Let's assume that everybody knows that Brand will be a great asset for a longer run, and sales will ensuring your survival fo the short run. Both are important for a business entity. Unfortunately, not all of us can afford to develop both at the same time, once again due to limited resources.

If you ask me which one to do first, I will ask you first, what kind of product do you sell? In my experiences and opinion, the decision between brand or sales eventually comes to the nature of the product and nature of your target market. Great sales effort won't be much effectual to products that need a lot of trust and credibility to appeal to the customer. (i.e. Medical, Insurance, MLM, etc.), for the other brand only have little impact or even won't have any effect at all.

For that kind of problem, if your competitor has more trust and credibility, no matter how much benefits, discount or promotion you give to your customer, you won't win even half of their customer. For example, did you even consider buying medicine for your kids from the unknown manufacturer that you or your friends never heard of before?

On the other side, if your product is the only player in the market, or you are in a commodity market, without a large budget available, developing a brand first will only exhaust yourself without many results. 

The other side of this question is to look at your customer target. Those who are in middle or higher income spectrum would love to add their value with branded products, while those who are in the lower-income spectrum, fulfilling their needs takes priority than a brand, of course, branded one would be nice, but it still lies on their "nice to have" list.

Another target that we could look over is the youth market. Those who in their journey to seek their values, their goals, are easily tempted with branded items, just to look higher / better spec than their flocks. They don't even consider their financial capabilities. From a social viewpoint, it's a serious problem, but for a business viewpoint, good opportunity indeed.

It could be an interesting field to explore for those who are in the "conversation" commerce market like YesBoss or HaloDiana. in Indonesia It would influence their product offering logic, and it could drive more sales than ever if they could do it right. (Some might said that it's a Human Behavior Data Exploitation, but as long as it's legal and within acceptable ethical boundaries, it's beneficial to do.)

So, which one you decide on, will it be Brand or Sales? Share your thought! (CBA)