Kivi's Nonprofit Communications Blog

What Do You Call It? Marketing? Communications? PR?

I’m interested in knowing what nonprofit professionals and the consultants who serve them prefer to call what it is we discuss on this blog and others like it. Nonprofit Communications? Nonprofit Marketing? Nonprofit PR or Public Relations (abbreviated or spelled out)? Or something else?

Knowing the terminology that people use is important for a variety of reasons. If we want to find each other more easily online via search engines and tagging, using the right terms is important. So which term do you prefer? What sounds most natural to you? Take the poll below. (This is my first use of this Wordpress plug-in, so we’ll see how it goes).

6 Responses to “What Do You Call It? Marketing? Communications? PR?”

1. Nedra Weinreich Says:
   February 13th, 2007 at 10:25 pm

   I think these are slightly different subsets of each other, and different people may focus on one or the other — they are not necessarily interchangeable (except for nonprofit PR and nonprofit public relations). “Marketing” would be the broad overarching category, which would include both communications and other parts of the strategy like defining the product, pricing and distribution. Public relations/PR is a subset of communications — specifically to the media. And to further confuse things, what I do is “social marketing,” which is geared toward bringing about healthy or pro-social behavior change (often the reason why a nonprofit exists in the first place), as opposed to “nonprofit marketing,” which focuses on promoting the organization itself (i.e., membership, fundraising, etc.). A longwinded answer to what was probably supposed to be a simple question.

2. Kivi Leroux Miller Says:
   February 14th, 2007 at 12:18 am

   Thanks for your perspective, Nedra. I agree that they are technically different terms, but I think in reality one person in a nonprofit is often tasked with doing everything that falls into these categories, so I’m curious which term rises to the surface to describe that single person’s job.

3. Mindy Knappenberger Says:
   February 14th, 2007 at 10:34 am

   I prefer to stay away from the commercial connotation of “the M-word,” and call our nonprofit’s marketing an ‘awareness campaign.’ (My computer couldn’t load the “add an answer” option on your poll.) It’s just semantics, but sounds kinder and gentler to our audiences (an observation derived from a very informal survey.) I am the ED, and the only full-time paid staff, so I wear all of the hats. I am subscribed to your blog, and have been learning from the Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants for a few months now. I am excited to be debuting a new website featuring a blog next month! Thank you so much for your generosity in sharing your expertise.

4. Nancy Schwartz Says:
   February 14th, 2007 at 11:46 am

   Nedra, you’ve hit in on the nail — although nonprofit marketing as I see it is all-encompassing, including program and service marketing as well as organizational marketing)

   What I know (and have learned through pursuit of my MBA, and from great marketers in our field) is that formally speaking — marketing is the overarching work we all do. However, one distinction from Nedra’s point of view —

   Marketing incorporates several strategies, including:
   ==>Communications (which includes PR, as well as direct marketing, online communications, trade shows, etc.)

   ==>Service/product development (what, how packaged, how priced or funded)

   ==> Social marketing (to change behavior)

   ==> Planning — goals, objectives, target audiences, strategies, tactics, budget, work plan, measures of success

   ==> Message development

   More, much more and worth a read, in the bible of nonprofit marketing — Strategic Marketing for Nonprofit Organizations by Alan R. Andreasen and Philip Kotler.

5. Chris Says:
   February 22nd, 2007 at 9:18 pm

   I am a “Communications Specialist” at a university. I do content development (editing, writing, layout, production), communications management, strategic communications development, and media relations.

   …well, it’s a new position, so that’s what I do in theory. communications work is so loose in that way… btw, I chose “nonprofit communications…”

6. Audrey Says:
   March 5th, 2007 at 12:46 pm

   The points have been made that the term marketing is all-encompassing. My work specifically focuses on communications targeting philanthropists, corporations and general public; as well as PR. Thus I describe my work as Non Profit Communications or Causal Communications. Any thoughts?

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