With the growth of peer-to-peer communication methods, instant communications and the rise of social media tools, several business PR leaders are playing a strategic role more closely aligned with the marketing function- thus giving PR more credibility and an impact on the bottom line. Read this insightful article from Advertising Age (www.adage.com) on the evolution of these PR roles.
How PR Chiefs Have Shifted Toward Center of Marketing Departmentsby Michael Bush,
Advertising Age (Sept. 21, 2009)
To read the full article online, visit www.adage.com. NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- When a crisis hits, it's the in-house communications and PR specialists that take the lead in formulating a communications strategy. But with the rise of social media and the need for ultra-quick turnaround in creating and launching campaigns, could the day soon come when internal PR departments are steering the marketing ship full time?
In some organizations, chief communications officers (CCOs) and their teams are playing a strategic role more closely aligned with the marketing function. Some companies think the two -- advertising and communications -- are so closely linked that their CMO and CCO are one in the same.
Jon Iwata, IBM's senior VP-marketing and communications, is the highest-profile example of this but there are others, such as Harry Pforzheimer, chief communications officer and marketing leader, at Intuit, and Roger Frizzell, VP-corporate communications and advertising, at American Airlines.
"I started on the PR side 34 years ago," said Mr. Pforzheimer, whose company produces TurboTax. "I have seen the [in-house] communications role evolve dramatically during that time from press release generator to where it is now, which is definitely at the center of things."
Growth driven by PRMr. Pforzheimer, who said Intuit's overall communications budget has continued to grow year over year, said most of the company's growth is actually driven by its PR function and its ability to quickly create and convey marketing messages.
"It's a little harder to measure but when you know that roughly eight out of 10 customers bought your product because of word-of-mouth that's a pretty powerful tool," Mr. Pforzheimer said, noting that Intuit's customers are also its best sales people. "So engaging with our customers directly is part of our DNA and communicating with customers on a timely basis is critical. And that timely basis now is instantaneous."
He said Intuit's communications effort, whether it be mainstream media, Twitter or blogs, reaches three to four times more people than its advertising does.
American's Mr. Frizzell said the airline's decision to bring both functions under one person was based on the idea that communications don't happen in a vacuum. He said the integration of the two, whether forced or natural, is happening for every marketer and it's due mainly to the advent and acceptance of social media and heightened social consciousness of Americans on environmental, governance and diversity issues.
"When you're talking corporate reputation now you're talking marketing," Mr. Frizzell said. "As advertising budgets shrink and the economy gets tighter, you have to rethink your ad spend and PR can maximize that ad spend. In some cases it should compliment creative work and replace it in others."
When American launched its low-fare guarantee initiative a few years back, it was led by PR. The result, Mr. Frizzell said, was higher levels of awareness that grew quickly, and "millions of dollars saved" in ad expenditures.
Helps shape a marketing plan
Mark Stouse, global communications leader for BMC software, a business-to-business company, said BMC's PR function not only has more impact today on its marketing messages but on the direction of the company as well. He said it's the group's knowledge of what BMC's customers want that make it so vital and can help shape or trash a marketing plan.
"Tech companies tend to fall in love with the technology and develop campaigns about feeds and speeds and not the benefits," Mr. Stouse said. "This is not meant to be a ding on marketing but it's a matter of perspective. They look at it from a certain standpoint and we temper that by bringing a much different perspective." He said that he's not only altered campaigns at BMC but at previous employers like Compaq and HP as well.
Mr. Stouse said aside from the sales team, his group is one of the few out there on a daily basis "selling a company perspective."
Selling that perspective to consumers and the media, he said, has always been important externally, but internally wasn't always acknowledged as part of the marketing puzzle by the gatekeepers. But that's changed, and with that change has come "a great deal of moral authority in the whole process of determining what the company is going to be about and talk about," he said.
Tony Cervone, senior VP-chief communications officer, United Airlines, said it's an overstatement to say communications can shape the direction of a company. But he does believe it's having a greater impact on a company's bottom line, giving the practice more credibility.
"Fundamentally, if you're doing a better job building relationships with consumers and if you believe that's part of the role of communications, it's not hard to imagine that's having a direct impact on the bottom-line performance," Mr. Cervone said.
To read the full article online, visit www.adage.com.