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Marketing and PR - What's The Difference?

Tuesday, March 15, 2005

Is there a difference between Marketing and PR? Many small firms have no ongoing PR effort but frequently spend large sums on marketing, which is often times less effetive than they had hoped. Let's take a look at these two subjects.

The Purpose of PR
The purpose of public relations is to fix in the mind of your prospective customers an idea about your company or business. It is to position your business in the mind of your prospects in some exact way. It's to get them to think of you in some particular light or manner or to keep them thinking a certain way or even to change the way they think. All this falls under the purvey of PR.

But we're a small business not some big firm. Why should we worry about PR you might say?

Well, today PR is even more vital for the small business than ever before. Increased competition, price wars and the global trading place as well as the Internet really coming of age. Every product or service is already being offered unless you are an inventor with something brand spanking new. Why should someone choose your firm?

To compound the problem, as Jack Trout said in his groundbreaking books on "Positioning", we live in an overcommunicated society. People are suffering from information overload.

Just reflect on average day: how many TV commercials, how many radio commercials, how many e-mails, phone calls, regular mail, solicitations, etc. does the average person receive in one day! Overload!

The problem becomes how do you get your message across and through.

Enter Positioning
Positioning is the concept of implanting your brand, your company firmly in the minds of your customers. Since minds are so stuffed with information it becomes important in choosing a unique position in the mind.

The mind works and understands things by comparing them to other things so in order to fix something in the mind it is often effective to fix a concept in relation to an already understood concept.

Let's take a look at some examples: Apple computers. What is the idea you have about Apple? A progressive technology company that delivers aesthetic high-tech products that are very cool? That's their position in relation to computers (an already understood concept) and that's effective PR.

Let's get another example: Volvo automobiles. What position does this carmaker have in your mind? Is it a position of safety? Exactly. Remember those car crash commercials? Their position is safety; the brand Volvo elicits the idea of safety -- they've positioned themselves within the concept of automobiles as the safest. That's effective PR.

Let's take another brand: Listerine. What you think? In the realm of mouthwash, Listerine is the one that kills germs? That's their position in the known territory of mouthwashes. That's effective PR.

So if that's PR and positioning what is marketing and how do these relate?

PR is a communication technique and its purpose is to communicate specific ideas to a specific public. The intention is to gain acceptance and a position of authority in the minds of your public. One of the key ideas in PR is to communicate an effecitve position.

Now, once the idea is firmly implanted, then effective promotion and marketing campaigns can flank that position and produce results far beyond what mere marketing and promotion can achieve. PR smooths the way for effective marketing. It has been said that, "PR puts the magnet on the fridge".

Many businesses who have been in business, delivering great products and excellent service over a long period of time have established for themselves good PR in their community almost incidentally. Their PR position really developed without an active PR campaign. Their PR was established by their persistence in their community over a very long period of time. Every community has such business mainstays. The question is, is it really necessary to take 20 years to develop this kind of PR? The answer is "no".

Why not proactively develop your own PR campaign and image? What position do you wish to occupy in the mind of your prospects? How does this position relate to your competitors? What idea distinguishes you from the others and which will communicate to your audience?

Remember the Cola commercials? Remember 7-Up's campaign -- the un-cola? That's positioning. Instead of going head-to-head with the leading cola companies, 7-Up established a unique position as the un-cola which gave them a distinct advantage and virtually no competition. This also made it easy for them to be memorable in the minds of their audience. They occupy a distinct position.

Create Your Own Positioning & PR Campaign
Start thinking about your own position and what it should be. Sort that out. And work to establish a very simple, concise image. The simpler the position the more memorable.

Once established promote that position. Take a zone and get that message out broadly and prior to any direct marketing. Get your idea firmly implanted into the minds of your audience. Try to use free channels to get your message out on: newspapers, press releases, blogs, etc. and get that message out.

Now you can move in with your marketing message since you already have a position in the minds of the audience you're trying to reach. You should have achieved some recognition already by a carefully crafted PR campaign. This makes promotion and marketing 10 times more effective.

Summary

PR comes before Marketing
PR starts the fire; promotion fans the flames.
Create a unique, memorable position for your company in the mind of your public.
Get that message out on all fronts: press releases, charity work, newspapers, third party endorsements, etc.
After that messages is in place, send out the promotion and marketing materials that flank that position.
Measure your results and survey your public as needed to correct and/or adjust your position over time.
Achieve in several years what would otherwise take 20 years to do without an active PR campaign.
Buy, read and use "Positioning: the Battle for Your Mind" and "The New Positioning" by Jack Trout.

Here's to your success!

posted by Scott D'Ambra at 6:00 PM
1 comments Scott

1 Comments:

At 11/22/2005 4:48 PM, Anonymous said...: 555