Advertising is the Wind. PR is the Sun.

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Al Reis & Laura Reis (The Fall Of Advertising & The Rise of PR)

In one of Aesop’s fables, the wind and the sun had a dispute over who was the stronger of the two.

                Seeing a traveler walking down the road, they decided to settle the issue by trying to make the traveler take off his coat. The wind went first, but the harder the wind blew, the more closely the traveler wrapped his coat around him.

                Then the sun came out and began to shine. Soon the traveler felt the sun’s warmth and took off his coat. The sun had won.

                You can’t force your way into the prospect’s mind. Advertising is perceived as an imposition, an unwelcome intruder that needs to be resisted. The harder the sell, the harder the wind blows, the harder the prospect resists the sales message.

                Advertising people talk about impact. Spreads, inserts, foldouts, and full color in print ads. Frenetic actions, crazy angles, and jump cuts in television commercials. Turning up the volume in radio spots. But these are exactly the attributes that say to the prospect, don’t pay any attention to me, I’m an advertisement.

                The harder an advertisement tries to force its way into the mind, the less likely it will accomplish its objective. Once in a while a prospect drops his or her guard and the wind will win. But not very often.

                PR is the sun. You can’t force the media to run your message. It’s entirely in their hands. All you can do is make sure your publicity material is as helpful as possible.

                Nor does the prospect perceive any force in an editorial message. It’s the opposite. Prospects think that media are trying to be helpful by alerting them to a wonderful new product or service.

 

Why PR..

Whoever you are, wherever you are, public relations makes a difference to your life – believe it or not.

Whether you are an SME (Small-Medium Entrepreneur) or a start up enterprise, PR helps you level the playing field between you and your bigger, wealthier competitors. You may not be able to afford a 60-second commercial during the IPL, but if you offer a fee session at your spa to people who come during the tournament, you can get prominent publicity based on your PR event.

If you are a corporate entity, you've seen ad budgets decline while ad costs skyrocket. With an effective PR program you can communicate with your target market more often, not less, without increasing ad spend.

The key to getting media coverage is to offer them a story they can’t resist. The two key elements are an understanding of the marketing message and the ability to think creatively in terms of PR campaigns. You already understand your business’s market, with conviction and with enough practice; almost anyone can learn to think more creatively.

Public Relations (PR) as the name suggests is a core and integral part of any business or enterprise that provides products or services. Any kind of business that caters to the public in terms of products or services rendered, will survive because of some of the factors listed below:

• Quality
• Inventory
• Efficiency
• Reliability
• Reasonable pricing
• Reach

Of course, without the necessity of emphasizing on the factors listed above one can be reasonably assured that a business that meets these conditions will be able to run the enterprise smoothly. However, once these factors have been accounted for and the goals met, it then becomes necessary for the enterprise to stand apart from the crowd and be noticed as the best. In this competitive age where even the most mature business will start feeling the heat due to advancements and improvisations developed by a relatively newer entrant, the only practical solution to combat this is by maintaining good relations with the public, and doing this is not a cup of tea, for that matter it's not all that difficult either. With time and dedicated efforts to being organized in maintaining your face in the public can prove to be a crucial investment. This activity of making oneself available to the masses is concisely called Public Relation.

It has been debated for long over the effectiveness of PR being able to bring more business to an enterprise. However, it is inherently not recognized that what brings you more business is not publicity and certainly not advertising, but how good your business model is. What PR can do for a business or even a start up is to place you in the market an give you the deserved audience. PR does manage to engage your business with the most relevant customers. It enables you to become a familiar name in the vast shelves of consumer libraries and thereby enhancing the possibilities of better conversion and loyalty or even retention. Again, the myth that advertising does a  better job at achieving the above mentioned results is entirely untrue because advertising is PAID and the consumer is not a child to fall for a sugar-coated story about your excellence in the business against your competitors.