Difference Between Advertising, Marketing & Brand Management

There has been a lot of head-scratching over the years between advertising, marketing, and branding. But, the marketers are to be blamed partly. If you search online, you’ll find no shortages of blogs and articles explaining the difference between these terms. 

In fact, “difference between advertising, marketing, and brand management” brings up over 51,50,00,000 results alone. Over 50 crore search results! And that doesn’t even include service queries on marketing. 

So, let’s break the habit, and try to take a different approach to make sense of it all.

Marketing is How You See Yourself

Marketing is a confusing term because of its broad nature and because it covers a variety of disciplines. Market research, product development, pricing, website, print media, social media, SEO, publicity, event planning, blogging, public relations, community outreach, etc., etc. – these are all subsets of the marketing umbrella. 

As are branding and advertising – hence all the confusion. 

While these fall under the marketing umbrella, these are different disciplines that require different skill sets. And, these skill sets can be achieved by pursuing brand management & marketing online certification.

Basically, marketing is the process through which a business gets and keeps customers. And it all comes down to:-

• Understanding the customer – who they are and what is it that they want/need
• Developing products and services to appeal them
• Providing those products and services in a way that will resonate with them
• Communicating and promoting those products and services to them.

Advertising is How You Act in Public

People tend to use advertising and marketing interchangeably. Advertising is NOT the same as marketing. In the simplest terms, advertising is creating an ad and paying a third party to run that ad on their platform. 

One of the key reasons for this confusion is that advertising used to be a much broader term. Say, if you want to promote a product or service through Google Ads, you need to pay Google to run that ad. And once upon a time, that someplace used to be TV, print media, radio, direct mail, etc.  With the change in environment, the role of advertising also transformed. This can be understood in great detail by pursuing brand management & marketing online certification.

Branding is How Others See You

• Who are you?
• Who do you serve?
• How are you different?
• What problem does your product solve for the customers?

These are the fundamental questions you need to ask while branding. Branding is the internal work that is the base for every marketing effort you put in. It all starts with the business. So, before you can determine what the company serves and what problem they solve, and before you can help them build a foundation for the brand, you have to understand what the business is about, what’s their story.

To Sum it Up!

Branding is for a business. Marketing is for the customers, and advertising is for someone else. 

For expert guidance and to build a career in this domain, consider pursuing marketing and brand management online programs from MICA. Offered on the Talentedge platform, these marketing and brand management online programs from MICA can provide you with a sound understanding of all three concepts and how to leverage them to promote a brand or business.