Today everywhere we look, we see a dramatic change from advertising-oriented marketing to public relations-oriented marketing. Major brands these days are born with publicity, not advertising. A closer look at the history of the majority of successful modern brands shows proves exactly this. In fact, an astounding amount of brands, including Google, PlayStation, Palm, Harry Potter, Zara and Red Bull have been built with practically no advertising.
When Red Bull was launched in India, very few people were aware of the
brand or its benefits. Since the company did not believe in any kind of paid advertisement, the only way in which they promoted their brand was through visibility and word of mouth. People from the Red Bull sampling team would set up sampling stations at Fuel stations, Health Clubs and would sample them a can of Red Bull and explain its benefits and usage patterns as per the consumers lifestyle. Even today one will hardly see any advertising for the brand.
When Red Bull was launched in India, very few people were aware of the
People today see advertising is the self-serving voice of an organization eager to make a sale, thus it has no trustworthiness and hence no longer can a brand be launched via advertising.
Instead it is publicity or public relations, which are required to launch new brands as they permit an organization to tell their story indirectly through third-party channels, predominantly the media. Public relations provide the productive perceptions that an advertising campaign, if appropriately directed, can exploit.
In today’s times when clients are counseled they are advised that any new marketing program ought to begin with publicity and then shift to advertising only after the public relations objectives have been accomplished. For managers indoctrinated in an advertising culture, this is a revolutionary idea, while for others it’s a natural evolution in marketing thinking.
5 comments:
Advertising is paid publicity and PR is technically free so the average consumer assumes a greater trust in PR generated coverage, that could be one of the reasons. Its also a better option for companies to use PR rather than advertising since its 'disguised' promotion and not in-your face. So long live PR and heres to more jobs for us !!
Really well written. Specially the part about major companies like google and redbull doing soo well without any advertising! I can relate to that considering i was working with RedBull. We never did any kind of advertising and still hold majority of the market share for energy drinks. Till date, we do zero paid advertisements for RedBull in India and continue to rule the market..Good work :)
A well structured article, however i found the roles of pulicity and advertizing to have been exchanged throughout the aritcle.
Google, Red Bull etc spent millions on advertizing and it was only then that they were accpeted as what you call "Brands". Red Bull wasnt even recognized till they began to spnsor Formula One in 1996 in Germany. They were then announced the only company in formula one histroy to manufature one product and sponsor on such a large scale. Google too, was unrecognized over the world wide web till they advertized through networks of MNC's.
In my opinion it is the initial methods and formulas of advertizing that set the backbone of how publicity will follow. Nonetheless, things could be changing.
I'd like to disagree with the comment made by the "annonymous" person.His/her comment shows us that despite the impact PR has made on todays world people are still unaware of the work carried out through PR and hence credit all that to advertising.Times are changing advertising was the way to go yesterday, and today it is pubilc relations. As for red bull sponcering F1, that in its self is a PR tactic not an advertising one!
Well written,and quite apt.Google,Red bull,Potter etc had no advertising and their success is mind blowing.I find that the ads today,specially in India,are mostly style and no substance-and very often I have no idea what is the product being sold!Good article Priyanka!
Post a Comment