Week 4 EOC: Advertising vs. Marketing

“Though advertising cannot change consumers’ deeply rooted values and attitudes, advertising may succeed in transforming a person’s negative attitude toward a product into a positive one.” (MKTG, Lamb, pg. 228)

Anyone who has seen Mad Men knows that Don Draper can be very persuasive. He targets feelings, emotions, and tugs at the inner workings of your psyche. He does this for one purpose: to sell something. For the ad executives on Madison Avenue, advertising is an outlook, it’s how something can be manipulated. For those in marketing, advertising can sometimes be a dirty word. In other instances, it can be viewed as the most important aspect, but without a solid marketing plan, the product will not be successful.

The true difference between advertising and marketing is that marketers focus more on the needs of the consumer. Advertising seeks to create awareness and persuade potential customers. In the instance of the Mad Men episode, Draper and the heads of Lucky Strike Tobacco Company have no regard for their customer’s health. They are only interested in changing the public attitude from a negative to a positive. In this case, from “dangerous” to “toasted.” This was also true of the Makin account. Sterling Cooper and Don Draper were only interested in the money associated with the account, not necessarily in meeting the customer’s needs. These ideals can lend themselves more towards advertising.

Taking a step back and analyzing, we can see that advertising is a huge part of the “marketing pie.” Without advertising, marketing will not be able to run smoothly and vice versa. It is the way that advertising is carried out (for the benefit of the customer or not) that can determine how well a company is performing in the marketing arena. A brand following will come from satisfied consumers. These consumers will be satisfied through quality products and customer service.