Introduction
Advertising and promotion include how marketing impacts a person to decide what to buy. Both drive customers' attention towards a brand and try to create an image in the minds of people. This can be very promising these days since the fact that most people use and are active in different media. Other than the profit margins it can create, it also supports newspapers, artists, journals and provides a source of income. It also ensures competition between companies that can ensure much lower and fair prices and advancements in the design and production of industrial research.
Advertisements vs. Promotions
Advertising is a monologue that provides customers with the latest updates on prices, reductions, and services available. However, this may or may not effectively reach every customer. On the other hand, promotions directly affect sales and prove to be more effective in time. It includes more dynamic participation between seller and customers involves more interactions and aids in building trust and hopes in their product.
Difference Between Advertising and Promotions in Tabular Form
Advertising involves giving details about a company's commodity, product, or services in newspaper columns or television. Whereas promotion involves mediators who ensure the reach and familiarize every customer with all its appealing features personally.
| Parameters of Comparison | Advertising | Promotions |
| Employment | Creates less employment. | A large team is trained for this reason. |
| Impact on sales | Slow, and indirect impact on sales and profit margins. | Rapid, and direct effect on every sale. |
| Interaction type | Interaction with customers is of an emotional appeal. It involves video content, posters, and templates. | Has a promotional strategy. It involves direct face-to-face communication through mediators. |
| Product quality | Can be deceptive, and lead to unnecessary consumption. | Better quality as it proceeds through a lot of discussions and negotiations between the seller, and clients. |
| Choices offered | Offers wide range of comparative prices and collections. | Might be limited in collection or choices are given. |
| Costs | Huge costs added to normal production costs. | Comparatively, more cost-efficient. |
| Familiarizing of product | By digital or media content usually, monologue. | Includes conducting events, providing sponsorships, celebrity promotions, etc. |
| Opted by | More established companies to maintain a constant demand | Small or newly established companies to introduce and familiarize with their products. |
| Modes of communication | Mainly creative, influencing visually appealing, or graphic content | Include closer, skillful interaction of salesman and both verbal and non-verbal modes of communication. |
| Medium used | Newspaper, Journal, Magazine, TV, Radio, Mobile SMS | Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and other movie sites. |
What is Advertisement?
Advertising is a monologue that provides customers with the latest updates on prices, reductions, and services available.
Often directed to a large number of people, uses mass media to inform, influence, and persuade the behavior of target selective viewers. Advertising helps you to target the specific age or customer groups as we know the viewer’s list that has subscriptions to Magazines, Journals, etc.
This may or may not effectively reach every customer despite just the attention.
However, this can lead to repeated exposure to their Ads and target clients, especially children. They catch the visual information much faster and are easily influenced to buy a product that appears appealing to them. If a product is well known for its brand, it becomes much easier for the salesperson to make a sale. Also decreases the effort required for it. The Seasonal fluctuation in demands is smoothened by advertisements. For example, the introduction of cold coffee and iced teas increased their sales even during the summer.
There are several types of media through which Advertisements reach the clients.
This can be:
1. Print Media- consist of a Newspaper column, magazines, journals, articles that are based on a personal subscription, and posters and catalogs that are displayed in the large size flex in the public.
2. Digital media- involves the provision of Ads using both online and offline modes which includes SMS, Radio, Television Ads, etc.
3. Social media- include usage limited within the online mode and usually consists of familiar apps like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and many others. Promotion mainly uses this type of media to promote a brand. This is the most commonly used medium in the present day.
What is Promotion?
Promotion includes a chosen celebrity/salesperson/any trained marketing personnel who presents a product describing its best features and uses. Celebrities or trending figures often promote products that they show themselves using and discuss why it's better compared to other similar products.
This has a greater local reach as most of them spend their time watching posts and reels. This is usually done as a paid collaboration, in which the promoter also receives a sample hamper of products to showcase.
It is much easier for the elderly, disabled, or others who remain most of the time at home to purchase with promotional sales that occur to homes. However, the choices offered are less compared to the outlets.
Methods of Promotion
Social media
This is the most commonly used form of medium of promotion, especially these days. In these apps, trending personalities, Celebrities, famous persons with maximum followers are chosen for the promotion. Most promotions are made after personal use and personal recommendations can be more persuasive when it especially comes from your role models or the person you follow.
Sponsorship
Involves financing sports team including all cost of jerseys, flights, food, and accommodation costs. This can also benefit the company if the team wins a match and also gain fame. These companies or brands will be promoted by the famous team players mostly as video content shared on TV or social media.
Events
Most companies conduct seasonal promotion offers that anticipate large customer flow and improve relations, belief, and trust in the brand. Most customers create an impression about a product after the first use and if the company can provide a good impression and the buyer feels is beneficial for him, this increases the probability for a repeated buy the next time too.
Main Differences between Advertisement and Promotion in Points
1. Method used
Promotion is a more dynamic method of familiarizing a product or service and can usually include the provision of free coupons, taking team sponsorship, holding contests, Celebrity endorsements, catalogues, etc.
Traditional Advertising includes the use of print formats including the newspaper, periodical, journal. Other used modes of media include Radio, Television media also called digital media.
However, advertising can't endure that your message about a product reaches each of your customers.
You have control over the graphics in the medium that you choose that you can use to make already available in the market.
2. Opted by:
Advertising is often chosen by large companies to create a public image about an object and stand out compared to the other products available on market. Whereas small firms or companies often prefer to start with small promotions that can build public relations and familiarize their new product into the market to have an increase in their sales.
3. Expenditure
Both can be costly depending on what medium they choose to advertise or promote. Companies only have to pay much lesser and can afford more promoters compared to very popular celebrities who are paid hefty sums as they arrive for shoots from their busy schedules.
However, promotion being more dynamic is a more recommended and preferred option and has its immediate effect on sales.
4. Impact on Customers
Promotions always tend to spread interest and awareness about a brand despite only attention being focused on advertising.
Instead, Advertisements last longer in people's minds probably because of the impact created by the music, characters, storyline presented in an Ad. This also demands a creative team behind it which decides the impact on customers. It includes both verbal and visual impacts created on the viewers.
Despite the reductions they often seem to be given, always a better negotiation can be received when buying it personally.
5. Quality of product
Advertisers usually present false claims, and benefits to make the product appealing to the clients and thereby resulting in decreased quality of the product. Also, there is a high possibility that celebrities who appear in advertisements might know only the details that are implicated by the company itself.
Also, Advertising may show just the positive sides of a product, and may not present the possible defects or errors in the product. Advertisements also, do not assure the clients of all claims that the company makes while exhibiting a product.
Comparatively, when a person uses it and promotes it, we can hear both sides and understand exactly, where the product stands in comparison with others in the market. Also, discusses if it is necessary or safe for long-term consumption.
On the other side, People are more influenced by seeing promoters use these products. The appealing nature of interaction with the buyers can increase the chance of possible sales.
Also, a better outcome in using such products can be hoped for as people do not blindly accept a paid collaboration, rather they use it themselves and give accurate feedback as they keep in mind that, this might affect the fame and followers later.
6. Efficiency
Advertising can be money-saving excluding the payments made to characters and the creative team working behind it. This method saves both time and labor resources.
On the other hand, proper labor resources, training, and good sum money should be ensured for each promoter for better participation of promoters for the business or company. As it involves direct communication between the buyer, and seller it directly increases the possibility of a sale happening and is considered more efficient.
7. Employment
People usually smart, creative, influencing, and who can do skillful negotiation are chosen as promoters. Proper selection of candidates and promoters can boost sales enormously. Persuasive verbal skills persuade buyers to take a product despite the uses or necessity of a product. But this requires proper training of the salesman to prove efficient.
The promoter also must be clear about his product details, uses and must be ready to answer all queries asked by the customer. They must be skillful in negotiating and appealing the products in a way that is pleasing and beneficial for the customer.
8. Participation
Advertising involves less or no staff at all. It is usually a still exhibit of the product, promotions, and offers.
Whereas, Promotions involve greater participation of buyers, sellers, and mediating salespeople into events, contests, sponsorships. This can be more engaging and influencing compared to monologue advertising.
Conclusion
Advertising and promotions ease the process of selling in markets. It attracts and creates a steady demand for products in the market. With each product sold under the name of a brand that has a unique identity in the community, this demands the products to be of improved quality and better compared to the others. However, despite the large sum invested, Advertising and Promotions may not necessarily yield immediate results hence limiting their use.
Advertising and promotions have their benefits and cons presented in this article. Surely, these methods can be a boost to the marketing and sales industry in widening their supplies, possibilities, and production. At the same time, it can cause unwanted comparison and low satisfaction in one's lifestyle and thereby decreasing the moral value of advertising and promotions.
Most of the advertisements present characters and a storyline that is always appealing with their looks, and living conditions. But this may not always be the case when it comes to real life. We must also accept the diversity in people by their looks, capabilities and not judge them. These methods have also changed the basis of human motivation from living with just the necessities for life to working harder to leave a luxurious life
Huge employment has been created by the marketing and sales department. This leads to an overall increase in the employment of a community. Another advantage is that these jobs can also be done part-time and hence is suitable even for students and teenagers as a source of pocket money.
References
- https://hbr.org/1990/05/getting-the-most-out-of-advertising-and-promotion
- https://smallbusiness.chron.com/difference-between-advertising-promotion-52856.html
