PR Is Dead

  Even the Oxford English Dictionary has to bend to popular usage now and then.  On that basis, PR is not dying, it's dead. All that's left is to bury the body. 

Meanwhile, it's no wonder many people are beginning to ask, "what's that smell?"  

The popular definition of PR has two parts -- (1) keep people happy and (2) failing that, keep them oblivious.  Easy access to real-time information and the rise of the social media to spread it have made both tasks much more difficult, if not impossible.  

Of course, as someone who spent his entire 32-year career in public relations, I know that the popular definition of the function is a crude caricature.  But when push comes to shove -- which describes the current environment quite nicely -- you'd be surprised how quickly corporate bean counters adopt it as their own definition of the function. "Who needs an entire department dedicated to keeping people happy when we're bleeding cash from every pore?" they ask.  "Let's fold most of it into marketing or HR and dump the rest."  

So no matter how you define it, I fear that PR as a function is doomed.  But there is hope.  

One of the most significant trends I uncovered in researching Secrets of the Marketing Masters is counter-intuitive -- four leading companies have put PR people in charge of marketing:  Jon Iwata at IBM, Beth Comstock at GE, Mich Mathews at Microsoft and Robert Mead at Aetna.  

I'm convinced it isn't a coincidence.  All four companies are icons within their respective industries. They have discovered that they need to sell their values, as well as their value, to win the trust of customers and all the other stakeholders who influence their operations.  That requires more than endless pitching, word-smithing, political correctness or knee-jerk do-gooding.  It requires the peripheral vision to see where the public's needs and values intersect with the company's competencies and interests.  And the business savvy to capitalize on it. 

PR hasn't taken over marketing at those companies; nor has marketing subsumed PR.  They've created something new that doesn't have a formal name yet, though they all call it something like "marketing and communications."  In that sense, PR as a stand-alone function, fighting for a seat at the table, is dead.  It is being replaced by a management philosophy focused on building enduring relationships.  The best of the old PR function's leaders -- those who already broke free of PR's popular caricature -- are taking those seats.

Comments

[Jona Atienza]

It makes me sad to know that there are articles like this in the Internet that claim that PR is dead. I am just a student who can actually enter the world of PR when I graduate. And from what I have learned (in school, at least) PR is vital in any organization. And isn't PR about building and sustaining relationships? And not just about keeping people happy and oblivious?

And instead of thinking that new social media is detrimental to the PR practice, why not utilize new social media for the betterment of the practice? In fact, I just have learned from class that companies can now use new social media in issuing press releases.

Well, these are just my thoughts as a student.