As technology continues to evolve and grow in importance, modern businesses employ diverse marketing and advertising strategies to reach potential customers and close sales. Stretching from traditional media to digital marketing online and in social media, marketing and advertising seem to be everywhere. Part of this reality is due to the effectiveness of marketing and advertising strategies in driving success for companies of every shape and size.
While sometimes used interchangeably, there are actually many differences between marketing and advertising. In basic terms, marketing is the process of identifying customer needs and determining how best to meet those needs. In contrast, advertising is the exercise of promoting a company and its products or services through paid channels. In other words, advertising is a component of marketing. But the differences do not end there.
What Is Marketing and Why Is It Important?
Marketing is a business practice that involves identifying, predicting and meeting customer needs. Effective marketing strategies help businesses isolate how best to serve their client base, while maximizing revenue at the same time. In business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing, marketing efforts are directed toward consumers. In business-to-business (B2B) marketing, marketing efforts are directed toward other businesses.
In both B2C and B2B efforts, there are several important factors to consider when developing a marketing strategy. More specifically, savvy marketers will evaluate:
Orientation — Marketing orientation refers to the guiding principles of the business itself, often referred to as business philosophy or corporate culture. Typically, organizations will decide to orient around product, sales, production or marketing.
Mix — The marketing mix functions as a decision-making guide for a company’s marketing efforts. A modern marketing mix will usually focus on the four Cs: client/customer, cost, convenience and communication.
Environment — The marketing environment refers to every factor that could impact a company in the execution of marketing strategy or decision-making. In this vein, companies should consider the internal environment within their organization. External factors—such as macro and micro environments—are also important to consider.
Market — The target market refers to the characteristics of a company’s ideal client case. Research and segmentation efforts can help isolate the geographic and demographic factors that will help a company market and sell its products or services.
After a careful evaluation of the orientation, mix, environment and market, it is possible to assess the costs and benefits of various marketing methods and strategies. This part of the planning process is vitally important, as there are many different ways a business can engage in marketing efforts.
What Are Several Common Types of Marketing?
Traditionally, marketing efforts relied upon four different channels to connect with customers: print, mail, TV and telephone. Businesses could engage any or all of these four channels to deliver corporate messaging and enhance branding efforts. Throughout the 20th century, the dominant marketing approach revolved around print and broadcast media combined with effective messaging and advertising.
As the world turned to the 21st century, however, marketing strategies have evolved to account for the rise of the internet and e-commerce. With the transition to life and commerce online, digital marketing transformed the way business communication works with their clients. New messaging platforms, such as social media, enable a two-way communication between business and client. From a marketing standpoint, specifically, modern technology has made it much easier to gather information on customer behaviors, needs, wants, etc.
Today, several common types of marketing include:
Digital Marketing — Digital marketing refers to application of marketing strategies to electronic communication devices, such as computers or smartphones. Digital marketing strategies often leverage search engines, email, websites, blogs and other techniques to reach customers.
Social Media Marketing — A subset of digital marketing, social media marketing uses social platforms such as Facebook or Twitter to reach potential clients. This style of marketing allows companies to take advantage of earned media from individuals outside of their organization. An evolving part of social media marketing is influencer marketing, where popular users are compensated for promoting a company’s products or services.
Global Marketing — Between globalization and the internet, some of the world’s largest companies have developed global brands. Accordingly, global marketing enables these companies to employ a unified strategy to reach customers at the local, regional, national and international levels at the same time.
Relationship Marketing — Relationship marketing eschews invasive strategies such as commercials or ads and relies on customer happiness instead. Relying on strategies that help retain and satisfy customers, relationship marketing strives to establish a long-time and loyal client base.
Brand Management — Brand management attempts to create a bond between customer and a particular company’s brand. To do so, it is necessary to evaluate a company’s products or services as well as logo, design, packaging and other elements. Brand management also assesses aspects of the target market, direct competition and existing customer relationships.
Product Development — Product development is the process of transforming a business opportunity into a sellable product or service. Development can occur with existing products or new products. Successful product development involves many marketing concepts, including identification of client needs as well as market research and analysis.
Even though it is not yet as common as the methods above, it is important to mention societal marketing in this conversation. Also referred to as sustainable or green marketing, societal marketing goes beyond the traditional boundaries of identifying, predicting and meeting customer needs.
Societal marketing incorporates the greater needs of society and the world into a company’s culture, brand and operations. To track and measure progress, triple bottom line reporting is common for societally focused businesses. These include social and environmental impact alongside financial performance.