Public Relations and Marketing may look similar since the two utilize the same mass communication channels., but they are not the same.
Photo Courtesy of The Notebook
However, this does not necesarily mean that you need to pick one over the other because the two complements each other in bringing a brand to a higher ground of success.
Let us define the two to see the
essential aspects that make them separate departments in a huge company before we play the tug-of-war game.
DEFINITION
Public Relations: the
practice of building a reputable, credible, favorable and just name for a company in front of its stakeholders including its target customers and consumers, the local community or the neighborhood where it operates, and the government.
Marketing: the practice
of communicating the value, can be accurate or over-rated, of a company to sell it to its target customers.
Difference: Public Relations does not
sell since it just deals with how good the name of a company is. On the other hand, Marketing tries to sell the company to customers or clients, a limited audience.
OBJECTIVES
Public Relations aims the
public to think that the company is a good man if it were a person.
Marketing aims to convince the public
to buy the company offerings because of unlimited reasons.
Difference: Public Relations cares about how the public perceives the company. On the side of the coin, Marketing cares about good or high sales. Thus, publicity, the mother of tricks and foolishness, is part of Marketing and has nothing to do with Public Relations. Sometimes when Marketing fails due to ineffective strategies set up by publicists, Public Relations save the ass of the company.
CAMPAIGNS
Public Relations starts
with building of impressions about the company, reinforcing the good impressions, and controlling the damage of bad impressions.
Marketing introduces the
company to the public, then convinces the public to buy it through different colorful strategies.
Difference: Public Relations campaigns actually affect sales indirectly. Marketing does the selling, hard-core.
TOOLS
Public Relations uses
infomercials, press releases, company statements, branding elements, employee and customer events, charitable endeavors, press and blogger conferences, speaking engagements, etc.
Marketing uses
commercials, paid article publishing, trade fairs and expositions, marketing events, social media contests, promotional videos, networking schemes, sponsorship, celebrity endorsement, etc.
Difference: No difference at all. Both use the same media, thus the two are percieved as the same.
In huge companies the Marketing and Public Relations are separated, giving the Marketing department the task to produce materials for selling while the Public Relations to talk to the Press. Other companies just put the two in one house.
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