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At the first mention of the word “marketing,” many people will just roll their eyes. That makes sense because, first of all, it associates them on never-ending ads that interrupt their favorite TV show or boring pop-ups while watching a video on YouTube. For example, any Spokane digital media buyer will use local TV or radio stations as a basic media tool to promote their client’s content.
Perhaps it will be strange to find out that marketing is not just advertising, nor its only goal is to annoy you. In fact, it is just one type of desirable reaction of potential consumers. As the picture above shows roughly, advertising is just one part of marketing. Not just any, but a quite relevant part.
Imagine the marketing sector of an enterprise as a car. Then think of the advertising as the steering wheel. If it works well, the whole mechanism will function (assuming that the other parts work well too). If there is any problem with the steering wheel, the car will still move, but it is only a matter of time when it will stop working.
Marketing is a multidisciplinary area that includes a large number of activities, and advertising is its part. Creating ads doesn’t trigger marketing, but it is vital for this business function to give the best results.
Advertising as a Part of Marketing Mix
There is no need to bother with professional terms. The goal of this article is to give you the basics to understand that marketing and advertising are not the same, but are tightly connected. How? The advertising makes part of the set of actions called marketing mix. Or 4 P’s, by the initial letters of its main components – Product, Price, Placement and Promotion a.k.a. advertising.
What’s the Purpose of Advertising in 4P?
The advertising is, in fact, everything that a company should do to present its product or service to the market. This includes creating engaging ads, promotional campaigns, media releases, sponsorship activities, etc. Good advertising is the best way for potential customers to find out about your product or service. After the initial interest, the next logical step is to buy and use this product.
Some of the activities in the domain of advertising are related to the production and placement of advertising materials (cards, calendars, flyers, brochures, etc.), then ordering and creating TV spots, implementing strategies and creating promotional campaigns, etc.
The more creative your campaigns are, the more attention they’ll get. Read here how to be creative in attracting customers, even when you’re on a tight budget. Also, offers that can save some money to potential buyers’, like “buy 3 – get 4” are a great way to interest them.
Latest Advertising Trends
Sponsorship of important events or public figures is a specific way of advertising. For many years, the hiring of celebrities for your ad was considered a score for successful product promotion. Every generation has some heroes among singers, actors, and athletes, to whom they want to imitate. If any of them drink XY beverage, fans will do the same.
Millennials or Generation Y have some new idols, and these are often people who have become famous overnight with the help of social networks. Ever heard of influencers? They are nowadays celebrities. They do not have fans, but followers. They will promote your product on social media, in exchange for money or some amount of that product. The most popular ones can charge advertising more than some famous actor or singer.
In recent years, Internet made a revolution in the concept of promotion compared to how it was a few years ago. With social networks, ads became interactive. Until a few years ago, placing commercial content was a one-way street. Today, the reaction of consumers is not only expected but desirable too. The number of clicks and views are a measurement unit for the success of advertising on the Internet.
Good Advertising Doesn’t Always Bring “Tangible” Marketing Results
A successful advertisement doesn’t only imply increased sales of a product. It rarely happens that, after seeing an entertaining commercial, a customer is off to the store to buy it. This may have been possible a few decades ago when the choice of products wasn’t that wide.
Today, consumers are much pickier. Even if someone doesn’t buy your product, they can ask for some additional information about it. Or to contact your customer service if they have questions about ingredients, purpose, etc. Or perhaps they are interested in some extra services you offer.
That’s the goal you have to achieve with your marketing activities. Maybe that single customer won’t buy your product, but he’ll spread the word. Talking about your TV commercial or billboard he saw on the highway, he’ll indirectly convince three other people to buy it.
Advertising Is (Not) a Propaganda
Many companies make a mistake by thinking that advertising is the best way to make people buy their products. They influence their customers sometimes directly, and sometimes indirectly, in the form of various manipulation techniques. If you go too far, you’ll lose potential customers.
Quality is essential in advertising, not just quantity. Putting your ad on everything and placing it on TV every 15 minutes often brings the opposite effect. Companies sometimes lose the compass, and the advertising becomes propaganda. Ads should be a creative way to provide information, animate and remind customers to buy a product; propaganda is an aggressive form of changing customers’ behavior and habits. Check this page for more differences between propaganda and ads.
Wrapping up
Effective advertising must distract potential customers. Their time is precious, and those few seconds they make to look at your ad or click on a banner must be reliable, unique and unforgettable. In the end, reaching your marketing goal with good advertising has to make them pay the product at the price you set after you promote and place it on the market.
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