The Major Differences Between Marketing And Advertising

I was walking down my neighborhood recently when a high school student whom I have always helped with school work approached me and said “please uncle, I want you to tell me the differences between marketing and advertising”.

I was confused, because even though am aware that they are different, I couldn’t find the perfect way to pinpoint their differences. I had to shamefully postpone my answer so as to buy myself enough time to carry out a quick research.

I know some of you might have been caught up in similar situations. So in order to avoid such disgraceful moments, I decided to share the outcome of my research just to educate you.

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Who knows ?, it might be you next time. So to enable you get a clearer and basic understanding of what advertising and marketing really means, I will give a simple definition of both to start with.

Advertising is simply defined as a form of marketing that is carried out in order to promote or sell a product, it is the act of calling the public’s attention to one’s products and services via paid announcements while marketing itself is an act or business of promoting and selling products or services. With this definition, it is obvious that advertising is one of the components of marketing.

Other components of marketing include Public relations, product pricing, media planning, distribution, sales strategy, customer support and market research.

When all this components are completely adopted to promote and sell products, it is regarded as marketing. This means that marketing is incomplete without advertising.

This is  because advertising is an integral part of the numerous strategies adopted by business organizations during marketing.

Many various popular channels of advertising are usually employed by various business organizations. These channels are the internet, newspapers, magazine, leaflets or fliers, radio, television, movies and other. Any form of advertising which is geared towards marketing are usually paid for.

On the other hand, marketing is a bit by bit measure taken to ensure the successful sales of products and services. This implies that every component that makes up marketing are independent but may not be able to function without the other. For that reason, we would be looking at the primary components of marketing which are duly explained below:

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1.  Place

This component of marketing involves the detailed study of the intended market for the product or service on offer.

Generally, this component ensures the availability of a suitable market for the product or service, accessibility of the market and the availability of a distribution channel.

2. Product

The product or service on offer must completely satisfy the demands of the customers. This is the major reason why manufacturers produce goods that will meet the needs of consumers.

The only way this is possible is when a detailed market survey is conducted before a product or service is launched into the market.

In essence, the quality and the rate at which a product is desired by the public contributes a great deal to the product’s market performance.

3. Price

The price of products and services affects their market performance directly and indirectly. It can boost the sales and demand of a product just about the same way it can reduces the sales and demand of the product. This is the reason why price is a major component of marketing.

4.  Promotion

This is where advertising comes in as a component of marketing as well. In marketing, promotion involves all the methods or processes employed by the manufacturer when calling the public’s attention to their products or services. It also helps to attract the right customers to one’s products or services.

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How Marketing And Advertising Differ

The first major difference between marketing and advertising is that marketing encompasses all the techniques adopted to ensure success in the sale of a product or service rendered.

This involves every factor considered during manufacture, price fixing, market survey, and promotion while advertising itself is a component of marketing which deals with the steps and measures taken to inform the public about a new or existing product or service while highlighting it’s unique selling points.

The second difference is that marketing takes note of the needs of the prospective customers before a product or service which will satisfy such needs are flooded into the market while advertising expertly seeks to influence or persuade the target audience into patronizing a particular product or services.

Thirdly, marketing strategies are usually accompanied with long term plans while advertising might be intense or soft but usually a short term plan.

Fourthly, marketing can be said to be successful when sales increase tremendously while advertising is only successful when awareness increases.

Fifth, the scope of marketing revolves around market research, promotion, advertisement, distribution, sales, public relations, customer satisfaction e.t.c while advertising revolves around radio, television, newspapers, magazines, fliers, social media, internet, Posters e.t.c.

In conclusion, both words are often used interchangeably, disregarding the differences between both. Advertising is one of the major processes that completes marketing.

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The main objective of both marketing and advertising is to notify prospective customers of a desired product’s availability and thereby boosting patronage.

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