Advertising vs Public Relations

Media Relations, Healthcare Public Relations, Entertainment PR firms, Healthcare Public Relations, Communication Agency are all necessary for the survival of a business. 

Advertising and Public Relations are the two important tools for promoting products and services offered by the company. Advertising alludes to a form of communication, which a firm uses to instigate prospective customers to choose the product offered by the company, over other products.

On the other hand, public relations is about building and maintaining good relations, with company’s stakeholders, by gaining favourable publicity, having a good reputation and so on.

The primary motive of any business is profit maximisation, and it can only be achieved by increasing sales. The firms apply many strategies, tactics, tools, plans to gain maximum customer attention and grab a competitive position in the market, that comes under promotion mix. There are four aspects of promotion, i.e. advertising, direct selling, sales promotion, and public relations.

Due to some similar traits, people have confusion in understanding the difference between advertising and public relation, but as per an old saying ‘advertising pays, public relation persuades’.

Definition of Advertising

Advertising is described as a paid, non-personal, one-way public communication that draws public communication towards a product, service, company, or any other thing through various communication channels, to inform, influence and instigates the target audience to respond in the manner as desired by the advertiser.

Definition of Public Relations

Public Relations is a strategic communication tool that uses different channels, to cultivate favourable relations for the company. It is a practice of building a positive image or reputation of the company in the eyes of the public by telling or displaying the company’s products or services, in the form of featured stories or articles through print or broadcast media. It aims at building a trust-based relationship between the brand and its customer, mainly through media exposure and coverage.