Have you ever wondered: how do you define marketing?
I'm so glad you found my blog and you're curious about this! At Grand Valley State University, the advertising & public relations (Ad/PR) program has taught me a lot about how to execute trustful messages effectively, which is foundational to corporate marketing roles. Advertising and public relations are marketing strategy activities, but today I'd like to share some of my insights about public relations. This is because I've seen some misconceptions about public relations, so allow me to share some insights for you. Let me know if you're on the same page—or if you differ in perception!
01/23/26 - Author: Robert Francois
So my definition of public relations (PR) is that it's a marketing strategy activity. Other communications activities can include PESO, sales promotion, sales enablement, demand generation, internal communications, product marketing, and more. This all ladders up to the continuous go-to-market plan and market strategy—which marketing can influence. Public relations' purpose is to enable sales and business operations to build trust and execute and build upon the GTM narrative. (Narrative and positioning is a part of GTM plan.)
In my background, working for Superior Edge Software, which is a construction ERP SaaS product, I've learned a lot about product marketing—and learned how public relations shapes the go-to-market plan. Some of our communications occur internally (within the team and cross-functionally) and externally (investor relations, customer relations).
It's an infrastructure
Marketing, as I term it, is a process of sense-making and coordination to strengthen mutually beneficial relationships, enable business operations, and inform product strategy through a process of narrative execution (which includes CS, sales, and of course various tactics such as PR).
Through this, PR is critical. The activity builds a foundational reputation so that sales can execute their narrative—and deal with objections properly and close deals faster. It enables CS to execute their narrative through customer relationship building.
Marketing, though?
Oh... I get it.
PR is a process of relationship management, but it is still inside of marketing, critically. It is not its own function, even if a company wants to label it as such. ("Communications.") It is still a part of Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC)—marketing, essentially. Demand generation (and brand awareness) is not just marketing, but in many companies it is viewed as such. In many companies, things are siloed for budgeting and politics purposes, however, which is why company alignment is key.
Who is involved in public relations? All stakeholders mutually benefited! This includes community members, government affairs, employees, customers, the general public, and more. However, segmentation is key. Keep your audience clear!
But because of this, this is why I define marketing as focusing on all stakeholders related to the company and the bottom line. How these various stakeholders shape PR in practice is that these various stakeholders are marketing communicators of their own. Employees have a voice, customers have a voice—and PR as an activity helps to ensure that high priority audiences are acknowledged and that ethical relationships are built with them. Through this, reputation is strengthened.
It's complicated, actually
There are multiple steps to PR as a communication strategy: research, strategy, alignment, and execution. Multiple tactics in PR, as an activity, can occur. Through building relationships in an external crisis, you may find that events, earned media (press releases), newsletters, social media engagement, and executive communications are needed.
To me, strong empathy and systems thinking are key to excelling in executing an effective PR activity. Systems thinking, in my view, includes data analysis to inform future communications strategies. Writing and content creation may be understood as the foundational skills, but AI is doing the easy work. Contextual judgment across various stakeholders is the biggest skill to be learned.
What separates good PR professionals from truly exceptional ones is truly the contextual judgment. As the market continues to expand towards spectatorship, quick hits of novelty and dopamine, low commitment, and reactive, low-trust audiences—contextual judgment and alignment are key. Asking questions like: "Should we say this? Would this affect our high priority audiences?" is crucial. Beyond this, contextual judgment is also internally within a company. While crafting messages internally and externally, working collaboratively with business partners and company stakeholders can sometimes be the job itself. As I like to say, counsel your partners rather than simply executing their ideas or creating misalignment. Ask: "Is their nervous system ready for this message?"
Other terms and labels are sometimes used instead of public relations. Some people think public relations is marketing. It is not. It is a marketing activity, which can indirectly enable business operations—and activities like demand generation campaigns—to carry out. Without a clear market-led reputation-building process, sales may fail and future growth can stagger, which is risky for many companies.
Example? Got it.
An example of this is that working at Superior Edge Software, I identified that some of their email marketing demand generation initiatives could be strengthened by putting more emphasis on trust, credibility, and reputation-building—all PR work. By addressing their narrative and positioning (within their go-to-market strategy), we have been working on an overview video that celebrates the Superior Edge Superior team and builds their foundational reputation as a credible product team that has been building the ERP internally for 9 years in a construction-native environment.
GTM? PMM? Let's go!
Whew. That was a lot of writing. I could talk about product marketing and GTM strategy—and all of the marketing communications activities that exist within it all—literally all day. If you're looking for any new definitions and insights, don't hesitate to reach out! I'm active on LinkedIn (Robert Francois IV) and would love to connect—don't be shy!