All the difference in the world!

‘Marketing’ is the business process that brings together what the company founder wishes to achieve; the way he/she wants to go about it; relates it to the economic conditions; supplies the product/service and provides a continual message to all existing and potential customers or clients.

‘Advertising’ is the specific promotion of goods and/or services and is carried out within the framework of the company’s Marketing strategy and plan.

The reason many people express any uncertainty in offering a definition is primarily because the term ‘Marketing’ has entered popular use and is now used imprecisely and indiscriminately.   Not surprisingly the business literature has as many definitions as authors; all basically saying the same thing in a different way or from a different perspective.

Marketing, therefore, is the overall business process or activity by which all aspects of the company management’s/owner’s/founder’s ambitions are made to happen. It involves defining what could be sold/provided, to whom and at what price (market survey); when, where and through which channels (marketing strategy); preparing the market for the product and promoting (advertising); planning, distribution and customer care.

It is the ‘Master plan’ or framework upon which all the other business functions hang.  As a result of the marketing strategy and plan ‘Marketing’ defines how big a company needs to be at any time; how it should be organised; what manufacturing or work methods should be employed; how much money is required to run it; how many employees are required and where they are located; the image (Brand) that the company will project into the marketplace; how the products and/or services are delivered to the customer; how customers are made aware of the company’s products/services and how customers are treated before, during and after they have bought the company’s product or service. In a large company it involves a significant amount of planning and links all the other parts of the company into a smooth, focussed machine. The detail of all the contributing parts of the Master plan are generated by the relevant departments within a company but their brief is defined by Marketing which translates the company’s ‘Business Plan’ into a working reality. In the case of an SME it is the process used by the MDO to translate his Business Plan into a coherent, detailed working guide for all aspects of the business.

One contributing activity in this scheme of action is ‘Advertising’. It is very specific and is part of an overall process of contacting customers. It is a Marketing tool and can be employed to deliver a very specific message on its own or as part of a wider campaign/message. Any medium can be employed for advertising. Time, product, service, message, business sector, budget and target audience will dictate the appropriate one. However, the impact and effectiveness of any advertising is its coherence with the overall Marketing strategy of the company.

To confuse ‘Marketing’ with ‘Advertising’ is to confuse overall strategy with a single tactic.

S.Matykiewicz 27/07/06