Your last campaign got 10,000 clicks.
Three months later, nobody remembers your brand.
Here's why: you're confusing advertising with branding. And that confusion is bleeding your budget dry while your competitors build empires that last decades.
David Ogilvy said it plainly: "Sound an alarm! Advertising, not deals, builds brands."
Wait.
Read that again.
Not deals. Not discounts. Not the promo you're running next Tuesday. Advertising builds brands when it's done right. But here's what Ogilvy meant and what most founders miss completely.
Advertising is a transaction. It says "buy now." It moves product this quarter. It gets you those clicks you're celebrating in your Monday standup.
Branding is a promise. It lives in your customer's head long after the campaign ends. It's the reason they choose you when your competitor runs a better deal.
Most of the businesses are just running ads when you think you're building brands.
You're not wrong to want sales.
But if every piece of creative you ship is about this week's offer, you're training people to wait for the discount.
You become the brand they only buy on sale.
The perfect example for this is the Indian shopping giant, Max Fashion. I’ve never seen a single human buy a dress that is not on sale.
Not even one
Laura Busche knew this cold: "Any damn fool can put on a deal, but it takes genius, faith, and perseverance to create a brand."
Genius. Faith. Perseverance.
Not another carousel ad about 20% off.
So how do you actually build a brand instead of just running ads?
First, decide what you stand for. Not what you sell. What you believe. Ogilvy called this brand image. "Every advertisement should be thought of as a contribution to the complex symbol which is the brand image."
Every single ad.
Every email.
Every post.
Does it add to the symbol, or does it just chase the sale?
Second, be consistent. Brand building happens through repetition. The same voice. The same visual language. The same promise delivered 100 times until people finally get it.
Advertising wants attention today. Branding earns trust over years.
Third, stop optimizing for clicks and start optimizing for memory.
Ask yourself: will someone remember this in six months? Will they tell a friend about it? Will it change how they see us?
If the answer is no, you're advertising. Not branding.
Here's your micro-action for this week: Pull up your last five campaigns. For each one, write down what it says about your brand beyond the offer.
If you can't find anything, you know what to fix.
Ogilvy also said this: "The manufacturer who dedicates his advertising to building the most sharply defined personality for his brand will get the largest share of the market at the highest profit."
Sharply defined personality. Not the best deal.
Your brand is what people say about you when you're not in the room. Your advertising is what you say when you are.
They're not the same thing.
Most founders never figure this out. They wonder why their growth stalls once they stop spending. They wonder why loyalty is dead. They wonder why they're competing on price.
The answer is simple: they built an advertising machine, not a brand.
Reply and tell me: what's one thing your brand stands for that has nothing to do with your product features?
I want to know if you're building something that lasts or just chasing this quarter's numbers.
— Shashank
Wall Street’s Morning Edge.
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