- Jan 29, 2018

The Difference Between PR, Marketing, and Advertising… (With a “DAB” of Similarities)

Public relations is a planned process to influence the public opinion, through sound character and proper performance. This is done by a two-way communication that is mutually satisfactory. Marketing, in my own words, is selling a product using different devices to properly promote the product. Lastly, advertisement is the method used during marketing. These key terms are similar in some way or form, for example, advertisement is an aspect of marketing. However, there are some differences in each field of communication. One of the main differences between the three forms would be the financial aspect of each factor. For example, in public relations a company, organization, or even a famous person would not directly pay someone who deals with their relation to the public. In contrast, one who deals with advertisement will ask to be paid up front to promote a company’s product. In the marketing field, research shows that they are seven methods of properly marketing.

According to Jeremy Bradley’s article, Seven Functions of Marketing, these functions are market research, financing, pricing, distribution, product and service management, promotion and lastly, selling. Marketing requires more research than advertisement. One will have to know their target audience when selling the product before they advertise. For example, if a company was selling a children’s toy, like a monster truck, they would most likely advertise on Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, and Disney channel. This is due to those networks being kid networks.

Public relations are more than media relations, whereas marketing and advertisement must develop media relations to progress. Public relations include event planning, crisis communication, evaluation and much more. While they all care about the client, public relations value the client and opinion of the public. Advertisement may lie in their commercial to make the product seem more appealing. Public relations, on the contrary, demands for persons to be honest. According to John Lister, public relations is known to be more credible with an audience due to its independent media. A similar aspect advertising and public relations share are the branding of a company. This is an essential part in the PR and advertising community.