Advertising | Sales | Marketing

In April 2012, I arrived in Kampala, Uganda for the first time. As we approached Kampala, I was mesmerized by the sheer creativity displayed on their billboard. On each billboard, it seemed like copyrighters were trying to outshine each other at being the smartest, funniest, authentic in their advertising.

One ad that caught my attention, was that of The Nile Special, Uganda’s national beer. The billboard had three men dressed in smart casual, each holding a beer, with their name, their job title, and the tagline, “After work, each of the gentlemen takes a Nile Special, because they have earned it.”

Coming from Kenya where billboards are boring and forgettable, this was catchy. The thought that you only drink after work because beer is something you have to earn sounded admirable, and responsible. It reminded of the 1990s, Tusker beer advert with the song, “baada ya kazi, burudika ni wakati wa Tusker.”

When I arrived in Kampala finally after nearly 24 hours on the road, I only wanted to take the Nile Special, thanks to that ad.

One can say that ad led to an instant conversion. ?

Advertising is part of branding, selling, and marketing for a business.

Often the two words, marketing, and selling are used interchangeably. However, not knowing the two is a common costly error for most businesses. Peter Drucker, the management guru once said that “Marketing encompasses the entire business as seen from the customer’s point of view.”?

In his book on marketing, It Is Not Rocket Science: Using Marketing to Build a Sustainable Business, Mitchelle Gooze, notes that to see business from a customer’s point of view, you have to stand in the customer’s shoes. Yet, this is not easy. To see your company through the fickle eyes of consumers requires patience since their needs, and tastes, are constantly changing and you can’t disregard your own view.

The first challenge any business will have is gaining new customers, retaining them, and keep earning new ones. When customers buy stuff, it is not because they want to help you grow your business. As the old adage goes, “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker,?that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages.”?

Customers expect to gain from your product, in fact, the product or the service has to be more valuable to them than the money. Marketing has to recognize the value of the firm’s offer, as the customer perceives it. ?

Gooze defined MARKETING as the process of helping others value your goods or services. It is easy for you to see its worth, the challenge is to convince others of it.??

Advertising on the other hand is a subset of marketing and primarily a sales tool. Albert Lasker, the American businessman who played a key role in shaping modern advertising said that 'advertising is salesmanship in print'. And in the digital age, one can say, it is salesmanship in audio-visual (or any other) format. Advertising conveys the message directly, thus can direct me to buy a beer for the first time I arrive in a country. Marketing enables a firm to come up with messages worth advertising. ?

Marketers take a long view into the future. Ideally, they conceive something their firm can provide that will be useful, before an industry that needs it has thought of it. Salespeople on the other hand think of the here and now. Most of the time, they are short-term in their thinking. They think about the competition and how to beat it. ?

However, they both have to work in coordination, with the marketers focusing on the bigger picture, and salespeople focusing on the day-to-day operations of keeping the business afloat. Marketers help the firm grow.?