Un-blurring the Lines between Marketing, PR and Advertising

There’s often much confusion generated by the terms ‘marketing’, ‘PR’ and ‘advertising’.  To some, the three represent the same thing but to practitioners, it’s a very different story.

There is, of course, cross-over between the three disciplines.  Effective use of all three will invariably do wonders for stengthening the position of your business/brand in the marketplace.

Industry professional bodies explain the various fields of expertise as follows…

Marketing: Marketing is the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably – Chartered Institute of Marketing

Public Relations: Public relations is about reputation - the result of what you do, what you say and what others say about you – Chartered Institute of Public Relations

Advertising: Creates the most relevant and distinctive way of communicating in creative & media terms – Institute of Practitioners in Advertising

The Proud Parent Analogy
To help explain further, I have come up with a very simplistic analogy, in keeping with the ‘Family’ theme, which I’ve called ‘The Proud Parent Analogy’…

Marketing:

Public Relations:

 Advertising: