…a blog series by Caleb Kruse
This is my third week as an intern at The Fearey Group. Coming into this internship, I was a little uneasy that I was about to join a very prestigious public relations firm in Seattle when I came from a marketing background. I majored in marketing during my undergraduate career, which perhaps gives me an alternative lens to view the world of public relations. As an introduction this week, I will seek to “connect the dots” between the world of marketing and PR in order to use my foundation as an advantage.
In these first three weeks at The Fearey Group, I hit the ground running. I have been put on a variety of projects from the task of media clipping and tracking to event coordination and client research. These projects have a very similar feel to marketing projects and assignments I did in college and previous employment, but with a different focus. My experience has largely been in consumer marketing. One of the key differences I have observed between marketing and public relations is the messages being used, not necessarily the audience. In marketing if you want to send a message to your audience, you simply buy an ad catered to your target market. I am learning that PR is much more about telling your client’s story to the consumer in a way that is relevant and engaging, rather than purchasing ads. The content of the message seems to be equally as important as how the message is communicated.
Additionally, the tools used in marketing are different than those used in public relations. For example, a public relations campaign attempts to generate stories through the online, print, tv, and radio media. This is a much more organic approach to reaching a target audience than perhaps a marketing campaign where an ad would be created and purchased to reach a very specific group of people. This organic approach seems to give the message being conveyed to the audience more credibility as it is not coming directly from the company. I am enjoying the opportunity to take the knowledge and experience I have gained in the past from a marketing background and apply it to PR. My future blog postings will have more insights to the world of public relations and what I am beginning to learn as an intern at The Fearey Group.