Public Relations in the future marketing mix

As stated earlier, public relations’ role in the marketing mix is to:

• communicate key messages through third party endorsement

• to defend target audiences within the marketing chain

• to influence purchasing decisions

• cost-effectively.

The role of public relations in the marketing mix is likely to expand and the way in which public relations is practiced may change substantially in future due to three main market forces:

• increasing sophistication of the consumer and consumer expectation;

• improved media technologies which are shaping the market-place;

• internationalization of brands and marketing.

The evolving media in particular will shape the future of marketing communications PR such as media diversification and globalization, and developments in cable, CD-ROM, interactive television and the Internet. These changes are being brought about by the following issues:

The logic of the new technology

Increasing	Decreasing
Speed	Cost
Volume	Distance
Content diversity
Two-way flow/user control
Convergence

The ramifications for public relations are manifold. That the consumer is moving towards a knowledge-based society cannot be argued; the only debate concerns how swiftly developments will be adopted.