Marketing versus Advertising
Failure sometimes occurs even before the process starts because companies are confused by the apparent similarity between the purpose of advertising and marketing.
Both are meant to encourage consumers to purchase products and services, however, there is a fundamental difference between the two.
Advertising is only one part of the marketing process, and its job is to deliver messages that have a psychological effect on the consumer.
While marketing, which also includes functions such as public relations, promotion, sales, packaging, and pricing, has the more inclusive job of moving products and services from the seller to the buyer.
Companies when asked about advertising objectives almost always reply with marketing objectives.
If they have a formal marketing plan, the advertising objectives are typically statements like: to increase sales, or to expand market share.
These are too broad and general, making it almost impossible to measure success.
More specific objectives such as increase sales by 15%, or expand market share by 5% aren’t much better because they are marketing goals, not advertising goals.
Advertising cannot achieve marketing goals all by itself. If a company wants to measure the results of its advertising, it has to be more specific in the definition of what it expects to accomplish through the use of advertising.