Kevin Carr asks “PR vs. Marketing: Is it time to re-write the manual?”

13/01/12

Is PR a form of marketing, or is marketing a form of PR?

In the knowledge that we’ll never get everyone to agree let’s begin with the premise that PR is a form of marketing. After all, that’s what all the books tell us.

But, the ‘public’ is everyone and ‘relations’ are everything. So shouldn’t it be the other way around?

I’ve thought this for many years. I’ve also thought that not every marketing manager out there ‘gets’ PR while many PRs get marketing.

The issue becomes ever more valid with the development of social media. PR has always been about communicating positively with the public, which is everyone, and social media is fast becoming one of the quickest ways to communicate. Whether or not it sits within the press office, the marketing department or customer services depends largely on the individual organisation, its product and its audience. What is becoming clear, however, is that it must sit somewhere, because without ‘listening’ to what is out there most marketing efforts are unlikely to be as successful as they could be.

Some multi-national companies have full-time social media employees, and one even has a CLO – Chief Listening Officer.

‘Listening’ is about knowing everything that is being said about your market, your company and its products – and who by. It’s about being aware of everything being said on social networking sites and blogs – then understanding it and acting on it.

It’s not all about what you/we want to say anymore, it’s about what they want to hear, which arguably makes the role of PR within the marketing mix more important than ever, especially if good PR is more cost-effective than traditional marketing or advertising when budgets are tight. Because that’s how PR has always worked: The answer is yes, what’s the question.

Some companies are now prioritising complaints made via social media sites ahead of those made directly by phone or email. They do this for two very good reasons. Firstly, a traditional complaint is private in that unless you tell someone about it nobody else knows except you and them. This is changing. A complaint made via social media is instantly spread to 100s or even 1000s of people. Secondly, if that company can impress you and fix your problem quickly you might just say so. Most people accept that things will occasionally go wrong but when a company cares enough to fix it quickly most people will think more of that company as a result. Thus overall this practice could turn complaints into new customers within hours, if not minutes.

Despite decades of claims to the contrary the financial services industry has lots of good news to put out there including paid claims, investment performance, new products and deals etc – we just don’t tend to tell people what we do well often enough or well enough.

And talking of positive endorsements, a modern company’s greatest asset is its people. If they are happy and engaged about what the company does the chances are they will promote it. So think twice before banning all forms of social media. It’s not just about who had what for breakfast. In fact, it never has been. That’s just a myth. Social media sites such as Twitter are not replacing face to face, phone or email communication, at least not yet. They are simply a new way of communicating in addition to what already exists.

Ah, but what about measurement? Its early days but the resources are out there. More importantly while we can ponder the potential return of investment all week long, the better question might just be who is thinking about the return of ignorance?

So for me, marketing is an excellent form of PR. But times are a changing and it’s not the only one.

Kevin Carr is Managing Director of Kevin Carr Consulting and Chief Executive of Protection Review

Kevin Carr asks “PR vs. Marketing: Is it time to re-write the manual?”

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