Concept vs. Strategy

In the fields of advertising and marketing, there’s a common mix-up between concept and strategy.

Concept is the creation and development of the big idea. The idea that takes you too many long nights of brainstorming and too many cups of coffee to come up with. It’s the most common form of “art” within advertising and marketing. It’s the creative side. It’s what everyone wants to do. It’s also the hardest part of advertising and marketing.

Coming up with the concept is daunting. It’s hard to come up with a “new idea.” That’s mainly due to the fact that there aren’t really “new” ideas – it’s all previously used ideas executed in new ways.

Strategy is putting the concept into practice. It’s the plan that advertisers use to get consumers to buy a product/service.

It’s the tactics, plans, and implementation of the concept in numerous ways in order to:

• get consumers talking about the product
• increase consumer awareness of the brand and/or it’s services/goods
• build brand loyalty/preference
• re-build or change the consumer’s view of the brand/brand’s image

Summary:

Concept is the idea and its development.

Strategy is the implementation of the idea through tactics, goals and specific channels of advertising.