I would like to add a different take ont he public relations side of the issue. With the use of the internet public relations is being used not only as a branding tool, but also as a sales tool. It really depends on the product or service that you are looking to publicize. If you are selling online, you can use pr to draw potential buyers to your website and bring them into your sales funnel, where you help lead them along to become buyers. While this takes times, it allows you to build a relationship with potential buyers which pr is most commonly known for. Through the use of pr you can notify the public of specials you are running or any other information that is useful to current and potential buyers. While getting mentioned in a well-known print article is great, you can use pr to draw in people who are searching for what you sell through search engines and keyword usage.

Jenn

Why as a small business owner would you ever want to do direct mail? or spend money using print advertising?

I highly suggest that you read up on Web 2.0, as well as "groundswell" by Charlene Li & Josh Bernoff of Forrester Research. You can create your own advertising/marketing/pr campaign with free tools by using these type of tools.

Best Regards
Mike.

In Detroit, that translates into $5700 of paid advertising that was done for free. The game is to create relationships with your media or find
exquisite PR folk that already have established those fab connections
along with deep trust. Thanks for a great inquiry and fab research, Shawne Duperon, Media and Gossip expert

I'm a psychologist and author of "Of Sound Mind to Marry; A Reality Check from the Marriage Counselor for Pre-Weds". During this wedding season, I'm trying to get the word out about how people can have successful marriages. Book sales will never support advertising. But through PR and radio, I've made contact with exactly those people who want to hear this message.

I think the best advice I have heard on the subject come from Bruce Fairchild Barton, one of the founders of BBDO, a huge advertising company in NY; operating during the time of the Great Depression in the 30's.

Essentially Bruce was receiving some resistence from his clients with regard to advertising during this most turbulent economic time..kind of like now!

What he shared is this: "I understand your interest in wanting to reduce costs so that you can weather the current economic storm, but be careful what you target as a cost cutting measure…"

"Should you desire to eliminate your direct advertising/pr initiatives, there will still be two promotional programs operating that could have a far greater impact on your long term business than you realize."

"The first part is the promotional program that your competitors will launch. Once they relaize you are no longer advertising, they will be sure to let everyone know that this is a sign that you may be going out of business. Whether it is true or not, customers won't do business with a company that is facing financial collapse."

"The second phase is the court of public opinion. Rumors, conjecture, and more are generated by this powerful group.(Today, even more so with social networking, blogs, and etc avaialble.)
Once you have been dragged through this marketplace, its next to impossible to recover."

These weren't just idle words or creative marketing on Bruce Barton's part either.

Matter of fact, Bruce traced the history of those companies that continued to promote during that time versus the ones that did not. I am sure you know what the findings were..but here's the bottom line.

You can effectively trace the history of those companies to operating and thriving business today because they stayed the course in the promotional arena. Those that did not…well let's just say their path of exsistence was a lot shorter.

Have an awesome day..you certainly deserve it.

What I am thinking about at this moment is a PSA – Public Service Announcement – that radio stations run for things like blood-donation drives and health fairs and the like.

My company, Context Analytics, conducted a study last year that correlated brand value with both paid and unpaid media. In the study, we found that unpaid media was more closely associated with brand value than advertising for high-involvement brands (e.g., computers, automobiles, etc.). This suggests that, when buying a complicated and expensive product, input from experts and neutral third-parties tends will drive purchasing decisions more so than advertising. We generally found the reverse for low involvement brands (e.g., apparel, personal care products, products like "ZipChips"), where unpaid media accounted for very little brand value.

A good marketing plan will always involve an integration of PR and advertising activity, but the exact balance of PR and advertising in the marketing mix should be adjusted depending on how complicated the product is.

I agree with everyone here who says PR is about building relationships.
And no, PR is not only about getting coverage in media.

The article on CNN is written with a mass-communication headset.
The infrastructure of the social web and search engines now allows us to build relationships directly with consumers and stakeholders.

Here's my blog post on the difference between 'Making noise or building relationships':

http://tinyurl.com/oztytv

PR informs
Advertising sells

How many times we see a commercial several times and can't remember about what product it is until it gets to it ?
Are they effective ?
I don't think so.
In advertising one has to talk about creativity and image.
Creativity as in creating something that will trigger the viewer's attention and image as convincing the market that this product or this company is reliable.
These are two aspects that I consider important, not only in getting potential buyers during the campaign, but also after it.
I find also important that the customer should feel that he/she has the possibility to interact and express opinions about the product or service that you're presenting.
You can even induce intereraction by asking your potential customers to participate in opinion studies, or asking them what they'd like.
I will end with a word called meme, which by checking a dictionary will give you something like : "A unit of cultural information, such as a cultural practice or idea, that is transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another" .
This is most evident when brands contract known celebrities that will influence the market.
I wish you good luck to your business.