Public Relations, Propaganda,

Advertising, Marketing and Publicity

Prof. Ravi Chhabra

 Public relations
• Public relations are a communication method
used by businesses to convey a positive image
to a target audience and the general public.
• Public relations methods can include press
releases, community involvement and
speaking at public forums on issues important
to a target audience
 Contd.
• It is as an inexpensive medium to establish the
company name and communicate a brand
image.
• Successful public relations programs highlight
company accomplishments and positive
contributions to community.
 Propaganda 
• It is the means of gaining support for an
opinion, creed or belief.
•  The Propaganda activities are quite different
from Public Relations activities.
• It divides its activities into Band
Wagon, Naming, and Card Stalking.
 Contd.
• Band wagon represents the ambition to have
many supporters of an idea or activities
without considering who they are to be
affected with the idea and usually the majority
support share few benefits from the ideology.
 Contd.
• Naming is where the owner of the message
tends to maximise his mention in the media to
block those competing with him.
• Only his good works, achievements are aired
to the public
 Contd.
• Card stacking is where the owner of the
message exposes weaknesses of the
competitor in a nuisance way so that the
public should lose favour of him.
 Card stacking

• Card stacking is a propaganda technique that seeks to

manipulate audience perception of an issue by
emphasizing one side and repressing another.
• Such emphasis may be achieved through media bias
or the use of one-sided testimonials, or by simply
censoring the voices of critics.
• The technique is commonly used in persuasive
speeches by political candidates to discredit their
opponents and to make themselves seem more
worthy.
 Contd.
• The term originates from the magician's
gimmick of "stacking the deck", which involves
presenting a deck of cards that appears to have
been randomly shuffled but which is, in fact,
'stacked' in a specific order.
• The magician knows the order and is able to
control the outcome of the trick. In poker, a
deck can be stacked so that certain hands are
dealt to certain players.
 Contd.
• The phenomenon can be applied to any subject and has wide
applications.
• Whenever a broad spectrum of information exists, appearances
can be rigged by highlighting some facts and ignoring others.
• Card stacking can be a tool of advocacy groups or of those
groups with specific agendas.
• For example, an enlistment poster might focus upon an
impressive picture, with words such as "travel" and
"adventure", while placing the words, "enlist for two to four
years" at the bottom in a smaller and less noticeable point size.
• Propaganda is different from PR because of its
aims.
• Usually it has primarily negative connotations,
but seeks to generate more or less automatic
responses to given symbols
 Contd.
• Audience can find it difficult to believe the message
in propaganda form even if it can be produced by a
good guy or even if it can be of goodwill.
• The publics do not legitimise the credibility of the
message which has a form of propaganda.
• This is different from PR whose message has public
credibility and bad guys cannot find way to use it
because it depends on sustainable good relations.
 Contd.
• Propaganda seeks automatic response from
the public from its symbols or messages.
• This can be to avoid the public to realise the
motive behind the message before the owner
of the message benefits.
• This does not guarantee mutual
understanding and relationship nor benefits
but maximisation of self-interest or egoism
• Public Relations never behave in this way.
• For example, instead of tarnishing image of
the competitor it does create industrial
relations.
• In addition PR activities are many like Public
Affairs, Government Relations, Community
Relations, Employee Relations, Industrial
Relations
• Public relations works for mutual
understanding whose mission or
communication messages guarantee
credibility, objectivity
• Its aim would be to make publics understand
the services, functions and advantages of
changing any organization mission.
 Advertising
•  Advertising is ‘any paid form of non-personal
communication about an organization,
product, service, or idea by an identified
sponsor’
• It aims at disseminating a message through
persuasion.
• This is forcing one to buy a product through
both enticement and allurement
 Advertising vs. PR
• PR does not lure.
• It firstly gives out enough information about a
product before a customer comes up with
decision to purchase.
• The costs of advertising are very expensive
than those of PR
 Contd.
• The scope of Public Relations is wide and
works for the entire organization that is across
the organization departments.
• It affects the entire organization through
internal public (employee) and external
(customers, financial lending institution,
government departments) relations, corporate
strategy formulation, implementation and
control consultancy
 Contd.
• Organizations can survive with public relations
functions without advertising as it is true with
lawyers, medical doctors, and fire brigade
enterprise services.
• Public relations work much to control
litigations, public harm and this creates
sustainable relations with publics
 Contd.
• Advertising is attached only and encircled to marketing
department which carries out functions like selling of
products and services.
• Advertising cannot manage to defend or enhance
understanding of a business strategy to the publics.
• It can neither control litigation nor control public harm.
• It is too expensive to manage an advertising campaign than a
public relations campaign.
• For example, you can place the press release in the news
column or bulletin for free but an advert cannot be
accommodated.
 Marketing
• It is ‘a social and managerial process by which individuals
and groups obtain what they need and want through
creating and exchanging products and value with others’
• Marketing is about identifying, meeting human and social
needs.
• One of the shortest good definitions of marketing is
“meeting needs profitably”
• The major responsibilities of marketing are to identify, to
anticipate and to satisfy customer requirements profitably
 Marketing vs. PR
• PR and Marketing are different in that PR is for entire
organization while marketing is a departmental function.
• Activities that emerge from PR Department directly affect the
entire organization.
• E.g., success of Financial PR will mean increase in productivity
(increased product output and number of employees) and
growth of marketing function (like export trading).
• Policies of the organization like in production will change for
improvement and maintenance of quality.
• In short marketing functions depend on PR successful
communication programs
 Contd.
• Marketing aims at selling the product or services with value
or that satisfy customers to identified markets while public
relations aim at creating understanding with sustainable
relationship with its publics.
• With marketing what is greatly important is the selling of
products and services to maximise the profits for the
organization.
• Public Relations recognise that the most important aspect in
business is the creation of good, mutual relations and
understanding that ensure that both organization objectives
are achieved and the public benefits sustainably.  
 Contd.
• Marketing depends on PR for it to achieve its
objectives.
• Public relations activities when merged with marketing
are designed to support marketing objectives
as marketing public relations (MPR) functions. 
• The marketing objectives that may be aided by PR
activities include raising awareness, informing and
educating, gaining understanding, building trust, giving
consumers a reason to buy, and motivating consumer
acceptance.  
 Marketing Public Relations (MPR)
• MPR adds value to the integrated marketing program in a
number of ways:
• building market excitement before media advertising breaks;
• creating advertising news where there is no product news;
• introducing a product with little or no advertising;
• providing a value-added customer service;
• building a brand-to-customer  bonds;
• influencing influential and opinion makers; and
• defending products at risk and giving consumers a reason to
buy.
 Contd.
• Since PR continuously communicates with its
public, it gets an opportunity of understanding
their needs and wants.
• So, for MPR to succeed, PR may not hesitate
to use a social sciences technique in knowing
publics social position.
 Publicity
• Publicity results from information being
known.
• This known message or event publicised can
be good or bad and usually uncontrollable
• Publicity can originate from any angle without
control and even with bad impression
 Difference between Advertising and Publicity

• Advertising is marketing as well as a

promotional tool in the hands of the company
which conveys a message about the company
or a product to the viewers, listeners or
readers.
• It is aimed at persuading customers, to choose
the company’s product over the product
offered by the competitors.
 Contd.
• Publicity is another promotional tool, but it is
not the same as advertising.
• It is based on reality as it is neither sponsored
nor it is under the control of any company or
its representatives
• While advertising is an expensive technique to
demonstrate company’s products and
services, publicity is always free of cost.
 BASIS FOR
ADVERTISING PUBLICITY
COMPARISON
Meaning The activity of The activity of
generating providing information
advertisements of about an entity, i.e. a
products and services product, an individual
to commercialize them or a company to make
is known as it popular is known as
Advertising. Publicity.
What is it? It is what the company It is what others say
says about its product. about the product.
Cost involved Very expensive Free of cost.
marketing tool.
Given by Company and its Third Party
representative
Is it under the control Yes No
of the company?
Which type of message Positive It may be positive or
it conveys? negative.
Credibility and Less Comparatively more
Reliability
Focus on Target Audience Awareness
Repetition Yes No
 Definition of Advertising
• Advertising is a one-way public
communication that conveys a message
regarding a product, service or company to
the viewers, readers, and listeners.
• It is the biggest marketing tool used for non-
personal promotion of goods and services to
the potential customers, however, the most
expensive one.
 Contd.
• Advertising is a sort of monolog activity done
with an aim to induce customers i.e. to grab
the attention of the target audience in such a
manner that they are ready to buy the
advertised product.
• The basic objective of advertising is to
increase the consumption of the products of
the company.
 Contd.
• Most of the companies use this sales
promotional tool because of its reach; a single
message can reach millions of people in
nanoseconds.
• It is a paid announcement by sponsors, which
can be done with various mediums like radio,
television, websites, newspapers, hoardings,
magazines, social media like Facebook, etc.
 Contd.
• Although, we should not trust the
advertisement blindly because some of them
are false or misleading one that does not give
complete information about the product.
• It is just a technique of branding whereby a
product is highlighted by its few qualities, to
leave an impact on the consumer’s mind.
 Definition of Publicity
• The term publicity is a combination of two
words public and visibility.
• It refers to the flow of information or fact, regarding
general awareness about a subject or hot topic or any
burning issue.
• Here the subject may include a person, product,
service, business entity and so on.
• It is used to draw the attention of the people, for any
subject with the help of broadcast media, print media
or social media.
• It is not a promotional technique and thus free of cost.
 Contd.
• Publicity can be printed or just aired.
• It is either being positive or negative, but it is true
and real as well. 
• It is an entirely unbiased opinion as it comes from
an independent source like it can be given by an
expert or a common man or mass media.
• As the third party has nothing to do with the
company, their responses and reviews are given
high weightage.
 Contd.
• However, it can be seen many times that rivals
use this tool deliberately like they spread false
rumors to damage the image of the company
and ruin its market position too.
• Positive publicity boosts the consumption
while the negative hampers the same
 Conclusion

• Advertising is done for commercializing

something but Publicity is not done for such
purposes.
• Advertising is partial because it only mentions
the plus points of a product and leaves the
bad ones whereas Publicity is impartial
Public Relations (PR) and Marketing
BASIS FOR PUBLIC RELATION
MARKETING
COMPARISON (PR)

Meaning Public Relations (PR) Marketing is defined

refers to the process as an activity of
of maintaining creating,
positive relationship communicating and
and managing the delivering products
flow of information and services of
between company value to the
and the general customers.
public

Involves Promotion of Promotion of

company and brand products and
services

Function Staff function Line function

Media Earned Paid

Audience Public Target Market

Focus on Building trust Making sales

Communication Two-Way One-Way

 Conclusion

• Marketing activities are under full control of

the organization whereas public relation is
under the control of the organization and the
external party, i.e. media outlets.
• The concept of marketing is broader than
public relation, as the latter falls under the
umbrella of the former.
• Therefore, both are complementary and not
contradictory strategies
 Advertising and Public Relations
Paid vs. Free
• Advertising – With advertising, a company
pays for ad space, which is often expensive.  
• If you just run one ad, it’s really not going to
do much for your product or service unless
you run it at least once a month over a period
of time.
• However, just running an ad in a publication
without awareness of the brand first is often
not effective.
 Contd.
• PR – A PR firm’s job is to get free publicity for a company
or service through press releases, media pitches and
good relationships with the media.
• An article in a newspaper provides third-party
endorsement and credibility for your product or service. 
• It can position your product or service as part of a trend
or human interest story, rather than a product
promotion.
• A media placement by a PR firm is often referred to as
“earned” media.
 Advertising and Public Relations
Controlling the Message vs. Influencing the Message

• Advertising – If you’re paying for an ad, you

can say exactly what you want (“This is the
greatest thing since sliced bread”), but
consumers often are skeptical because they
know you’re paying for it. 
• This is not to say it’s ineffective, but
consumers may think it’s biased.
 Contd.
• PR – When you pitch a story to a reporter and he/she
decides to pursue it, you don’t have as much control
over what gets into the paper. 
• But a good PR person knows how to increase a
company’s chances of positive publicity. 
• Conducting message training, preparing clients for
interviews and helping them practice their “quotes”
or “sound bites” increases the chances that the story
will contain positive messages for the company or
product.
 Advertising and Public Relations
A 10-second Spot vs. Perpetuity on the Internet

• Advertising – It would seem that an ad has a

longer “shelf life” because of its creativity and
delivery method. 
• But once the ad runs, the shelf life expires. 
• Marketing experts say that seeing an ad for a few
seconds online or fast forwarding it on your DVR
still has value because the audience is still seeing
it. 
• However, once it runs, it’s over.
 Contd.
• PR – With the Internet, an article, tweet or Facebook post is
there forever.  
The Library of Congress is now archiving every public tweet.
•  If an article gets in a particular newspaper, magazine, and/or
television station, it often runs online and will show up in a
variety of search engines.  
• For example, a client was interviewed by CNN way back in
2001.  If you Google his name and CNN, the transcript of that
interview comes up.  
• The Internet has extended the “shelf life” of a PR campaign.
 Contd.
• Another advantage of PR is that once the
article is in cyberspace, it is available to be
“Googled” by reporters. 
• That’s why byline articles are useful. 
• They help position your client as an expert, so
when reporters are searching a particular
topic, your client’s name will come up and get
additional publicity
 Advertising and Public Relations
Biased vs. Unbiased Perceptions
• Advertising – When customers see your ad,
they know that you provided the message and
are trying to sell them something. 
• They know you are paying for the ad, so they
perceive a certain amount of bias.
 Contd.
• PR – Once again, it goes back to that third-
party endorsement that removes bias and
lends credibility to your story, product or
service.
Advertising and Public Relations Creative vs.
Nose for News
• Advertising – A good ad uses colorful and descriptive
language with a call to action. 
• A clever campaign can motivate consumers to buy your
product.
• Advertising can use different media such as commercials,
print ads, Facebook ads, and microsites that can
incorporate interactivity, fun games and calls to action. 
• A good copywriter can create slogans that will stick with
people for years to come and even get kids repeating a
jingle or phrase.
 Contd.
• PR – PR requires creativity, but in a different way.  In
PR, you are searching for the news, looking for
angles behind events and trends, anticipating events
and reading articles and websites about your client’s
industry. 
• You have to put yourself in the reporter’s shoes.  Is
my client doing something new or different?  Is it
part of a trend?  Why would someone care?  With
PR, you need a news “hook” to capture a reporter’s
attention.
 Contd.
• Today, there are many ways to do that. 
• Pitching to a reporter is just one.  Today,
bloggers, i-reporters and other social media
channels are allowing ordinary people to report
the news.
• For instance, if you want to reach women with
children, you may be better off developing
relationships with “mommy bloggers,” instead
of solely running an ad.
 Advertising and Public Relations
Marketing Research vs. Media Research

• Advertising – Advertising is based on

demographics and market research.
• An advertiser has to find the right audience
and medium to advertise in.
• You don’t want to advertise to women in a
men’s publication or send a direct mail piece
from a retirement organization to young
people.
 Contd.
• PR – With PR, demographics and market research are important,
too. 
• But knowing the publications available in a particular industry or
which reporters cover a particular topic you’re pitching is also
critical. 
• Nowadays, with the Internet, it is easy to research industry
publications and follow reporters writing about a topic you’re
interested in.
• Facebook and Twitter also are ways to learn more about what
reporters are writing about and sometimes you can score a
placement just by reading a reporter’s Facebook or Twitter page.
 Advertising and Public Relations
Below the Fold vs. Above the Fold
• Advertising – Even though you pay a lot of
money for a sizeable print ad, it will not show
up on the front page of a newspaper
• In fact, many newspapers relegate ads to the
lower sections of the inside pages.
• You can, however, have your story and photo
featured on the front cover of community
magazines, although you have to pay for this
premium space.
 Contd.
• PR – On the other hand, “news” always gets
priority. 
• A “newsworthy” story may lead the evening
news or get top billing on the radio.
• It may also be featured “above the fold” in a
newspaper.
• You can’t pay for that publicity.
 PUBLIC RELATIONS AND PROPAGANDA

• Both public relations and propaganda seek to

shape perceptions and influence public
opinion.
• Both use mass media. Both are directed at
specific audiences.
• The end result of both is to get people to take
action (though those actions differ
immensely).
 Contd.
• Propaganda uses lies, half-truths, innuendo,
smears, misinformation, one-sided arguments
and inflammatory rhetoric to influence the
public’s attitude toward a cause, ideal or,
usually, a political agenda.
 Contd.
• Public relations uses truth if, and their claims
can be checked.
• PR relies on logic, facts and sometimes
emotions to spread information between an
organization or individual and its publics—
information to promote products, services and
build goodwill for the organizations offering
them.
 Contd.
• Propaganda’s underlying philosophy is us
against them.
• “They” are often denigrated as undesirables
or simply “the enemy.” (We have freedom
fighters; they have terrorists.)
 Contd.
• Public relations’ underlying philosophy is
building trust between an organization and its
products and services with its targeted
audiences for mutual benefit.
• .
 Contd.
• Propaganda relies on one-way
communications.
• It seeks to eliminate dissent, and those who
disagree may suddenly “disappear.”
 Contd.
• Increasingly, public relations rely on two-way
communications via social media and
encourage different points of view so
organizations can better service their clients
and customers
 To sum up

• Both techniques may employ “spin.”

• If what they’re spinning is based on truth, it’s
PR.
• If not, it’s propaganda
• 
 • Thank you
• [email protected]