Why Does PR Always Have To Be Working So Hard To Prove Its Worth?

The other day Katie Delahaye Paine sent me some charts she uses in her presentations. Included was the sort of chart that shows how much more effective PR is than other marketing efforts, and demonstrates how PR delivers results for much less money. Here's an example:

We've all been seeing this sort of chart in one form or another for years, for decades even. And it's not just the odd chart, it's whole research studies and presentations and books. PR people always seem to have to prove that they do their job well. Especially as compared with advertising.

Does anyone else notice this? Why do PR people have to keep trying so hard to demonstrate their own worth? They're always waving some charts and graphs and yelling about how PR really does work.

What does PR have to prove?

Why doesn't everybody know how great PR is by now? Why don't PR people know how great PR is by now? Does PR have an inferiority complex? Or does everyone else on the playground keep beating up on PR for some reason?

I asked Katie Paine and she said: "I think it's the nature of people that go into PR, their parents always wanted them to be engineers or lawyers."

Myself, I think it has a lot to do with the nature of advertising people. You don't last long in advertising unless you can sell stuff, including -- and especially -- yourself. Advertising people -- salespeople by their very nature -- are supremely convinced of their own extreme effectiveness. And when they pitch their next deodorant or antacid campaign they are constantly pitching their own infallibility. So the whole advertising ethos is one of constantly selling the effectiveness of your own ideas and campaigns.

PR people, on the other hand, have the job of trying to entice a reporter or editor to say something nice and include a few key messages. To persuade rather than sell. Which requires a different skill set, and much less upfront emphasis on their own effectiveness. So maybe they have to make up for it on the back end, proving themselves with research after the fact.

But this is only a guess, mind you. No doubt it will take a lot of research to sort things out.

And if you think you know why PR people are always trying so hard to prove their effectiveness, please let us know. And send along some charts and graphs to prove it. - Bill Paarlberg

Comments

[Katie Paine]

I think it has to do with how people think of themselves.