PR Is Not A Subset of Marketing
Robert Minton-Taylor FCIPR FHEA
Visiting Fellow, Leeds Beckett University. Governor, Airedale NHS Foundation Trust. Fellow, CIPR. Member, PR & Communications Council, PRCA. Inset pic: Me with my saviour, oncologist Dr Ganesan Jeyasangar.
I have spent 50 years in the public relations (PR) industry as a practitioner - 24 of those years also involved teaching the subject in a university business school.
During that time I worked on 100+ clients regionally, nationally and globally in sectors as diverse as art galleries to airlines, credit card companies to car makers, hotels to hospitals and shipping lines to supermarkets.
It really bugs me when people tell me that PR is just a subset of marketing, because it isn't. When I came across this distinction of the two disciplines from Scott Samson, founder and CEO of SamsonPR, a B2B tech PR agency in the USA, I thought yes, Mr Samson you have really defined these two disciplines superbly.
This is in essence what Samson said in an article in Forbes in March 2021. (The fully article is referenced at the end of these quotes)?:
“While there are many similarities (between PR and marketing), there are also crucial ways in which these two communication strategies diverge.
“And by thinking PR as an extension of marketing, CEOs and chief marketing officers can weaken and destroy their own brand.”
Samson went on to say in the article: “While both marketing and PR have similar processes, they each have a unique differentiator when it comes to the end goal. What it comes down to is what part of the sales funnel they directly engage with and the areas of your business they support.
?“For marketers, the end goal is typically to generate leads. A great marketing campaign can send sales opportunities right to the bottom of the funnel and drive conversions.
“Thinking that PR exists to drive conversions in the same way that marketing does is missing the larger picture. PR is a marathon, not a sprint.
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?“It's a long-term process that drives the credibility of your company and the visibility of your executives. PR does help amplify your marketing efforts. However, that's only a fraction of the true benefit. PR is most effective when it is given time to build real relationships between the media and your brand, between the media and your executives — with momentum building over time.
And this is where I think Samson absolutely nails the distinction between marketing and public relations:
“Thinking that PR exists to drive conversions in the same way that marketing does is missing the larger picture. PR is a marathon, not a sprint.
?“It's a long-term process that drives the credibility of your company and the visibility of your executives. PR does help amplify your marketing efforts. However, that's only a fraction of the true benefit.
?“PR is most effective when it is given time to build real relationships between the media and your brand, between the media and your executives — with momentum building over time.
?“PR isn't just a marketing function; it supports all areas of your business if done right. Brand equity and visibility are critical to the survival of any business. This is something Bill Gates understands, as he famously said: "If I was down to my last dollar, I'd spend it on public relations."
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? Source: Scott Samson, founder and CEO of SamsonPR. (2021). The Difference Between Marketing And PR — And Why It Matters. [Online]. Forbes. Last Updated: 21 March 2021. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2021/03/10/the-difference-between-marketing-and-p [Accessed 23 February 2023].