Before you study master’s in advertising, it is important to understand the importance of advertising. And, before understanding the importance of advertising in marketing, let’s understand what is marketing and advertising; and how are they different?
Marketing
Marketing constitutes understanding the market, identifying the current or potential needs, designing the appropriate product or service, communicating your product or service with the right audience using the right media mix, creating public relations, determining to price, selling the product or service using the appropriate distribution network and managing the post-purchase customer satisfaction via right after-sale services. Thus the major aspects of marketing are:
- Product
- Price
- Promotion
- Place
- People
- Process
Advertising
Advertising is the part of marketing that involves seeking the attention of the right target audience towards that particular product or service using appropriate media vehicles. The major aspect of Advertising is promotion.
The main intent of Marketing is sales by acquiring customers and thus driving revenues. However, the main intent of advertising is creating awareness about the product or service using various media vehicles – television, internet, radio, print, etc.
Advertising is a fundamental pillar of the marketing industry & is a relevant and incredibly important discipline. Following are the reasons to study advertising while studying masters in marketing:
Creating Needs
Marketing is all about identifying customer’s needs, while advertising is all about creating those needs. Through premium eye-catching advertising communication, companies create a want where there is none.
Creating Brand Evangelist (loyalty)
Marketing is all about understanding the market and the consumers present in that market besides acquiring & retaining them. Advertising is all about knowing the customer and accordingly designing the communication. It involves developing a favorable image of the company and its products to not only attract more fan base but also retain existing customers. Brand image hence created helps people identify and jump on board with you. They swear by the brand, thus sparking brand evangelism.
Creating Footfalls
Advertising facilitates awareness about the product and/or service, thus getting footfalls into the company showroom, while marketing deals with converting those footfalls into sales.
Positioning to justify pricing
Marketing is about the pricing of the product while advertising makes that price point relevant by not only creating premium product positioning but also by creating a need for that product.
Better ROI
Marketing is about driving revenues. Advertising is the most expensive part of the marketing mix. And by constantly monitoring its efficacy, and choosing the right communication elements, using the right combination of offline and online channel mix, advertising ensures a strong brand-consumer relationship, better results at controlled costs, and effective outcomes. Thus a better return on investment can be maintained.
Creating Product differentiations
To compete, marketing ensures the launch of me-too products with no difference except in the name. Advertising ensures a distinct image of the product thus inducing product differentiation.
New Mediums
Digital/online advertising is an upcoming field where the cost of customer acquisition is relatively lower than traditional media vehicles. Besides the increased time spent online & positive traction with today’s youth, this medium offers unparalleled Flexibility and versatility in reaching the target audience. Thus Digital advertising has become a powerful weapon in today’s marketing arsenal.
Further, in the current competitive scenario, advertising as a discipline in itself offers huge potential. The study of advertising will not only impart you with valuable skills but also with opportunities that ensure career benefits while skipping marketing opportunities as a whole.
