Public Relations Marketing & Branding..

The Differences Between Public Relations Marketing & Branding

Companies often rely on more than just their products and services to gain new customers and stay ahead of competitors -- they depend on their reputations, or what potential customers think of the company, product or service. This reputation is dependent on several factors, including marketing public relations and branding efforts. While these two types of marketing aspects have many similarities, they have separate roles and purposes. If you are in charge of putting together a marketing plan or strategy for your small business, be sure you know the difference between them.

Purpose of Marketing Public Relations

According to the Public Relations Society of America, the main purpose of marketing public relations (PR) is to help organizations and the public adapt to each other. The “public” may be comprised of company stakeholders, customers or clients, employees, local communities, and other target audience members. Basically, this means that PR is used to build and maintain a company’s reputation. Marketing gurus use press releases to announce new company initiatives, new hires and other newsworthy items.

Purpose of Branding

Your company brand is what customers think of when they hear your company name or see your company products. Branding includes the actual company name, logo and slogan. Branding is how your product or service is positioned in the market. For example, some companies have been built on the brand of safety, while others thrive with branding that focuses on great customer service. Brand recognition and Internet presence are both affected by your initial branding efforts.

Organization Reputation

Both marketing PR and branding efforts work to build, maintain and support an organization’s public reputation. Before either one can be initiated or established, you must have a solid marketing strategy in place. This strategy usually defines the product or service’s strong points and target market. Marketing PR and branding simply complement the overall plan. You can use PR, also known as spin doctoring, to react to bad press or reviews, as well as influence how the public thinks about specific situations or news. You may use branding to actually build an expectation about your company’s product or services before it has a reputation.

Dealing With a Bad Reputation

Marketing PR and branding can help a small business recover from bad press or a bad reputation. For example, you can issue press releases that announce upcoming charity work or a new CEO hire. You can use new branding efforts to change the public’s perception about your company. For example, you can create a new logo and new tagline to separate the company from past performance or negative customer feedback.