After two decades helping to run Elastic Creative, I’ve watched countless businesses make the same mistake: they chase immediate sales while ignoring the foundation that makes those sales possible. It’s understandable. Performance marketing gives you numbers you can see today – clicks, conversions, revenue. It feels productive. Brand marketing? That feels fuzzy, expensive and impossibly slow.
But here’s what I’ve learned: the businesses that last aren’t just good at closing sales. They’re good at being remembered.
The Difference That Actually Matters
Performance marketing is tactical. It’s the “Book Now” button, the limited-time offer, the retargeting ad that follows you around the internet. It works. We use it. But it works better when people already know who you are.
Brand marketing is strategic. It’s the reason someone clicks your ad instead of your competitor’s. It’s why they trust you enough to pay more. It’s what keeps them coming back without needing another discount.
What Actually Builds a Brand
Forget the textbook definitions. In practice, brand building comes down to a few things done consistently:
Know what you stand for. Not your mission statement – the thing you actually believe that shapes how you work. For us at Elastic Creative, it’s always been about making good design communicate clearly, not just serving the biggest budgets. That’s shaped every project we’ve taken on for 20 years.
Show up consistently. Your visual identity, your tone, your values – they need to be recognisable across every touchpoint.
Earn attention, don’t just buy it. Content that actually helps people and builds credibility is gold in terms of creating awareness and trust.
The ROI Nobody Talks About
Here’s what strong brands actually get you:
Better talent wants to work with you. We’ve hired people specifically because they respected work we’d done years earlier.
You charge more without apologizing. Strong brands command premium pricing because people perceive the value before they see the invoice.
Your performance marketing performs better. Every pound spent on awareness makes your conversion campaigns more efficient. The funnel works both ways.
Consistency creates recognition. Recognition creates preference.
The Mistakes I Keep Seeing
Inconsistency kills momentum. Brands gain strength through repetition. Changing direction every six months means starting over every six months.
Impatience undermines investment. I’ve watched businesses abandon brand marketing work after three months because they can’t see immediate ROI. Brand building compounds like investment returns – slowly at first, then dramatically.
Treating your brand as cosmetic. Your brand isn’t your logo. It’s the experience you deliver, the promises you keep, the way you solve problems.
Defaulting to generic. When you try to appeal to everyone, you resonate with no one. Some of the best briefs start with “Here’s exactly who we’re not.” That clarity made everything else easier.
The future isn’t brand or performance. It’s brand and performance.
Why This Matters Now
The marketplace gets noisier every year. AI makes it trivial to generate content, ads, and noise. Standing out doesn’t come from generating more – it comes from meaning something.
Where to Start
If you’re not already investing in brand marketing, start simple:
Get clear on your positioning. Who is your audience? What do you believe? What makes you different in ways that actually matter?
Make your identity consistent. Visual system, voice, values – align them and stick to them.
Show up where your audience pays attention.
Tell stories about the work. Real projects, real challenges, real outcomes.
Measure what matters. Awareness, consideration, perception, loyalty. These predict revenue better than yesterday’s click-through rate.
Be patient. Brand marketing builds over time and needs to be nurtured.
The Choice
You can compete on price, convenience, or features. Those are all short-term advantages that competitors can match.
Or you can build a brand – something that creates preference, commands premium pricing and turns customers into advocates.
Guy Connell
Creative Account Director, Elastic
