What is the Difference between “Doing PR” and “Building A Brand”?

What is the Difference between “Doing PR” and “Building A Brand”? This is a question that you may have asked yourself when confronted with an opportunity to “do PR” or perhaps having a PR Pro do some PR for you. 

Doing PR is an important part of Building a Brand. 

With PR and Publicity we can achieve some very key functions to building a lasting and impactful brand. We can achieve Credibility, in our genre or sector. We can establish Authority, that gives our audience or readers a reason to pay attention to us and listen to what we have to say. And we can create Authenticity. Authenticity is ultimately in the way we present ourselves, as much as about how we say it, as what we say, or the content of what we’re telling our audience or readers. 

The question of how PR & Publicity can help us achieve these things is partly explained by the fact that mainstream (or niche for that matter) can help us to achieve genuinely large audiences very quickly, once we have our coverage or broadcast opportunity confirmed. And it can be partly explained by the fact that PR and Publicity is what is termed in the industry as “earned” media, rather than “owned”. It is “earned” in that no money is changing hands for that piece of press or broadcast opportunity that you have negotiated or that you have pitched for and secured. (If you have directly paid for it, that’s not PR, it’s advertising.)

If you have a piece of PR coverage that is earned by virtue of your having an interesting story to tell, or something to say that is worth listening to, that a THIRD PARTY has thought fit to share with their readers, viewers or listeners (whether you’re being featured in print, or via radio, podcast, TV, online etc), this immediately gives you credibility. The kind of credibility that you don’t get with social media, where everyone has their own “space” or platform that they can essentially use as they choose. 

But “doing PR” is not the whole part of building a credible, authoritative and authentic Brand. 

Building a brand does not happen through one PR or marketing campaign. It doesn’t happen with a few Facebook or Instagram ads. It doesn’t happen with Reels, or TikTok videos or even Twitter. Building a brand takes several tools, pieces of the marketing and PR jigsaw, over time. The key part to remember is that all of these tools, all of the pieces should be working together, conveying the same message (albeit in different ways and with different nuances according to the platform), but they should all be working towards one common goal. That is to communicate your Brand messaging and present your Brand in a unified, coherent and cohesive way. 

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Isabelle Knight
Founder & Director
IK Publicity / Build Your Brand with PR

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