Is Marketing and Advertising the Same Thing?

Advertising is one of the most important components of a marketing strategy and also the most expensive. Advertising constitutes sending the message to the public about your company, product or services. It also constitutes ‘behind the scenes' work, like the process of involving a formation of various strategies and coming up with a right one to target the viewers. This strategizing consists of planning things like placing ads, deciding what media outlet to use, what time, frequency etc. The advertisements are generally placed via mediums like television, snail mail, newspapers, internet, emails, radio, magazines, mobile messaging, flyers, billboards etc. The most popular is of course television, although advertising on internet is becoming increasingly popular too. The easiest way to differentiate advertising from marketing is to consider marketing as if it were a whole cake. If you cut the cake in pieces, advertising would be one of the pieces of that cake. The other pieces of that cake are market research of the product, product designing, media planning, PR, product pricing, customer satisfaction, customer support, sales and many more. All these components or pieces of cake should work independently but collectively in achieving the bigger goal i.e. sell product and build the company's reputation in the marketplace. Marketing is a marathon process involving many tasks that involve hours, sometimes days of research. The research part of marketing takes the longest time to complete, as it involves thoroughly understanding the behavior of people towards a product. Designing the product and developing advertising strategy is also a time consuming process. The only components that take less time are executing the advertisements and sales. Marketing can also be perceived as a medium between consumers and the company. Many companies often make the mistake of confusing advertising with marketing. They try to appear to be as big as companies like Coke and Pepsi in advertising but they simply ignore the work that goes behind that. A classical example of this is to take a look at the company logo. Many business owners are so hysterical about the logo of their company in their advertisements that they think that it will simply bring in huge sales. But what makes a logo work is none other than the reputation of the company. The logo must have a feeling attached to it and should truly reflect the company's values. We should also remember that some companies spend fortunes on advertising, which a new start up business just can't normally do. Rather than spending unnecessary money on branding your product, one should invest money and time in communicating to the consumers to address the expectations. After building up a reputation and growing a company, you can begin to think up these lavish ideas. Educating the consumers also helps, as it will give them an understanding that you know what your doing and you are the best at what you are doing. Smart marketers are aggressive in approach rather than passive. They provoke reader's minds by prompting them to do something, rather than just making them knowledgeable of the product. Smart marketers also bring home the names, addresses and contact numbers of people who are really interested in hiring your company by employing aggressive marketing. Thus, having a good marketing campaign speaks a lot about a company and their products. Advertising gives that finishing touch to the hard work completed by marketers successfully selling a product.

Affordable and Effective Promotional Products

Promotional products do not have to be expensive in order to be effective. There are many different types of affordable items available which are ideal for companies wishing to convey their message to a wide audience on a limited budget.

Low cost promotional products are frequently used as giveaways at events, such as trade shows, conferences, sporting events or fundraising events, where they can be handed out in large numbers to promote a company and to raise brand awareness.

Examples include pens, pencils, keyrings, mugs, coasters, badges, bookmarks, lanyards, confectionery, umbrellas and stress relief balls.

Pens are one of the best-selling promotional products, with a range of styles starting at under £1 each. Another highly effective yet affordable promotional product is the mug, which is available in a wide choice of styles, colours and materials even at the lower end of the price spectrum. Umbrellas are widely recognised as one of the most popular promotional products - appreciated for their practicality - with unit prices starting below £5.

All of these can be easily personalised by overprinting with a company name, logo or campaign slogan. Even when sourcing budget promotional products it is important to remember, however, that low unit costs should not mean a compromise on product quality.

Most people enjoy receiving something for free, especially if it is fun or useful. Inexpensive promotional products do not necessarily have to be boring as there is an extensive range of attention-grabbing items available to choose from. In fact, the least expensive marketing promotions are sometimes the most effective.