An Essential Double Helix

Abstract

The boundaries between and continue to blur Public firms and departments do marketing communication and marketing relations. Advertising agencies and departments offer public relations services. The function reports to marketing. Advertising agencies gobble up firms. Little wonder that many CEOs in organizations large and small think the two functions are simply different techniques for achieving the same end. Who cares? Ask the affairs counselor who can't persuade a leading tuna supplier to adjust fishing practices so as to kill fewer dolphins. The department points to the despite boycott threats by environmental and wildlife groups. Ask the director at a prestigious community hospital who is trying to protect decades of positive with key constituencies in the face of an aggressive new thrust to put butts in beds. When the number of patients supersedes the importance of a supportive environment, then the hospital administration has taken the first step toward a disaster. In other words, the bottom line becomes the end of the when that is the only focus of an organization. Belief in the sanctity of I sen, you buy is simplistic and ignores the new reality of today's business climate. No organization can survive while ignoring the impact of social, political, technical and economic changes on its relationships. Absence of definition Some refer to the confusion between and as a War, however, suggests conflict between identifiable parties. In many organizations, the absence of a clear definition of precludes a serious or protracted turf war. If there were a turf war, would lose after the first skirmish for lack of boundaries. In other cases, the war would have to be a civil war or revolution, as is already subsumed by the larger, more powerful function. The often-voiced position that public is whatever does blurs the distinction between and marketing. marketing, even if the work is done by people with relations' titles. If outcomes are sought, then marketing, not relations, motivate s and guides the work. One of the hallmarks of a profession is that its practitioners are identified by what they do-in part because it's unique and specialized. Concerns about professional status in are moot if the practice cannot be differentiated from or is subsumed by marketing. Desired outcome determines function Earlier this year, a colloquium was held to define the distinctions between and marketing. The panelists were William Ewing, professor and chairman of Syracuse University's department of relations; Patrick Jackson, APR, senior counsel, Jackson, Jackson & Wagner, Exeter, New Hampshire; Larry Jones, senior vice president, Foote, Cone and Belding, Los Angeles; and Philip Kotler, S. C. Johnson & Son Distinguished Professor of International Marketing at Northwestern University's Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Evanston, Illinois-all leaders in the and fields. The panelists agreed that and both deal with an organization's relationships and employ similar processes. They also agreed that the two functions could not be usefully distinguished based on the techniques and strategies they employ. They concluded that the major difference is the outcome each function seeks to achieve. Those were not positions held by all the panelists at the beginning of the day. Sales is everything best summarizes one view expressed in the opening statements. Another was that is simply another tool in the mix-the public relations-ispublicity concept. …