Why Are You Paying PR Firms to Develop Your Marketing Plans?
As per Wikipedia, public relations is the practice of managing the communication between an organization and its publics. Let's say it again. It is the practice of managing the communication. Not developing the communication. And certainly not developing the marketing plan that the communication is part of.
So how come it's now becoming the norm that not a week goes by where I don't hear of yet another vendor engaging a PR Firm to develop its marketing plan and spending, at least in my view, an obscene amount of money for the privilege?
(Now, I'm not saying you shouldn't use a PR Firm [even though I have had numerous issues with a number of PR Firms and/or vendors who have used external PR Firms over the last few years]. If you don't have the talent in-house, can't afford to have the talent in house, or don't have the need for a full time PR person, then you should definitely consider engaging a PR Firm. Managed properly, a relationship with a good PR Firm who can help you get in front of the right audience and refine your message appropriate to the audience has a significant ROI. But a mismanaged relationship with the wrong PR Firm will come back to bite you in the behind. Like an arms-reach BPO who takes your broken process and runs, a mismanaged relationship is only going to make things worse.)
A PR Firm doesn't know your products and services, they don't know your business, and they might not even know your vertical. Considering that these are the three things you have to know to come up with a good marketing plan, how can you possibly expect a PR Firm come up with one? The reality is that the free marketing advice you're going to get from us bloggers -- who know your vertical, your business, your competition, and what your products should do -- is much better than anything you're going to get from a PR Firm no matter how many (tens of) thousands you spend.
Remember where the PR Firm's expertise lies -- communications management. A good PR Professional is a Spin Doctor. This means that for them to add value, they need a message to spin. If you don't have a marketing plan with appropriately identified messages before you go to them, then they have nothing to spin.
So I guess what I'm saying is, if you hire a PR Firm to do your marketing plan, don't be surprised if all you get back is a bunch of hot air. Their function isn't creating substance, it's creating spin. And if all you give them to spin is air, then that's what they'll do.
Categories: rants, Market Intelligence
Tags: PR Marketing Plan
In reading today’s entry I am very curious as to why you have chosen PR firm’s as an object for criticism, particularly when your points apply to any outsourced relationship. Your argument is too narrow in its approach, and unfair in its conclusions.
Your [Wikipedia] definition of public relations does not differentiate between in-house or outsourced solutions. As such, even an internal public relations department would be responsible for “the practice of managing the communication” and not, as you outlined in your post, developing the communication or the marketing plan upon which it is based.
You also fail to adequately answer the more important question of why one would pay any firm to develop any manner of plan. Why would pay Mercer to develop a health plan design? Why would you pay Jones Day to develop a litigation strategy? The answer is, quite simply, that what they do represents a core competency for them and not for you.
To say that a PR firm doesn't know your products, services, your business, or your vertical is not to say that it’s not worth paying a PR firm, it’s to say that you’ve selected a bad one. Good firms in this and other industries excel at the ability to gain a deep understanding of their clients’ needs and then apply their expertise in communications to aid in developing and executing plans.
It’s irresponsible to suggest that the free marketing advice received from bloggers who know the supply chain space will supersede the value brought by a PR firm. As you yourself note, “Managed properly, a relationship with a good PR Firm…has a significant ROI.” Again, this is true of any outsourced relationship. A relocation service provider will do a lousy job if you don’t provide them with a corporate mobility policy. With that said, a good relocation provider is eminently capable of helping you develop a policy based upon their expertise in their industry.
Perhaps a more productive and accurate take would be about how to optimize outsourced relationships. It is important for anyone considering the use of an outside firm, regardless of specialization, to understand what component of the responsibility for success falls on their shoulders. Outsourcing a function doesn’t mean outsourcing responsibility, and good companies manage these strategic partnerships and enjoy the fruits of that investment. Instead of asking why a company might pay a firm to develop their marketing plan, let’s understand more about what inputs a PR firm might need from a company in order to aid in the creation of a best-in-class approach.
Finally, to cast all public relations professionals as “spin doctors” is to demonstrate a serious lack of understanding of their work. As a supply chain professional I resent the characterization of myself and my peers as PO-pushers, because I understand that far more goes into our work than the management of purchasing processes. These individuals do a lot more than “spin hot air.”
David:
You make some good points, but you are missing the point of this post (as compared to my previous rants w.r.t. PR firms). But first, your points, in reverse order.
"Spin Doctors". I have to disagree with you slightly here. While a good PR person is more than a spin doctor, a good PR person is, by definition, a good spin doctor who knows the best way to position your message. And a "bad" PR person is nothing more than a spin doctor. Thus, since good and bad PR professionals are both "spin doctors", I am logically correct in my statement (as I'm using an inclusive or vs. an exclusive or).
If you go back through the archives, I have many points on outsourcing relationships and how to optimize them.
I did not claim that all free marketing advice fronm bloggers will supersede all advice obtainable from PR firms. I said it is better than all advice from PR firms who don't know your business.
I am not saying it's not worth paying a PR firm. I am saying it's not worth paying a firm that specializes in PR to develop a marketing plan, which is not their specialty.
I do not fail to adequately answer the question of why one would pay any firm to develop any manner of plan as I never indicated that I would attempt to answer the broader question in this post.
I am not differentiating between in-house or out-sourced solutions because I am specifically tackling the outsourcing of marketing plan generation.
Finally, and this gets to the point you missed, my object of criticism for this post is not PR firms (as I've beat on them enough already), it's on the vendors who are selecting a service provider (PR Firm) who specializes in service A (PR) when they in fact need a different service provider (Marketing Advisory Agency) that specializes in service B (Marketing Plan Generation). Even though the firm they select (PR) provides a very important sub-service (A) of the service they really need ( B ), a sub-service is not, by definition, the whole service and not all firms who do A will also be able to do B.
The firm will likely try, and give it their best shot, but often the results will be no where near what the client needs, and the net result is that most of the money the client spends will be wasted -- as a number of vendors in this space who made this mistake could attest to if it wasn't for the fact that we are in a business culture where you sweep your mistakes under the rug, roll the rug up, put it in a trunk, drop the trunk in a hole, and fill the hole with concrete. I know for a fact that a number of smaller vendors in the space have tried this strategy and received less than stellar results. I also know a number of vendors have approached leading bloggers, like Jason, for marketing advice and gotten fantastic results in comparison.
If everyone was as open as Charles when it comes to their ambitions PR endeavors, you'd know where I'm coming from. But even without this knowledge, my logic is still sound.