Your experience matches what many post-grads come to realize: Academia doesn’t fully prepare them for business reality, instead focusing on theories which don’t really apply. Thanks for continuing the discussion.

Geoff

I’m sorry you picked up on that little tiff with Mr. Livingston and sorrier that you linked to it. But that’s the danger of slugging it out online, isn’t it? People come to see the show!

Your perspective that PR as a subset of marketing isn’t unusual. But since you work as a marketing consultant, it’s also understandable you’d see it that way. But when we move outside of the marketing functions into areas like employee communication, investor relations, community relations, issues management, crisis management, etc., we see the many other contributions — strategies and tactics — that PR makes.

Marketing folks include PR in their budget because they know we need an integrated effort to sell products and brand. We like being the “third leg on the stool,” but when the day is done, PR professionals we do a lot more than support marketing campaigns.

And I guess that’s my point. A whole lot of what PR does in organizations exists outside the view and the purview of marketing. PR and marketing aren’t rivals, just different disciplines whose missions often overlap a great deal.

You make some valid points and it’s nice to see some actual “facts” (or real-life findings) added to this debate.

I look forward to watching the comments as the can of open worms over the pr/marketing debate continues on with this post.