In
my last post I shared the difference between public relations and journalism
because it was one of the professions that was overlapping it. This week I will
want to share the perspective from marketing and public relations.
Marketing
is the field most commonly confused with PR not unreasonably since marketing
refers to PR in its texts and practices as part of the marketing mix. It looks at a clear exchange of money for
goods and services. To marketing practitioners and academics, PR is one of what
they refer to as the 4 Ps – product, place, price and promotion – which is
needed for a successful marketing campaign. This is not far from the truth
since PR plays an essential role in creating successful products. Much of
public relations activity is directed at support of marketing to the extent
that it may in some instances amount to the principal promotional tool used by
marketers.
Wilcox
et al (2003) has identified a number of PR activities which support marketing
efforts by creating new leads through gaining editorial coverage in trade and
consumer media and also producing sales brochures. In a competitive field, such
as fast moving consumer products, publicity can be crucial to success and PR
provides avenues for publicity. While the marketing team may create special
offers and sales promotions, the publicity people will be seeking media
coverage and arranging launch events and together a create success.
Marketing
has a broader remit that perceives customers as being one public or several
disaggregated publics among many. The key words for marketing are ‘consumers’
and ‘profit’
Understanding
the consumer and producing products or services that will satisfy consumer
needs to the profit of the supplier is the traditional arena of marketing.
There is a clear exchanged of money for goods or services which is easily
measured. PR campaigns on the other hand are often harder to quantify. Many
organizations may not have goods or services to sell but have messages to
communicate or receive. They need to maintain relationships which are too
complex for marketing to handle which is where public relations come in.
Kitchen
(1997;28) explains perfectly the relationship between PR and marketing by
saying that “Public relations and marketing are two major management functions
within an organization but how they are organized depends upon managerial
perceptions, organizational culture and historical precedents.” He goes on to
say that “Marketing is concerned with an organization’s exchange relationships
with consumers in which quid pro pro transactions occur. On the other hand, PR
deals with a broader range of publics involved with or affected by the
organization. Subsuming PR into marketing delimit organizational ability to
function successfully in highly competitive environment.
