Though marketing and advertising can seem similar there are some key differences. Marketing and advertising both seek to optimise customer communication, provide consumers with relevant content and ultimately generate more sales, but they employ different methods to meet their shared objectives. It's important to understand the difference between them so you can gain a better understanding of the specific strategies for each function. In this article, we outline the differences between advertising vs marketing, list the importance and types of each function and explain when you can use it over the other.
What is the difference between advertising vs marketing?
The main difference between advertising vs marketing is their application. The objective of both marketing and advertising is to inform consumers about products and services with the shared aim of driving consumers to make a purchase. It's a common mistake to use the terms marketing and advertising interchangeably, but they're not synonyms. Advertising is just one element of the wider marketing function.
Marketing is a broad area that entails strategy development, product development, consumer insights and understanding, data analysis, design, brand and both qualitative and quantitative market research. Marketing aims to gain an understanding of the marketing environment, develop and define products or services and prepare them for the market. Advertising is focused on how marketers communicate information about the product or service to their consumers.
What is marketing?
Marketing is the function of business that concerns recognising, forecasting and meeting customer needs. Successful marketing strategies support companies to develop a method of serving their consumer base while also generating profit. There are two branches of marketing, business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B). B2C marketing strategies focus on consumers while B2B is marketing to other businesses.
In both B2C and B2B marketing, there are many essential components to evaluate when creating a new marketing strategy. These include:
Marketing mix: The marketing mix supports a businesses decision-making process when it comes to its marketing plan. A marketing mix may centre around the four Cs (consumer, cost, convenience and communication).
Marketing environment: The marketing environment includes both the internal environment, within the company and the external environment. The external environment is anything outside of the business that could influence marketing strategies, such as politics and current affairs.
Marketing orientation: The marketing orientation is what guides the company, it could be their product, sales, production or marketing.
Target: The target market is the consumer base that the company directs their marketing efforts on. A company typically conducts market research to segment the market and find out more about its target market to inform its marketing efforts.
Why is marketing important?
Marketing is important because it encompasses the entire research and analysis process for a product or service. Marketers often study audience responses to create content that influences customers to make a purchase. Marketing strives to create mission statements and advertising slogans that can accurately represent a brand's message.
Marketing material production often focuses on brand tone and personality, target audiences and distribution strategies. These strategies are important to defining what a brand stands for, how customers perceive a brand and how a brand promotes its products or services.
Types of marketing
There are various types of marketing and different marketing channels. A company with a large marketing department may have several people working on the various divisions. Here are some of the most common types of marketing that you're likely to come across:
Social media marketing
Social media marketing refers to using social media platforms and websites to promote products and services and communicate with the target market. It's a popular way for a brand to expand its reputation and companies benefit from being able to measure the effectiveness of their campaigns. Social media marketing continues to grow in popularity as more and more brands use popular platforms to connect with their consumers and target their audience segments directly. Performance marketing strategies and affiliate content are popular types of social media marketing.