What is the difference between public relations, corporate communications and marketing?
Branding is a necessity for the success of a company. That is why one of the goals of public relations is to establish a positive image for the brand, and promote the concept of the brand, products and services through various communications channels. As public relations is all about communication, publicity and promotion, many people get confused with the definitions of “public relations”, “corporate communications” and marketing. In fact, they each play different roles in brand promotion.
What is public relations?
As mentioned in the previous post, public relations isn’t just about building relationships, it’s also about helping a brand tell its vision and mission and acting fast to manage crises should they occur. A PR professional plays a pivotal role in building and maintaining healthy relationships with various stakeholders, including the media, consumers, and even non-target customer groups. That’s why people in the public relations industry often possess great savoir faire. Common PR strategies include press release distribution, event management, monitoring public opinion, and crisis management. Moreover, PR can be divided into in-house PR and agency PR. The service objective of the former is one hired for the company; the latter serves multiple clients, so they have to deal with multiple projects at the same time. Faced with more diverse and challenging work, agency PR people need more comprehensive public relations skills to handle the varying needs of different clients.
What is corporate communications?
Corporate communications is different from public relations mentioned above, which is responsible for both internal and external communications and establishing a comprehensive and effective two-way communication with various parties. Corporate communications is required to deliver the vision, mission and values of a company from a long-term perspective, by organizing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) or Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) related activities.
Corporate communications needs to maintain the corporate image, similar to what the PR professional does, but the biggest difference is their stakeholders. The stakeholders of public relations are mainly the media, consumers and the general public, while the external stakeholders of corporate communications are far more than that. It can be subdivided into investors, shareholders and partners. Therefore, the strategies involved are not only limited to information distribution and promotional activities but also activities related to public welfare and shareholder meetings. In addition, they are keen to communicate with the public via different channels, such as telephone hotlines, emails, and social media, so as to receive and respond to inquiries and complaints quickly.
What is marketing?
The responsibilities of marketing are similar with those of public relations and corporate communications, but the area usually adopts the “4Ps strategy”, which means Product, Price, Place and Promotion, when establishing the marketing plan for a product or service. It stresses the selling points and unique features of products or services, with an aim to attract consumers’ attention, thereby stimulating and strengthening their purchase desire. The ultimate goal is to increase sales.
Though it is similar to public relations, the target audiences of marketing are consumers and clients. As a result, there is more emphasis on the sales target. On the other hand, public relations is mainly the gatekeeper of a brand and is aimed at improving the brand’s goodwill.
Regardless of whether it is public relations, corporate communications or marketing, they collectively go to great lengths to promote the brand. As technology develops rapidly in today’s digital era, many companies have already integrated the three types of work, so as to promote the brand at a lower cost. If you are interested in learning more about integrated communication strategies, please don’t hesitate to contact our professional team. With over 30 years of experience, Newell Public Relations fully understands the needs of different markets. Besides, we can help you easily open the China market with our strong connection in the Greater Bay Area (GBA). Talk to us now!
Q&A
1. What is public relations?
As the gatekeeper of a brand, a PR professional not only provides genuine advisory for brand building to customers behind the scenes, it also helps the brand maintain healthy and long-term relationships with different stakeholders.
2. What are the differences between PR, corporate communications and marketing?
Corporate communications needs to build and maintain a corporate image, similar to what a PR professional does, but the stakeholders of public relations are mainly the media, consumers and the general public, while the external stakeholders of corporate communication are far more than that. The target audiences of marketing are consumers and clients. As a result, there is more emphasis on the sales target.