Understanding the Basics of Automotive Advertising versus Marketing

Every time we turn on our television sets or computers, we are barraged with an endless stream of automotive commercials or advertisements from an auto dealership online marketing campaign. What many of us don't realize is that while they are selling the same product the means in which they do so are completely different. Were you aware that there is a difference between automotive advertising and auto dealers marketing?

The majority of auto dealers make the mistake of confusing the two without even realizing they are doing so. Little do they understand of the complexities involved with auto dealership online marketing versus their advertising. Now, think about all of the many billions of dollars they waste every year in automotive advertising and car dealer internet marketing due to their ignorance. The automotive business accounts for the largest spending on local newspapers and local radio stations, for example.

Let me begin with going over the formal definitions of each with a quick explanation of how auto dealership marketing and automotive advertising vary from one another:

Automotive Advertising - Different from car dealership internet marketing in that this is usually defined as a paid, public, and non-personal announcement of some type of persuasive message from a particular sponsor, in this case the car dealership. Automotive advertising tends to be a non-personal presentation or promotion of its products to existing and, more importantly, new potential customers.

Auto Dealership Marketing - Any type of effort that involves the systematic planning, implementation and control of business activities intended to bring together buyers and sellers such as auto dealership online marketing. Auto dealers marketing must be equally advantageous to both parties in regards to the exchange or transfer of products.

As you can see it is easy to confuse advertising as a car dealership internet marketing campaign. The difference can be confusing to the point that people think of them as one-in-the same, so let me break it down a little more for you.

The best way to distinguish the two is to imagine marketing as a pie, inside there is advertising, car dealership internet marketing, market research, auto dealership marketing, media planning, product pricing, distribution, customer support, and sales strategy. Advertising is only one piece of the entire in the marketing strategy as is car dealer internet marketing.

All of these elements not only work independently, such as an auto dealership online marketing campaign, but also together towards a larger and more comprehensive goal. Think of marketing as a process which takes time, often involving many, many hours of research for that marketing plan to be effective. Marketing is everything a business does to assist sales between the business and consumer.

Search engine optimization is a specialty of Brandon Thomas. He has been providing SEO services and conducting internet marketing for the last ten years. In this article, Brandon discusses auto dealership marketing.