👋 Hello, Branding and Marketing Revealers. How are you doing today?
Marketing drives business, but what drives marketing?
We have walked quite a while now alongside amazing marketing buddies. They inspire us to explore the encounter and relationship between branding and marketing. Additionally, some argue that marketing starts the story. While others believe that branding is the story. Whatever your perspective, one thing is clear: this dynamic is unavoidable. Effective branding relies on effective marketing, and vice versa. This revelation is something we can all analyze for ourselves. But also decode from the strategies of the big brands surrounding us. Our new marketing buddy will activate you for this dynamic and help you reflect on where you stand in your engagement and dedication.
Discover the series ‘‘Marketing Buddy’’ — a great addition to our Brand Revealers. From time to time, we will invite marketing experts to join the newsletter and share their wisdom, tips, and strategies. Marketing and branding go hand in hand. While there is a natural order to this dynamic, both work together to make your vision and brand shine for the right reasons. So let’s welcome these experts and grow together!
👋 Marketing Buddy of the week: Kelli-Carolin Parkja
Kelli-Carolin Parkja and I met through the Hirondo. A community that brings together leading marketing experts worldwide. When I discovered her background in advertising, I was curious to learn from her insights on the intricate relationship between marketing and branding. In this conversation, she delivers an essential masterclass on the importance of strong foundational branding for effective marketing. Beyond that, she shares a wealth of wisdom about the startup world, which she knows in depth. Plus some smart and actionable advice for today’s brand builders. Enjoy!
Who are you? What is your profession?
My name is Kelli-Carolin Parkja. I'm driving brands and businesses growth through marketing, communication and advertising actions.
Kelli-Carolin
Where are you located?
🇨🇵 Paris, France.
Kelli-Carolin
Where can we discover your work? (website, socials…).
What is your definition of Marketing? And what is, in your opinion, the main difference between Branding and Marketing?
Marketing are the actions that either put forward directly or help to develop indirectly the presentation of an idea, a product, a service or other in a favorable and impactful way in the given context, space and time. The main difference between Marketing and Branding for me - The difference is in the goal and in the dynamics.
Branding is the search for and definition of one’s identity in a conscious and systematic way, a brand lives to express itself in its fullness to achieve as much recognition, differentiation and validation in order to become significant and occupy a space in the mind. Marketing is applying this constructed conscious identity, sometimes parts of it, with the goal to create a beneficial measurable impact for the product or service behind the brand.
Kelli-Carolin
Seth Godin, the marketing expert, says, "You cannot be seen until you learn to see". What do you think about this superpower of seeing what others do not see and providing a solution to it?
I read the book a long time ago, so I’ll answer the question based on my understanding without specific context. It’s likely called a superpower because so few people are willing to put in the effort. By definition, it’s simple: if you want to have an impact on something, you need to understand what drives it—how the world works and how people operate. There are patterns and systems constantly at work. The more you investigate, the clearer it becomes, allowing you to construct a picture.
Before having an impact, you need to want to understand the problem. Sometimes the insight is there, sometimes it becomes clear by investigation and sometimes it needs testing.
In one of his previous books, Seth discusses the idea of unlearning—letting go of the assumption that we know everything, or even much, about a subject. Instead, he encourages us to approach it with the curiosity and look at it with the eyes of the child. It’s a technique that often proves invaluable.
Kelli-Carolin
Do you have any tips for creative entrepreneurs and Brand Revealers to improve their marketing skills in three steps?
Skills improve with practice. That’s it. Sometimes you improve, sometimes you don’t—at least not right away, or even at all, despite the effort. Either way, you discover something and move forward, gaining new experiences and knowledge. To consider it as a “win-win,” you need to look at the experience in this way: “What’s the learning here?” There always is one.
Ideally, people take the time to understand themselves and create a framework that works best for whatever they want to achieve. A “one fit for all” approach isn’t the best strategy or tactic. Sometimes, it’s really is a question of discipline—pushing past a certain point until results begin to appear, and those results become both the gratification and driver.
For a generic answer in three steps, start by asking yourself some key questions. It’s always good questioning everything we plan to invest our time, effort, and money into—especially when it’s a significant amount.
1. Be honest about the motivation. Is this something you’re passionate about—something you want to explore and see where it goes? Or is it something that could directly influence your bottom line, with financial gain as the main motivator? Maybe it’s something everyone else seems to be doing, and you feel the urge to follow along. Also, remember who you are—does this align with your professional brand? Based on these reflections, decide whether it’s truly worth pursuing and if you have the time to commit to it.
2. What’s the starting point? Do you want to improve something you’re already relatively good at, learn something completely new, or work on something you know you’re not that good at? How will you measure progress? How will you measure the results, and what’s the expected outcome? If it doesn’t work out at all, do you know what the next step is? These questions will help you challenge your plan, adjust it if needed, or even abandon it altogether.
3. By definition, if one wants to improve skills, one requires practice. You need to view “practice” in a holistic way. It’s not just about action. It involves ideating, planning, executing, analyzing, optimizing, and repeating… So, be honest about the effort you’re willing to put in. Yes, be realistic and decide how much time you’re dedicating to it. Consistency can go a long way. Unconsidered actions and projects can waste a lot of time, effort, and money.
Kelli-Carolin
What are the repeated words you hear about your Branding and Marketing from your audience, teams, and people who discover you? (3 to 5 keywords)
✦ Energy ✦Creativity ✦Elegance ✦Transversality
Kelli-Carolin
Do you have any recommendations for mastering marketing, such as books, podcasts, conferences, etc.?
The thing with age is that some things come to you too early, and you miss the point, even if you try. A basic piece of advice is to question everything ruthlessly. But that can’t be forced—it’s a mindset exercise. With that in mind, I recommend theTheory of the Businessby Peter F. Drucker.
A Harvard Business Reviewclassic, not about marketing, but about businesses in general. Timeless. A good marketer needs to have an interest in and understanding of the business as a whole. Only then can you understand the impact of your field and work. So, it's a very good place to start.
Kelli-Carolin
Steven Pressfield wrote the marvellous edgy book Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t which showcases some lessons learned from the advertising mindset. How did your years in advertising shape your proactiveness in marketing your ideas, products, and brands?
I have not read the book by Steven Pressfield. I do, however, believe I get the idea in a nutshell from the title, as well as from the webpage link behind the title of this book.
My years working at advertising agencies have provided me with valuable and complementary learnings, thanks to the fact that I worked in different countries, at different times, and in very diverse contexts. Let me give you a few examples.
I started my career in Estonia in the mid-2000s. It’s important to note that Estonia was still quite a young country at the time—and it still is. We became a republic for the second time in 1991, so from 1991 to the mid-2000s, it wasn’t a very long stretch. On the other hand, in 2008, the global real estate crisis hit the world. So, during that period, the media and advertising scene in Estonia was, looking back now, far from polluted. It was positive, open, thirsty for ideas, even somewhat innocent. It was a great time to do things. We were working with several Estonian public institutions, as well as private sector clients, both international and national.
What I really loved was that we could bring our creative, out-of-the-box, challenging, and audacious ideas to sectors and industries that were traditionally serious, not very dynamic, and traditional. From that, I gained the courage and inspiration to pitch audacious, creative ideas. As a result, I received very positive feedback and achieved excellent business results, as well as creative recognition.
In contrast, I’ve also worked with clients in some of the most competitive and saturated sectors at global agencies. This combination creates an intricate, intense, and often stressful environment, with political and bureaucratic ecosystem, and multiple stakeholders on one side. On the other hand, it fosters a drive for excellence in ideation, execution, and delivery. Another great experience, but in a very different context.
To come back to my proactiveness in marketing and beyond. I go by the principle of giving advice only when solicited, listening more, and speaking less. I apply this approach to my marketing actions as well, which might be a bit counterproductive—though it depends. When working in marketing for clients, they expect you to put them out there successfully, with results, obviously.
🔥 One thing to consider in marketing, sometimes, I get the impression it’s forgotten—is that if the product, service, or brand is not good, there’s not much you can do about it. Marketers are not magicians. They can’t whip up some magic sauce to give meaning, value, or impact to something that isn’t there.
It’s not possible. There are tricks, of course—things you can do in the short term that may splash some quick results. But this isn’t something that lasts, and it’s not what we want to work on.
Proactiveness comes naturally when an idea, experience, product, service, brand has ignites passion in you. You strongly believe in it. You believe it can make a difference if you share the message, sell the message, or whatever shape or form it takes. That’s when proactiveness comes naturally. I also became a salesperson in addition to being a marketer. This has happened with books, cultural experiences, and brands as well.
Kelli-Carolin
What is the biggest slowdown for French startups today to reach the level of marketing outreach that US startups or more international startups may have?
I’ve been part of the French startup scene for several years now, so I have quite a close look at it. However, when it comes to U.S. startups and more international ones, I’m still observing them from a distance.
What I want to point out, and what got me thinking about this question, is that there’s, of course, a lot of expectation and pressure, along with the idea of going fast and breaking things. What that means is you go, you test, you fail, and you try again. There’s a strong expectation to deliver results right away. Every euro spent needs to show how it’s coming back to us, how it’s multiplying. I agree with this. I agree with smart spending, return on investment, and, of course, measuring results, analyzing them, and optimizing obviously.
🔥 But then, there’s also some education to be done around branding and marketing, especially when it comes to creating, developing, and growing a brand. This foundational work takes time and doesn’t bring back money right away. So, here’s an important aspect: educating people who don’t understand how these things work and helping them realize that they really do take time.
The saying "to go fast, sometimes you need to go slow" applies here in the sense that there’s groundwork, foundational work, and background work involved. So, an ideal combination would be to combine strong foundations, background work, and investments that don’t show immediate returns, but start to pay off over time when established properly, with quick wins that deliver visible results in terms of numbers. That would be my suggestion, at least for French startups to consider. There’s a lot of noise around hacks, quick wins, and doing things quickly and dirty.
Again, this needs to be in the right place with the right elements, and it cannot be considered an absolute. I have the feeling and understanding that, in the case of some international startups or successful startups that have expanded from other markets, they’ve invested a considerable amount of time, money, and effort into the groundwork of properly establishing a brand—nourishing it and working on it.
Of course, there are macroeconomic factors and many things a company cannot influence. But what it can do, what falls within its responsibilities, is this combination of properly and consciously developing a strong foundation for the brand. Then, in parallel, and in combination, working on smaller aspects of communication, marketing, sales actions—those that bring direct and quick results, which can be explained and sold through. These can create the company’s success stories, while always maintaining the deep background work that, although it takes longer to pay off, will do so in an incremental way.
🤖 AI Growth Hub (Andreas Ioannouis the creator of this newsletter, which shares the latest news on artificial intelligence along with tips and insights. He is also the CEO of EverneedAI, a company that fosters an AI-generated content ecosystem. As a creative I approach this concept cautiously; however, I recognize that the shift towards AI is inevitable.)
🌏 Have you heard of Tocco?(The world’s first portable material library offers a magical way to explore new textures, materials, innovations, and sustainability-focused projects. Discover and be inspired by this innovative collection, showcasing materials across various industries dedicated to creating a greener future. You will also find some amazing brands featured! Are you interested in their color trend report?.)
🏃🏽♀️ Seth Godin’s emails are capsules of thinking(His latest short email, titled Further vs. Faster, resonates deeply with the Q&A. Additionally, branding as an exercise follows similar principles. Further reflects endurance, progress as a focal point, and the character that emerges only through time and mastery.)
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I leave you with Kelli’s song selection. Sending momentum vibes ⏳. Keva.
