Difference Between Advertising and Promotion | Difference Between

Difference Between Advertising and Promotion | Difference Between

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.