What is the real difference between Marketing and Advertising?
The terms 'marketing' and 'advertising' get thrown around like they're the same thing, but trust me, they're not even close. They're two business disciplines with completely different scopes and objectives that often get confused. This mix-up can lead to disjointed strategies that ultimately fall flat. For any organisation looking to grow sustainably, getting a real handle on what each one is and does is crucial.
This article's going to break down both marketing and advertising, and how advertising is a vital cog in the bigger marketing machine. Understanding the difference is key to coming up with a cohesive plan that has long-term brand positioning working in harmony with short-term promotional tactics.
Getting to the Core of What it's all About
Before we dive into the relationship between marketing and advertising, let's get a basic understanding of what each one entails. Marketing is the big picture, while advertising is a specific tactic used within that overall strategy.
What is Marketing?
Marketing is about understanding what your customers need, anticipating those needs, and then delivering something that meets those needs in a profitable way. It's a whole system that a company uses to get new customers and keep existing ones. Marketing is built around the 4 Ps:
- Product: You need to have something that meets a customer's needs, & that's where product comes in.
- Price: You need to set a price that works for both the company & the customer.
- Place: Where do you sell the thing? How do you get it in front of the right people?
- Promotion: Getting the word out about the product.
Marketing involves loads of market research, product development, strategic planning, and brand management. It's the whole process of taking a product from idea to customer.
What is Advertising?
Advertising is a type of promotion, & a specific tactic used in the marketing mix. It's paid advertising through various media channels to get your message in front of the right people. Think of it as the company sending a message to the market. Advertising is part of the bigger marketing picture.
It's the act of broadcasting a message to the public, & its main job is to execute a part of the overall marketing plan. This can mean making ads for TV, radio, print, digital, or social media. Advertising is a tactic, not the entire strategy.
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Where the Two Differ
Taking a closer look at the scope, focus, and measurement of marketing and advertising will really help drive home the difference between the two.
Strategy vs. Tactics
Marketing is all about longterm planning. It answers questions like who are your customers, what problems do you solve for them, and what makes you different? Your marketing plan sets the direction for the brand and outlines the plan to win and keep customers over the long-term.
Advertising is the opposite: it's short-term, tactical, & all about achieving specific, immediate goals that the marketing strategy sets out. For example, if a company wants to build brand awareness in a new age group, their marketing strategy might say that over the next year. Their advertising tactics would be a 3-month social media ad campaign to get that done.
What is the Focus?
Marketing activities are all about understanding the market, doing research, and managing the brand identity. They're focused on the entire customer journey, from first awareness to post-purchase loyalty.
Advertising is all about getting the creative right and placing it in front of the right people. They're looking at each campaign and saying 'what message will get through to this group of people?'
Measuring Success
Marketing success is all about broad, long-term metrics like market share, customer lifetime value, brand equity, and revenue growth. These show how healthy the business is and where it stands in the market.
Advertising success is all about immediate & specific metrics tied to each campaign. KPIs for advertising are things like reach (how many people see an ad), impressions (how many times an ad is shown), click-through rates (CTR), and return on ad spend (ROAS). These give you a clear picture of how well a specific ad campaign is doing.
How the Two Fit Together
It's really important to understand that advertising is a subset of marketing - a vital part of the bigger marketing machine. While all advertising is a form of marketing, not all marketing activities are advertising. PR, content marketing, promotions, and direct mail are all part of the marketing mix that don't necessarily fall under the definition of paid advertising.
And that's the key: getting marketing and advertising to work together. A brilliant ad won't save a product that's been marketed to the wrong people or sold in the wrong places. And a solid marketing strategy isn't going to get far without a good advertising campaign to communicate its message.
Align Your Strategy with Ozment Media
Figuring out the difference between marketing and advertising is key to building a solid business strategy. And to be honest, most people get the two muddled up - but that's the first step towards making a real go of things. Marketing is all about designing a long-term plan for understanding what customers want and how to give it to them, while advertising is just one of the ways you go about reaching them with a message - and that message is going to cost you money. Both are super important, but they do different jobs that need to work together smoothly for the whole thing to work.
At Ozment Media, we do both marketing strategy and advertising for our clients - but we know that its all about building a solid foundation first. That means putting in the work upfront to really understand our clients' customers and then using that to build a marketing plan that actually works. Then we take that plan and make it happen with some serious advertising firepower on platforms like Google, social media and a bunch of other places. By linking up our clients' big marketing goals with some smart advertising tactics, we help businesses make sure every single dollar they spend on promoting themselves is actually adding up to something real - a strategy that really delivers. To make sure your business is on solid ground, get in touch with our experts and let's schedule a chat.
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