One of my blog readers wrote in asking, “just what are the differences between marketing and advertising?” I’ve always thought the two overlapped quite a bit and are often used interchangeably, so I sought out to find out exactly how to respond to that question. In my words, this is what I found out:
1. Marketing is the overall process, strategy and activity that helps a company promote its image, products and services to a target market. So components of marketing would be market research, branding (logo, signage, business cards, etc.), messaging, brochures/materials, advertising, public relations, Internet marketing, sales strategy, pricing, community invovement, etc. These components should work together toward an overall goal of bringing the seller and buyer together for a purchase. I like to think of marketing as your plan for your company’s success.
2. Advertising is more specifically a step in the marketing process which involves a paid sponsorship or method of eliciting a response through a specific medium (newspaper, direct mail, yellow pages, banner ad, television or radio): Bascially, you pay for advertising in order to create a sense of urgency and get people to buy your product or service. Advertising is therefore one piece of the marketing “pie” that companies use to attract attention, persuade and reach the goal of bringing the buyer and seller together. Another method is public relations and yet another method would be search engine optimization or pay per click advertising.
Need a visual? I also found a funny cartoon which illustrates the differences between marketing, public relations, advertising and branding.
The bottom line: You typically need both a marketing strategy or plan, and some kind of message to communicate to your prospects why they should buy from you…whether that is though a paid format like advertising or a more passive method such as public relations or SEO.
Hope that helps!
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