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Thoughts from your Systems Goddess, Sandye Linnetz, Process Prodigy
Is marketing in your advertising budget??? Or is advertising in the marketing budget??? Are they the same? Related? What??? If you are having trouble differentiating between the two… read on.
By definition, ADVERTISING is a transitive verb which means:
To describe or draw attention to (a product, service, or event) in a public medium in order to promote sales; the paid, public, non-personal persuasive message or promotion by a sponsor or firm of its products or services to existing and potential customers.
MARKETING is a transitive verb which means:
To advertise or promote something; the systematic planning and implementation of business activities to bring together buyers and sellers for the mutually advantageous exchange or transfer of goods or services.
Ah, now we begin to see where the confusion enters the picture. It appears that the two verbs are not only related, but seemingly almost the same. But NO, my friends, the two are quite different and understanding that difference may just be the key to being successful in BOTH arenas.
Consider that advertising is more directly related to lead generating while marketing is a foundational business tool we can use to see that those advertising dollars are wisely spent - by first getting pertinent information about your customers so that money is spent in appropriate areas. Although many of us would like to believe otherwise, not everyone is a potential customer for your business. Therefore, doing the research and analysis first - Who are our customers? Where are they? What and why do they buy from us? – is essential. Knowing who our customers are; the customers’ demographics, preferences and buying habits, allows us to advertise in ways that can almost guarantee desired results.
I’ve talked about Michael Gerber and his book, The E-Myth. His organization uses the term “marketing” to mean: understanding who your customers are, why they buy, where they are located, and what your overall strategy should be to meet the needs of those customers. That process, as described, is the foundational step that needs to be taken well before advertising happens, so marketing then, is not part of advertising, but the first step - the strategy behind - the advertising plan.
Advertising is a single piece of the marketing puzzle; frequently the most expensive piece. For that reason alone, care must be taken to first do effective marketing/research and planning. Advertising is the piece that, if done well, gets the word out to the customers about who and what YOU are and what you have to offer. We’re talkin’ ad placements, commercials (in all mediums from radio to TV and beyond), direct mail, Internet… get the idea?
The marketing plan (or “marketing process” as we at Process Prodigy prefer) also encompasses market research, sales strategy, media planning, customer support, distribution, and community/public relations. It is when the whole marketing plan is in sync… when everything is working smoothly and effectively – each piece on it’s own and as part of the bigger picture, that we can declare a successful process at work. And that successful process is the payoff for hours and hours and hours of research, planning and implementation.
So, I guess you can advertise your marketing plan… but not market your advertising??? You get it, don’t you?
© 2008 Beth Schneider, Process Prodigy, Inc. Want to reprint this article? Feel free as long as you include the following: Beth Schneider, President of Process Prodigy Inc., www.processprodigy.com, along with her team of highly sought after operations consultants, reveal the insider secrets billion-dollar corporations pay thousands of dollars for. Specializing in process creation, Process Prodigy tools and techniques have helped entrepreneurs increase productivity by as much as 600%, and revenues by as much as 250%. Visit www.processprodigy.com/ezine and grab your FREE systems starter kit valued at $297.00.
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