When I heard AdAge was taking a swing at the PR business, I was ready for a rant, but reading Jonah Bloom’s editorial was a pleasant surprise.
I and many others have felt for a long time that the PR business suffers from a poor image. I think this is the result of a number of factors if you’ll excuse the gross generalizations:
- There is still widespread confusion among business people about what exactly PR is. (My web statistics are full of Google searches on the subject)
- The business is so diverse that standard descriptions do not suffice
- Agencies often use difficult, abstract terms to describe and differentiate their services
- We often shy away from the business value of our activities
- We are slow to innovate, react to changing business practices and opportunities
- Practitioners in a small set of industry sectors define PR in a manner which is foreign to the majority
- There are a lot of cowboys out there…
“But as a business PR has sent mixed messages about its purpose and strengths. Last week in a letter to Ad Age the president of the Public Relations Society of America described PR as being “about building relationships between people and organizations, opening and maintaining multilayered communications channels and helping organizations and individuals avoid or manage controversies.” What is that? It may be a definition of the role of a corporate-communications department, but it isn’t a good sell to a busy marketer looking to position, brand or sell product.”
What’s the answer? I don’t know, I wish I did.
I think the growing number of PR bloggers is an opportunity for the profession. There is a lot of good thinking taking place with PR people discussing the issues that effect their employers and their businesses. PR has a lot of value to bring to any business, we need to work together to identify how we can make that value understandable.
Jim Horton, as always, has an interesting view..
Murphy's Law 