Tue 18 Aug 2009
76 per cent of businesses don’t know what PR is? Really?
Posted by Mike Bawden under Marketing
[3] Comments
James Hobday, CEO of pr2go, said that after talking to more than 500 UK-based business people, more than three out of four of them didn’t understand what PR is.
In an article that appeared on SocialMedia Today, Hobday said: “We’re not talking your average man in the street here, we’re talking marketing managers and directors of large businesses with multiple regional sites needing localised PR.”
Well, this isn’t too much of a surprise, is it?
After all, we’ve seen PR’s arguing over exactly “what” public relations is ever since the dawn of public relations. I’ve referred to it as a self-inflicted identity crisison more than one occasion. But truth be told, the whole Web 2.0 thing hasn’t helped clear the already-too-muddy waters.
PR is definitely something different now than it was just last year (or last week, for that matter). And the smart money says it will be different next year, too.
So, why is this news today?
Well, outside of the USA (especially), there are still fairly well-defined lines that keep the ad agencies and PR firms apart. So, in the UK, this kind of revelation can be particularly alarming to an already overly-paranoid and self-conscious profession.
More importantly, this ought to serve as a wake-up call to a complete shift in how marketing service firms need to position what they do for clients. Whether it’s working a news story, creating an ad, implementing a corporate social responsibility program or managing your brand’s online presence – it’s all marketing. Who cares what box it fits into?
What’s really important is that the discipline employed to communicate the brand’s values and key messages is correctly deployed on behalf of the client. Commercials can (and should) be entertaining and make an emotional connection – but they should tell the story and sell the brand; not just puff up somebody’s ego and win awards for the agency’s mantle.
By the same token a PR program should educate, inform and engage the consumer in a way that drives him (or her) to action. Action of a kind that can be measured. A result that can be felt.
If clients or their marketing service agencies don’t think about what kind of responses will spell “success” in the end, then any kind of marketing communication (PR, advertising, online, sales promotion … whatever) won’t make a difference.
And then who cares if you know what it is, or not?
3 Responses to “ 76 per cent of businesses don’t know what PR is? Really? ”
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August 19th, 2009 at 1:08 pm[...] 76 per cent of businesses don’t know what PR is? Really? [...]
August 18th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
PR is evolving along with the world’s constantly changing networking technology, and that also adds to the ambiguity of its definition. Plus, people are usually likely to discount emerging technologies if they don’t know anything about them. So, part of PR’s job is to educate the world about the definition of PR — which means we’ve got our work cut out for us!
August 18th, 2009 at 3:43 pm
But I suppose that’s my point. Why should we waste the breath trying to explain what PR is when it really doesn’t matter anyway. The client needs to best strategic thought and creative output they can get – who cares what it’s called. From my perspective, PR people are just too concerned with establishing their own legitimacy when – apparently – doesn’t really matter to the client as long as things work out in the end.