What is the Difference Between Marketing and Advertising?

By Lindsey Murphy

As an advertising major, people tend to confuse marketing and advertising so I have learned how the two fields differ. In short, advertising is one of many components of the marketing process, maybe even the most important. Other concepts of marketing include media planning, public relations, sales strategy, marketing research, and more. Here at MSU, you can create or design ads as a creative advertising major, or you can sell and manage ads in the management side of advertising.

Advertising is using media to promote a certain product, service, or event. Nancy Lovering does a good job of explaining the differences between advertising and marketing and the process of each of them. Marketing is more concerned with knowing the target audience and composing marketing strategies that suit the brand. Advertising is involved with using different forms of media to communicate with consumers.

To help distinguish the different goals of marketing and advertising here are a few examples of what each does:

Marketing:

• Long-term, used to continuously keep in contact with consumers
• Identifies groups with shared needs or characteristics
• Uses demographic segmentation such as sex, age, income, ethnicity, occupation, and marital status to identify groups of people
• Building relationship with consumer regarding product
• Uses research analysis to determine who should be targeted and by what means

Advertising:

• Short-term, used to make consumers aware of products.
• Uses colors, slogans, and subliminal messages to help consumer perceive certain emotions
• Anything you see or hear that persuades you to do or buy something
• Uses print, radio, television, or the internet to reach out to consumers
• Uses endorsements to create a positive association with the brand.

Lovering, Nancy. "What Is the Difference Between Marketing and Advertising?" What Is the Difference Between Marketing and Advertising? | Chron.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2017.