Advertising or Public Relations?

by Steve Fodor

I’ve had the good fortune to work on both sides of the street in this debate. There always seems to be two kinds of people: Advertising and Public Relations people. PR people think advertising is a waste of money. Advertising people think PR is a substitute for not having enough advertising dollars. I even once heard someone say, “The difference between advertising and PR is that you pay for advertising and you pray for PR.”

Well, there’s some truth in that statement. With advertising, you have complete control over where and how many times your message is seen. You also have control over exactly what your message is. I don’t buy the argument that “advertising is not credible.” If you feel this way about advertising, I would suggest that you have a brand problem; not an advertising problem.

Public relations, on the other hand, does carry implied credibility because it’s the word of the media; not a paid advertiser. Public relations can change perceptions. PR can launch new products that may seem “unbelievable” if launched with advertising alone. PR can motivate public concern and participation in a cause. And, perhaps its most valuable role, PR can “manage” the public perception of your company’s brand.

There’s no “one” answer to the question of advertising or PR as a marketing strategy, though I get asked the question of “which strategy should we use” quite a lot. It’s even worse to think or say that, “we have a small budget, so we can only do PR.” Having worked on both sides of the street, I can say with experience it’s ideal to use both in your marketing mix to support a clearly defined and meaningful brand message.

There’s no one, simple answer to defining your marketing mix. But, a carpenter always has more than one tool in their tool box. A good carpenter knows which tool to use and when.

Flickr Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lamees-y/