There’s an age-old discussion surrounding the causality of what came first: the chicken or the egg. This has become a philosophical debate because it seemingly runs an endless loop, twisting back on itself over and over and over. The chicken versus egg question has come to be used as a metaphor for self-perpetuating cycles and the futility of trying to decide how the cycle began instead of dealing with the cycle in the present. What the heck does this have to do with marketing? Well, we’re about to tell you.
MadCap’s March Musings are centered around Marketing versus Advertising. What are they? What aren’t they? Are they the same? Does one come before the other?
Marketing and advertising are two similar words and are often used interchangeably but each have a different meaning. These two terms can also result in a seemingly endless loop when it comes up as a topic at a party. Many people think advertising and marketing are concepts that can be used interchangeably. They are related, yes, and one is crucial to the success of the other. However, they are not the same, and you do actually need both in order to see successful results in the end.
While a marketing company, MapCap Marketing in this exact case, could write endlessly about this topic, we recognize that this is a blog entry, and we want to make sure we get our point across in less than 10 pages. It’s a tough job, but we are experts in our craft.
At its core, marketing is making your product or service interesting to potential buyers or customers if that is a term that makes more sense, which is a very involved process.
You build relationships with prospective clients. You reach out to them using the communication channels they prefer. There’s the task of keeping existing customers satisfied so you can retain them as clients. You’ll need to seek feedback so you can course correct if needed (it’s needed). Marketing essentially consists of research, analysis, division/segmentation, branding and promoting. It’s a lot of stuff crammed into one often misunderstood term.
All of these efforts allow marketers and marketing firms to create a sound strategy centered around promoting a product to the people who need to see it. Now as for advertising…
Advertising is the act of getting people to notice your product or service, usually via advertisements or paid announcements strategically placed in front of an audience that has been carefully and thoughtfully sought out. The goal of advertising and advertising efforts is to sway consumer behavior through thoughtful promotion.
To simplify this even further, consider that advertising is just one part of the overall marketing umbrella. So if marketing were a band, advertising could then be the vocalist, while market research would be the guitarist, thus making public relations the bassist, and branding the drummer. Should there be a need for a specialized feature in a marketing campaign, we might even add in a cowbell or keyboard. Because who doesn’t need more cowbell at times?
When you choose to work with MadCap Marketing, you get a full concert in professional brand development and execution. The staff at MadCap will see you through each step of the process of building out your brand in a way that is sustainable, strategic and intentional. To sum up, marketing is how a company handles product or service promotion, distribution, and pricing overall, while advertising is just one slice of the entire marketing pie. Marketing involves various processes such as market research, market analysis, segmentation, and will be more time-consuming than advertising.
Marketing seeks to understand consumer behavior through research, while advertising uses market research insights to guide its communication strategies. Advertising compliments marketing by generating awareness and the right kind of buzz for a company’s product or service. It focuses on brand communication, while marketing prepares the product or service for the marketplace and audience.
Both activities share the same objective, which is to alert consumers to products or services being sold. In short, marketing and advertising aren’t used independently of each other (so don’t believe the firms that tell you that you only need one). For best results, they should go hand in hand. For even better results, you should go with MadCap Marketing.