A few days ago I received a phone call from someone arranging for a conference on Social Media. A journalist friend had recommended me for a panel on PR.  I responded that technically I am considered marketing but that the two are so married it really doesn’t matter. She was floored. Apparently this was a new concept for her.

I had to put on the breaks and remind myself that the PR people live in a PR bubble, The Marketing people live in a marketing bubble and both bubbles are completely ignoring the customer service department. PR, Marketing, and Customer Service need to be three branches of the same tree.  They may focus on different aspects but if they are not connected at some point they are not going to grow well.

I’m not the only one saying this.  CC Chapman has mentions similar statements on Managing the Gray and Ron Ploof talks about it in Read This First – The Executives guide to New media from Blogs to Social Networks. I’ve heard many others say it too. But it’s those of us who do not come from either marketing or PR that find separating the three just baffling.

Wikipedia has several descriptions for Public Relations but the simplest one is “the practice of managing communication between an organization and its publics”

It describes Marketing as “the process by which companies determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales… create value for customers and build strong customer relationships in order to capture value from customers in return.^“

So if PR is “managing communication” and Marketing is “build(ing) strong customer relationships” shouldn’t they be talking to each other? And if it’s all about relationships with the customer shouldn’t both departments be talking to the only people in the company who are talking to the customers directly, the Customer Service Department?