Public relations and advertising - Essay Example

? Public relations and advertising Introduction Advertising can be described as any paid form of non personal message used to promote the goods, services or ideas of any identified sponsors. On the other hand public relations refer to the art of promoting products, services or ideas through a third party or an independent medium. Both ads and public relations are a part of the promotional mix and overall mass media and hence, each of the elements has some degree of social responsibility attached to it. However, whether the ads and PR are able to fulfill the so called responsibility or not remains a burning question. The present study looks to analyze the important roles played by Advertisements and Public relations in the marketing of educational and social services. Also simultaneously the challenges the faced by Advertisements and Public relations in the marketing of educational and social services have also been discussed (Cowan, 2005). Roles Probably ten to fifteen years back, marketing was not an integral part of the educational services and institutions. Simply because education was not perceived as an industry and there were very few organizations that were a part of it. However, things have changed. With the rise in income of the people the desire to have quality education have also gone up and as a result a lot more players have entered into this industry. Hence, marketing and communications have become an integral part of the educational institutions in order to raise awareness among the target audience (Kazmi, 2010). As a result the role of Ads and PR ha become critical in the success of such organizations. Usually the ads of the educational institutions revolve around aspects such as the facilities and infrastructure provided, faculties, placement records. The educational institutes also use third parties such as students, journalists as a reference group to develop strong relationships with the community which may influence the buying behavior of the target group (Henry, 2008). In the context of the public or social services the ads mainly focuses on the issues such as pollution, national integration, smoking, alcohol, drugs, etc. The main purpose of such ads is to educate the people or masses through a hard hitting informative message. The main genre is not to sell products but to provide effective messages or ideas. In such cases the ads look to become as an instrument to stimulate the social awareness in the society (Kolb, 2008). Ads related to social services are much more than simple tokenism. Therefore, such ads should have a sign of professional excellence that motivates people towards action. Many veterans marketing and PR professionals have also emphasized upon the fact that it is very important to make sure that ads have an agreed statement which can generate specific and if possible actions (Wenderoth, 2009). Challenges Just like any other medium of mass communication ads and public relations also have certain negative aspects. In the competitive market the advent of various ad agencies along with the arrival of the billions of products, ideas or services to satisfy the needs of the clients. As a matter of fact this seemed to have become the most important objective of the marketers. Various cases of misleading and false information in ads have been found (Burgemeister, 2003). However, the issues of the false information can have serious consequences in case of educational and public services. Education is lot more different from other products and services. People would indulge in getting education throughout the life and the risks involved while making consumer behavior is immense. Most of the times, the educational institutions use placement and job assistance as the main USPs to attract the students. But many times it has been seen that the promises made by the educational intuitions through the ad and PR campaigns have not been kept. Many times it has also been found that students have been given wrong information regarding the infrastructure and qualification of the faculties of the institutions. Another important factor with regards to misleading information has been the university affiliation. On many occasions it has been found that after passing out of the colleges the students have faced problems during job interviews regarding university affiliation (Brown, 2009). It has been discussed above that the modern day educational sector has become very competitive. Due to increased demand various players have entered the market. Hence, in order to attract the students the companies are using ads and public relations. However, in order to get more number of students and generate revenue the ethical aspects of ads in case of educational sectors have come across certain degree of damage (Rao, 2010). As a result the government and various social and media organizations have started to keep a close eye on the ad strategies adopted by the educational institutions which would most certainly act as a challenge. Apart from the ethical aspect, the recent economic downturn would also act as barrier as far as advertisement and PR budget is concerned. Taking a queue form the point of credibility and trust tit can be said that the in order to ensure success of the public service ads the public service organizations must ensure healthy relationships the public. Therefore, if the public trust and credibility is lost then the success of such ads would be highly unlikely (Frank, 1964). Conclusion Both advertisements and public relations happen to be important tools for marketing and communication for the marketers. Both Ads and PR is extensively used by the marketers to generate demand as well as maintain healthy relationship with the public. However, the role of ads and PR in case of the marketing and promotion of educational and social services is quite critical as compared to the marketing and communications of other services because in both the cases trust and credibility is a major issue. This study has reflected the fact that both ads and PR have certain social responsibilities and it would quite appropriate to say that the people can be made aware of the concerned and relevant social issues along with the educational intuitions by using ads and PR effectively and yet ethically (Kotler, 2001). References Brown, L. (2009). Marketing and Distribution Research. US: Ronald Press Company. Burgemeister, S. (2003). Market analysis. DE: GRIN Verlag. Cowan, A. (2005). Risk Analysis And Evaluation. UK: Global Professional Publishing. Frank, N. (1964). Market analysis: a handbook of current data sources.US: Scarecrow Press. Henry, A. (2008). Understanding Strategic Management.UK: Oxford University Press. Kazmi. S. 2010. Advertising and Sales Promotion.UK: Prentice Hall. Kolb, B. (2008). Marketing Research: A Practical Approach.UK: Sage. Kotler, P. (2001). Marketing Management. UK: Prentice Hall. Rao, V. 2010. Handbook of Pricing Research in Marketing.UK: Edward Elgar Publishing. Wenderoth, M. (2009). Particularities in the Marketing Mix for Service Operations. DE: GRIN Verlag. Read More