Understanding the difference between marketing and advertising is fundamental to any business owner but it's surprising how few really know the difference.

Marketing is really a process, often a campaign which is intended to drive awareness of products, services and brands. Marketing is incredibly deep in it's detail and subtelty, a combination of science (demographics, psychology, ...) and art (creativity, emotional response, ...). By crafting the marketing message to demographics and current consumer desires, the intent is to drive consumer behavior (be that retail or business consumer) toward those products and services the company provides. Marketing is a sustained activity which, in a very Pavlovian sense, is meant to condition buying behavior and build a relationship with the consumer. In another sense, Marketing is carpet bombing; broad and effective, though not always efficient or easily measured in it's effectiveness, though usually necessary to some extent.

Advertising is the GPS guided smart bomb. A specialty of the broader marketing discipline, advertising is to marketing what the dinner bell was to Pavlov's dogs. It is intended to invoke response (a purchase) often through a more immediate emotional provocation or call to action. The "immediacy" depends on the ad and the product or service but often the response desired by the advertiser is simply to make you aware of how to obtain the goods or how to use them so the next time it's appropriate, you can easily take action, which is easier to do if you already have a familiarity or positive association with the company or product (the effect of marketing).

Marketing people out there are going to read this as somewhat of an oversimplification of the difference but the point was to get you thinking in the right direction and speaking the right language. Hopefully this will spring board more research into this area for you.

Labels: advertising, marketing