What Is The Difference Between Marketing And Advertising?

Today every business needs to promote itself. It should make customers and prospects aware of the products and services it offers. There are many ways to promote your business - television, radio, print, outdoor media, website, social media.

Marketing and advertising are not the same 

Marketing and advertising are two unique concepts which are important for every business to succeed. Many people wrongly assume that they are the same. But, they are not. Marketing involves various activities like identifying the target markets, their needs and requirements; new product development, promotion, and building brand image. Advertising, on the other hand, is one of the marketing activities which make consumers aware of the products/services available under a brand.

How does marketing and advertising help businesses?  Let’s take a look at Marketing.

• Marketing defines target markets: Your target market is a group of people who are more likely to buy your products/services. Unless a business identifies its target market, it cannot design a customized advertising strategy for that target audience.  Marketing helps the businesses effectively identify their target markets.

• Marketing identifies your customers' needs:  Marketing identifies customers' need by conducting polls, campaigns and research.  All these marketing steps enable the businesses to produce products that match the needs and wants of the consumers.

• Marketing builds your brand image:  Marketing enables a company to conduct various programs to promote its brand and its products.  Doing this helps establish a brand image.

Now, let’s take a look at Advertising.

• Advertising helps publicize your company's products and services: While marketing involves all the back-end operations, advertising is the publicizing of the brand to the customer and prospects. It creates an awareness of the brand as well as the products/services offered and makes the brand well known among the target markets.

An effective advertisement also had the ability to persuade the customers and prospects to buy your products/services. The diverse means of advertising include non-electronic media like newspapers, brochures, journals, magazines, banners, posters, etc., and electronic media such as television, radio, the Internet, etc.

• Advertising differentiates your company's products from others' products: Another advantage of advertising is that it gives you an opportunity to differentiate your products from your competitors' products. I’m sure you’ve seen advertisements which compare the effectiveness of a company’s products with that of their competitors.

• Advertising enhances your presence in the market: An advertisement campaign continuously reminds current and potential customers about your brand and products. An ongoing advertising strategy helps businesses reach their customers effectively. In the long run, it helps the companies build long term relationship with their target market.

Marketing and advertising both help a business increase revenues

The goal of both marketing and advertising is the same - to improve sales and revenues of the company. While marketing improves sales by producing products that serve the needs and wants of the customers, advertising enhances the revenues by making people aware of the products offered by the company.

Any business can accrue these benefits by considering marketing and advertising as essential elements of business. Implementing effective marketing and advertising strategies customized to a business is essential and works best when both the strategies are integrated. To make the most out of them, it is better to take help of professional advertising and marketing service providers who offer tailor-made strategies designed to meet your business goals and help you prosper and grow bigger.  Give us at Blue Dog Marketing a call.  We can create a marketing plan that will meet your business goals and help your business grow.