Is there really a difference between Marketing and PR?

The answer is both yes and no.

Yes, there is a difference in the manner in which marketing and public relations professionals look at an issue. Marketers tend to focus on the 4 P’s (product, price, place, promotion), target market, and ROI. PR professionals focus on building relationships with people, hence the ‘relations’ in public relations.

Marketers focus on what is the object or cause du jour and who specifically will want it. How they will tell them about it, where they will convey the information and what the call to act is (either purchase or support). Marketers focus on the return on investment and are concerned about the budget and through the budget the bottom line of the organization.

Public relations is focused on building relationships with key stakeholders (which can be the public). They have a cause du jour and come up with press releases, news releases, media releases, newsletters, blog posts, social media tweets/posts/items, events, etc. to send their message to specific key stakeholder.

In many organizations these functions are separate, marketers do marketing and PR does relationship building.

But are they really so different?

Marketing might involve advertising and product launches and PR creates media relations events and social media entries. But, really both groups are using different tactics to do the same function:

Convey meaning

How Many Facebook Friends do you have? I would guess that the average for a reader of this blog would be between 75 and 500. But, are they really your friends? When was the last time you spent time with them in the same physical space? Are they really only an acquaintance or are they all ‘close friends’?

What is a Friend?

According to wikipedia the definition of a friend is: a person that someone likes or knows. People who are friends talk to each other and spend time together. They also help each other when they are in trouble. Friends are people that can be looked up to and trusted. A friend is one who admires a person’s skill and helps or encourages them to make the right choices.

This seems like it covers all the bases of what a friend is: someone you like, talk to and spend time with. Someone helpful, trusted, and encouraging.

 Is a friend only someone you see in the ‘real’ world?

Looking at all of your facebook friends, how many of them have you seen in the physical world in the past week? month? year? 10 years? longer?

Stop and think about that for a minute. How many of your Facebook friends have you not seen in years?

My guess would be that their are quite a few. Amongst your facebook friends, there are likely high school friends who you have not seen since graduation or reunion, there are the college or university peers, that you haven’t seen since your group project finished. Then there are family members who live far away, that you only see at family reunions, weddings, or funerals. Among other ways you met or interacted with these so called friends.

But, does this matter? Do you have to spend time in the physical world for these Facebook friends to be friends?

No, you don’t have to spend time in the real / physical world for these facebook friends to be real friends. You can have friends that are only virtual, whether through facebook or another online medium, such as a forum, message board, or video game. These people who you talk to online can be someone trusted, helpful, and encouraging. Friendship is not confined to physical space.

Are Facebook friends really just acquaintances?

An acquaintance is someone you know but do not consider to be a friend. You may know them but they have not been elevated to the level of friend. This could include someone you met online in a forum or facebook group, or someone you met in real life at a networking event. But, for whatever reason they have become your Facebook friend.

My guess is you have at least one person who is a facebook friend but is only an acquaintance to you. They are not someone you spend time with or trust with information that is mildly personal, however they are your facebook friend.

How can this be? They are not your friend by the definition and yet they are included amongst your closest friends who you would ask advise from on a very personal matter. Does this mean that you should unfriend them?

No, there is room in Facebook for friends and merely acquaintances. Acquaintances can still be people you talk to and spend time with online, so they are a Facebook friend. Facebook lets you decide what information different groups of people receive about you. This way if you have a personal tragedy that you want to let your friends now about you can restrict it to not be sent to anyone but your closest friends.

Facebook friends are on a continuum. From the contact you met on an online forum or at a networking event to your very best friend.

A Facebook friend does not necessarily equal a friend, however it all depends on the someone that you are referring to, they could be both. 

Are you my Facebook friend? If not you can subscribe or friend me at https://www.facebook.com/staplejulie. And, who knows you and I may become more than merely Facebook friends!

-Julie

This is the first time that I will be doing this exercise. I will post updates throughout the year on my progress.

My Three Words: 

 Gentle

I want to be kinder to myself in 2013. 2012 was a year of many struggles: I finished my marketing degree, worked on an academic paper, had major water damage in my house, and developed a stress fracture in my ankle from too much running!

In 2013, I want to give myself time to heal, both my broken bone and my spirit. I know that marketing is what I want to do but I realize now that I pushed myself very hard to get the highest grades possible while in school and need to be gentle with myself more.

 Quality

I want all of my actions and work to be of quality in 2013. To me this means that I will always strive to have high quality/caliber work.

But, I also want to have quality time. Time that is more than reading facebook updates of people who are no longer close to me, or gossip columns, or similar. I want to be conscious of where I focus my time because one spends time on what they deem most important whether they intent it that way or not!

Unflinch

This word is inspired by Julien Smith and his ebook The Flinch.

Let me explain, flinching is that gut feeling that stops you from following through on an action. It keeps you from danger…or from meeting new people.

This year, I don’t want my flinch to hold me back from anything!
These are not resolutions or goals in and of themselves. They are words of focus, meaning and direction. So, I am hopeful that they are not as easily broken as resolutions!

Do you use areas of focus or goal setting for the New Year? Or, is it just another day in paradise for you?

- Julie

If we look to the almighty wikipedia, Marketing is:

the process of communicating the value of a product or service to customers. Marketing might sometimes be interpreted as the art of selling products, but selling is only a small fraction of marketing. As the term “Marketing” may replace “Advertising” it is the overall strategy and function of promoting a product or service to the customer.

Really? Is this what Marketing is?

If we look at just the first sentence “communicating the value of”. If I wanted to communicate the value of something to you, my first thought is what does it cost? To many people value is interchangeable with cost. If it costs more than it is perceived to have more value. I can purchase a product, say a T-shirt from Walmart or from Holt Renfrew. They would both fulfill the same purpose of clothing my body, but the cost (and arguable the value) would be different.

So – is marketing communicating value/cost?

Let us continue…the second sentence states “Marketing might sometimes be interpreted as the art of selling products”. In essence some believe marketing is selling and selling is marketing. Selling is the art of convincing you to change your current status in some way – generally by making a purchase.

Is marketing just selling?

Let’s continue: ”the term ‘Marketing’ may replace ‘Advertising’ “. Interesting, so these words and terms are also interchangeable. Advertising is the art of producing a compelling work that will initiate a response in an audience, this could be a print ad in a newspaper or on a billboard, a 30-second television ad or an advertorial in a magazine.

Wait – is marketing just advertising?

The answer to all of these questions is yes and no. Marketing can do all of these things, but it can also do so much more:

Marketing is:

• an amazing human ability – because you don’t see fish marketing anything!
• to convey meaning – communicating, selling, advising, enlightening….
• in unique ways – advertising, press releases, advertorials, pitches….

Marketing is so many things that in many ways it has lost it’s meaning. If you search in google for marketing, you receive more than 2 billion “hits”. There are also many catch-phrases in marketing: content marketing, word of mouth marketing, B2B marketing, B2C marketing, direct marketing, digital marketing, offline marketing, inbound marketing, email marketing, guerrilla marketing, and viral marketing. What do these all have in common:

an amazing human ability to convey meaning in unique ways!

So, what is marketing to you?

- Julie

Wow, it is amazing to me that my time at Mount Royal University will officially end tomorrow at Convocation. I started my degree at Mount Royal in September 2009, with a lot of trepidation. As a mature (I really hate that word) student I had a different perspective than some of my classmates, I wanted to learn as much as I could in the short time I would be there. I had the wonderful privilege to learn from a great group of professors, who care about their students and want to see them succeed. And, I now count a few of them as friends.

What is my next step?

In part this website. I wanted a place where I could share my views on marketing, communications, digital, etc. I am not sure exactly which direction the content will go, but we can figure that out together (feedback is always welcome). As the tagline above states, I define marketing as an amazing human ability to convey meaning in unique ways. There are different types of marketing, and different jargon, such as inbound, outbound, content, social media, digital, mobile, B2C, B2B, etc. I could go on but to me they are all similar, they are all ways to convey meaning. This is my current philosophy. Will this change? It could, but I have a love of marketing and communications; and change is a good thing, it means your growing!

It is an exciting time to be in this space, and I hope that I can provide value to you, the reader. However, this is my first website and blog, so please provide critiques and suggestions on everything you read or see here.

- Julie