Growth marketing vs. brand building: It’s time to stop choosing

Why the smartest CMOs are investing in both, and how to make them work together.

Over the past years, the business world has more than often treated growth marketing and brand building as competing disciplines, one laser-focused on short-term conversion (and thus popular with CEOs, CFOs, etc.), the other on long-term equity. 

In boardrooms and budget meetings, the question “Do we focus on performance or on brand?” is increasingly asked, with more than often short term conversion gaining the largest budgets to the detriment of long term impact.

The real challenge isn’t choosing between the two, but it’s effectively orchestrating both to drive sustainable, scalable growth. One without the other is like running a car with one flat tire. You may move forward, but you’re not going far or fast and it will not be a smooth ride.

Growth marketing: The engine of acceleration

Growth marketing is data-driven, experiment-heavy and built for speed. It’s the realm of A/B tests, CRO, SEO, attribution models, retargeting, and lead gen.

Done well, it’s immediate, measurable, and aligned to clear business metrics such as clicks, sign-ups, conversions and pipeline. And company leadership likes this, it’s a massive change from when marketing was hard to measure and many marketers have also jumped on it to further ground their value.

But all too often, growth marketing becomes purely transactional, driven by last-click wins and short-term KPIs. That works until your paid budget plateaus, your audience fatigues or your customer base questions what your brand even stands for.

Brand building: The multiplier effect

Brand marketing is about shaping perception, building trust, and creating emotional relevance. It’s the reason customers pay a premium, choose you over competitors and come back when they don’t have to.

But when isolated, brand building is often the first to be cut in budget reviews, regularly seen as “soft”, hard to measure or worse, disconnected from revenue.

That’s a mistake.

Because strong brands don’t just inspire loyalty, they reduce acquisition costs, shorten sales cycles and amplify performance marketing results. 

Think of Apple, where brand equity allows them to launch products with minimal performance marketing and still see queues outside stores. Even in B2B, companies like HubSpot or Salesforce have used their brand to dominate categories, with thought leadership, consistent messaging, and strong community-building.

The bridge: Integrated, full-funnel communications

The smartest CMOs are no longer asking whether to prioritize performance or brand, they’re building engines that do both. Because in 2025, real impact comes from integration: when your brand shows up at every touchpoint and your performance campaigns carry the soul of your brand.

Here’s some thoughts on how to bring that thinking to life:

1. Align messaging across the funnel

   Your performance ads shouldn't sound like a different company. Bring the tone, purpose, and promise of your brand into product copy, retargeting ads and even email nurture flows. Consistency builds trust and trust drives results.

2. Use brand to improve conversion

   Great storytelling isn’t just for awareness. A distinctive voice, emotional relevance, and a clear point of view increase engagement and conversion, even in direct-response formats.

3. Build campaigns that do both

   Why choose? The best campaigns spark awareness, build trust and drive action. Pair thought leadership with gated assets. Wrap demand generation in community or purpose-driven messaging. Use creative that can stretch from top-of-funnel to lead capture.

4. Measure with dual lenses

   Track both the short-term performance metrics and long-term brand health. Use tools like brand lift surveys, share of search and aided recall alongside Return on Ad Spend and pipeline velocity. And remember, not everything that drives growth can be measured overnight. It’s a big challenge for CMO’s to sell this in boardrooms, but it’s an essential part of long term success.

   
   

How to manage this towards leadership

Now we might all think this makes absolute sense, but the challenge is, how to sell it in the boardroom. Here are some thoughts, based on experience:

1. Make reporting on brand health, value and so forth an integral part of your presentations from day 1.

2. Choose an effective measurement (whether hard or soft) that resonates with your leadership. From brand awareness research, sentiment data, Net Promoter Scores to Share of Voice, there are a lot of possibilities.

3. Sell the brand as intangible capital: like patents or technology, a brand builds company value over time.

4. Highlight brand’s role in reducing risk. Strong brands weather crises better, require less discounting, and support easier market entry.

5. Present brand as a foundation for growth marketing: growth campaigns perform better and scale faster when they build on a well-defined brand promise and identity

6. Link brand investment to strategic priorities: digital transformation, innovation, customer centricity, or international expansion.

7. Advocate for brand education for all employees as a driver of passion and engagement that will translate into results.

   
   

Brand: The CMO superpower

Today’s best marketing leaders aren’t choosing between growth and brand. They’re building engines that do both, simultaneously, strategically, and sustainably.

They understand that performance may win the month, but brand wins the market.

Looking to unify your growth and brand strategy under one clear vision?

Let’s talk!

About the author

Frederique Depraetere is a native English and Dutch speaker with a UK/US education and background. He is a seasoned global marketing leader with over 20 years of experience driving growth across technology, SaaS and innovation sectors. As a fractional CMO/CCO, he supports startups, scale-ups and biotech companies as well as established companies, advocacy groups and NGOs in shaping strategy, building brands and accelerating results. His international expertise spans fast-moving markets and high-stakes communications, helping ambitious teams turn ideas into impact.