The Difference Between PR, Advertising & Marketing
Sara Bingham founder of WeeHands Baby Sign Language and author of The Baby Signing Book writes:
What is the difference between “marketing”, “advertising” and “public relations”?
Great question, Sara. Wikipedia defines marketing as this: "Marketing is an ongoing process of planning and executing the marketing mix (Product, Price, Place, Promotion often referred to as the 4 Ps) for products, services or ideas to create exchange between individuals and organizations. Marketing tends to be seen as a creative industry, which includes advertising, distribution and selling. It is also concerned with anticipating the customers' future needs and wants, which are often discovered through market research. Essentially, marketing is the process of creating or directing an organization to be successful in selling a product or service that people not only desire, but are willing to buy. Therefore good marketing must be able to create a "proposition" or set of benefits for the end customer that delivers value through products or services." When I think of marketing, advertising and public relations, I think of it this way--marketing is "getting the word out" to the public about your product or service. How you "get the word out" can be through advertising ("paid promotion" through any medium--magazines, radio, TV, buses, billboards, newspapers, etc) or public relations (exposure to the public through editorial coverage of your product or service that does not require direct payment). Now sometimes, a company will pay a publicist whose job it is to get said editorial coverage for their product or service. A publicist typically has existing media relationships and can easily "pitch" their client's product or service as "great content" for stories media people may be working on. So, in summary...advertising and public relations fit under the "marketing" umbrella, as part of the overall marketing mix for your product or service. Onto your next question:
Is there a recommended percentage of profit that should be allotted to marketing (advertising and/or PR)? Or, how do you figure out how much you should be spending on it?
Sara, I haven't come across any magical formula for figuring out how much of your profit or budget should be spent on advertising and PR. In my opinion, you should start out with a small advertising budget to "test" the waters. A great way to do that is through remnant advertising. After your ad runs and you see what your return on investment is (how many sales did you get from that ad vs. how much you paid for the ad), then you can increase or decrease your advertising dollars. As far as PR goes, you can do your own PR by contacting writers and reporters at magazines, newspapers, TV shows and blogs and pitching them "your story" OR you can hire a publicist (and expect to pay roughly $2000/month for a minimum of 3 months) to pitch for you. If you're comfortable with DIY PR and you know how to pitch your product or service without sounding like you're, well, pitching your product or service, then sign up for HARO, a free service that puts you on the receiving end of MANY reporter queries. You can also check out Get Famous. I hope this answers your questions. Over the next few weeks, I plan to feature interviews with women who work in marketing, advertising, PR, and news. As always, I welcome your comments, questions and feedback. Share this post with a friend, encourage them to subscribe to The Mogul Mom Blog. Together, we can do anything.