Today many commentators claim that PR and marketing are converging and the differences are blurring. But, that’s because frequently those commentators don’t actually know what either public relations or marketing actually are and make the mistake of simply focusing on the tools and tactics, rather than the goals.

There is no need for confusion as in the UK the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) and Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) both provide definitions of their respective disciplines. The American Marketing Association and the Public Relations Society of America do the same in the USA.

The UK’s Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) defines PR as:

“Public relations is about reputation – the result of what you do, what you say and what others say about you.

Public relations is the discipline which looks after reputation, with the aim of earning understanding and support and influencing opinion and behaviour. It is the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics”.

The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) definition of PR (updated in 2012) is:

“Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organisations and their publics”.

The UK’s Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) definition of marketing is:

“Marketing is the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably”.

The American Marketing Association's definition of marketing (updated in 2013) is:

“Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large”.

PR is not media relations and marketing is not paid advertising

Much of the confusion around the difference between public relations and marketing arises from the fact the two disciplines are complementary and can frequently use the same tools and channels. Marketing can and does affect a company’s reputation, both positively and negatively. Managing a reputation through public relations creates an environment where marketing can be more effective (or less if not done well).

If you strip away some of the necessary business school style jargon it appears that the definitions make marketing about transactions and public relations about relationships.

Too often the assumption is that marketing is ‘paid’ communications such as advertising and public relations is ‘earned’ communications in the form of editorial media coverage. Neither assumption is correct as public relations is a channel neutral discipline that can just as easily use paid advertising as it can ‘earned’ editorial coverage. One reason that public relations doesn’t use paid advertising as much is that historically advertising has often been a less effective channel for managing reputation than alternative ‘earned’ or ‘owned’ channels. If we stop mistakenly thinking of marketing as mainly advertising and public relations as mainly media relations then the question about convergence ceases to be relevant.

Despite the two disciplines sharing many common skills it is a mistake to treat either as a sub-set of the other as the goal of each is different. If PR reports to marketing it can jeopardise all of the other issues that PR should be managing such as internal communications, investor relations, public affairs all of which can be just as important to reputation as marketing. The best organisations and companies have the marketing and public relations functions operating in partnership and cooperation.

It is quite legitimate for a marketing campaign to use public relations tactics such as news releases, press and blogger briefings, photo calls, blog posts, white papers, feature articles, YouTube videos and search optimised web content. Equally it is just as legitimate for public relations to use marketing tactics such as display advertising, exhibition stands, email marketing and pay-per-click advertising.