By Renée A. Prejean-Motanky

Many people don’t even know the difference between advertising and public relations! I’m not even sure that the difference is so clearly demarcated!

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

Perhaps one difference is that advertising makes it possible to use a lot of "edgy", eye-dazzling techniques to grab attention, while PR requires more subtlety…think of advertising as the college-aged freshman. He’s a party animal and he’s out to get attention. On the other hand, PR isn’t "the life of the party" and hardly ever stays out late. Advertising is so often "in your face" and those of us that are interested are normally aware of a company’s advertising campaigns, but how often are we familiar with the associated public relations activities?

Marketing focuses on products (or services), price, promotion and place (distribution); collectively referred to as the four "P’s". Public relations can be applied to every part of the marketing mix, of which advertising, the one the public are most familiar with is, but one ingredient. Public relations should be to the marketing practitioner, an integral part of the marketing mix. Advertising is more likely to succeed when prior public relations activity (also called market education) has created knowledge and understanding of the product or service being promoted. Public relations is the discipline which looks after reputation, with the aim of earning understanding and support and influencing opinion and behavior. It is the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between a business and its public(s).

But PR doesn’t stop there. The PR professional becomes a jack-of-all-trades…writing press releases, organizing news conferences and producing company newsletters. Many of us also function as the liaison between media and company while guiding internal communications as well.

There’s an entire list of functions PR pros assume, such as:

• Public speaking
• Being interviewed on radio/TV
• Attending conferences
• Exhibitions and trade shows
• Arranging press launches
• Organizing opening days or visits to plant and premises
• Coordinating studio location photography
• Crisis communications
• Acting as the client’s spokesperson
• Providing training to the client to be his/her own spokesperson
• Online PR
• Event management
• Research
• Evaluation
• Corporate identity
• Strategic planning

We’re like chameleons that adapt readily to any situation that arises. PR professionals are a lot like sponges. We absorb and learn everything possible about a client’s business and then become multi-tasking experts, handling several things at the same. Nothing can be allowed to slip through the cracks because all of these things can have an effect on the bottom line.

With today’s economic environment and continued pressure on debt, cash flow and profitability, companies need people who can make a measurable difference to the bottom line. PR professionals can certainly help.

When businesses seek justification for how their marketing dollar is spent public relations has an advantage over advertising in several key areas:

The most effective marketing strategy encompasses a comprehensive plan that includes a communications mix of marketing tools, that should include advertising and public relations. The two work hand-in-hand to produce desired results.

Today more savvy marketing professionals understand this. Public relations can almost be regarded as a bigger activity than advertising because it relates to all the communications of the total organization, whereas advertising, although it may cost more than public relations, is mainly limited to the marketing/sales function. It is wise business practice for public relations to work with advertising, rather than relying solely on advertising to break into a new market or to introduce a new and unknown product or service.

A number of new products have failed to sell simply because there is no build-up or market education and hence the advertising spend was a waste of money. Many small-medium business people (and some in larger corporations) think about marketing only in terms of advertising. Yet there are other elements which can make advertising more effective, or which in some situations can save that part of the budget entirely.

Recent research for AT&T has confirmed—not only do advertising and public relations each contribute separate benefits, the two disciplines can be even more effective if managed together. In fact, in periods of lighter advertising, public relations can compensate by supporting brand loyalty. Researchers concluded that advertising and public relations activity each has its own impact on consumers, and these impacts interact to influence perceptions, attitudes and behavior.

More than anything else, an organization’s news environment determines the impact of its advertising. Advertising may not be used by an organization but every organization is involved in public relations at some level. Public Relations embraces everyone and everything, whereas advertising is limited to selling and buying tasks such as promoting goods and services, buying supplies and recruiting staff. Public relations has to do with the total communications of an organization; it is therefore, more extensive and comprehensive than advertising.

On occasions, public relations may use advertising, which is why public relations is neither a form of advertising or a PART of advertising, but a crucial tool that cuts right across the marketing mix.