What is marketing public relations?

The concept of marketing public relations: public relations marketing is marketing with public relations as the main tool, and it is communication with public relations as the tool. First, the classification and scope of public relations

Thomas Harris is an associate professor at Medill School of Journalism, Northwest University. He is famous in academia and industry for writing and publishing the first monograph on marketing and public relations. This book is called Marketing PR Guide, which is directly translated into marketing PR of Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Harris divides public relations into two types:

A marketing-oriented public relations, its role is to support the objectives of marketing plan;

The other is corporate public relations, which mainly deals with general public affairs, maintains the original function of managing public communication affairs and supports the overall goal of the enterprise. From what aspects does marketing public relations support marketing work?

Harris's book compares marketing, marketing public relations and corporate public relations.

Promote products, sponsor activities, hold special events, participate in public services, prepare promotional printed materials, hold press conferences, invite media to visit and interview, and support manufacturers and their businesses. , are included in the category of "marketing public relations";

The relationship between enterprises and media, shareholders, government agencies, communities, employees' communication, public affairs operation and corporate advertising all belong to the category of "corporate public relations".

Harris's view is in the same strain as the mainstream view prevailing in contemporary marketing circles, and his research results further strengthen the theory that public relations is a promotion tool.

Second, the role of marketing public relations in marketing:

1, classification of marketing management

The marketing management process can be divided into two stages or parts, one is strategic marketing and the other is tactical marketing.

There are four interrelated links in strategic marketing, namely, market analysis (exploration), market segmentation (division), market selection (preference) and market positioning (positioning), which are called strategic 4Ps; ;

Tactical marketing also has four parts, that is, traditional marketing 4P, which is the so-called tactical 4P. Tactical 4P needs to solve the problem, that is, according to the requirements of strategic 4P, especially the market selection and positioning, what kind of products, at what price, where (or what kind of distribution method), and what kind of promotion methods should enterprises use to contact and communicate with the target market and the public.

According to the traditional understanding, marketing public relations is only a part of tactical marketing; This also determines its role-one of the many promotion tools of enterprises.

2. The role of marketing public relations in strategic and tactical marketing.

First, the present situation and trend of marketing environment have an important influence on strategic marketing decision.

Marketing environment, as a restrictive force from outside the enterprise, belongs to the uncontrollable factors of the enterprise. Marketing management involves the balance of two forces: one comes from outside the enterprise and is an uncontrollable factor, forming a marketing environment; Another strength comes from inside the enterprise, which is a factor that you can control, that is, the 4P factor repeatedly mentioned in traditional marketing (Professor kotler once proposed to add "power" and "public relations" on the basis of 6P), forming the basic means for enterprises to carry out tactical marketing.

The task of marketing management is how to adapt the 4P strategy to external changes and keep a dynamic balance with the marketing environment. Although some factors in the marketing environment cannot be controlled, enterprises can exert certain influence to control or reduce the expansion and diffusion of unfavorable aspects. In this process, public relations often plays a very important role.

For example, an important marketing environment is the cultural environment. Every country and place has its own traditions and customs, and the difference of cultural background is an important factor affecting consumers' desire. Using public relations to influence some non-mainstream cultural factors can completely promote some consumption trends that are beneficial to their own products and brands in the market, that is, create fashion and guide the market. Legal environment is also an important environment that marketing must consider. Using public relations to conduct and implement problem management can also have a certain impact on the formation and implementation of some legal provisions.

Second, the essence of market positioning is a communication process.

Positioning is the reason for an enterprise to provide people with more full trust and buy its brand and products. This requires communication and marketing public relations.

Different enterprises and brands, according to their own market positioning, can provide customers and the public with diversified choices and different ways to meet their needs, rather than the only choice and uniform satisfaction. In fact, enterprises have always had two basic strategies in competition, one is low cost and the other is high difference. Low-cost strategy is to form a competitive advantage based on cost, which is closely related to factors such as enterprise scale and internal management level. High differentiation strategy relies on characteristics to consolidate market position and aims to highlight your uniqueness. Positioning is a communication process. "Communication" and "communication" are the same word in English, communication; But in Chinese, it is absolutely necessary to understand it separately. "Communication" refers to the transmission of information, emphasizing the communication process; "Communication" highlights the result-whether the two sides have reached a consensus through information exchange. So positioning is not as simple as everyone often says. Your position is very clear and recognized by the market and the public. If we can occupy a place in people's hearts, it is possible to avoid the whirlpool of price war. Now is the era of so-called "eyeball economy" and "attention economy", and people's attention has become an important resource, which can produce economic benefits. In such an era, the potential of marketing public relations to play an active role in the process of market positioning must be far greater than advertising and other promotional means.

The third aspect, although strategic marketing is a planning process with a clear direction. However, when implementing this plan, enterprises need understanding and support from all sides. Not only internal employees, external distributors, suppliers, etc. It also includes other market intermediaries and various groups that constitute the political, legal, social, cultural, technical and economic environment of enterprise marketing. They are all public objects that need to be considered in our marketing work. This relationship is also called "strategic alliance". Not only upstream and downstream manufacturers can establish long-term and stable strategic alliances, but competitors can also form strategic alliances to some extent, such as airlines and hotels.

Public relations can play an important role in this respect, which is also the marketing goal that supporting enterprises need to achieve.

Fourth, even at the tactical marketing level, the role of public relations is not limited to the promotion field; Public relations is also useful in product decision, pricing decision and distribution decision.

Tactical marketing is mainly the application of four basic marketing methods, which has been discussed in the general theory. Strategic marketing has defined the target customers and market positioning, and then we should think about how to provide the right products, determine the right price, choose the right sales place and guide consumption in the right way according to these customers and this positioning. This is the tactical decision of 4P. Later, it was suggested that tactical marketing decisions should not only think of the four P's, but should be viewed from another angle: think more about what consumers want and need, not just your "products"; Think more about the cost that consumers are willing to pay to meet their own needs and desires, not just how to set your "price", how high it is, and how much you can earn; Think more about consumer satisfaction or convenience of purchase, not just your sales "location (distribution)"; Think more about communication with consumers, not just how you want to "promote" and spread. That is, from 4P to 4C. Advantages of public relations marketing: 1. Create a good corporate image.

Social marketing through special public relations activities is not only a short-term investment, but also a long-term investment. It can establish good relations with various social forces (such as government, trade associations, media, experts, consumers and even competitors), "so that enterprises have a good growth environment." In particular, enterprises establish a good social image through social welfare undertakings. This creates a good opportunity for products to integrate into the market environment, which is the beauty of relationship marketing. For example, Coca-Cola China Co., Ltd. donated RMB 30 million to the Hope Project in China and 52 Hope Primary Schools, so more than 60,000 dropouts returned to school. After the implementation of the "Hope Project Distance Education Plan" in China, the company established 20 "Hope Schools-Coca-Cola Online Learning Centers" in poverty-stricken areas of China, which helped young people in poverty-stricken areas to get education and development opportunities in the "digital age" and played an important role in establishing a good social image for Coca-Cola Company.

2. Establish a good corporate reputation.

For any enterprise, reputation has always been crucial. With the development of China's commodity economy, it is not enough for modern enterprises to establish commodity reputation, but also to establish enterprise reputation. Using strong communication coverage, public relations marketing can greatly enhance the visibility, reputation and harmony of enterprises, which is the basis for forming corporate brand loyalty and one of the basic operating tools for building corporate brands.

3. Save the enterprise crisis.

According to the survey, 80% of enterprises think that "enterprise crisis is as inevitable as death and taxation". In the process of development, enterprises often encounter various crises, such as business crisis, management crisis, legal crisis, quality crisis and relationship crisis. At this time, adopting public relations activities may resolve the crisis; Even with the help of crisis management, the corporate or brand image can be improved. For example, in the PPA incident of 200 1 Sino-US SmithKline, although "PPA" had a great influence on Sino-US SmithKline, the company's image and brand reputation were improved through crisis public relations activities.

4. Start the market at low cost.

If the enterprise has no economic ability to "push" new products to the market through advertising and other promotional strategies, word-of-mouth marketing in public relations strategy can play an important role. As long as the communication system is established at the terminal, word-of-mouth communication is carried out by professional consultants, shopping guides and promoters, and then subsequent communication is carried out by consumers, the low-cost communication of enterprises can be realized. In fact, event marketing has also created communication success for many enterprises, such as "Fuya boss drinks paint", "Hua Hua Ting fights with Procter & Gamble" and so on.