Public Relations is the act of managing and maintaining the relationships an organization has with it’s publics in order to facilitate success. Marketing and advertising should exist under the umbrella of public relations, to branch off and focus on the consumers. Marketing and advertising are tied to promotion and placement of the product in regards to the public. These two very important aspects fit under the umbrella of public relations due to their shared desired outcome-the success of the organization.
To say that marketing and advertising were the end product of public relations would be unfair-they are included in the process of public relations. A PR team must first research their audience and client. The absolute knowledge of a company can be what makes a successful ad campaign or genius marketing agenda. Planning the strategies that will meet the communicative needs of the organizations will begin to determine what roles or actions will be taken on by marketing and advertising. The process of communicating an organization’s message will be taken on by marketing and advertising, working in accordance with the overall PR plan. The public relations team will then evaluate if the planned strategies were effective. If the strategies need to be adjusted to better the success of the organization, this process will start over again.
Edward Bernays thought of PR as engineering the way that people think, in accordance with their best interest-of course. Bernays went as far as to call PR professionals “social scientists” who advise their clients how to best influence their consumers. Although a slightly negative view of what PR specialists do, Bernays understood the power that a good PR agenda can have. PR professionals use advertising and marketing as tools to reach their consumers.
The major difference between PR and advertising is that advertising is paid space. Fixed amounts of space or time in various locations are used to benefit the client, these temporary spaces in mass mediums are costly but highly effective. Advertising money fuels everything from magazines to radio. In PR, publicity is only gained if the consumer (editors of magazines or news programs) deems it newsworthy or relevant. Floating rates may be charged but publicity is not bought like ad space. Advertising deals mostly with mass media, but public relations must work sufficiently in forums big and small. They are closely related and often work off of each other.
Public Relations deals largely with building relationships “generating goodwill” for the organization. PR is not so focused on the consumer or the product but the public. In a broader view, public relations, marketing and advertising all blur each other’s boundaries. Marketing is exclusive to selling products and services and ensuring the public receives the advertising and public relations efforts put forth.
Public Relations is the umbrella term, which encompasses marketing and advertising. All three professions are important in the communication process and somewhat dependant on the other two specialties. After public relations professionals assess the situation and begin planning, in comes advertising with material tools to communicate a message or product to the consumer. Marketing comes last, to ensure success of the advertising and PR strategies.
