Understanding the Differences between Public Relations and Marketing

Public relations and marketing are related to each other. Most of the people are confused between the two terms. However, the terms are not similar. They are totally different. Marketing is defined as the process of selling or promoting a specific product or service. On the other hand, public relations are used to build effective interaction between the public and the organization. It is the process of promoting the image and publicity of the company and its services by developing a positive attitude in people about the company. Or, we can say, that marketing is applied to a specified product while public relations specify the entire organization. It is a much greater concept.

Another major difference is the cost. PR is free of cost while marketing is the process which involves huge expenses. Most of the companies hire a team of marketing people and fix their target that provides a great help in promoting the business. PR skills are included within the marketing skills. People involved in marketing are given fixed salary and all other facilities that are provided to other employees of the company. Expenses are required for making a campaign or other resources required by marketing people. Public relations do not need any funds and they are free of cost. They use tools like newspapers, social media, print outlets, journals etc. for promoting sales that do not involve much cost.

Secondly, the basic motive of both marketing and PR are different. The main purpose of marketing is sales while the main purpose of public relations is building trust and effective communication.

Marketing is something like spin, which molds the thinking of people in such a way that they purchase the product. They know all the techniques for influencing people with all angles. PR on the other hand, is straight. It does not involve any kind of non-sense. The promotion tools used are generally newspapers, television, radio etc. that are free of cost and does not involve any kind of spin. The main importance lies in the content written to be published in newspapers or through speech.

Another difference is over the control of marketing and PR over companies. Marketing have full control over the companies while public relations gain controls only when there is a press release in the company or story release. In that case, the public relations are used to expand the press release so that more and more number of individuals comes to know about it.

Apart from the differences, these terms overlap each other and have few similarities. Effective measures should be taken so that both marketing and public relations goes side by side within an organization. Both of them are complimentary and contribute to success of any organization.

 Value 360 Communications is a full service PR Agency in Delhi delivering on client's brand & image reputation, visibility and preference goals on a local and national level.