French to English: Marketing, Part 1

How are marketing and advertising different?

Hint:  think of advertising as just a small part of marketing.

Instead of defining them, why don't I give some examples:

• slogans and catchy titles constitute advertising; where to use those slogans and catchy titles and how often they should be used constitutes marketing;
• billboards, flyers and posters and TV and radio spots make up advertising; deciding how to optimise those billboards, flyers and posters as well as TV and radio ads to turn target audiences into customers belong to the realm of marketing;
• advertising is announcing your product or service using one medium or several media; marketing is a process that incorporates advertising as one component of the entire marketing strategy;
• advertising is the execution or outcome of a specific marketing strategy; marketing is a systematic sequence of steps to promote a product or service and is executed to target the desired demographics.

Take this blog as an example.  Notice the ads on the right hand bar which are placed there by Google's AdSense team?  Do I have advertising on my blog?  The answer is yes.  Do I have a marketing strategy for my blog?  No, I don't.  I wouldn't know where to begin.

Why is it that people like Darren Rowse and other successful bloggers can use their blogs as a springboard for other creative endeavors - like start a community or sell a product online? Why is it that successful bloggers morph into successful entrepreneurs overnight just by attracting - and maintaining - a faithful following of admirers?

The answer:  clever marketing!  What else could it be?

Let's go to the bigger players.  Have you watched the movie, Twilight New Moon yet?   It hit the box office, and is doing superbly well as its predecessor, Twilight.  Why the sudden fascination with vampires?  The concept was supposed to appeal to teens, but according to surveys and marketing polls, Twilight New Moon is also attracting the middle aged and the almost senior group.

The big players - Burger King, Volvo and AT&T - are now capitalising on the movie's popularity by launching marketing campaigns to attract other "demographics."

Brian Quinton, who writes for Promo (an online marketing site) cited Linda Gangeri, national advertising manager of Volvo US:  “From pre-teens to 50-, 60-year-olds, women are in love with this series,” she said. “We’ve targeted our media buy in this campaign to appeal mainly to women 18-54. The movie has given us a chance to expose our brand to a much larger audience, and to get people to think differently about the brand.”

Gangeri also explained that a Volvo car was driven in the movie by Edward, the main star of Twilight, but Volvo did not really do anything about it. It was only after they experienced a spike in traffic to their web site and when their dealerships received calls about the car did they realize that a marketing strategy could be developed to promote the Volvo name.

Burger King, Volvo and AT&T are not the only ones who have capitalized on Twilight and New Moon.  Clothing retailers Nordstrom and Kohl have also hopped into the marketing train to introduce Twilight-inspired apparel, says Brian Quinton.

That, ladies and gentlemen is the essence of marketing.

If you want to sell a product or service, you need marketing savvy.  If you don't have the talent, you can always pay for that savvy.  But you'll have to tell your marketer what your goals are.

Before I give your marketing terms in French and English, I'd like to briefly mention that the idea for this blog was inspired by someone who goes by the user name "FitJerk" and by Darren Rowse, both of Problogger dot com.  They had worthwhile recommendations on how to market a blog and make it appeal to a wider audience!

FRENCH	ENGLISH
marketing (although purists might prefer commercialisation)	marketing
plan marketing	marketing plan
points d'influence	influence points
part de marché	market share
croissance du marché	market growth
stratégie de positionnement	positioning strategy
cycle de vie du produit	product life cycle
profil client	customer profile
annonce imprimée	printed marketing materials
l'achat de temps de radio	buying radio time
publicité des tiers, cadeaux et bouche à oreille	publicity, giveaways and word of mouth
marketing direct:  publicité, telemarketing et publipostage	direct marketing: direct response ads, direct mail and telemarketing
bannière publicitaire	banner ad

This blog won't attract a sudden tsunami of visitors just because I talked about how a company crafted a marketing tie-in to Twilight New Moon - the latest rage -  but if it can increase my page impressions based on Google's definition, then that should be good enough...for now!