Difference Between Advertising And Marketing

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Marketing a product or service involves multiple activities that, at times, commences with primary research & development or market research and involves subsequent activities like product development, pricing and sales strategies, go-to-market strategies, distribution, advertising and public relations.

Thus advertising forms a part of marketing process or can be considered as a component of the entire process.

Advertising is the stage in which the intended customers are informed about the goods, products or services being offered to them. The trick is to make this communication or process of passing this information in a manner that is both interesting and effective. Thus the first step to developing an effective advertising campaign is to draw up a lucid and compelling marketing strategy. This would detail out smaller activities like which media vehicle for communication is to be chosen – could be native or digital: newspapers, television, digital platforms etc., the frequency and the periodicity of the campaign, budgeting and expense planning etc. In advertising the expense planning is a major factor as this involves significant outflow of cash. What is important is to decide which media to choose to communicate the message in the most effective form. The return of investment on advertising should be calculable.

Advertising in essence, is a form of mass communication where a message about a product or service that is available in the market is sent out to all customers in order to reach to the target audience. With the advent of social media and a lot more information that is available in the market today regarding customer’s choice and preferences, this form of non-personal communication is being re- placed by targeted promotions and direct communication. Advertisers too, work towards making the message more personal with the intent to talk with the potential buyers and increase their ROI.

Marketing, a product or a service is the larger activity that begins with market research where in the behavior of a customer with respect to a particular product or service being intended to be offered is studied. The reactions are then analyzed to understand whether there are any developments in the product that are needed according to the voice of the customer that has been captured. The attempt at this stage is also made to understand where do the intended customers lie? Their geographic, demographic, psychological, behavioral metrics and data is studied and recorded. These are given as inputs for product design and the final offering to the customers is prepared.

Once the product is made ready for the market, the GTM or the Go-To-Market strategy is prepared. This involves the determination of the price, sales and distribution planning, selecting the geographies of operations etc…

The price point at which the good or service would be made available to the users is carefully thought out keeping in mind the current prevalent prices of competitor’s good in the same category. Another factor that is often kept in mind is the perceived value of the product or service in the minds of the customer.

Setting up the channels for sales and distribution involves identifying the geographies in which the product or the service is intended to be offered, which is typically where the target audience would be residing in large numbers. In order to maximize the reach a number of channel partners are identified to make the product/service available to the customer and provide information about the same to the customer. Thus identifying the partner and equipping him with the information, marketing collaterals, terms of trade, the final product etc. also forms a part of the marketing function. Thus from the inception of the product to its design and final placement of the product in the hands of the intended customer is the work of a marketer.

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