Thanks to years of writing and producing radio commercials in Texas, the misuse (or fabrication) of several words has become “fingernails-on-the-chalkboard” to my ears.
These include so-called words and phrases like “supposebly” to mean “supposedly”, “irregardless” instead of just “regardless”, and “could care less” when people mean to say “could NOT care less”.
My most grating misuse of the English language? “Two thousand AND nine” instead of “two thousand nine”.
One verbal pet peeve of mine is not as obvious as those. It is the casual interchange of the terms “marketing” and “advertising”.
It seems many people, even advertising professionals, are under the mistaken impression that “marketing” is synonymous with “advertising”. This is the reason the sales staff of the radio stations I worked for referred to themselves as “Marketing Consultants” when the ONLY avenue of “marketing” they “consulted” people about… was radio.
Marketing is More than Just Advertising.
Claiming that “marketing” is just “advertising” is like saying “art” is just “paintings”. Doing so ignores sculpture, literature, music, dance, and, coincidentally, advertising itself!
True marketers know that marketing encompasses ALL that you and your business do in relation to your current, past, and potential clients.
This includes everything from your phone book ads (out-dated in the age of Google) down to how (or IF) you answer the phone when clients actually call.
Marketing is not just where you place your business cards, but also what is on the cards and how the cards look.
For instance, a person trying to reflect a professional, high-end image should not use self-printed or low quality, free business cards from an internet printing site.
Likewise, an artistic design specialist, should probably stay away from the bland, standardized business card style of their local accountant.
You May Be Making HUGE Marketing Decisions Without Even Realizing It!
These decisions can be big and expensive such as choosing the physical address and size of your business location. They can also be small and seemingly insignificant like the choosing the color of the interior walls and the font used in the sign in front of said business.
One Houston-area business that opened just a couple of years ago spent a pretty penny on a fancy sign for the freeway-facing front of their retail store. Unfortunately, they chose a very thin, tall font (Arial Narrow) for their lighted sign making it hard to read from the parking lot, much less speeding by at 70 m.p.h.
Earlier this year, they replaced it with a sign with a bolder font after several prospective customers were unable to find their expensive, interstate freeway location (even after directions).
Since the letters in both the old and new sign were individually boxed and lit, it was a marketing mistake that probably cost them more than the entire amount they spent in advertising all year. And that’s the point. Having a sign is good advertising; making sure the sign does what it is supposed to is good marketing.
When you think of marketing as “just advertising”, then you may only see your advertising efforts as the entirety of your marketing, thereby missing untold opportunities to better promote your business. Once you understand the difference between the two, however, an entire world opens up. Everything from the materials you hand to a client to how you shake that client’s hand becomes a marketing opportunity to improve upon.
To quote Bruce Lee from Enter the Dragon, “It is like a finger pointing to the moon. Focus on the finger (advertising), and you miss all the heavenly glory (marketing).”
