Marketing, public relations, and how Web 2.0 is changing their relationship

Public Relations Review 38 (2012) 831–837

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Public Relations Review

Marketing, public relations, and how Web 2.0 is changing their

relationship: A qualitative assessment of PR consultancies

operating in Spain

Elisenda Estanyol ∗

Information and Communication Studies Department, Open University of Catalonia, Rambla del Poblenou 156, Barcelona 08018, Spain

a r t i c l e i n f o

Keywords:

Public relations

Social media

Web 2.0

PR practitioners in Spain

a b s t r a c t

In communication between organisations and consumers, the dividing lines amongst mar￾keting, advertising and public relations are sometimes blurred. The confusion and overlap

is more marked with the advent of the Web 2.0 and the proliferation of online campaigns,

and associated initiatives. This article presents the results of ten in-depth interviews held

with senior managers of PR consultancies operating in Spain in order to study and evaluate

how these changes are being tackled from within the sector itself. It concludes that the

sector perceives the current context as a great opportunity for growing and consolidating

the strategic conception of public relations.

© 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

Public relations work is characterized by an approach to corporate communication that attends to all stakeholders (e.g.

employees, shareholders, suppliers, investors, trade unions). For many organisations, consumers are the crucial public.

Nevertheless, in consumer-oriented communication, it has often been difficult to know exactly where marketing ends and

public relations begin. Since the arrival of the net, social media, and especially the Web 2.0 era, a number of questions arise:

Have the boundaries been further eroded or strengthened? How are consumers impacted? Has the relationship between

marketing and PR been altered? Specifically for this article, how are Spanish PR consultancies adapting to all these changes?

To see how marketing and public relations interact when it comes to communicating with consumers, and to answer

the questions introduced above, this paper reviews a specialised bibliography and studies on the public relations sector in

Spain. Moreover, it presents the results of ten in-depth interviews held with senior managers of PR consultancies operating

in the country to add an up-to-date perspective from professionals.

2. The marriage between marketing and PR

Marketing and public relations are both essential disciplines. Although they should complement each other, the assign￾ment of organisational responsibilities “are murky, often overlapping and frequently conflicting” (Ehling, White, & Grunig,

1992, p. 358). A range of authors from Kotler and Mindak (1978) in the 1970s, through Lauzen (1992), Moriarty (1994), to

Grunig and Grunig (1998) in the 1990s, has debated the differences and the organisational relationship between marketing

and PR. The subject remains alive in the 21st century, which opened with Hutton (2001) calling the relationship “Public

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0363-8111/$ – see front matter © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2012.04.006