Influences of Advertising and Public Relations on the Market - Dissertation Example

It is important for any business that sells goods or services to the public to create an awareness of its offerings to stimulate demand, and this means that the right mix of promotional methods that highlight offerings are of considerable value for a firm (Pride, 2007, pp. 399 – 405). Thus, advertising and public relations are important ingredients in an optimal promotional mix that aims to deliver the best possible in terms of awareness for the offerings of a firm. Pride (2007, pp. 399 – 400) defines advertising as paid, non-personal communications about an organization transmitted to a target audience over the mass media, including television, radio, the Internet, newspapers, magazines, direct mail, outdoor displays, signs on mass transit vehicles, etc.

to influence an extremely large target audience. However, according to Pride (2007), all stakeholders in a firm are important and this means that in addition to interacting with customers to project the right image, it is important to address the concerns and issues related to suppliers, employees, stockholders, the media, educators, potential investors, and the society. Thus, public relations is an important component in the overall marketing mix because firms use public relations to interact with the broader set of stakeholders while using advertising to maintain an interest in customers.

Pride (2007, pp. 401 – 405) defines public relations as a broad set of communications efforts used by an organization to create and maintain favorable relationships between an organization and its stakeholders. Clearly, if an organization is to sell attractive value-added products and services to its clients, then it must have the support of all its stakeholders because, without such support, it is likely to be difficult to present competitive value-added products or services that sell under conditions of intense market competition.

It is important to remember that creating awareness is the first step, but true success is only possible when communications affect positively attitudes to encourage customers and stakeholders to act to deliver success for a firm (Harris, 1999, pp. 238 – 240). Thus, although the relationship between advertising and public relations may appear controversial, both must contribute to the overall success of a firm (Kitchen, 1997, pp. 241 - 242).