Do you think Public Relations (PR) and Marketing are the same thing? Sadly, you’re not the only one. The good news though is that we’re here to tell you that they’re absolutely not, and why. While Public Relations is considered a marketing strategy, it is quite different from Marketing itself. First, let’s begin with what common to the two fields.

Marketing and Public Relations are both aimed at increasing brand awareness. They are also both concerned with creating and maintaining a positive public image for their clients. The means to these ends, however, are quite different.
Here are a few ways that Marketing differs from Public Relations:

1. While Marketing is predominantly focused on promoting and selling products and services, and also includes advertising, PR is about building favourable relationships with the client’s target market. PR doesn’t involve direct selling.

2. Speaking about target market, even that is different. The goal of the marketer is to get customers to keep buying a product or service, and to convert non-buyers into customers. The efforts of Public Relations Officers (PROs) are targeted to a wider group of people: the media, suppliers, customers, partners, to name a few.

3. Lastly, Public Relations isn’t bought media, it is earned media. The PR practitioner can make pitches and write releases on behalf of their client, but there is no guarantee for placement. The decision is that of the media house/editor. The Marketer on the other hand pays to have their ads placed. It’s about buying and selling.

Public Relations and Marketing are connected, or similar even, but they’re two different practices.