What are the differences between Public Relations and Marketing?
Thursday, 12 November 2020
Many people think that earning a bachelor’s degree in Public Relations is the same as earning a bachelor’s degree in Marketing. Well, they are wrong, and here’s why.
Society has contributed to the overall confusion about what both these bachelor’s degrees imply. In social media, it is quite often seen how people mix both fields as they were one and the same. Yes, they are closely related, but they have many differences.
Both have a common goal, establishing the company in a good position. Now, the way they accomplish that goal, as well as the tactics, the measurement of success, and the tools used are absolutely different.
To put it in a few words, getting a bachelor’s degree (or any degree) in Marketing would make you the person whose primary duty is to increase sales. This goal is achieved by, for example, participating in advertising campaigns (whether they are traditional or non-traditional). On the other hand, getting a bachelor’s degree (or any degree) in Public Relations would make you the person whose primary duty is to maintain and build relationships while creating and maintaining positive brand awareness. Both of these goals are achieved through managing messaging and communication channels.
So one could argue that marketing has short term goals and public relations has long term ones. Plus, you can also see that the audiences they target are different: while marketing is all about consumers (potential or current), public relations are focused on stakeholders, media, and the general public.
Why do people often consider them to be the same?
Well, this has to do with social media. Of course, if you go to a university and you find people who study one of these bachelor’s degrees they will be able to tell you the difference between them. But the rest of society, the portion of the people who are not involved in any of these careers, builds their perception through social media.
And the thing is that social media is a tool that both fields of study use. While it plays a role in building client-customer relationships (a part of public relationships), it's also a place where companies promote and showcase their products and services (which is a part of marketing). So it’s no surprise that people mix both of these disciplines.
However, none of them is superior to the other. They are both equally important in the eyes of a company. They play major roles in the relationship with partners, clients, and competition, so having professionals in both fields is a must in every organisation.
If you are thinking about getting a bachelor’s degree (or any degree) in any of these fields, then you should visit Start University and see which programme suits you best.
Related Articles
Get Instant Information about the University
