MARKETING & COMMunicationS: WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE?
Marketing and communications get mixed up and put in the same bag. Let’s take a moment to understand the differences.
The misconception I see the most often is this false equation: Marketing = advertising. This is not the case. Marketing is sooo much more than that! In fact, advertising is one of the weakest marketing tools. The American Marketing Association defines the field as follows:
“Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.“
Note the broadness of the definition. If you buy a ginger ale in the supermarket, then the marketing department of Schweppes was not just behind the ad that you’ve been exposed to prior but also provided input on the ale’s name, the color of the label, the design of the bottle, the price, the in-store presentation, and more.
What is missing in the market? What issues are customers facing? What products are we able to offer that could solve them? What kind of properties do the products need to have, and which customer groups should we serve? How, where, and when should we sell? How much demand is expected? The marketing department plays a key role in developing answers to these questions.
Marketing managers can have completely different backgrounds and skill sets. There may be the creative type with a liberal arts degree, who is skilled in video, social, and design, the business type with an MBA, who understands strategic decision-making, entrepreneurship, and behavioral psychology, and the intelligence type, who is an expert in quantitative methods, market modeling, and all things digital.
It is every hiring manager’s dream to find a person who covers the full range. But, unless they are superhuman, no one employee could handle all that. Because marketing is so broad, a marketing manager often takes on the role of an intermediary and facilitator. They coordinate between company leadership, finance, sales, engineering, product management, communications, or legal, and (external or internal) experts in customer research, video, design, photography, copywriting, web and IT, distribution, etc.
To have an intermediary is important. The marketing manager represents the interests of customers and ensures their satisfaction. Engineering might want to build the most advanced model ever, whereas customers would prefer simplicity, sales may aim to sell more this quarter than ever before, while customers value quality and sustainability. A CEO under pressure might favor following the competitor’s playbook to stay on the safe side, while there is a huge gap in the market for something bold and new, a young and motivated ad agency creative may develop an ad that is an artistic masterpiece but does not generate brand recognition, talks over customer’s heads and fails to connect with them. There are many more examples, but you get the point.
How is communications different from marketing?
Julie Pierson-Fields of Absolute Holdings Group recommends “thinking of marketing and communications as two ends of the small business marketing continuum with marketing as the starting point. Every attempt at getting your brand known starts here and it determines what a communications campaign will look like.” Marketing brings your brand, products, and services to life and advertises them to relevant people. Communications, then, accompanies the user journey and initiates a conversation with clients that aims to keep your brand in their minds.
The field of communications can be separated into three categories of activities. The first one is public relations. All channels for communicating with (potential) customers fall under this realm. Think social media, newsletters, blogs, podcasts, media relations, reputation management, crisis communication, etc. The role of the PR manager is often mistakenly equated with that of the press officer but public relations is much broader than just press work.
Internal communications (e.g., through magazines for employees, memos, change management, culture development, town halls & events) is an important activity in large organisations. Often though, smaller companies can also benefit from well-crafted internal communications, such as meaningful on-boardings, consistent presentation templates, or engaging development trainings.
Corporate communications is the third and final major activity and is targeted at external stakeholders other than customers. These include, for example, the municipality & local community, policymakers, business partners, suppliers & vendors, labor unions, the employee market, investors, banks and creditors, and even competitors.
Advertising lies somewhere in the middle between marketing and communications. While technically a marketing activity, the communications department usually is involved, for example when it comes to copywriting, design, or video production.
Of course, there are similarities and overlaps between marketing and communications. It is possible and common for one person to take on both roles, especially in smaller projects. But marketing isn’t advertising and communications isn’t marketing. Mapping the differences will come in handy on your navigation of the marketing maze, for example during a hiring process.