Advertising vs Marketing

Diffen › Business › Marketing

Marketing is the systematic planning, implementation, and control of business activities to bring together buyers and sellers. Marketing encompasses a range of activities to sell a product or service. Advertising is just one aspect of marketing strategy — it is a paid, public, persuasive message by an identified sponsor. The purpose of advertising is the non-personal promotion of a business's products or services. The approach is unique to that product or service.

The focus of advertising is to make repeat or potential new customers aware of an individual product or service, while the focus of marketing encompasses the overall picture to promote, distribute, and price products or services.

Comparison chart

Advertising versus Marketing comparison chart
	Advertising	Marketing
Definition	One-way communication of a persuasive message by an identified sponsor, whose purpose is non-personal promotion of products/services to potential customers.	Marketing is the systematic planning, implementation and control of business activities to bring together buyers and sellers.
Approach	Unique to product/service	Broader range of activities to sell product/service, client relationship etc.; determine future needs and has a strategy in place to meet those needs for the long term relationship.
Strategy	Promotional strategy	Pull

Scope

The scope of advertising is quite limited compared to that of marketing. It includes radio and television commercials, newspaper and magazine ads, flyers, brochures, emails, social media, web advertisements, and even cold calls to potential clients. Advertising is also about how frequently an ad reaches the target audience. The video below explains what advertising is all about.

The scope of marketing is much broader. Marketing starts with research, including target audience, customer needs, solutions to problems and ways for bettering competitors. The scope of marketing includes everything that goes into advertising. In addition, it also includes the sales, the company's ongoing relationship with the public and overall customer service and satisfaction.

Process

Advertising Plan

To advertise a product, businesses start by identifying their target audiences. a copy platform, media venues and a concrete plan for reaching the target audience. Advertisers then conduct a post-analysis of the effectiveness of the advertising campaign. Much of the marketing process actually comes before the advertising process. They then create a media plan for enlightening their potential customers about their product or service. A good marketing plan includes:

An analysis of the place of the product in the marketplace, from the perspective of market share as well as consumers
Identifying the target audience at primary and secondary tiers - for instance, if the primary audience for toys is school kids; the secondary audience would be parents
An assessment and comparison of media outlets, including print, broadcast, web, social media, with respect to their reach and cost effectiveness
A media plan that outlines the media mix, budget and strategy
Copy detailing the specific attributes to be touched in any advertisement
Doing the groundwork: making copy, layouts, storyboards, scripts, slogans etc.
Testing for credibility and effectiveness of the final advertisement
Analyses and comparison to measure the impact of the advertising campaign in terms of sales, brand recall, increase in market share etc. before and after advertising.

Marketing Plan

The marketing process starts with the three things: an analysis of the market size and potential, analysis of the distribution channels through which the consumer receives the product or service, and analysis of competitive products and services. Based on the data collected, advertisers develop pricing strategies including sales commissions, incentives and volume discounts. At that time they make detailed advertising plans that include sales tracking, market share analysis and advertising effectiveness measurements. Included in marketing is the budget, which determines the percentage of the cost of the product or service. A good marketing campaign entails:

An analysis of market size and potential; assessing various market segments to identify potential target audience
Assessment of the pros and cons of the distribution channels (print, web, broadcast, social media, cold calls etc.)
An analysis of competing products and services; their popularity, strength, weakness, pricing and

promotional strategies, and comparison of your product against these

Developing pricing and promotional strategies, detailed plans for sales tracking and market share analysis, and advertising

Theories

One theory of advertising is the hierarchy-of-effects model. This model clarifies the objectives of an advertising campaign by identifying six steps in the consumer mindset:

Awareness
Knowledge
Liking
Preference
Conviction
Purchase

The marketing mix theory of advertising focuses on four elements called the four P's:

Product – the actual goods or service
Price – process of determining the value of a product
Place – how to get the product to the consumer
Promotion – the actual advertising

Theories of marketing tend to be more in-depth since the process itself is so involved. One theory of marketing is game theory. Essentially, businesses see themselves as players of chess with rival business. This theory rests on the assumption that rival companies are acting similarly, or are trying to best their rivals. Marketers attempt to see matters from the rival's perspective in an effort to "win" the game.

Market segmentation is a traditional form of marketing. With this approach, a broad target market is divided into segments of consumers with common needs and priorities. Marketers then design strategies to reach these consumers.

Holistic marketing recognizes that everything is important in the field of marketing. Businesses acknowledge that a broad, integrated perspective is necessary in developing, designing and implementing marketing strategies. Four components characterize holistic marketing:

Socially responsive marketing
Internal marketing
Relationship marketing
Integrated marketing

Iconic Ads

iPod ad with a black silhouette of a girl carrying a white iPod with earbuds. Pink background.	Nike's ad—part of their Just Do It campaign—that reads Yesterday You Said Tomorrow.	An ad with an adult's long legs dangling out of a baby's stroller. The ad urges people to spend time with their kids while they are still kids.
Coca-Cola's ad with a polar bear enjoying a bottle of Coke.	An ad for the TV series The Sopranos, which is about the mafia. The ad is in the form of what looks like a human arm dangling out of a taxi's trunk.	Movie poster for Batman:The Dark Knight. Batman is in the foreground with a burning building in the background. The fire in the building looks like a bat.