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I remember starting college and thinking how I’m going to be the next marketing guru at Nike, Cleveland Browns, or have the next big commercial at the Super Bowl. Problem is, I thought like most of my classmates that a Marketing degree is what I needed. Here’s a wake-up call: Marketing is not the same as advertising!
Definitions
I didn’t find this out until 3 years into college and was recently reminded of it when speaking with our Marketing department. If you’re still in college and reading this, please be aware of the difference between the two subjects. One thing I need to make clear is that you CAN be in advertising with a marketing discipline. However, the landscape is much different than you may think, and skills are developed very specifically for each. Lets look at the definitions:
Advertising: The paid, public, non-personal announcement of a persuasive message by an identified sponsor; the non-personal presentation or promotion by a firm of its products to its existing and potential customers.
Marketing: The systematic planning, implementation and control of a mix of business activities intended to bring together buyers and sellers for the mutually advantageous exchange or transfer of products.
Different functions
If you look at most colleges you will notice if there is an advertising degree, it’s typically not in the college of business, rather an arts degree. In speaking with an advertising agency I work with, the owner explained that a graphic arts background is the norm for advertising employees. Everyone wants to make the next Nike Swoosh, McDonald’s Arches and become a brand legend. Advertising teaches people how to create ad campaigns, use computer software to create characters, music for ads and so on and so forth.
Marketing is about the broad overview of how a company should go after market share with their product or service. Marketing does the research to know what the public wants, to find what type of customer is best for their product and how advertising should be used. I have a Marketing degree and I can tell you first hand that I never learned how to create something for a company to advertise. I learned how consumers think, how businesses approach marketing, and how to create a plan to bring the product to market.
Further reading and thought
- Check out this article to see what others think about the subject
- Gradschools.com wrote this about the subject, and it’s great
- If you’re in Marketing right now as a discipline, talk to your professors and see if it’s the best program for you
- Talk to professionals who have been in the different disciplines
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Ethan Oblonsky is a successful account executive for a Fortune 500 IT company and has been providing resume writing services and interview consulting for the past 3 years to a wide-range of clients.
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