A: Few do not know about the value of advertising, but many underestimate the importance of PR in our marketing strategies. PR is part of the four 'P's of marketing- Promotion. Good PR can actually help your business in many ways by putting it into the limelight, and most importantly, in recent years it has been shown that public relations is now by far the most effective way to build a brand.
In advertising, you pay to present your own advertisement exactly the way you deem fit to your target audience. But because advertising is solely determined by the advertiser himself, consumers tend to view advertising with a skeptical eye. With PR, however, things are different. PR relies on journalists, editors and producers to communicate your message to their audiences using their own style and words. And because the source is from a generally credible source (the press and other media vehicles), the public tends to trust their words more, hence enhancing your marketing efforts. Well-known brands like The Body Shop, PlayStation and Harry Potter spend litle on brand-name advertising, yet their sales have been extremely noteworthy. An additional benefit of PR (which advertising fails to deliver) is establishing your company's executives and managerial team as experts in their own respective field through the publicity that your PR programme generates for you.
Potential advantages of public relations over advertising:
- Well-crafted and well-implemented, public relations initiatives can succeed at a fraction of the cost of advertising.
- Public relations can be used to reach very specific, highly defined audiences
- Advertising is deemed to be purely serving the marketing motives of the advertiser, while a message through the general media tends to be perceived to be credible and objective. If you are able to establish good media relations through your PR programme, your chances of building up a good public image for your brand will be much higher than if you were to resort to advertising itself.
- Public relations can be used to communicate a variety of messages to your target audiences. These include (but are not restricted to) branding, crisis management, news of immediate interest, etc.
In all, the bottom line is- if you wish to succeed, be sure to employ good PR to help you in your marketing strategy. Be careful of making the mistake that PR is unnecessary and that advertising alone can help you achieve your marketing objectives. Good PR, if employed well, can sometimes even take the place of advertising, and the best part? It costs a lot less too.
