The Melody of Marketing, Public Relations & Advertising – And Why Your Brand Needs All Three!
If your day-to-day job doesn’t directly involve frequent marketing, public relations and advertising, you may be wondering – what’s the difference? While all three are often executed by the same teams or communications consultants, each sector has a unique role in orchestrating the melody of your brand! We’ll use the fictitious scenario of getting a music artist to come to Lancaster, Ohio city for a benefit concert. One of my favorites is Garth Brooks – so we’ll use Garth as our star to set the stage.
Standing Outside the Fire
“You know a dream is like a river, ever changin’ as it flows! ”
- GARTH BROOKS
Let’s say I want to Garth to visit Lancaster to hold a benefit concert for one of my favorite causes – rescue animal adoption shelters! (Wouldn’t that be cool?!) We would need to intertwine marketing, advertising and PR to make it happen:
Marketing – As Garth sings it best – The River! Marketing is the river that flows to get your messaging ‘out there’ in organic and paid initiatives; reaching your target audience through the right platforms at the right time. Marketing sums up all the efforts it would take to get Garth to town for a concert to support fundraising for animal shelters. Marketing plans are structured but fluid, adjusting to the flow of your intended direction.
Advertising – the physical messages people see, best executed with a call to action to make a purchase or acquire your services. Advertising is the action-oriented subset of marketing – in our example, a billboard announcing the concert, or the Facebook ads promoting ticket sales.
Think of the 1997 hit - ‘Two Pina Coladas’ - when Garth sings – “I was watching the news, when this fella came on the TV, He said I'm tellin' you, that science has proven, that heartaches are healed by the sea; that got me goin', without even knowin', I packed right up and drove down!”
Public Relations – All initiatives involved in sparking long-term relationships with key audiences – media, customers and stakeholders. PR is about a brand in the right spotlight. It’s story telling - like an entire album; when one song ends, you keep listening to hear the rest of the artist’s story through a new tune with the same voice.
Think of your favorite music artist – chances are, any song they release is one you enjoy, because you can’t get enough of their brand - you keep coming back for more, buying albums, concert tickets and memorabilia. That’s the goal of PR – establishing life-long, loyal fans.
What She’s Doin’ Now
The lines of marketing and public relations continue to blur with new technologies, tactics and industries. However, there are some different efforts that classify marketing versus public relations. While your marketing and advertising mix will change month to month or year to year, public relations lasts through the lifespan of the brand.
PR examples are:
A press release about the benefit concert with the artist, the cause and the mission
Messaging points to use in advertising, promoting, and spreading the word about the show
Marketing examples are:
Brainstorming, creating or launching a campaign. Advertising would be implementing social media ads to promote ticket sales
Creating an e-newsletter to share the word about the event
Conducting marketing research. After the show – looking back at the success of the communications initiatives to serve as a plan for similar future events!
Wrapped Up in YOUR BRAND
The best way to know where to start is to review your organizational goals:
What are you trying to accomplish?
What is the timeline?
Who are you trying to reach?
Are you establishing a brand, or promoting a new product?
With the right mix of marketing, public relations and advertising, your audience will be wrapped up in your brand for your new product or service releases, and will continue coming back again and again to support what you’re all about.