Advertising

What exactly is advertising?

In its simplest terms, Advertising:
1. Identifies a current problem / opportunity for the product, service or corporate brand
2. Identifies the customers who can best solve / create that problem / opportunity
3. Creates the most relevant and distinctive way of communicating to them in creative & media terms
Traditional views of advertising included:

“Advertising is any paid-for communication overtly intended to inform and/or influence one or more people.”
Jeremy Bullmore, Director, WPP

“Advertising says to people, 'Here's what we've got. Here's what it will do for you. Here's how to get it.”
Leo Burnett

“I do not regard advertising as entertainment or an art form, but as a medium of information.”
David Ogilvy

Increasingly, though, definitions of advertising have had to take on board new communications opportunities.  The explosion of media channel opportunities, and digital and web 2.0 technology in particular, have made the advertising environment much more complex.
Different media channels and different communications opportunities require different approaches.
Now agencies use a variety of different models of communication:
- persuasion
- engagement
- participation
- facilitation
- conversation

Marketing

what is marketing?

What is marketing?

There are many different definitions of marketing. Consider some of the following alternative definitions:

“The all-embracing function that links the business with customer needs and wants in order to get the right product to the right place at the right time”

“The achievement of corporate goals through meeting and exceeding customer needs better than the competition”

“The management process that identifies, anticipates and supplies customer requirements efficiently and profitably”

“Marketing may be defined as a set of human activities directed at facilitating and consummating exchanges”

Which definition is right? In short, they all are. They all try to embody the essence of marketing:
• Marketing is about meeting the needs and wants of customers;
• Marketing is a business-wide function – it is not something that operates alone from other business activities;
• Marketing is about understanding customers and finding ways to provide products or services which customers demand
To help put things into context, you may find it helpful to often refer to the following diagram which summarises the key elements of marketing and their relationships: