PR or public relations management is no longer limited to celebrities. Today, PR has emerged as an effective tool for reputation management and is being used by a number of organizations, businesses and individuals to enhance their credibility, establish and maintain their goodwill and, most of all, influence the opinions of the target audience. For these reasons, public figures and politicians, brands, NGOs and even hospitals have turned to PR services so as to establish a place of their own and gain the loyalty of their customer base.
With the advent of social media, PR has moved beyond traditional mediums like print and television. Today, Twitter and Facebook, apart from company websites and press releases, are being used for advertisement and as tools to understand target audiences. Also, as a far more cost-effective tool than advertising, PR services has gained popularity across the board. Due to its immense usability as a marketing tool, analysts at Technavio predict that the global PR market will record a CAGR of around 7% by 2020.
Challenges faced by the PR market
Though there is no denying that using PR services has now become the norm, there are some challenges that critics see as a hindrance to the growth of the PR market. Some of these major challenges include the following:
The decline of print
Until recently, print has been the leading segment in the PR industry, contributing around 50% to the global PR market. But with the declining sales of newspapers and magazines, a vacuum has been created. This is because, even though digital media is being extensively used in the form of e-papers and e-magazines, it lacks the same credibility as print media.
Less control over media content
Despite being similar to advertising in many ways, marketers in PR do not have direct control over where the PR is placed or where the news piece is being broadcasted. This is because, unlike in the case of advertising, the PR piece is generally conveyed to a magazine writer or a news reporter. This increases the chances of the final message being different from what the PR marketer originally intended, causing confusion and in some cases tarnishing the goodwill of an organization.
Difficulties in performance tracking
This is another major challenge with PRs. As many leading PR firms are of the mindset that evaluating and measuring the effectiveness of a PR campaign is a subjective thing, it is very difficult to measure a PR campaign’s performance. Also, the tools currently available for measuring performance are considered either too tedious or cost-intensive, making the performance tracking process even more difficult.
Impact of these challenges
There is no doubt that the challenges faced by the PR market are serious in nature and need to be addressed. But the fact remains that the decline in print content might create a glitch only in the initial stage, as many are transitioning to digital media and the digital platform is gradually being accepted as a credible tool for accessing information. The second challenge of less control over the content is being addressed, as many PR companies are hiring their own writers to get the right content circulated. Lastly, measuring the success of campaigns is no doubt a tedious process, but the spike in sales figures and direct feedback from consumers on social media do help in obtaining a realistic picture of the campaign’s success.
Therefore, one can rest assured that the PR market is strong enough to overcome challenges and emerge as a very important marketing tool in the upcoming years.
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