PR or Marketing: does the client know the difference?

So what is the difference between PR and marketing in business? I’ve been in the PR business in Chester for nigh on 20 years and on a good day I might consider myself as a PR professional! But ask me to give you a definitive explanation of the difference between the two and I’d be flummoxed!

I run a public relations and marketing Chester based agency, in Cheshire. It used to be called de Winter Marketing but I discovered over several years that many potential clients were put off by the word ‘marketing’. For some, it evokes images of slick, smart-suited, fast-talking, thrusting young executives spouting jargon. To be fair, there’s a lot of it about, even in PR circles!!

I tweaked my brand to include ‘PR’ – de Winter PR & Marketing. Some people start off thinking it’s marketing they need; others go out looking for PR. I reckoned that if I included both, I wouldn’t put off anyone too early!

I guess they make that judgment on the basis of what they’ve ever read or heard rather than from any real knowledge or understanding.

My dictionary defines ‘marketing’ as “The business of selling goods.” I think it should have said ‘goods and services’.

The definition for ‘public relations’ reads: “The practice of creating, promoting or maintaining goodwill and a favourable image among the public towards an institution, public body etc.” I think that should also include the words ‘goods and services’.

Can you see any major differences emerging yet? I can’t!

If a business or individual has quality goods and services and is good at selling them, it will automatically generate goodwill and a favourable image for the business or individual. By the same token, generating goodwill and a favourable image for the business is likely to make its goods and services more desirable.

Marketing can include PR and vice versa. It seems to me that at their essence, marketing and PR are one and the same! They’re terms for the industry, not the consumer. What it all boils down to is communication and the techniques you choose as most appropriate for achieving a client’s objective or aspiration.

The de Winter PR & Marketing team has done it all over the last two decades from its base in Chester, Cheshire! It might be a media campaign, advertising, newsletters, internal communications, a website, events, display materials, signage, brochures and leaflets, point of sale or direct marketing – whatever it takes, and whatever is most appropriate to get the right messages to the right target audience in the right style, at the right time and using the right medium!!

So let’s not get too hung up on whether a client needs marketing or PR. What the client needs is results!