Renee A. Prejean-Motanky is a writer and strategic marketing and communications management professional and consultant. Contact her directly at RAPWrites@aol.com.

Advice and Perspective

(Published July, 2004)

PR Adds Value to Integrated Marketing

an interview with Thomas L. Harris

By Renée A. Prejean-Motanky

Thomas L. Harris, who recently received the 2004 Lifetime Achievement Award at PCC Golden Trumpet Awards Ceremony, is a public relations management consultant (Thomas L. Harris & Co.) with more than 30 years of public relations and advertising experience. He created and taught the first graduate course in marketing public relations as well as the Integrated Campaigns course (how PR and all other disciplines work together) for the Integrated Marketing Communications Department of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. His tenure there spanned 14 years.

Among numerous other distinctions, Harris was designated one of the "100 Most Influential Public Relations People of the 20th Century" by PR Week magazine.

The Marketer’s Guide to Public Relations, written by Thomas L. Harris and published by John Wiley & Sons in 1991, is still MUST reading for marketing practitioners in their search for new ways to win the minds and hearts of consumers, though its author insisted that is "dated." Harris is currently writing a new edition of this work. Philip Kotler, professor of marketing at the J.S. Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University said in the book’s forward; "Tom Harris may have not only written the first book on marketing and public relations, but the classic."

Over the years, Harris has done more than anyone else to explain how public relations should be an important element in the marketing process. He is an acclaimed guru and I was honored to have him agree to an interview for Advice and Perspective this month.

The esteemed author, teacher and practitioner had much to share.

DATELINE: In your book, Value Added Public Relations, you refer to PR as the secret weapon of Integrated Marketing. What do you mean by that?

I debated about whether to use that because it’s really not so secret anymore. Advertising is less efficient than it used to be by itself and everyone realizes that. They’re, therefore, driven to use other modes of communication to reach the public. Today it (PR) is part of the job . . . In this over-communicated, media-saturated world, it’s impossible to reach everyone using one method. And not only is PR more economical, it is often more effective.

Integrated Marketing Communications may be news, but it is certainly not new. Why do you believe that IMC has finally earned its rightful place at the Business table?

The fact of the matter is that PR brings something to the mix that no other component does and that’s credibility. Someone else endorsing your product carries much more weight with the public than if you buy space to say how great you are.

In your book, The Marketer’s Guide to Public Relations, you state you believe that businesses are now focusing on what customers want to know rather than on what they (businesses) want to tell customers in order to sell them. Can you elaborate?

Funny you should mention that . . . I’m currently working on a new edition called The New Marketer’s Guide to Public Relations! Like first edition, it’s directed primarily to marketers (the first, however, introduced the concepts of using PR, while the new edition is to help marketers use PR more effectively).

Manufacturers recognize that what people want has become more individualized. There is a much greater variety of goods than there was before.

Why?

Because manufacturers are now looking at a differentiated market. Consumers are viewed as individuals rather than as a mass market. Now we can now very easily direct messages to individuals in a very personal way using the Internet.

One of your colleague’s, Don Schultz, in his book on the "New" PR states that Integrated Marketing Communication is a deceptively simple idea. You say that IMC is SYNERGY. What does "synergy" mean in marketing?

In the old days, advertising agencies did advertising, PR agencies did PR, sales people did sales, but no one thought about coordinating all of these components strategically for a mutually beneficial outcome. Putting them together is synergy . . .

Why is "synergy" so important?

It makes an entire campaign that much more effective. It ensures that the message is the same no matter what the source.

Where does the Integrated Marketing Communications process begin?

All too often, it still begins with an advertising concept. In my opinion, when businesses lean on advertising agencies to come up with concepts, 90% of the effort is wasted! Ad agencies are trying hard to grab attention and whether the consumer carries away any reason to buy the product is almost secondary. Rarely do you see a commercial that actually tells you WHY you should by the product. The first objective (often an end in itself) is to get your attention. I wonder how did they sell this to the client and get them to put good money behind it.

When should a marketer rely on PR in the IMC process and when on advertising?

Smart marketing people look for good ideas regardless of the source and there are certainly many instances where Public Relations drove the campaign and where advertising came in much later when it was needed. PR people face limitations to what they can do if they don’t have a newsworthy product.

Generally, PR is good for REACH and advertising is good for FREQUENCY.

Are there a series of tried and true steps that you would recommend to derive the "great" strategy?

The first thing I’d do is take a marketing course. The more you know about marketing, the better. . . . it’s important to be research based whether you’re launching the program or not. The message comes out of knowing what people are interested in and how to connect your product with their interests. More research is being done by PR pros now.

You can share your research with the ad agency and you may get a different take on it, but at least you’ll all be on the same page.

PR builds brands and advertising maintains them.

In many of the articles I’ve written, I’ve talked about reputation and credibility and using PR as a key tool for managing those things in business. Can you speak about how PR closes the credibility gap for corporations and why?

One of the interesting things that PR does is make the company the hero through its leader, more so than necessarily every product that’s made by the company. So (through PR) people know what the company stands for and of its reputation, no matter what the product(s) it makes. I think Steve Jobs is a master at presenting a new product story to the media, because he let’s them participate and they think he’s cool. He invites them into his "secret laboratory" to witness the unveiling and orchestrates it as news.

When you have news it is possible to orchestrate and call your shots. Another great example is what Bill Clinton’s PR team is doing with his book.

We’ve all heard the term "Target Marketing PR" . . . Can you explain it?

I read a fascinating article by David Brooks in last week’s NY Times where he talks about this--the breakdown between republicans and democrats who’re in same elite category as far as income and education are concerned, but they’re quite different in terms of their ideologies–This exemplifies exactly what it means. It is demographic targeting; individual, person-to- person marketing; psychographic (age, race, ethnicity) targeting; taking "LIFESTYLES," education, economics, all those factors, into account.

Before closing, I’d like for you to share some wisdom with me and the members of PCC regarding Return on Investment. PR seems to have earned its place at the business roundtable, but more and more, PR professionals are being asked to provide this kind (ROI) of data as a measure of credibility for our work. Historic means of quantification (# of impressions and comparable value as compared to advertising rates, for one example) are no longer considered valid measures. What are some of the new tools and metrics that PR professionals might familiarize themselves with to measure and present ROI to their clients?

I would suggest that there are measures of:

• awareness

• attitude change

• predisposition to try a new product

• actual sales

Measuring sales, however, has always been a problem and it’s more of problem with integrated marketing because it’s harder to determine exactly what stimulated sales (advertising or PR), but the truth of the matter is that it doesn’t matter. What’s more important is that the INTEGRATED plan is working!

I talk about a great example of this in my new book: Viagra had no advertising for 2 or 3 years yet it was the largest selling pharmaceutical product in the world. This was all because of the PR that was done for it.

I could have gone on for at least another hour with Mr. Harris, but he was losing his voice and had a schedule to adhere to, so with regret I ended the interview.

Mr. Harris made it very clear is that marketing efforts must be more than a disconnected series of tasks. Effective marketing is not a single activity, but a well choreographed effort that takes planning, consistency, and fortitude to accomplish.

Today’s definitions for businesses make it clear that Public Relations is a critical element in Integrated Marketing. Many of us are being charged with the challenge of figuring out the right "mix" for our clients in this environment. The mass market has fragmented and consumers are better educated, more skeptical and less vulnerable to slick advertising.

Times have changed!

(Renée A. Prejean-Motanky is a writer and strategic marketing and communications management professional. She currently works as a consultant in the Chicago area. You can contact her directly at RAPWrites@aol.com.)

(Renee A. Prejean-Motanky is a writer and strategic marketing and communications management professional. She currently works as a consultant in the Chicago area. You can contact her directly at RAPWrites@aol.com.)

[Return to top.]

(Index to articles about monthly luncheons)