Why PR is essential across the marketing mix
We’ll start with some basics. The marketing mix is a variety of factors used by businesses to encourage target audiences to buy their goods or services. Traditionally, these factors are made up of the 4 P’s - Product, Price, Placement and Promotion - but more nuanced versions of the mix also include People, Process and Physical evidence. These elements are used in tandem to influence customers and also direct strategies and operations surrounding a business.
What is PR and how does it fit into the marketing mix?
PR, in turn, is a communication activity used to convey company messages to target audiences in order to impact public perceptions and relationships with an organisation. Often it’s used to raise brand awareness, encourage positive brand associations and convey organisations as leaders in their field.
Inevitably, because of these aims, PR is primarily associated with promotional activities. . However, it is such a broad communication tool that, arguably, PR does much more than this. In actual fact, it can be used to support a number of aspects surrounding a company and its marketing strategies.
In order to truly understand the extent that PR can benefit your company’s marketing mix, we must explore the mix’s 7 components.
7 P’s of the marketing mix
Product - A product is a good or service created by a company to satiate the demands of a certain audience.
Price - The price is the amount of money the customer must pay for the product. In the marketing mix, it’s essential that the price of a product matches the quality of the product as well as consumer demand and willingness to pay for it.
Place - Place refers to where and how the product will be positioned and distributed. For this, it’s important that the product is positioned in a location that is noticeable and reachable for your target audience. This could be in a shop, an online store, trade fairs etc.
Promotion - Promotion is the means in which your product is brought to the attention of potential customers and is used to persuade them to buy your product. This could be through advertising, word of mouth and, as previously mentioned, PR.
People - The people who work in your company are vital for the success of your product. Having the right employees and company culture ensures your people will represent your company well, sell your products and also ensure good staff retention to give your company a competitive edge.
Process - Process refers to the systems your company has in place between the business and the customer in order to deliver the product. This could be payment systems, distribution systems, processes of managing customer relations as well as the sales funnel.
Physical evidence - Physical evidence is the environment (the space and atmosphere) in which the customer interacts with the company and should present the company in line with its promises and customer expectations. Physical evidence of the company could be their branding, corporate image or the quality of the company website and user reviews on various platforms.
PR in the marketing mix
PR and Promotion
PR sits firmly within the promotional component of the marketing mix alongside forms of more widely understood promotional activity such as advertising or direct marketing. But while these can normally be used to sell specific products, PR has broader purposes.
PR communicates company messages to target groups, often by informing people of the work and aims of a company. In this way, it is less direct than, say, advertising - it does not outrightly push certain products - instead, it educates audiences with market insights and company expertise, aiming to create an understanding of and appreciation for a company. If you ever talk to PRinHR’s Kay Phelps, you’ll hear this a lot.
When promoting a company, PR strategies are less direct than advertising too. Instead of targeting audiences directly, PR informs audiences by earning news coverage that includes company advice, insights, research or positive mentions. This is a far more subtle form of promotion and works, often over time to increase public awareness and positive associations with a brand in order to encourage sales.
As such, PR can be a very effective promotional tool as audiences are more likely to trust information about a company when it comes from an authority unrelated to the business. Accordingly, positive responses surrounding a company are typically increased when company insights are promoted by a journalist through PR efforts.
PR and People
Attracting and retaining the right people is of course essential for the success of a company and its products. After all, the right people with the right skillset and right attitude will understand and appreciate your goals as well as your team, and will inevitably be more passionate about selling your products.
So how does PR fit into this? PR is such an extensive communications tool that it can convey a range of company messages to the public - ones that aren’t just about products. Instead, it can also express messages about company culture and importantly, your employer branding.
PR can convey messages about your workforce that not only demonstrate the benefits of working there, but that target the right audiences. Targeting the ideal type of employee with these ideas helps to attract and recruit ideal candidates, helping gravitate future workers who will be a good fit for your team, who will be more productive and will stay with you longer. In fact, we’ve heard it said that employee engagement starts well in advance of an employee application and hire.
PR and Process
This component of the marketing mix holds a range of potential processes that keep the company running efficiently. Accordingly, PR does not fit into all company processes but is key within certain areas and without it, efficiency can be impacted.
For example, some businesses’ sales funnels rely on PR at different stages. For instance, seeing an article in which a company gives niche industry insights can increase awareness and leads - or, further down the funnel, an award win supported by your PR team can help buying audiences in the evaluation stage when weighing up their options.
PR can also impact the customer relations management (CRM) process. Since PR is about influencing public sentiment surrounding a business, it is vital in building trust amongst potential and existing customers. Though this is an indirect aspect to CRM, it is nonetheless valuable to the overall process.
PR and Physical evidence
In many ways, PR helps build the physical evidence surrounding a company to ensure customer expectations are matched.
For one thing, PR can impact a company’s corporate image. By refining and positioning company messages well across the media, PR helps to shape perceptions of a business and build a positive reputation.
Beyond this, the ambience of a company is also important for physical evidence so that customers get the right feel. PR is excellent for this, creating an authority about a company through award wins and well placed company insights that position businesses as market leaders. When these things are visible on websites and other various channels, customers gain a better understanding for your business, its services, products and how it operates, giving it that great feel that’s so important for decision making.
Some key takeaways of PR in the marketing mix:
PR can be used to support a number of activities within an organisation.
It incorporates a variety of actions (message development and communication, relationship management, perception management, content marketing, to name a few).
The upshot is that PR compliments and strengthens other strategies and operations, optimising marketing and business goals.
If you want to find out how PR can specifically benefit your business, get your free PR audit with us. We’ll let you know just how strong your company is in the HR market and the steps you can take to enhance your marketing.