Difference between Branding and Packaging

A product can be defined as an item, article or a service that is offered for sale. Each product is made at a cost and is sold at a price more than its cost price in order to make a profit. In other words, it is offered for sale in exchange for money. Undoubtedly, it is the features of a product that help attract, increase and retain customers, but in today's scenario, branding and packaging are equally important and are two most important components of marketing. Let us see how branding and packaging differ from each other!

Branding:

Branding is a process of personalizing a product or service to make it easily identifiable. It is an effective marketing tool to create awareness about the product and its authenticity in the target market segments. It is a continuous process that helps marketers or companies establish a long-term relationship with customers by identifying their needs, wants and demands and accordingly supplying products to the customers.

Branding involves various components such as choosing a name, colour, style, image for the product to differentiate it from other similar products of competitors. Furthermore, branding is a way to claim ownership, and to give a unique brand name to a product to facilitate its distinction from other competitor's brands.

Packaging:

It is one of the most important components of marketing. It refers to enclosing or wrapping products for distribution, sale and use. It involves all activities related to designing, evaluating and producing the container, wrapper etc, for a product. It helps deliver products to consumers in perfect condition. It is an important marketing tool to grab customer's attention and encourage consumers to buy the product and thus it is one of the most powerful mediums to increase the sales.

Some of the basic functions of packaging include:

To protect the product Symbolic communication Act as a promotional tool Provides user convenience Facilitates product identity

Some of the key differences between branding and packaging based on the above information are as follows:

Branding	Packaging
It is the act of creating a unique image of a product or service in order to build trust and attract customers and distinguish the product from other similar products or services of competitors.	It is the process of designing, evaluating and creating the container, wrapper or cover for packing a product.
Its objective is to provide a unique identity to a product and differentiate it from competitor's products.	Its objective is to protect the product and deliver it to consumers in perfect condition and promote it at the point of purchase.
It helps increase and retain customers.	It helps grab customer's attention.
It integrates components like colour, sign, visual imagery etc.	Packaging tools include colour, font, descriptions and logos printed on the container or wrapper of the product.