Marketing, communications, advertising and publicity: what’s the difference?

Marketing, communications, advertising and publicity are four words that businesses use constantly and interchangeably. This is understandable because the boundaries overlap, particularly now that digital channels have blurred distinctions that were once easier to see.

The distinctions nevertheless remain useful. Not because businesses need another collection of definitions to memorise, but because it is considerably easier to decide what to do when everybody is talking about roughly the same thing.

Marketing starts with the market

Marketing is the broadest discipline of the four. Its job is to connect what a business offers with the needs, expectations and behaviour of a market. That means marketing begins well before somebody decides what the advert should look like or which social platform to use.

• Which markets or customer groups are worth pursuing?
• What problems or desires does the offer address?
• How should the product or service be positioned?
• What level of price and value makes sense?
• Which competitors matter?
• What needs to change for the business to grow?

Marketing determines the playing field. Communication helps the business play on it.

Communication is the organised exchange of meaning

Communication is the process of getting a message from one place to another in a way that can be understood. In business, this includes deciding what needs to be said, who needs to hear it, how it should be expressed and which channels are appropriate.

A communications problem is therefore not necessarily solved by doing more communication. A company can publish constantly while remaining unclear. Sometimes the useful work is to decide what actually needs saying, who needs to understand it and what can safely be left out.

Advertising is communication you pay to distribute

Advertising is a specific form of communication in which the company pays to place a promotional message in front of an audience. Digital media has made advertising more targeted and interactive, but the underlying principle remains fairly straightforward: you are purchasing access to an audience.

• paid search
• display advertising
• sponsored social content
• outdoor media
• print
• television, radio or streaming media
• paid partnerships and placements

What advertising does not guarantee is attention, credibility or interest. Paying for distribution merely provides the opportunity. A weak message remains weak when promoted more aggressively.

Publicity is what becomes visible beyond your own message

Publicity concerns attention or exposure generated through other people, organisations or media rather than simply through purchased advertising space. A journalist writes about the company, a customer recommends a product, a specialist shares an article or an unusual project becomes a story people want to repeat.

Advertising is, broadly speaking, what you pay to say about yourself. Publicity is what other people decide is worth saying about you.

They work together rather than in isolation

• Marketing: decide what the company needs to achieve and where the opportunity lies.
• Communication: decide what needs to be understood and how to express it.
• Advertising: pay to put that message in front of relevant people.
• Publicity: earn additional attention through interest, reputation, relationships or newsworthiness.

None of these activities exists outside the brand. The campaign, media choice, tone of voice, story journalists repeat and behaviour customers describe all become brand touchpoints.

The more important question is not whether something belongs in the marketing or communications box. It is whether all of these activities are helping the business move in the same direction.