Advertising Versus Marketing – What’s the Difference?

Many people use the terms advertising and marketing interchangeably, however, these two terms are not the same, but are a part of each other.

By definition, advertising is “the activity or profession of producing advertisements” which are then used commercially for products and/or services. One example of advertising would be to place an created ad into a newspaper or on television. Advertising is an eye catcher and indirect seller.

On the other hand, marketing, by definition, is the business or action of actually promoting and selling products/services. These actions include but aren’t limited to creating and delivering valuable items to patrons. One example of this would be pitching to a targeted audience a product and maintaining that audience. Marketing is more targeted with audience follow up and retention.

Therefore, the act of advertising is a part of marketing and marketing is a support to advertising.

Are both necessary? YES.

Many business owners spend thousands on advertising, however, without the follow up of marketing and targeting an audience with a great delivery or explanation of services, they lose. It is very important to implement both and understand that one isn’t the same as the other but they need each other to reach patrons and succeed in business.

Using the example of African American female business owner Rose Meta Morgan and how she grew her beauty business in the 1900s shows how she utilized advertising in the newspapers and followed up with marketing at events she and other business owners put on, resulting in retention of customers.

Learn more on Rose Meta Morgan here.

Therefore, once one takes a look at the most successful businesses in Black Entrepreneur History, it can be noted that Marketing and Advertising need to be implemented well in order to grow a thriving Black business.