Marketing vs Public Relations vs Advertising

People get confused as to the difference and similarities of the three activities. Marketing is different from Public Relations. So is Advertising different from Public Relations. Same thing goes with Public Relations and Advertising, that though people might look to it similarly, but the two are different.

In this article, I will briefly discuss the difference of the three.

Advertising is a paid form of non-personal form of communication from an identified sponsor using mass media to persuade or influence an audience.

Meaning, an idea, product or service is brought forth into the attention of its target market or existing market with a DIRECT message and MANNER to make the target market know about something or remind them of something.

Public Relations is management practice for an organization or person controls the flow of how to address its public. Public relations is the practice of building reputation and credibility to its publics.

Meaning, a communication specialist or PR specialist intends to tailor its message in a way to build credibility to its public, whether it be the stockholders, employees or even the general public.

(Read more: Advertising vs Public Relations: Similar but Different in Many Ways)

Marketing can be defined as a set of activities involving the exchange of goods, services and ideas to satisfy customers and make profit.

Meaning, a culmination of processes that aims to generate profit for the company, overcome competition through satisfaction of customers with a product or service. Making advertising and public relations important elements of one of the processes in marketing. Marketing is like the umbrella for many processes under it like sales, promotions (advertising and public relations), distribution, etc.