Marketing Vs. Advertising
People feel that marketing and advertising are the same thing. However, it is not so. These concepts are different and understanding what they are exactly becomes essential. Marketing is related to all those activities starting from buying raw materials of the product, till introducing it into the market and selling it. The principles of marketing are involved in each and very stage of product development, product publicity and it also involves evaluating how much demand is there for the product and sales generated by it. Advertising, is actually a small part of the entire marketing activity. In other words, it is a sub set of marketing. It just involves making promotional campaigns by making effective use of the media and making the product introduced by the company more popular.
Comparison Between Marketing and Advertising
While we talk about advertising vs marketing, we must get that the principle difference between the two is that marketing is related to providing good service and quality products to the customers. On the other hand, we advertise our products to increase their familiarity. Advertisements are given in newspapers, newsletters, magazines and on the Internet which has become one of the best means of product advertising in this modern age. The television channels are also the most sought after way of advertising products.
Marketing is different from selling too apart from its difference with advertising. Selling just involves exchange of goods for cash. On the other hand, marketing is done for ensuring maximum customer satisfaction and client retention. Marketing helps companies to build a brand and advertising alone cannot help achieve that. Branding makes a product something more than just a mere commodity. This is reflected from the names of products who have an established brand.
Marketing is a long-term process than advertising. If there is no product ready, then what will the companies advertise for? The process of marketing begins from the idea of the product itself. So, advertising can be called the last or the final step in a marketing process. Another difference is that marketing is a never-ending process. It is a cycle which keeps repeating itself till the company is fully operational. This means that marketing involves reviewing the performance of the products in terms of sales, analyzing faults and technical errors in products, appointing committees of efficient managers to deal with the shortcomings, overcoming them and maintaining the market share of the company. Advertising may or may not be a continuous process. We often see that companies advertise on a large-scale while penetrating into the markets initially. It may happen in future that the company might not require advertisements to sell its products as the word of mouth, reviews and reports of the products would be so strong and positive, that they will themselves drive the growth of the company. Of course, to reach this stage, it will take a lot of time and efforts on the part of the senior management and lower level employees.
Advertising is something which helps a company connect with its customers. It also includes creating a great psychological impact on the customers by explaining to them how the product is superior and more useful than products of rival firms. So we conclude that both these functions are equally important and useful. Think over it and use this information practically. All the best!
