Public Relations and Advertising

Public Relations in India has a come a long way over the past decade. However many business houses in India are under an impression that Advertising and Public Relations play the same role for the business. It is very important to understand that Public Relations and Advertising have completely different roles to play so as to capture the target market and obtain the goals of your business.  Here are a few points that will help differentiate between advertising and public relations:-

Paid Vs Free

Advertising  is a paid format through which the advertisement of products or services are placed in media while Public Relations is a way of strategic communications that helps not only to gain publicity but also maintain beneficial relationship between the organization and the public.

Coverage

An advertiser will always pay for an advertisement to appear in media a frequent number of times as per the budget but PR Professionals will send a story idea to journalists of different mediums at the same time which will help the target audience understand more effectively and easily.

Credibility

An advertisement is less credible as compared to the coverage gained by PR. Public Relations provide newsworthy information to the journalist who writes about it in an unbiased format.

Special Events

A special event of the company can surely not be advertised but information about the same can be delivered to the people through various tools of Public Relations like press release.

Thus, these points should be considered to determine an approach that is best suited for your business.

     The author of this opinion article is Ms. Guntass Gujral at PR Professionals