Marketing mix refers to the combination of various elements that assist the company in attracting customers to purchase the company’s products. It includes the product, the price, the location, and the promotion. Advertisement and Sales promotion are marketing mechanisms that involve informing customers about the company’s product, including public relations, personal selling, direct marketing, and so on.

Most people believe that promotion and advertising are the same but they are not. Advertising is a communication intended to persuade potential customers to choose your product over competitors. It is a tool that can reach thousands of customers at once.

This article’s primary focus is to explain all the differences between advertising and promotion. But, first of all, you must know that promotion is a marketing technique, and advertising is a promotional tool.

What is Advertising Promotion?

Advertising is a promotional activity to convey the qualities and benefits of your products or services compared to the products and services offered by the competitors. In most cases, companies will use advertising to convey a unique selling proposition that differentiates their goods and services from those of their competing companies.

Lexus, for example, promotes its luxury vehicles as the result of a “relentless pursuit of perfection,” whereas BMW counters with the slogan “The Ultimate Driving Machine.” Advertising’s main objective is to increase sales and build brand image opportunities which will pay off in the upcoming years.

What is Sales Promotion?

Short-term sales of goods and services are the priority of sales promotions. Many businesses push these promotional offers when consumer demand is higher than usual. For example, the festive season is a beautiful time for companies to grab sales promotions because customers are likely to make purchase decisions. Sales promotions could include limited-time free trials, coupon codes, and buy-one-get-one-free deals.

Advertising vs Sales Promotion Main Differences

  1. Advertising is a long-term strategy. When a company creates an advertisement with the help of another company, it helps keep it for a long time. On the other hand, sales promotion is a short-term strategic approach that lasts only a few days. It may, even so, reoccur when the brand necessitates it.
  2. Advertising is also incredibly costly. An advertisement is expensive to create and then promote. However, compared to advertising, sales promotion may not be as expensive.
  3. As advertising is costly, it is not the best fit for small companies. Only big and medium brands opt for it. Sales promotion is best for small brands. Although medium and large brands can undertake this promotional strategy as well. 
  4. In advertising, an advertisement is created, printed, and published on online platforms. However, sales promotion is much easier. It involves things like offering discount coupons to draw buyers.
  5. Being promoted across all platforms aids in the creation and emphasis of the brand name. As a result, the brand’s sales can increase. However, sales promotion is only meant to increase the sales revenue.
  6. While sales promotion immediately provides returns, advertising requires time to demonstrate results.

Concluding Advertisement vs Sales Promotions

After a deep discussion, we can conclude that advertising and promotion are distinct. However, some similarities exist: both are part of a marketing strategy. The tools are primarily used to influence product or service demand and to elicit the desired response in the target market.

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