Prior to reading the definitions and descriptions of these three words, I have to admit that I had been using the terms marketing, propaganda, and advertising interchangeably. In my mind, all three were used to lure the public into purchasing a service or product. However, after reading each of their definitions, and more detailed descriptions of their purposes and strategies, I have come to find them incredibly different from one another.
From the information I have gathered, marketing is a very strategic approach used by companies around the world. Its job is to recognize and extract people and clients that are the most likely to be interested in their product or service. This includes marketing to people in a certain age group, for example, or to a specific group within that, such as females from the age of 20 to 35 who have a full-time job and at least one child. The latter example is known as a target market- a very specific group that you aim to please with a given product or service.
Even though the general idea of propaganda is also to entice buyers to purchase a specific good or service, it has a slightly different approach than marketing. Propaganda often has a negative connotation, and is usually considered the motive behind political commercials and other such sources. The focus of propaganda is to mainly persuade viewers and listeners into supporting or rejecting the idea or product.
Probably the most popular examples of advertising are television commercials. The idea behind this technique is to create a short, but effective message to its viewers. Instead of marketing, which seems to focus on a more statistic-based level, I would say that advertising is functioning on more of a psychological level. When commercials flash pictures of fast food, you may not think that the picture has any effect on what you may think, or the way you think about something after you have watched it. However, as quickly as the photos flash before your eyes, the brain is able to catch these glimpses, and can, in turn, create a variety of different thoughts. Advertising reaches so many people through the numerous amounts and variations of the mass media.
After reading and reflecting on the variations available to companies to promote their products and services, the biggest distinction I noticed was the difference in the number of people that were targeted by each of these strategies. Clearly marketing and, more specifically, target marketing concentrates on a very small and specific group of people. Propaganda, though they naturally address a larger group, still has a focus group in mind. For example, in campaign promotions, the candidate typically focuses primarily on a specific party. Advertising, however, has a much larger target audience. Though each company has its own niche, advertising in general, because it is used in all different types of sources, a larger number of people are introduced to their messages. But, after all the money that is spent on all different types of advertising for literally everyone to see, wouldn't it be more efficient to use more of a marketing approach instead? Wouldn't it, as a manager, make more sense to focus the sales on those that you are confident already trust your product, or can at least be more easily persuaded to switch to your goods or services, as opposed to posting thousands of dollars worth in posters and commercials in hopes that someone will actually notice it and be convinced to immediately switch providers?
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