Why I believe the strongest marketing starts long before the first advertisement.
Why would anyone follow your brand?
Take a minute and think about it.
Why should someone stop scrolling to watch your video? Why should they remember your name? Why should they choose your product when ten other businesses are selling something similar?
And, more importantly, why should they come back?
I’ve worked across different industries, and one thing I’ve noticed is how quickly marketing discussions turn into conversations about advertising budgets, social media calendars, influencer collaborations, and sales targets.
I understand why. Businesses need customers, and marketing is expected to bring them in.
But I keep coming back to a question that I believe deserves more attention: What exactly are we spending all this money trying to communicate?
Because here’s my philosophy:
Marketing is branding. Branding is storytelling. And your business has to live the story it tells.
I know marketing involves much more than branding. There are pricing decisions, distribution strategies, customer research, analytics, and countless other moving parts. The approach also changes considerably depending on the industry.
Still, I believe branding belongs at the heart of it.
If a business doesn’t understand what it stands for, spending more money to make it visible won’t necessarily make it memorable.
Before you market a business, know what it stands for
Every business has a name. Most have a logo, a website, and some kind of social media presence.
But what does that name actually mean to people?
When someone starts a business, there’s usually a reason behind it. Maybe they noticed a problem nobody was solving properly. Perhaps they wanted to make something more affordable or offer a better experience than what was already available.
That reason matters.
I think business owners should be able to explain why they started, whom they wanted to serve, and what they hope customers will remember about them.
And I don’t mean having a beautifully written mission statement that nobody reads.
I mean understanding your business well enough that its identity influences everyday decisions.
If you started a clothing brand because you couldn’t find well-made, affordable pieces for women like you, that belief should influence what you design and how you price it.
If you opened a restaurant because you wanted people to experience the food you grew up eating, there’s a story there. Your recipes, your menu, and the way you welcome customers can all communicate it.
You don’t need an extraordinary founder journey.
In fact, I sometimes think businesses put too much pressure on themselves to find one.
People don’t always want a sad or dramatic story. They might simply want to understand how something was created, who made it, or what problem it solves.
Your reason for existing can be simple. You just need to know what it is.
Why would anybody want to follow you?
Think about why we use social media.
You go to YouTube because you want to learn something, watch something funny, or figure out how to fix a leaking tap before paying a plumber.
You open Pinterest because you’re looking for ideas. Maybe you’re planning a wedding, redesigning your living room, or collecting inspiration for clothes you’d like to make.
People spend time on these platforms because they’re getting something they value.
Now think about how many businesses use their social media accounts.
New product launch. Special offer. Shop now. Subscribe now. Another product photograph. Another announcement.
There’s a place for all of that. Customers need information, and businesses need sales.
But why would someone follow an account that only asks them to buy something?
I think that’s where many brands miss an opportunity.
A fashion business might post a photograph of a finished dress with its price and fabric details. That’s useful if I’m already shopping.
But I’d also love to see how the dress came together. What did the original sketch look like? Why was that fabric chosen? What went wrong during the first fitting?
I might watch that video even if I have no intention of buying the dress today.
A restaurant can do something similar. Show me the chef preparing a dish. Tell me where the recipe came from. Introduce me to the people working in the kitchen.
These things are already happening inside the business. They don’t necessarily require an enormous production budget.
They require someone to recognize that there’s something interesting worth sharing.
And that’s what I mean by storytelling.
Duolingo: The brand that won’t leave you alone
I absolutely love Duolingo’s marketing.
I also find it incredibly annoying.
Anyone who’s downloaded the app, practised a language for a few days, and then abandoned it probably knows what I’m talking about.
That green owl does not give up easily.
You miss a lesson, and the reminders begin. Ignore them for a while, and Duo somehow makes you feel guilty about a goal you set for yourself weeks ago.
Sometimes you open the app just to get the owl off your back.
I find that fascinating.
Duolingo could have built its communication entirely around the benefits of learning a language. It could publish endless posts about grammar, vocabulary, and lesson features.
Instead, it has developed a mascot with a personality people recognize even if they’ve never used the app.
And the personality carries over into the product. The dramatic owl entertaining people on social media is the same character reminding users to complete their lessons.
Duolingo’s own 2025 annual report describes this approach. The company says it uses entertaining social content instead of promotional content to encourage organic growth and engagement. It also describes how brand campaigns generate press coverage, social sharing, and word of mouth.
In its second-quarter 2026 shareholder letter, Duolingo reported that its social media accounts had surpassed one billion organic impressions each quarter.
The same report showed 58.7 million daily active users, an increase of 23% year over year.
Those are impressive figures, but they measure different things. We can’t assume that people watching funny owl videos were responsible for the increase in app usage.
In fact, Duolingo attributes its acceleration in user growth to a combination of product improvements, marketing, and a one-time Streak Revival event that encouraged people to return to the app.
What interests me is how deliberately the company has built a recognizable personality and carried it into the customer experience.
Would this approach work for every brand? Absolutely not.
I wouldn’t want my bank sending me threatening owl memes because I hadn’t checked my savings account.
But that’s precisely why businesses need to understand their own identity. Duolingo’s personality works because it fits the playful experience the company has built around learning.
Sometimes two words are enough
One of my favourite recent advertisements is Disney and Hulu’s Canadian “Hu Dis?” campaign.
I remember seeing it and thinking, This is such a stupidly simple idea. And it’s brilliant.
Here’s what the campaign was actually promoting.
Hulu became the general entertainment brand within Disney+ internationally, replacing the former Star branding. In Canada, the challenge was helping people recognize that Hulu programming could be found through Disney+.
Disney could have advertised that with a straightforward message about the entertainment available in the subscription.
Instead, Toronto-based agency Courage played with the two brand names.
They took “Hu” from Hulu and “Dis” from Disney and put them together:
“Hu Dis?”
The outdoor advertisements featured recognizable characters and stars from Hulu shows. One billboard used a close-up of Kim Kardashian’s eyes alongside the phrase.
The joke works on two levels. “Hu Dis?” sounds like the familiar text-message question “Who dis?” while the lettering itself combines two recognizable entertainment brands.
You look at the advertisement, recognize the visual, and understand what it’s trying to communicate.
I love how much the campaign accomplishes with such a small idea.
The message could easily have been lost among the countless subscription advertisements people encounter. Instead, it became something I wanted to talk about.
You can see the campaign and its billboards here. Disney has also explained the Hulu branding change on its website.
I haven’t seen public evidence showing exactly how many subscriptions this campaign generated, so I wouldn’t claim it was a commercial success based on my reaction alone.
But as a piece of creative communication, it demonstrates something I strongly believe:
You can have a perfectly good offer and still present it in a forgettable way.
The creative idea matters because people first have to notice what you’re trying to tell them.
Branding isn’t only about clever advertising
Of course, some brands become familiar without relying on entertaining campaigns.
Think about Walmart or Petro-Canada.
You see their signs and locations regularly. Their physical presence makes them recognizable, and you know roughly what to expect when you visit.
Amazon has built a different kind of familiarity.
For many people, it’s one of the first places they look when they need to buy something online. Its enormous selection, convenience, and delivery experience have helped make shopping there a habit.
These businesses remind us that branding isn’t limited to a founder’s story or a creative social media strategy.
Sometimes the strongest message a company communicates is the experience customers have with it again and again.
That matters because a brand is shaped by what people come to expect from a business.
And expectations have consequences.
Trust matters, but so does what you’re selling
I believe people often connect with brands emotionally. That connection can influence what they notice, remember, and choose.
But I don’t believe customers ignore practical value.
Price, quality, and convenience matter enormously.
A beautiful campaign won’t make an overpriced product affordable. A touching founder story won’t fix poor customer service.
Still, there’s evidence that people expect more from brands than a basic transaction.
The 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report on Brands, based on research involving 15,000 respondents across 15 countries, offers some interesting findings:
- 68% said it was very or extremely important that brands make them feel good, including feeling happy, confident, inspired, safe, and calm.
- 73% said their trust in a brand would increase if it authentically reflected today’s culture.
- 80% said they trusted the brands they use.
These figures tell us about consumer attitudes. They don’t tell us how much additional revenue a company can generate through storytelling, and I wouldn’t use them to make that claim.
What I take from the research is that trust and personal relevance are important parts of how people relate to brands.
Simon Sinek’s well-known observation comes to mind:
“People don’t buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it.”
I’ve always liked this idea, although I don’t interpret it literally.
People absolutely care about what they’re buying. If a product doesn’t work, costs too much, or is inconvenient to use, a compelling purpose may not be enough to persuade them.
But when two businesses offer something similar, understanding why one of them exists can give customers another reason to choose it.
And if that reason becomes part of your brand identity, people will eventually expect to see it reflected in the way you operate.
Which brings me to the part of branding I feel most strongly about.
Don’t forget your story when the money comes in
I’ve worked in hospitality marketing, and one experience has stayed with me.
A restaurant was investing in influencer collaborations, promotional content, and beautifully presented food photography.
Influencers would sometimes be served generous, elaborate platters that looked fantastic on camera.
The problem was that these presentations weren’t always representative of what an ordinary customer could order from the regular menu.
Imagine seeing a video of an influencer enjoying an enormous spread. The food looks wonderful, the portions seem generous, and you decide to visit.
Then you arrive and discover that what you saw isn’t quite what the restaurant normally serves.
You might still enjoy your meal. The restaurant might serve excellent food.
But the advertisement has created an expectation that the regular experience may not fulfil.
And that’s what bothered me.
The restaurant was spending money to attract attention, yet the promotional experience wasn’t consistently aligned with what customers could actually buy.
I can’t tell you how many people visited because of those influencer posts or whether anyone left disappointed specifically because of them. That wasn’t something I measured.
What I could see was the difference between what was being promoted and what an ordinary customer could expect.
And that difference matters.
If your marketing creates a particular expectation, your business should be prepared to deliver on it.
Otherwise, customers may arrive expecting an experience you never intended to offer them.
I’ve seen how easy it is for businesses to become absorbed in growth, promotions, and the constant pressure to attract new customers.
It’s understandable.
When sales increase, there are more costs to manage and more targets to meet. Businesses need to adapt. They may have to change their pricing, introduce new products, or serve different customer groups.
I don’t think a brand should remain frozen in the form it had when it first launched.
But I do think it should remember what made people trust it.
If affordability was central to your business, consider what happens to your original customers when your prices change.
If you built your reputation on craftsmanship, think carefully before compromising the quality that brought people to you.
If customers loved your personal service, find ways to preserve that experience as your team grows.
And if you built a restaurant around authentic food and generous hospitality, make sure those qualities are still present when someone walks in after seeing your marketing.
The founder’s original motivation shouldn’t become something the company only mentions on anniversaries.
It should continue to influence how the business operates.
So, where should marketing begin?
I don’t expect every business to have a viral mascot or a campaign as clever as “Hu Dis?”
A local service provider may grow through recommendations. A retailer might rely heavily on its location. A software company may attract customers through educational content and product demonstrations.
Different industries need different marketing strategies.
But I believe the underlying questions are remarkably similar.
Why does your business exist? What do you want customers to associate with your name? What experience are you promising them? And are you actually delivering it?
Those are the questions I’d want answered before pouring more money into campaigns designed to reach thousands of people.
Because you can spend heavily on advertising and get plenty of attention. You might even make sales.
But if customers don’t understand what makes your business worth choosing, or if their experience contradicts what you’ve promised, you’re making it much harder to build lasting trust.
I believe branding deserves a central place in marketing because it gives all those individual marketing activities a common direction.
Storytelling helps communicate that identity in ways people can understand and remember. It might involve humour, a useful demonstration, a founder explaining why they created something, or simply showing customers what goes on behind the scenes.
And the story can evolve as the business grows. In fact, I think it should. The important thing is that the business remains recognizable in the promises it makes and the experience it delivers.
That’s why I keep coming back to the same philosophy:
Marketing is branding. Branding is storytelling. And your business has to live the story it tells.
Especially when it becomes successful.
About the author
I’m Divyadeep D., a writer and marketing strategist. I write about books, people, brands and how businesses work.
Keep reading
- Business & Marketing: more perspectives on brands, customers and the work behind the promise.
- Literature Is the Way of Life, the essay on Medium: reading literature through the questions we carry today.
- Explore all writing, from essays and criticism to human stories and photography.
Leave a Reply