I recently had the chance to address the Signal Hill Chamber of Commerce. Instead of just using my time as a shameless plug for the Signal Tribune, I chose to instead educate my audience about the differences between the elements of marketing, i.e. an advertisement vs. a press release. I even handed out information on how to write the latter in its proper form. The group seemed enthusiastic about my little speech, so I thought I’d take the time to expand on the subject and share it with you, my gentle readers.
Marketing is a combination of several elements: advertising, promotion, publicity and public relations. The goal is to create sales of the given widget or service. As one of my professors described it, it’s a four-prong approach: attention, interest, desire and finally, action— the acronym being AIDA.
In order to create AIDA, one needs to use the elements of marketing listed above. They can be used in nearly any order, but keep in mind that the more elements used, the more successful the campaign.
Let me give you an example. Let’s say a new restaurant is opening in our neighborhood. If the owner buys space to print a coupon in the Signal Tribune newspaper, that process is called advertising. If the same owner wants to promote the new eatery, he or she can hire a person to stand out front and wave a sign. Publicity would be created if the sign-waver is a scantily clad, pretty girl and a local newspaper snapped a picture and ran it as part of a story in the publication. Furthermore, public relations would be achieved if a local dignitary was seen out on the town wining and dining the aforementioned pretty girl, fueling gossip through news stories, online blogs, tweets, emails or text messages.
What many newspaper publishers are finding these days are business owners and public relations folks trying to skip over the advertising part of the marketing equation in order to save money. In other words, they are trying to get something for nothing. In my opinion, leaving advertising out of a marketing campaign is like leaving yeast out of a bread recipe!it just won’t rise to the top no matter how long you bake it.
I believe in print advertising with all my heart. Advertising is a form of news and a great way to communicate in print. In doing a bit of research on the subject, I found a quote I think you’ll enjoy:
If I were starting life over again, I am inclined to think that I would go into the advertising business in preference to almost any other. The general raising of standards of modern civilization among all groups of people during the past half-century would have been impossible without that spreading of the knowledge of higher standards by means of advertising.
— Franklin D. Roosevelt
