A recent discussion about the difference between advertising and marketing on the Chief Marketing Officer’s Exclusive group on Xing, made me search for various definitions of marketing and advertising.

The real discussion was about the difference between advertising and marketing. Something which might not be clear to many business people, let alone marketing people.

The difference between advertising and marketing - short version
Laura Lake wrote on About.com

“The best way to distinguish between advertising and marketing is to think of marketing as a pie, inside that pie you have slices of advertising, market research, media planning, public relations, product pricing, distribution, customer support, sales strategy, and community involvement. Advertising only equals one piece of the pie in the strategy. All of these elements must not only work independently but they also must work together towards the bigger goal. Marketing is a process that takes time and can involve hours of research for a marketing plan to be effective. Think of marketing as everything that an organization does to facilitate an exchange between company and consumer.”

Definitions of marketing from various sources

From AMA - The American Marketing Assocation the definition of marketing approved by the American Marketing Association Board of Directors is;

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. (Approved October 2007)

and the 2008 version of same

“Marketing is an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders.

From Know.com - author unknown:

Marketing consists of the strategies and tactics used to identify, create and maintain satisfying relationships with customers that result in value for both the customer and the marketer.

The Chartered Institute of Marketing define marketing as ‘The management process responsible for identifying , anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitability’

Philip Kotler defines marketing as ‘satisfying needs and wants through an exchange process’

Advertising defined
Many definitions of advertising can be found searching for same, here are some;

“Advertising is the nonpersonal communication of information usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about products, services or ideas by identified sponsors through the various media” (Bovee,1992)

Wikipedia’s entry about advertising