Page 50 - Corporate Communication

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Marketing, Public Relations and Corporate Communications 39

Table 2.2 Examples of marketing public relations worldwide
United States United Kingdom Global

Starbucks initially built its brand The success of the Virgin brand Sony first aroused public
without any advertising but used is based on the serious self- interest for Walkman by
public relations efforts (free publicity, promotion of its CEO Richard giving Walkmans to Japan’s
features in general interest Branson through his hot air leading musicians, teen idols
magazines) to catch attention and ballooning exploits, and and magazine editors.
to establish a brand experience that environmental and community
was backed up by each Starbucks programmes.
location.
McDonalds achieves product The Body Shop uses public Kodak, keen to ‘deepen its
awareness for its promotions and relations and grass roots cam- roots in the Chinese
products because of effective media paigning as a model for linking market’, used public relations
relations campaigns that are run a brand to the advancement of as support for new product
alongside advertising campaigns. public awareness and customer launches, sponsorship and
support for positive social events, as well as for
change. ‘executive visits’ to China.

become apparent over and again that there was at least some common ground or
overlap between them. In the 1980s, for instance, concern over the rising costs and
impacts of mass media advertising encouraged many companies to examine different
means of promoting customer loyalty and of building brand awareness to increase sales.
The use of ‘marketing public relations’ – the publicizing of news and events related to
the launching and promotion of products or services that thus effectively involves the use
of public relations techniques for marketing purposes – has ever since been widely used
by organizations. Marketing public relations was found not only to be a cost-effective
tool for generating awareness and imagery,but also to imbue the communications of the
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organization’s brands with credibility. Table 2.2 mentions some classic examples where
public relations techniques have been effectively used to bring products to the market.
A further blow to the view of public relations and marketing as two separate
functions came with the criticism of many theorists and practitioners alike that all
forms of communications including public relations are essentially asymmetrical in
nature: every form of communication is a value-laden activity employed by an organi-
zation with the purpose of exerting symbolic control over its environment. The
Dutch theorist Van der Meiden, for instance, has argued in this respect that the
classical views that emphasize the exclusive position of public relations relative to
marketing on the basis of the mentioned distinction between symmetrical dialogue
and asymmetrical persuasion need fundamental opposition.Viewing public relations
as an inherently symmetrical form of communications, and setting it aside from
marketing on that basis, is, according to Van der Meiden, in fact a form of false ‘puri-
tanism’, which, in the face of the reality of how communications actually works, is
‘old-fashioned and unrealistic’. However, he added that, despite the recognition that
all forms of communications share asymmetrical roots, there is ‘no need for complete
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amalgamation or fusion’ between marketing and public relations. In other words,
marketing and public relations are both asymmetrical in nature, but, as Van der
Meiden stresses, based on the apparent differences (in their objectives, groups
addressed and techniques used) each still largely stands as a function on its own.