Marketing and PR relationship

Aruf, Subri M . New Straits Times ; Kuala Lumpur [Kuala Lumpur]16 May 1998: 01-EX.

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ABSTRACT (ABSTRACT)
According to Kotler and Mindak, leading US commentators on marketing practice, enterprises can be divided into
four classes in terms of their use of marketing and public relations. Class One enterprises hardly use either
function in a formal sense. These include non-profit organisations whose administrators do not foresee marketing
problems; neither do they have the budget for public relations.

Enterprises of Class Three maintain a strong marketing or sales function but a weak or non-existent public
relations function. Small manufacturing companies, for example, are heavily involved in searching for and
servicing customers, but they hardly manage their relations with the rest of the public. Public relations is hardly
dealt with.

Class Four enterprises manage strong marketing and public relations. These include the multinationals like Esso,
international banks and the International Business Machine (IBM), whose marketing activities affect a large public,
warranting sizeable public relations activities. Marketing and public relations departments usually operate
independently and report directly to top management. In some cases, public relations is placed under marketing.
The marketing department may deal with publicity.

FULL TEXT
Part 1.; (STF) - Marketing and public relations are often confused with each other. Subri M. Aruf examines where
one ends and the other begins.

MARKETING and public relations are gaining increasing recognition as functions of management. Both are
relatively young fields and, being interrelated, can be confusing - in practice, if not in concept. Each has much in
common with the other and each gives to the other. Nevertheless, the two are also very different.

Cutlip, an established public relations scholar, defines marketing as, "The management function that identifies
human needs and wants, offers products and services to satisfy those demands, and causes transactions that
deliver products and services in exchange for something of value to the provider."

One of the many definitions of public relations reads that it is, "The management function that establishes and
maintains a mutually beneficial relationship between an organisation and the public on whom its success or
failure depends."

These definitions do not clearly distinguish the two fields. Instead, they reveal a common ground: both are
regarded as management functions that use communication to accomplish some of an organisation's objectives.
They also deal with an organisation's varied public, yet their roles often result from historical precedence and
reflect little understanding of their differences.

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Division of enterprise

According to Kotler and Mindak, leading US commentators on marketing practice, enterprises can be divided into
four classes in terms of their use of marketing and public relations. Class One enterprises hardly use either
function in a formal sense. These include non-profit organisations whose administrators do not foresee marketing
problems; neither do they have the budget for public relations.

Class Two enterprises maintain an established public relations function but with no marketing function. These
include almost every hospital and college which usually has a public relations officer in charge of image- building.

Enterprises of Class Three maintain a strong marketing or sales function but a weak or non-existent public
relations function. Small manufacturing companies, for example, are heavily involved in searching for and
servicing customers, but they hardly manage their relations with the rest of the public. Public relations is hardly
dealt with.

Class Four enterprises manage strong marketing and public relations. These include the multinationals like Esso,
international banks and the International Business Machine (IBM), whose marketing activities affect a large public,
warranting sizeable public relations activities. Marketing and public relations departments usually operate
independently and report directly to top management. In some cases, public relations is placed under marketing.
The marketing department may deal with publicity.

Kotler and Mindak's divisions may have distinguished those organisations with regard to their use of public
relations and marketing. However, the division does not demonstrate the relationship between the two functions.
Some enterprises may use public relations or marketing only intermittently - subject to situational needs such as a
crisis. Where do we place such enterprises?

It may be better to first identify the roles of the two functions in the overall management of enterprises. It is
important for enterprises to be aware that marketing practice creates and maintains a market for products and
services, while public relations creates an environment that facilitates marketing.

Kotler and Mindak further illustrate five different models to show the possible relationship between marketing and
public relations. They claim both functions are maturing and seeking greater policy-making roles within the
organisation. The five models are:

Model A: Separate but equal

The conventional view holds that the two functions are separate and quite different, functionally and conceptually.
Marketing is said to satisfy customer needs at a profit. Public relations generates, maintains and sustains
goodwill, to support the firm's profit-making aim.

Kotler and Mindak's proposition on the educational background of marketing and public relations practitioners is
highly debatable. While it is true most marketers come from an economics or business background, public
relations practitioners no longer typically come from a journalism background. Journalism exposes practitioners
to just one aspect of public relations: writing.

Even the trend in Malaysia - where both marketing and public relations have a more recent history than they do in
leading economies - new entrants in these fields are increasingly qualified in communications.

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Model B: Equal and overlapping

This contends that while public relations and marketing are essential and separate functions, they share a domain,
the most obvious area being in product publicity and customer relations. This is more likely to be the case in
multinationals which separate public relations and marketing departments. Strategic publicity, largely the province
of public relations, can generate awareness and interest in a product or service.

Model C: Marketing as dominant

Some marketers contend that corporate public relations should be placed under and controlled by corporate
marketing. While this could be applicable to companies mainly concerned with selling goods and services at a
profit, marketing and public relations are still conceptually different. Strong proponents of this difference include
Smith, a distinguished author of marketing books, who states: "Public relations is not a subset of marketing nor is
marketing a subset of public relations."

Model D: Public relations as dominant

This is simply the reverse of Model C, operating on the premise that a firm's future is dependent upon how it is
perceived by its public. This model has some validity, as it is not just customers (under the province of marketing)
who should be satisfied, but other sections of the public as well. If there was adverse publicity about a product,
service, or - worse - an organisation itself, marketing efforts cannot continue. In this instance, public relations
should function as corrective agent.

Model E: Marketing and public relations as the same This model suggests that public relations and marketing both
manage the public - markets, perception, attitude, behaviour and the like. In some organisations, these are merged
under the department of marketing and public relations.

Marketing and public relations: A comparison

* Goals and evaluation - Marketing and public relations goals should support the overall goals of an organisation.
To define the two, it is important to clarify the interrelated and complementary yet different goals of public
relations and marketing. Simply put, marketing aims to sell products or services, while public relations sells the
image or goodwill of an organisation. Typical public relations goals, in marketing terms, include:

(1) Positioning an organisation among the top 10 in the industry;

(2) Securing a reputation as an organisation that gives good value for money;

(3) Giving a manufacturer's name a higher market profile.

Marketing goals tend to be considered more measurable, tangible and clear-cut compared to those of public
relations. The turnover of an organisation can be a prime indicator of the effectiveness of marketing. Public
relations, on the other hand, has to measure less tangible and measurable elements such as image, attitude,
perception and behaviour.

* The target public - Marketing deals primarily with three target groups - customers, wholesalers or retailers and

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competitors. The public relations public is, apart from these three areas, much more diversified, and includes the
media, stakeholders, employees, legislators, opinion- formers and special interest groups. Communication directed
at the public relations public may indirectly affect marketing target groups - and vice versa.

* The marketing versus public relations mix - The marketing mix includes product, price, place, promotion and
people. The public relations mix can range from editorial news to in-house magazines, film, public events,
literature, special functions, advertisements and other communication tools. The common supportive element
under the purview of public relations is publicity. Many marketers conveniently equate publicity with the sum total
of public relations.

Mazur, a scholar of public relations, has it that "Public relations is probably the least understood part of the
marketing mix, and yet it is undoubtedly one of the most powerful." Publicity actually refers to the free promotion
of a company's products and services in the media; this is only one of the elements in public relations, not the
total, as marketers tend to believe. Media coverage of items such as development or the introduction of new
products, falls under the realm of publicity. Public relations practitioners are usually adept at writing publicity
literature by virtue of their training and experience.

* Credibility: Publicity versus product advertisement - Publicity tools are varied. They include Press releases,
feature articles, Press conferences, media tours and media interviews, that may lead to getting free media
coverage. For conveying the same messages, publicity may carry higher credibility than product advertisement,
because as a news item, it may appear more objective. The third-party endorsement increases the credibility of
publicity and total public relations. Some estimates suggest that a message in an editorial has three times the
credibility of a similar message in an advertisement.

The drawback in using publicity is that there is no control over message and content, and it is not subject to
repetition. In product advertisement, however, the originator can have full control (within the limits of business
ethics and consumer law) over message and content. Advertisements can also be repeated, because space or air-
time have been paid for.

* Cost - Compared to advertising for marketing, public relations is remarkably inexpensive. Product public relations
using tools such as Press and feature releases are usually much cheaper than product advertisements. Though
product public relations tools require skill and knowledge, they can be done in-house, saving the cost of an external
consultant. In many instances, when a company needs to convey a message, using product public relations can
prove more cost-effective than product advertisements. An in-house executive may even be more knowledgeable
about the product and the environment in which they are promoted. This gives him an advantage over the external
advertising consultant in crafting messages about the products.

The use of advertisements - Both marketing and public relations may use advertisements. But advertisements for
marketing tend to project the image of the brand and products. Advertisements for public relations, on the other
hand, tend to project the image of a company. This may create a business environment for marketing.
Advertisements to project the image of a company are corporate or institutionalised advertising. Corporate
advertising may also indirectly support product advertising and vice- versa.

When the image of a company is positive, the target groups may be more supportive of its products. They may
become more receptive to the features of a product highlighted in product advertisements. However, there could
be cases in which corporate advertising is of no help at all in promoting a product. This happens when target
markets do not identify the product with the company.

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Persuasion and rhetoric - Both marketing and public relations can be persuasive and rhetorical. Although public
relations may be more informative in publicising a product, today, more and more practitioners resort to "scientific
persuasion". Grunig, a prominent public relations scholar, claims about 20 per cent of organisations in the US
employ scientific persuasion in public relations.

Influence - The influence of public relations stretches far beyond product marketing and into corporate strategy,
particularly where long- term decisions affecting the choice of markets, products, factory, locations or production
processes are concerned. The effects of marketing tend to be short-term or seasonal, those of public relations
long-term.

Adverse publicity - When a product has a fault widely known by a company's target markets, pursuing marketing
activities could be futile. The company may need to put marketing on hold and take remedial action; this effort
must be impressed upon target markets. This is where public relations comes in to restore the confidence of target
markets in the product, via publicity.

White, a distinguished public relations scholar, contends that public relations is complementary and corrective to
marketing. * The writer is a freelance public relations consultant. He holds a Bachelor of Mass Communications
(Public Relations) from Institut Teknologi MARA and an M.Sc. in Public Relations from the University of Stirling,
Scotland. He may be contacted at 03-412 6127 or 017-8805367. Part Two of this article will appear on Wednesday.

DETAILS

Publication title: New Straits Times; Kuala Lumpur

Pages: 01-EX

Number of pages: 0

Publication year: 1998

Publication date: May 16, 1998

Section: Appointments

Publisher: The New Straits Times Press (M) Berhad

Place of publication: Kuala Lumpur

Country of publication: Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur

Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--Malaysia

Source type: Newspapers

Language of publication: English

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 Document type: NEWSPAPER

ProQuest document ID: 266359945

Document URL: https://search.proquest.com/docview/266359945?accountid=87664

Copyright: Copyright New Straits Times Press, Ltd. May 16, 1998

Last updated: 2017-11-14

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