a core fiduciary duty of the CEO and the board. Neglecting it is like letting a factory rust.
This reframes the entire conversation. A workshop to define your brand isn’t a cost. It’s an act of asset management, essential for building a competitive moat and maximising your company’s valuation.
Case Studies in Clarity: How the Greats Do It
The world’s most enduring companies are masters of this. Their marketing is never created in a vacuum; it’s a direct expression of a deeply understood brand.
Apple: The Brand of Innovation & Simplicity
Who They Are: Apple isn’t about computers; it’s about a philosophy for the rebels and creatives who “Think Different.” Their promise is elegant simplicity and human creativity.
How They Talk: Their ads rarely list specs. They sell the feeling of using their products. The clean, minimalist visuals reinforce the brand promise in every frame. It’s a seamless extension of their soul.
Nike: The Brand of Achievement & Perseverance
Who They Are: Nike doesn’t sell shoes; it champions the athlete in everyone. “Just Do It” isn’t a tagline; it’s the brand’s entire ethos of empowerment and overcoming obstacles.
How They Talk: Through inspirational storytelling. The “Dream Crazy” campaign with Colin Kaepernick was a pure expression of the brand’s core beliefs. It was a brand statement first, a commercial second, and reportedly added $6 billion to Nike’s value because of its authenticity.
Pepsi: The Brand of Youthful Defiance
Who They Are: For much of its history, Pepsi defined itself as the choice for a new, modern generation — a break from the classic and traditional.
How They Talk: Through deliberate design. For years, Pepsi’s red, cursive logo looked a lot like its main competitor’s. The turning point came in 1950 with the patriotic red, white, and blue bottle cap, creating a distinct identity. The separation was complete in 1962 when “Cola” was dropped from the logo and a bold, sans-serif font was introduced. It was a definitive statement: Pepsi was no longer just another cola; it was a modern brand standing on its own.
From Diagnosis to Direction
The evidence is overwhelming and the conclusion is clear. Confusing branding with marketing is a strategic liability that wastes capital, erodes trust, creates internal friction, and kills growth. The path to profitable success isn’t paved with more marketing tactics; it’s built on the strategic foundation of defining your brand first. Marketing might get you a click, but a strong brand earns you a customer for life.
If you recognise your organisation in these symptoms — the frustrating results, the internal misalignment, the race to the bottom on price — the question is what to do next.
The Brand Operating System (BOS) Workshop is designed to fix these exact problems. This isn’t another meeting about tactics. It’s the mechanism for defining the strategic foundation your business is missing. It’s where diagnosis meets direction.
- Part 1: Strategic Alignment & Ambition is where we define ‘who you are’ and establish your North Star.
- Part 2: Market & Audience Sprint ensures your brand is grounded in the reality of your customers and your business.
- Part 3: Brand Audit & Roadmap uncovers the gaps between your ambition and your reality, distills everything into your single #1 Brand Challenge, and delivers a clear, actionable BOS Prescription to move forward.