Differences between "Marketing," "Advertising," and "Propaganda"

When comparing marketing, advertising and propaganda one may think that they mean the exact same thing. These three things all fall under the category of promotion, however still have their differences. 

Have you ever thought about how much work it takes to get a product into the stores? Marketing is a form of promotion that is involved in this process. Marketers set prices, and find the best ways and strategies to distribute their products. This image to the right, in my opinion, is a perfect example of everything that makes up the term “marketing.” This cluster is called a marketing mix and includes every decision that one would have to make as a product marketer. These “4 P’s” outline decisions such as packaging, retail price, order processing, and advertising.

Advertising is a major form of marketing because it is a primary reason in why people will buy something. An advertisement is a method of promotion that is usually in the form of a commercial, billboard or magazine. Advertisements show a product in an appealing way in hopes that people will go out and buy it. Look at this image to the left. This advertisement has been on the television recently and shows a “special” going on at Burger King. It shows two chicken sandwiches which look alluring to eat and can be purchased at a low price. Advertising for a product can also be shown through propaganda.

Advertisements and Propaganda both aim to sell a certain product. Propaganda however, uses a different approach. Take this "Mozilla" advertisement, for example. This is showing a negative connotation for Internet Explorer. Unlike an advertisement, which promotes a product directly to consumers, propaganda hopes to change people’s views in order to get them to buy something else. One major difference between advertising and propaganda is that propaganda is typically used to support different causes or used in politics.