| ¡ | What is Marketing? Well, first what it isn't! - don't confuse it with selling! Its not just another word for sales promotion - a common mistake made by many! Promotion is simply a part of marketing. Marketing is a philosophy - not simply a function. Try to make it central to the entire business. It is best to think of marketing as being the whole business as seen from the customer's point of view. |
| ¡ | Nicholas, explain to me what PR is. Well it is not spin, for a start. It isn't the art of whitewash, hype and false statements either! What it is is the practice of managing reputations. PR should establish and maintain goodwill between a business and various interested parties fostering mutual understanding. Often you will see these parties refered to in the literature as "publics". And who, you may ask, are these "publics"? Well they are the business' customers, staff and others. Once you understand what your interested parties need, want and legitimately expect from you and, of course, if you can meet these requirements, then you are on your way to establishing a good reputation. |
| ¡ | So are PR and Marketing the same? Not if you ask a PR practitioner; they will tell you that it is a seperate discipline. Marketers, on the other hand like to think that public relations is a branch of marketing. I make no further comment! You may have heard that Marketing concentrates on the 4 Ps of product (or service) price, promotion and place. Then a fifth p for Perception can be added to the traditional 4. This is where PR fits into the frame. It is all about reputations and relationships. Think about it, if your customer has a poor perception of your product or your company then they will not want to buy from you, now will they? Therefore if you do not have effective PR to build yourself a good reputation, then effective marketing will just not happen! |
| ¡ | Why do I need to bother? No matter what size enterprise you are - Muliti-national or the one man or woman operation, you will still need good PR and Marketing in order to grow the business and make the profits necessary to keep moving forward. The marketing-led company is: |
| · | Less likely to go out of business. |
| · | More likely to make a profit. |
| · | Will attract and keep customers. |
| · | Attract better staff and hang on to them. |
| · | Be the envy of its competitors. |
| · | Take a lead in the market and stay ahead of the competition. |