Marketing Advertising Strategy –The Difference for Profitable Success

In developing marketing advertising strategy, “Marketing and Advertising” are not only used interchangeably but are often thought to be inseparable. Those inside either industry know otherwise. Both marketing and advertising have very distinct and important roles to play in profitably building a business. MarketingWise Group knows that the difference between marketing and advertising responsibilities is absolutely critical to establishing accountability and successful advertising. 

Different people have different definitions for marketing advertising strategy. Wikipedia nicely defines advertising as: “Advertising is a form of communication that typically attempts to persuade potential customers to purchase or to consume more of a particular brand of product or service. Many advertisements are designed to generate increased consumption of those products and services through the creation and reinforcement of "brand image" and "brand loyalty".



Unfortunately Wikipedia defines marketing rather vaguely as: In popular usage, “Marketing is the promotion of products, especially advertising and branding. However, in professional usage the term has a wider meaning of the practice and science of trading. The American Marketing Association (AMA) states, "Marketing is an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders."

At MarketingWise Group we think marketing advertising strategy is simply “The careful analysis of consumer needs leading to a clear set of objectives and strategies that will improve profitability.”

Combined marketing and advertising are therefore: the consumer understanding, marketing strategies, and communications that lead to enhanced profitability.

Why distinguish between marketing and advertising? Quite simply, to build a business profitably marketing (not the advertising agency) needs to clearly understand what the consumer wants, what will profitably meet that need, ....and then work through their agency to communicate with the consumer. Clarity of “what” to communicate is a marketing planning responsibility (not an ad agency responsibility). Knowing “how” to communicate belongs exclusively to the agency However, knowing if the message is effective is a joint marketing and advertising responsibility.

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Your ad agency should be held accountable for meeting three very basic advertising objectives: 1) creating a message that is memorable, 2) one that is motivating, and 3) one that breaks through the clutter. Quantitative research is used jointly by marketing and advertising to measure a proposed creative message against each objective.

When marketing and advertising responsibilities overlap or are unclear the results are often disastrous. “Sales are down… we need better advertising or a new agency”. Sadly the problem may not even be the advertising or if it is it may be a muddy direction from the marketer in not even knowing what to advertise.

In looking at your marketing advertising strategy needs, MarketingWise Group starts by helping you gather critical facts and establishing a clear positioning for your brand. We’ll help you write your agency briefing paper. That paper allows marketing advertising strategy to jointly work toward a common goal of creating really great advertising.

As a marketing and advertising consultant, our senior consultants have worked closely with five ad agencies on three continents: DDB - NY, Ogilvy & Mather – NY, J. Walter Thompson-Tokyo, Leo Burnett-Tokyo, and Bates-London to create highly memorable and motivating advertising. Under our direct leadership, two campaigns became the highest rated campaigns ever run in their respective industries.

For all your marketing and advertising needs, please give us a call or send us an e-mail at info@marketingwisegroup.biz. We are here to help!

MarketingWise Group is a specialized service category of AdWise Group.

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