media

Should public relations be part of marketing?

Should public relations be part of marketing?

Not so long ago public relations executives had to fight for a seat at the table to be heard, to plan, to play an integral role in the organisation’s business – the table being the board of an organisation or a senior decision-making group.

Now, public relations (PR) has risen in such importance that a debate has emerged over where it should sit within an organisation. CMOs and the senior-most marketing leaders are fairly unanimous that at least part of the PR function should reside within marketing departments, and in many cases, CMOs already have laid claim to PR within their own organisations.

What has prompted the question and sparked such a healthy debate over the ownership of PR? Certainly the growth of social media and the necessary skills to navigate two-way communication have given PR an edge over more traditional ‘push’, one-way marketing approaches. And as reputation, credibility, authenticity and transparency have become more important to consumers, PR has emerged as a key element of the marketing mix.

But while all indicators are pointing to increased effectiveness when the two disciplines are combined, the battle continues to brew over who reports to whom and how the disciplines work together.

Balance of power Many PR professionals consider the statement ‘PR is part of the marketing mix’ as blasphemous because, in their view, PR is a much broader management discipline that should report directly to the CEO in all cases.

At the same time, some marketing executives are professionally jaundiced towards PR, considering it only tactical at worst, and an imprecise practice that is too difficult to measure at best.

Many organisations are struggling with the optimum mix of disciplines to best harness influence and advocacy, particularly with the increasingly empowered consumer made possible by social media. The shift in power for PR is new, and only just starting to take hold within some organisations, while others are only just beginning to consider the options.

Marketers are embracing PR and agree that integrated communications increase overall effectiveness, but while marketing and PR have formalised working relationships in some cases, data suggests that ‘formal’ doesn’t necessarily mean ‘functional’, according to a study undertaken by Vocus surveying 966 PR professionals about their perceptions of integrated communications.

‘Despite formalised processes or structures, 34% cited “organisational structures, functional silos, or turf battles” as the single largest barrier to integration. The next largest barrier is budget shortcomings noted by 20%.’

aligned objectives In many cases, structures are not even formalised. A 2009 study of 114 CMOs by Forbes reported that advertising (92%), research (85%) and PR (73%) are top functions falling under the purview of marketing, followed distantly by internal communications (58%) and corporate social responsibility (51%).

But according to a 2010 survey of CMOs by The CMO Club, while the synchronisation of brand reputation and brand image is more critical than ever, more than half (52%) of companies are not fully aligned between marketing and communications.

"The growth of social media and the skills to navigate two-way communication have given PR an edge over more traditional ‘push’ approaches"

CMOs who report the highest levels of alignment between marketing and PR establish objective-setting with blended and collective rewards. Firms where joint metrics and joint rewards systems have been created (66%) or joint objectives without joint reward systems (71%) report much higher levels of being ‘fully aligned’ compared with firms where objectives are not shared (31%) or where objectives are shared only for information purposes.

The growth of digital and social media has contributed to a new landscape where marketers lack control over how their brands are perceived. Credibility, trust and relevance are becoming increasingly important to consumers who view traditional marketing and advertising as irrelevant and suspect. The concept of ‘truthiness’, a word coined by American television comedian Stephen Colbert, has underlined the importance of transparency and has popularised it within urban culture.

PR can step in and address credibility issues by providing authenticity and relevance due to its conversational nature as well as the element of third-party endorsement and advocacy.

practical help PR can also provide the glue across paid, owned and earned media channels. According to a Nielsen report on advertising effectiveness, the key to success for marketers is creating a mix of social impressions that incorporate both paid and earned media.

‘Social advocacy and earned impressions can impact consumers in three important ways: by making them more likely to notice an ad (ad recall), to take away its message (awareness), and to increase their interest in making a purchase (purchase intent). The next step is to expand this understanding to offline sales and long-term brand value.’

Even Forrester suggests that owned and earned media become as important, if not more important, than paid (bought) media.

Although there will always be a role for paid media, it does face several challenges including an increasing level of clutter, falling response rates, and less credibility than owned and earned media. People simply don’t trust paid media as much as other sources of information.

More than 40% of US adults online agree with the statement: ‘The experience I have with most products does not equal the promises made by their advertisements.’ It is certainly in CMOs’ best interests to expand their power base and own the function that can address some of these issues.

crisis management And let’s not forget the whole area of crisis management and communications. In what was hailed mid-2010 as the ‘year of the recall’ by Advertising Age, PR professionals have enjoyed new-found respect as able navigators of an uncontrollable environment in which negative word of mouth can be exponentially painful to brand health.

Undoubtedly, the myriad of aspects and issues connected to social media have provided the practice of PR with the opportunity to take a more central role in marketing, and there even appears to be a trend for senior executives with PR backgrounds to take the helm of marketing departments within organisations.

planning ahead With CMOs’ roles expanding, how best can they prepare for their new responsibilities? Who should be in their ‘kitchen cabinet’? Where can they get the best advice?

PR grounding can be the polar opposite of the other marketing disciplines. If PR is a less-understood and sometimes maligned discipline, how can CMOs fully utilise and leverage it?

In The Changing MO of the CMO we explore how some organisations are making the most of a blended approach through a series of interviews with CMOs who, in their own right, are change agents in their organisations.

All of these CMOs have been in the communications/ PR business at some point in their career so they have a different perspective on the roles and how the disciplines are best combined to greatest effect.

 

Edited extract from The Changing MO of the CMO by MaryLee Sachs, published by Gower Publishing 2011.

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