Marketing public relations: conceptual legitimacy or window dressing?

Abstract

Explores the development of the marketing public relations (MPR) concept examining the arguments advanced concerning MPR’s emergence and legitimacy to be a separate marketing or PR discipline. Some marketing academics suggest that MPR should be incorporated into the marketing discipline whereas the majority of PR academics argue that MPR represents a further attempt by marketeers to “hijack” PR, incorporating it into the promotional mix. Indeed, certain academics claim that MPR may evolve into a new marketing or PR discipline separate from corporate public relations. The research is compared with the findings from a review of pertinent literature. Exploratory findings indicate that what MPR represents is merely a new term for PR applied to marketing promotion. However, the fact that a new label has been applied does not amount to the emergence of a new marketing discipline. MPR would appear to enjoy a growing importance in the expensive world of marketing communication activities.