PR and Marketing

Many people think that public relations and marketing are the same thing. In reality, public relations and marketing are two different aspects of a thriving business. But a business needs to use both public relations and marketing to be successful. This article discusses more specifics about public relations and marketing.

What is public relations? (PR)

The purpose of a company having public relations (PR) is for them to help the company and the public build a good relationship and get used to each other. An important goal for public relations is to create positive perceptions about the company. Public relations works to produce positive predispositions and mutual understanding of the company and the company's public. Instead of their success being measured in terms of money, the success of public relations is measured through public support and/or the publics' opinions that has been expressed about the company.

What is marketing?

Marketing has different goals than public relations. The point of marketing is for one company to transfer products and/or services from the manufacturer or producer to the customer. And marketing's pressing goal is to get the company sales. The goal of marketing that is understood by most people is to make a profit for their company. A person would measure the success of a marketing strategy by the amount of revenue that it brings in or the specific number of sales it generates.

PR and marketing need each other

A business uses public relations to help encourage a good relationship between the company and the company's public. Through public relations a company is able to have good relationships so that their public does not interfere with the opportunity for the business to make money. When a good relationship is established great marketing can take place. And a business uses marketing to understand, to serve, and to satisfy all of their customers. And through the understanding, serving, and satisfying of the customers the business will then make a profit.

Do you need both?

While there are specific differences between public relations and marketing, some people still think that they are very similar and wonder if they have to have both public relations and marketing to be a successful company. Well, there is just not a yes or no answer that will work for every company. There have been successful companies that use both public relations and marketing, but there have also been successful companies that have used one and not the other.

There are also different ways that a company can use public relations and/or marketing. Since there are different ways and even different degrees in which a company can use public relations and marketing, each company will have to decide for itself what they need and what will work best for them.

In general, if an organization is a community service organization, a government agency, or a non-profit health care organization they may focus more on using public relations. This could be mainly because their goal is to serve their public and not sell things to them. If these organizations were to use marketing it would likely be only to encourage their public to use their facilities.

When a company's goal is to make money, they may focus a little more on marketing. Public relations is usually used to enhance or support the marketing efforts of the company. Sometimes smaller companies will have marketing and public relations be a combined department with the main focus on marketing. But larger companies will usually have both departments and depending on the company their main focus may be on marketing or it may be on public relations.