The terms company and brand may seem the same, but they are actually very distinct. Both companies and brands play significant roles in advertising and marketing. Learning the key differences between a company and a brand can help you distinguish certain marketing practices and help improve your own company or brand. In this article, we discuss the differences and similarities between companies and brands and the purposes they serve in marketing.

What is a company?

A company is an organization that strives to both create and sell a product. Typically, those working in an office or remotely across the world operate a company. A company manages employees, creates business strategies and finds solutions to problems in order to better serve its customers.

What is a brand?

A brand is the personality of a company. Some factors that contribute to a brand include the company's name, associated symbols and illustrations and overall reputation. Successful brands use these elements to achieve greater recognition among customers. Although companies design their brands, it is the impression that the brand makes on consumers that determines its success.

If company designs a brand to motivate customers to make repeat purchases, for example, and it sees an increase in repeat purchases after implementing the brand into marketing strategies, then the brand has achieved its goal.

What is the difference between a company and a brand?

It's important to understand the difference between a company and a brand because of how they differ in relation to marketing goals and customer perception. A company is a collection of employees working together to achieve a business goal. Because a brand is the company's personality, it's illustrated through elements of the product that a company produces. For example, an apple packaging company may have an apple as its logo, mascot and social media icon. This becomes one of the many representations of the company's brand for that product.

Another difference between a company and a brand is the customers' influence on both. Because customers perceive the brand, customers may be able to cause brand reform when their view of the brand changes. A company is not as influenced by its audience as a brand is.

It's important to note that a customer can form a brand association with a company even if the company is not making a deliberate effort to brand itself. While branding may be orchestrated by a company, a company is not fully in commanding control of a brand. Customers can create brand associations based on an organization's general aesthetic, quality of service and value of a product.

Company vs. brand purpose

The purpose of a company is to promote, market, produce and ultimately sell a product or service. To make a profit, a company must have a satisfactory business model and keep customers and employees happy. Accomplishing this involves providing a good customer experience and a quality product.

One purpose of a brand is to advertise and illustrate the product with the goal of attracting and keeping customers. Another purpose of a brand is to promote itself over competing brands. A prominent example of this is how certain brands operate on social media. On these platforms, certain brands take on playful personas, occasionally poking fun at other brands in order to attract customer attention.

Company image vs. brand image

A company image represents the overall perception customers have of a company, while brand image is the perception customers have of a brand. However, while these two terms are different, their purposes are very similar. A company image aspires to inspire trust in its customers, and brand image may do this as well. One key difference is that companies create brands to reach specific demographics , and so brand images may take on additional or exaggerated qualities to reach those demographics. For example, a brand image targeted at teenagers may emphasize aspects of adventure or freedom in its image.

While the terms "brand image" and "brand name" might create confusion, a helpful distinction to keep in mind that a brand image uses more than the name to interact with the customer. A brand image includes all elements of the brand, from imagery to the name to the audience's perception of the brand.

The goal of a brand image is to appeal to what a consumer wants, and consumers' desires can vary by demographic. A list of common appeals or promises that brands make in order to secure and retain customers includes:

• Low costs
• Increased productivity
• Low maintenance
• High productivity or increased productivity
• A better lifestyle
• A great eating experience
• An adventure
• Improved health

Why do some companies have multiple brands?

Some reasons companies have multiple brands include:

More visibility

A company hosts multiple brands for the same reason a company hires many employees. Different brands use different marketing tactics, enter different advertising pools, attract different customers and achieve different results. Just as employees have different purposes, brands can also have different purposes. When a company has multiple brands, it can span across entirely different markets and sell products to a large array of customers.

Increased momentum

If a company is very successful with one product and brand, producing another brand may help the company gain even more customers. New products, even those unusual for the company, are more likely to succeed under an existing company name with an excellent reputation and well-known brands rather than an unknown company name with lesser known brands.

More options for customers

The more brands a company has, the more options their customers have. A company may associate certain products with certain brands, so a company with multiple successful brands may provide an array of products that meet different consumer needs.

For example, a company that started out by producing kitchen goods may expand to include brands and products for other types of home goods. Following this expansion, customers of this company can have many of their needs met by the company's different brands.