Differences between Marketing and Advertising

Differences between Marketing and Advertising:

Marketing and Advertising, although they sound similar but in reality they are not. Advertising is only a part of the bigger game called Marketing. Marketing encompasses complete conceptualization of a brand right from research to designing to advertising to sale. Advertising, on the other hand is a component of the marketing process which is nothing but conveying the message through variety of mediums to promote the product.

Advertising is one of the most important component of a marketing strategy and also the most expensive. Advertising constitutes sending the message across the public about your company, product or services. It also constitutes behind the scenes work like the process involving formation of various strategies and coming up with a right one to target the viewers. The strategy consists of planning things like placing ads, deciding what media to use, what time, frequency etc. The advertisements are generally placed via mediums like television, snail mail, newspapers, internet, emails, radio, magazines, mobile messaging, flyers, billboards etc. The most popular one is of course television although advertising on internet is becoming increasingly popular too.

Easiest way to differentiate advertising from marketing is to consider marketing as a cake and if you cut the cake, advertising as one of the pieces of that cake. The other pieces of cake are market research of the product, product designing, media planning, PR, product pricing, customer satisfaction, customer support, sales and many more. All these components or pieces of cake should work independently but collectively in achieving the bigger goal i.e. sell product and build company's reputation in the market. Marketing is a marathon process involving many tasks that involve hours sometimes days of research. The research part of marketing takes the longest duration as it involves thoroughly understanding the behavior of people towards a product. Designing the product and developing advertising strategy is also a time consuming process. Only components that take less time are executing advertisements and sales. Marketing can also be perceived as a medium between consumers and the company.

But many companies often make mistake of confusing advertising with marketing. They try to ape big companies like Coke and Pepsi in advertising but they simply ignore the work that goes behind that. The classical example of this is, take the case of logo for instance. Many business owners are so hysterical about the logo of their company in their advertisements that they think that it will simply bring in the sales. But what makes a logo works is none other than the reputation of the company and the logo must have a feeling to it and should truly reflect company's values. One should also remember that these companies spend fortunes on advertising which a new start up business can't. Rather than spending unnecessary money on branding your product one should invest money and time in communicating to the consumers that they can address their expectations. After building reputation and growing to a big size company one can think of these lavish ideas. Educating the consumers also helps as it will give them an understanding that you know what you do and are best at doing that.

Smart marketers are aggressive in approach rather than passive. They provoke reader's minds by prompting them to do something rather than just making them knowledgeable of the product. Smart marketers also bring home the names, addresses and contact numbers of people who are really interested in hiring your company by employing aggressive marketing. Thus having a good marketing campaign speaks a lot about the company and their products and advertising gives that finishing touch to the hard work done by the marketing people in selling a product.

Apple iPhone - Drama

The Apple iPhone - Super Phone or Super Hype:

The Apple iPhone, super phone or super hype?  Is this cell phone really the complete package that Apple purports it to be or is it all hype? Let us take a look at the facts and fiction about the Apple iPhone to see how it really stacks up against the advertising.

Ease of use, this is what Apple shows in all of its advertising. On this point, they hit it dead on. The Apple iPhone is extremely easy to use. If you can tap something with your finger or slide your finger along a screen you can use the iPhone without difficulty. For ease of use, the iPhone is a super phone.
Music listening and storage. As far as sound quality goes, the iPhone is great. A set of good quality stereo earbuds are required to enjoy the iPhone's sound quality. To complete the upscale look of the iPhone, perhaps a set of Bluetooth stereo earphones are in orders. In the category of sound quality and music playback capability, the iPhone is a super phone.

Storage is another feature that Apple hypes the iPhone. With 6 GB, 8 GB, and now 16 GB, this seems like a tremendous amount of storage. Here is where the downfall is, you cannot upgrade the memory or use external memory such as memory cards or sticks. Therefore you are limited by the amount of content you can have on your iPhone. You cannot take content with you. A work around could be to store content on an internet site and swap it out when you want it. Any teenager I know can blow through even 16 GB of music in an amazingly short amount of time. If you add in videos and TV shows, 16 GB becomes filled rather quickly. In the storage department, the Apple iPhone becomes hype instead of a super phone.

What about battery life. Here is where there is no hype at all: actually Apple has very little to say about the iPhone's battery. Here is why. You cannot change it. Most cell phones have a removable battery. This way if it dies, you change it out with a new one. The iPhone lacks this capability. Once that battery dies and will no longer hold a charge, you need a new phone. The reason Apple is so quite about the battery is probably due to the current litigation surrounding this. Is this hype or super phone? Neither one. The battery issue definitely does not qualify it as a super phone. Apple has said very little so there really is no hype involved. Perhaps we should just categorize this as buyer beware. 
  
What about that touch screen? This is where you see the Apple iPhone hyped to the max. Is this super phone or hype? The touch screen is super sensitive. If your phone hits up against something in your pocketbook, or knocks into something while you are getting in and out of your car, you can end up calling people or having your iPhone do something weird. The touch screen does allow you to easily manipulate the iPhone. Overall, the touch screen ranks it as super phone not hype. Just be careful with it.

Next there is internet access. All of the commercials for the Apple iPhone show it as a super phone when it comes to internet access. You can use any WiFi to contact friends on Facebook or watch content on YouTube. Well, the browser needs better search capabilities. This is one area where the iPhone is lacking. Another is that the iPhone's browser does not store password. This was most likely a security feature that Apple built in. Personally, you are better off it does not store your passwords. In general WiFi networks are not secure, and you do not want your banking access information readily available to the public. Is this super phone or hyper. I will give them super phone on this one although it is not any different than any other smart phone out there.

The Apple iPhone, super phone or hype? It is looking like it comes out as a super phone. Especially if you want the music and internet capabilities.