Difference Between Marketing and Advertising (with Similarities and Comparison Chart)

No one can deny the fact that the survival of business, mainly depends on its customers. And so the concern should plan its marketing strategies in such a way that it can turn shoppers into buyers. While marketing refers to a process of promoting or selling products and services with the help of tools like marketing research and advertising.

There are many who think marketing is equal to advertising, but the thing is that marketing is a discipline, while advertising is just a branch of it. Advertising is a paid form of communication for the people, which aims at imparting information, create needs and instigate action, that is beneficial to the sponser of the advertisement.

There are a number of ways in which these two terms differ from one another, which are discussed in this article. So, come let’s take a look at the difference between marketing and advertising.

Comparison Chart

Basis for Comparison	Marketing	Advertising
Meaning	The activity of understanding the market conditions in order to identify the customer needs and creating such a product that it sells itself.	Advertising is a part of market communication process which is done with the aim of seeking attention of the public towards a particular stuff.
Aspect	Product, Price, Place, People, Promotion, Process.	Promotion
Term	Long term	Short Term
Scope	Market Research, Promotion, Advertisement, Distribution, Sales, Public Relations, Customer Satisfaction.	Radio, Television, Newspaper, Magazines, Hoardings, Social Media, Sponsorships, Posters.
Importance	More and more sales	Creates Awareness
Focus on	Creating market for the new or existing product and building brand image.	Grabbing the attention of the general public.

Definition of Marketing

Marketing is a long-term business activity, which starts right from the market research to customer satisfaction. Marketing is a pivotal activity which is not all about promoting the product, but it is meant to understand the market conditions, identify customer needs, designing a product as per the requirement, selecting the best media for promoting the product, advertising it through various channels, determination of price, distribution & selling the product, creating public relations, providing after sales service in order to satisfy the customers.

In a nutshell, Marketing is a promotional process of bringing the right product to the right marketplace for the right people at the right price.

Marketing is how effectively you explain the value of your product or service to influence the customers in such a way that they ultimately buy it.

Definition of Advertising

Advertising is a part of the marketing process and the most expensive one. It is a monologue activity done with the aim of persuading more and more people towards the product or service. It is a technique through which one message can reach a large number of people within seconds. Therefore, the company uses this way to promote their product or service to grab consumer attention.

Advertising can be done through various channels like ads on radio, television, website, newspapers, magazines, journals, hoardings, banners, social media, sponsorships, posters, banners, neon signs, etc.

Advertising can be done for promoting a product or service or providing some relevant information or opinions or public notices. It creates awareness among people on various products, i.e. people can easily identify what to eat, wear, use, etc. They can also classify easily between true and false (misleading) advertisements.

Key Differences Between Marketing and Advertising

The difference between marketing and advertising is given as follows.

Advertising is marketing, but Marketing is not advertising.
The product, Price, Promotion, Place, People, Process are the six major aspects of Marketing. Promotion is the major aspect of Advertising.
Marketing is done with the intent of increasing sales while Advertising is done with the objective of inducing customers.
Marketing focuses on creating a market for the product, and building reputation whereas advertising focuses on seeking public attention.
Marketing is a long-term process. On the other hand, advertising is a short term process.

Similarities

Major objective is to increase sales.
Promotion of the product.
Explaining the value of product or service to target customers.

Conclusion

In the business context, marketing and advertising are very big terms which are used many – many times. So understanding the difference between the two is vital. After reading this article excerpt, if you still have some doubts then you can understand it by an example that – marketing is to pull the customers, whereas advertising is to attract them.