Perspective

The End of Marketing and The Rise of Brand

Can marketing and brand be separated from one another? Can a company claim to just brand
its product rather than marketing? The answer to these questions is definitely no. Then how
come Procter and Gamble, the FMCG giant, announced on 1
st
July to do away with the title
of marketing director and rename it as brand director. Lets find out.

In 1993 another transition took place in Procter and Gamble wherein the advertising manager
was renamed as the marketing director. At that time it was a very important and apt decision
as the world was undergoing globalisation and in that era advertising alone could not have
carried forward the company.

A similar transition is taking place now. With new and new entrants in the market it has
become imperative for the existing brands to hold their ground. This they can do by
extensively concentrating their efforts on branding which will result in better results. There is
a need for uniting the branding with marketing. This is what Procter and Gamble is aiming at.
In a statement Procter & Gamble said the change would better brand and business results,
clarify roles and responsibilities to make faster decisions, and simplify our structure to free
up time for creativity and better execution.

The restructuring of the marketing organisation will result in eliminating the overlapping
responsibilities at social and regional levels. The Brand management division of the company
would now consist of four areas brand management which was earlier known as marketing,
consumer and marketing knowledge previously known as marketing research,
communications earlier known as external relations and design.

A simple search on LinkeIn shows that there are 73,000 marketing directors and associate
marketing director but only 1,350 brand directors or associate/assistant brand directors. The
important question is that whether there is actually a lot of difference between marketing and
branding or is the two terms synonymous. A point of distinction between the two is that
marketing focuses on promotion and distribution of the products and services whereas
branding lays importance on identity management. But with the changing time it is now
much more concerned with the active management of market value and competitive strength
of a brand as a company asset.
The shift from marketing to branding should not surprise us because P&G was actually the
first company to use branding as a tool to capture the market. P&G distinguished the qualities
of each brand from one another and avoided competing among itself and instead focussed on
different consumer markets with a different set of benefits. P&G still deeply invests in
promoting its brands and with the restructuring it will only bolster its branding.
Marketing is more about satisfying the customer rather than selling your product. This
demarcation should always be kept in mind before designing any strategy. With emphasis on
branding P&G would like to promote customer centric products and keep the interest of
consumer in mind to reap maximum benefits. How successful it gets in doing that only time
will tell.

Shubham Badkur Jain
Roll no. 86
IIFT KOLKATA
MBA IB 2014-16 Batch