Difference Between Advertising and Promotion

Advertising and promotion are two marketing tools and they are both used in the modern marketing. At first sight it is  very hard to see the exact difference between advertising and promotion. Both advertising and promotion use the same techniques and the gained results are basically the same.

However, there are a few things that highlight the difference between advertising and promotion. These differences are the following :

• amount of time spent ( advertising need more time for results, while promotions have instant effects )
• impact on overall sales ( advertising can produce greater profits, promotion lower profits )
• overall costs
• general purpose
• company type

The advertising techniques are often used by middle level and large level companies. The goals of these companies are the strengthening of their brand and the building of long term sales. The most popular types of advertising are the television and radio adverts, national or local press advertisements ,large billboards and posters.

The main power of advertising is creating strong brands and making long term sales. Beside the long term sales advertising also helps to improve short term and middle term sales too. Building and the strengthening of the consumer loyalty is the ultimate goal of advertising.

After starting an advertising campaign we must wait a longer period of time before we can see any substantial results. This time period can be from months to even years. Because of this time frame and the high initial costs, advertising is suitable for large companies and corporations only.

On contrary to advertising, promotion is more focused towards the short term results. Although promotion is also participating in the process of brand building this is not its goal. The only major goal of the promotion is to build the sales in the short time period. The most popular ways of promotion are the discount coupons in the local press, two for one special promotions, free product samples and other special events held in stores.

The creation of promotions is very easy and they can result in very good short term gains. The cost of the promotion is significantly lower than advertising and because of this fact promotions are more suitable for small companies. The cost efficiency and the required time frame do not exclude medium companies or large companies to organize promotions. On the contrary, medium and large corporations also set up promotions, the everyday example is the daily or weekly product promotions in large national store chains.

Of course, there is a number of similarities in advertising and promotions. These two marketing tools are sometimes support each other and it is not rare that advertising campaigns use promotions too. During advertising campaigns, promotions are used to make the overall success of the campaign more greater.

Books related to advertising and promotion.

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