Tapping Influence: PR powers dynamic brands

"Winning companies are increasingly eschewing advertising and instead deploying social and conventional media in ways designed to enhance the perceived value they deliver to customers."
So reads the new white paper on brand building from the Council of PR Firms.
Self-serving tripe?
Hardly.
The Council of PR Firms is by no means alone among industry experts who recognize how truely PR works as the powerhouse brand builder. Consider this example: As he did with a ground-breaking work on the crucial power of positioning a while back, advertising legend Al Ries broke ranks with the advertising elite when he penned The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR a few years ago. Ironically, Ries published this latter work prior to the dramatic onslaught of social media, where consumers now possess a near-equal voice with the so-called experts.
Public relations as a profession has long been about extending an "invitation" to consider a point of view or sample an attribute. PR focuses on authenticity and credibility, which in the past has often been the function of media relations, where a PR professional must first convince a reporter of the truth and relevance of a client's position. In theory, the reporter would then reward the client or company by writing or airing a story that independently verified the claims first initiated by the PR professional.
Today, with the explosion of tweets, blogs and e-mail, that has largely changed. A credible voice can instantly appear and influence millions on Youtube, a market-changing message can appear in a matter of minutes on an unstoppable viral platform and be passed first by hundreds, then by thousands, then by millions.
All of that is nowhere as important as its influence on brand execution and sustainment, as a brand in its most powerful form represents a believable "promise." If that "promise" holds true, then today's consumer (whether of ideas, products or information) will not only reward the originating company by buying its product (or more importantly - buying into the idea behind the brand), that same consumer can cast a highly influential vote of sorts in the digital Word of Mouth marketplace. Want more? Go here.