A future scenario of public relations

Why communication makes a massive contribution to marketing

 
The lion’s share of communication budgets is currently, and will continue to be, inexorably oriented towards marketing. In the UK alone, spending on all types of marketing activity was approximately £24 billion in 2004 (Source: World Advertising Trends, 2004). Worldwide, marketing communications activities ranging from advertising to public relations, and all other associated tools was $US700 billion or nearly $US1 trillion.  The key questions of course are:  What are the underlying trends with regard to expenditure? Is there any evidence supporting movement toward public relations in particular? What challenges, obstacles or barriers prevent public relations as a discipline from taking up more of a share of marketing budget?

Philip J. Kitchen

Philip J. Kitchen is professor of strategic marketing at Hull University Business School in the UK. As editor of the Journal of Marketing Communications, he has published 11 books and over 100 articles in leading journals worldwide and was listed in The Top 50 list of gurus who have influenced the future of marketing by Marketing Business in December 2003. He is a CIM fellow and RSA Member of the Institute of Directors.