In this presentation made on the Apple campus, Steve says that marketing is not about touting features and speeds and megabytes or comparing yourself to the other guys, it’s about identifying your own story, your own core, and being very, very clear about what you are all about and what you stand for…and then being able to communicate that clearly, simply, and consistently.
This highlights part of what I believe to be the difference between advertising and marketing.
Marketing, to my mind*, is the process of preparing yourself (and your product) for the market. It is about development of the ideas, accurately measuring the potential users, creating the product and then positioning the product. Advertising, in contrast, is telling everyone about what you’ve done.
This is why you can advertise a shit product and you can fail to advertise an excellent product. Products do not sell themselves.
As with so many things it’s a multiplier. A great marketing process followed by a great advertising campaign will reap rewards. Fail at either and you’re going to lose the lot.
*I say “to my mind” because I don’t read marketing textbooks. I don’t know what the various business schools say about marketing and frankly I don’t care.