Excerpts from the book:
What is advertising?
Advertising is any paid for communication intended to inform and/or influence one or more people. Free publicity, such as an interview on a radio station, is normally considered public relations and is not an advertisement even if it leads to an increase in sales. The distinguishing feature of ‘advertising’ is that it is paid for. Every advertisement is designed to convey a message – if there is no message there is no advertisement. There has to be a message, however brief, as well as a medium through which it is conveyed. Marketing, being much broader than advertising, involves virtually everything that takes place before the sale including product pricing, positioning and decisions regarding distribution. Promotional advertising is aimed directly at sales (exchanges of value between parties). Other types of advertising are image advertising (major corporates often invest in building a positive image within a community) and informational advertising (a government might inform citizens about their rights on some issue).
What is marketing?
Marketing is a way of thinking about business. Effective marketing is often described as ‘making what you can sell’ rather than ‘selling what you can make’. Businesses that sell what they can make are product led. Marketing smart companies make what they can sell. They are customer led. Marketing is the process which links producers and consumers by enabling exchange transactions to take place to the mutual and continuing benefit of both parties. Marketing is often confused with publicity, advertising and promotion but these are just elements of marketing which play a more or less important role in different situations. Sales are normally the result of marketing but selling itself is quite distinct from marketing.
What is public relations?
Public relations (PR) is the management of communication between an organization and its public. Put simply, it’s communicating your key messages to the various stakeholders that are affected, influenced or impacted by your organization. Many people equate public relations with publicity in the media. This is an incorrect assumption. Media coverage is the result of only one aspect of public relations – there are many other effective public relations tools that do not involve mainstream media. Public relations involves communicating with your public or your target audience using the best medium to reach them. For example, some managers believe that coverage in the Wall Street Journal is the epitome of good publicity. However, if you actually want to target local businesses which spend more time reading the local paper or small business publications, your efforts are not focused on the best medium for your target market. In some cases, mainstream media coverage - print, television or radio - is appropriate. In other cases, a better approach may be through other public relations tools such as newsletters, niche publications, direct correspondence, information seminar series or informal meetings. |
