Lot’s of people confuse marketing with advertising. Although both are important equally, they are very different as well. If you know the differences between marketing with advertising, you can put your company on the fast track to success.
Let’s start with reviewing the definitions of each and then, will explain how marketing and advertising are different from each other.
Advertising: The paid, public, non-personal announcement of a persuasive message by an identified sponsor; the non-personal presentation or promotion by a firm of its products to its existing and potential customers.
Marketing: The systematic planning, implementation and control of a mix of business activities intended to bring together buyers and sellers for the mutually advantageous exchange or transfer of products.
After reading both of the definitions, it is easy to understand how the differences can be confusing to the point that most people think of them as one and the same. So, let’s clear up the confusion.
Advertising is but a single component of the marketing process.
Advertising entails publicizing your business, product, or services you are offering. It involves the process of developing strategies such as ad placement, frequency, etc. Advertising includes the placement of an ad in such mediums as newspapers, yellow pages, television, radio, and of course the Internet. Advertising is the single largest expenditure of most marketing campaigns.
The best way to distinguish between advertising and marketing is the pie chart. Mentally visualize breaking the pie chart down into several slices that include advertising, product pricing, distribution, customer service, sales strategy, etc.
Using this method, you can see, advertising only equals one slice of the pie in the marketing strategy. All of these components must not only work independently, but they also must work in unison towards the ultimate goal of publicizing your business and obtaining customers.
Marketing, on the other hand, is simply a process that an organization goes through to facilitate an exchange between buyer and seller.
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Wednesday, 25. February 2009
Great info. So many new entrepreneurs think just advertising is marketing. There is an entire strategy and plan in marketing that is constantly being tested and tweeked.
Scott Marvin
Tuesday, 3. March 2009
The content you have provided is pretty interesting and useful and I will surely take note of the point you have made in the blog.
While I was browsing the Internet for ways to boost my website exposure, I read about how effective offline media is for getting additional exposure. Since online media advertising has become so competitive, I thought I will complement the online marketing efforts of my products with offline media advertising like newspaper and magazine advertising. This can be the best way to get a wider coverage for a website and draw additional traffic. I think it is a great marketing strategy to use both online and offline advertising to get more customers.
I thought this information might be useful for anyone looking for solutions to get me-ore traffic to their website.
Monday, 6. April 2009
Great points and a distinction that needs to be continually drawn. I agree with your definitions and it is interesting to see, especially in these economic times, how people confuse the two.
Advertising generally implies (at least in many people’s mind) expense. I have heard people say they are cutting back all their marketing and by this they mean, quit advertising. Often the expense saving is what they are looking for but if advertising is confused with marketing then that’s the whole marketing effort cancelled as well.
There are many low to zero cost marketing tools that fit into an overall strategy once you know your target audience very well. As you rightly say, advertising should just be a part of that
Monday, 6. April 2009
You are so right that advertising is just a component of marketing. And many of the small business owners I work with seem to confuse the two as you suggest.
We use a slightly different definition of marketing to explain to small businesses and independent professionals:
“Marketing is the use of strategies/tactics to create a cosistent stream of high-quality leads for your business.”
It’s just a little more straight-forward for clients to understand. What’s not as obvious in that definition is the planning and preparation work that goes in (i.e., strategy) before launching into tactics like advertising.
When we do get to marketing tools & tactics, we impress that effective marketing is rarely a single-threaded effort. The key is to have a balance of tools & tactics rooted in the core principles of marketing. Advertising is just one potential avenue.
Great post! People need to understand this important distinction. Well done.
All my Best!
Kevin Dervin