media update’s Taylor Goodman dives into the differences between these disciplines to settle the debate once and for all.
What is public relations?
Firstly, let’s dig into the function of public relations (PR). At its core, PR encapsulates the art of publicity and reputation management. As advertising legend Helen Woodward famously said, “Advertising is what you pay for,
publicity is what you pray for.”
According to Caroline Forsey from Hubspot,
PR professionals help companies or individuals build a positive reputation with the public through unpaid or earned mediums — like social media, traditional media and face-to-face interactions, such as events.
At its core, PR
is a form of earned media. How? Well, one of the roles of a PR professional is to liaise with the media and secure coverage for their client’s brand, product or service. This earned media coverage could be in
print, television, on the radio, in a blog or online.
Other duties include:
- Crisis management: Another key aspect of PR is crisis management. Here, practitioners work at maintaining and, in some cases, repairing the reputation of their clients. For example, if their client is embroiled in a major scandal, the professional will work on regaining control of the story’s narrative in the media and rebuilding the brand’s reputation with the public.
- Writing press releases: A press release is where all the magic happens (and by magic, we mean persuasion). PR professionals use press releases to inform journalists about product launches or any company updates.
- Pitching content: Pitching content comes into play when the PR professional has to ‘sell’ a press release to the media. The content in question usually involves company announcements or exciting product/service launches.
- Managing and updating company messaging: The PR professional needs to ensure that their brand’s messaging is consistent in any communication with the public.
- Building and maintaining relationships with the media and relevant influencers: Just like Rome, strong media relations weren't built in a day. Rather, this form of connection and bonding requires a great deal of time and effort to ensure that a brand’s relationship with the media and influencers remains positive.
What is marketing?
Money, money, money — the discipline of marketing is laser-focused on
promotion and
sales. If you are trying to think like a marketer, you need to ask yourself: ‘
How can I make the consumer feel like they can’t live without this product or service?’
According to Liz Moorehead from Impact, a marketing consultative agency, the purpose of marketing is to “
generate revenue for a brand, company, or organisation.” Marketers aim to drum up revenue by driving traffic and spawning quality leads, which will eventually turn into sales.
Essentially, it is a form of paid media, as businesses or individuals looking to up their game will need to hire and pay for marketing efforts.
Duties of a marketer include:
- Industry and client research: To create better campaigns, marketers need to conduct research. This offers insight into which direction their campaign should go in and what their audience wants to see.
- Creating ad campaigns: Using the research they have found, marketers can create campaigns to promote new products.
- Purchasing advertising slots for upcoming campaigns: As marketing is paid media, marketers need to purchase slots for upcoming campaigns on media platforms like television, print or radio.
- Creating materials to accompany product launches: Examples of materials that accompany a product launch are website landing pages, selling sheets or brochures.
So, what’s the difference?
The discipline of PR differs from that of marketing as it is centred on promoting a business or individual
holistically instead of focusing on increasing sales with advertising and promotion.
As the core functions of these industries differ, so do their goals. PR aims to manage messaging and communications to maintain positive brand awareness and reputation. Marketing differs from this because its primary focus is to make sales and increase revenue.
Another way marketing differs from PR is in targeting. Marketing targets current and potential buyers, while PR aims to portray a brand or individual in a positive light to the public at large.
Aside from the differences in functionality of these roles, public relations and marketing differ in the legitimacy of their messaging in the eyes of the public.
PR is considered more credible than marketing because it conveys a carefully constructed message via the media. In this scenario, the media acts as a middleman, which the practitioners use to funnel their stategised messages through.
By communicating these messages through an unbiased third party, it is construed as more credible by consumers.
When you compare the channels that PR messages go through to marketing and advertising, there are major differences in how the public perceives them.
On a daily basis, consumers are inundated with advertisements, leading them to be more aware and cautious of advertisements.
Muck Rack solidifies this point by stating that “
Every consumer that sees an ad ... inherently knows that it has been bought and paid for.”
Lastly, PR and marketing differ in longevity. Marketing is more short-term bursts of promotion to support product launches and create temporary brand awareness, while PR works to cultivate a positive reputation and build brand awareness over a set period of time.
Which discipline do you think is the most powerful for building brand awareness? Be sure to let us know in the comments section below.
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*Image courtesy of Vecteezy