Yesterday I went to a marketing seminar hosted by the International Detroit Black Expo, Inc.  The founder is Ken Harris and the forum was held at the Northwest Activity Center as part of a first Friday series.

The seminar was very informative and interactive.  One of the questions posed by an audience member was "what's the difference between advertising, marketing and public relations and when do I use which".

The panel had to think about that and finally one person gave the classic textboook answer, which really only addressed the marketing aspect.  The answer was the 4 P's of marketing.

1. Product
2. Place
3. Price
4. Promotion

Refer to http://www.netmba.com/marketing/mix/ for more details on the 4P's. 

When I heard this answer, I chuckled because I recognized that [a] it was marketing 101 and I had that class as part of my MBA studies and [b] it was a partial answer to the question posed.

I'd like to think that:

• Marketing is the internal business strategy one uses when developing the business plan.
• Advertising is the external execution of the marketing plan
• Public relations is the management of the company image

What do you think and what are your plans in 2008 for these three areas?