Advertising and PR, Why Bother with Definitions
Advertising by word of mouth is not a very accurate description. It has both the elements of advertising and public relations. Who cares? You should because your competition does.
Advertising and Public Relations can sometimes be confused and used interchangeably in many businesses.
These are two distinct functions and therefore must be treated separate form each other so that the roles of each are budgeted and evaluated separately to distinguish the successes and failures of the activity more effectively
When we hear the word advertising we see pictures in our mind. Television endorsements, radio announcements, print ad messages, billboards, posters, leaflets, flyers, banners, glossy spreads, danglers, talkers and other peripherals comes to mind. Even business cards, slogans and logos though it does not always specify a particular brand are forms of advertisement.
Advertisements aim at influencing people to by through accessing the masses through a media device. Public relations are building goodwill, though accessing opinion influencers and opinion leaders, decision makers, operators, distributors and even legislators.
When we say public relations this fall under the activity of any effort that lets our customers know what the company is and what it offers. Press releases, networking, trade shows and product exhibitions are some of the more common practices.
There are the grey areas however that make it interchangeable for some businesses.
A company for example that offers benches, napkin, holders, dispensers, stirrers, glasses, to institutions is doing the PR work although what is really being aimed is the brand exposure of a particular product. The brand or product name that is printed on the materials that is given usually for free falls under advertising.
Word of mouth can fall under advertising but when one slip of a negative word of a dissatisfied customer floats to a dozen other people who in turn tell a dozen other more will be better handled by the PR department.
Word of mouth is also a very effective PR tool.
Aside from press statements other public information campaigns, like sponsoring trade exhibits, school science fairs and tours, inter school sports and teams, public speaking engagements attending programs and invitations are effective, other activities that aims to establish goodwill are very inexpensive ways of communicating your product and getting it up front.
Advertisements aim at influencing people to buy through accessing the masses by promoting its product and services through a media device. Public relations are building goodwill, though accessing opinion influencers and opinion leaders, decision makers, operators, distributors and even legislators. It is usually done by doing presentations, contests, conferences, face to face meetings and briefings seminars and other community events.
While advertising builds pictures to get the public attention towards an offering, public relations is managing image.
Public relations then, is promoting products through the building of relationships. It serves as an effective tool as a follow up of the advertising effort.
No other function in the business of selling can do management crisis better that the company’s public relation people. This is why Advertising and PR should never have a function that is confused and interchangeably used.
A function to handle specific activities. That is often the only way in which performances can be measured, fine tuned and evaluated. Without clear definitions ideas will not fall into its places.
Smart businesses do it that way.
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