Marketing Vs. Advertising

Many people confuse the terms marketing and advertisement. They think, both are the same and used interchangeably. But there are distinctive differences between the two. This chapter describes the difference between marketing and advertisement.

However, to understand the differences between them, let us discuss it one-by-one −

What is an Advertisement?

Advertisement is a technique to create awareness about a particular product/service to the existing and new customers. One advertisement promotes only one product/service. Every ad has to be unique and creative. For example, advertisement of a soap must be different from the advertisement of a cold drink.

An ad uses the following mediums −

• Print Media − For example, newspaper, magazine, etc.

• Electronic/broadcasting Media − For example, radio, tv, internet, etc.

• Outdoor Media − For example, hording, flyers, billboard, etc.

What is Marketing?

On the other hand, marketing is a comprehensive term that involves many other activities including advertisement. Some of the important activities of marketing are −

• Planning
• Developing Strategy
• Research
• Public Relations
• Advertisement
• Budgeting
• Customer service
• Feedback and Analysis

The following image summarizes the comparison between Marketing, Advertising, Public Relations, and Branding −

Check Your Progress

• What do you understand by marketing?
• What do you understand by advertising?
• How is marketing different from advertising?
• Make a list giving examples of advertisement and marketing that you observed in your city.