Public Relations as Brand Strategy

As I do most Saturday mornings when I am in town, I read the Denver Business Journal during breakfast. The headline that caught my attention this week read, PR agencies stand out by being all the same. In his column, Bruce Goldberg, associate editor, wrote about how PR agencies all end up sounding the same in their attempts to differentiate themselves. As I did two weeks ago, he also references the current advertising campaign for Spicy Pickle.

While I agree with what Mr. Goldberg writes, I think the challenge for PR agencies is not so much how their are trying to position themselves, it is the challenge they have positioning their clients. As I have said a zillion times, most organizations lack an effective brand positioning platform. When this central business strategy is missing, PR agencies are placed in the awkward situation of trying to play brand manager. For the most part, that is not their area of expertise. I think most agencies would succeed if their clients had a brand positioning platform in place to help guide the agencies PR efforts, and the organization's branding.

Has your organization hired a PR firm and expected miracles without having a brand strategy to drive the PR efforts?