PR Vs Advertising Vs Corporate Communication: Courses, Colleges, Career & Jobs

Advertising, public relations and corporate communication are imperative needs of modern businesses that drive their success. These fields are perfect career options for people with creative minds. Read all about advertising, PR and corporate communications: courses, colleges and jobs here. 

PR Vs Advertising Vs Corporate Communication: Advertising, corporate communication, and public relations are the ideal career choices for people with creative minds and who love to meet others. If you also have creative skills harnessed by your creative mind and an outgoing or extroverted personality, you can opt for one of the three areas for your career development. While choosing the right option among PR, advertising, and corporate communication, most individuals face the common problem of identifying differences among them. To help you overcome confusion in selecting a career option among public relations, corporate communication, and advertising, this article explains the differences among them.

1. Advertising: Overview

Advertising is both a process and a set of techniques that aim to seek the attention of customers towards a product, service or marketing message. The motive of advertising is to promote the offerings and messages of a business organisation. These offerings include goods and services. Companies use digital and print content as their advertising tools or techniques. From a billboard of a famous soft drink like Coca-Cola on the side of a road to television commercials, Facebook and Instagram ads are all different types of advertising techniques.

From a commercial point of view, ads are highly important to businesses because they help companies communicate with the right customers. This communication motivates customers to purchase those companies’ products and services and contributes to their revenues. Thus, advertisements based on advertising practices and techniques are always relevant to businesses, which is why career opportunities in advertising are increasing. 

Key features of Advertising: 

• It is a promotional practice and technique. 
• It aims to attract the right customers and motivate them to purchase products and services. 
• It uses both digital and print content as advertisement tools. 
• Advertising is one of the fundamental functions of businesses that creates lucrative career opportunities for people.

2. Public Relations: Overview

Public relations is a function of business management that helps companies create a positive image of themselves in front of their different stakeholders, including clients, customers, the government, shareholders, investors and others, and maintain good relations with these stakeholders. The objective of these relationships is to receive mutual benefits. We can take the example of Apple Incorporation or Apple Company to understand the concept of mutual benefits related to PR. During PR events, this smartphone seller company uses the assistance of its PR agents to promote its products and demonstrate their exceptional quality. When the company builds a positive image of its products, customers purchase these high-quality products. Thus, the company receives benefits in the form of product sales, and customers leverage advantages through high-quality Apple products. Apart from businesses, celebrities also use public relations for managing relationships with their clients and audiences. 

Key features of PR:

• It is a promotional activity. 
• It seeks mutual benefits for organisations and their different stakeholders. 
• Public relations aims to maintain a positive image of a particular organisation or person in front of the public. 

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• Public Relations - The Silent Communication Arm
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3. Corporate Communication: Overview 

Corporate communication refers to the methods and tools or resources using which business organisations communicate with their internal and external stakeholders. These stakeholders include employees, clients, shareholders, investors, the government, suppliers, and others. The nature of corporate communication depends on the stakeholder addressed by it. 

Corporate communications are useful in presenting and communicating corporate reports, carrying out marketing activities, managing relations with employees and external stakeholders, and addressing corporate initiatives and issues. The main resources used for corporate communication are business reports, emails, newsletters, infographics and other online and offline mediums of communication.

Highlights of Corporate Communications

• It is used to communicate with corporate stakeholders. 
• Its nature depends on the person addressed by it. 

Advertising vs PR vs Corporate Communication - Key Differences

People frequently become perplexed when attempting to distinguish between advertising, public relations, and corporate communications because all three terms are associated with businesses and their common function, marketing. The one who understands the difference among the three areas can decide which field is the right choice for him or her to develop a career.

Advertising	PR	Corporate Communication
It is a promotional activity.	It is a practice of managing relations of organisations with the general public.	It includes methods and practices using which business organisations communicate with their internal and external audiences.
It aims to promote products, services and marketing messages.	It shapes the perception of people about a brand.	It aims to provide useful information to internal and external audiences of companies.
It is based on creativity and marketing techniques.	It is based on communication etiquette.	It is based on the context in which communication is being used.

Career Scope of Advertising, Public Relations and Public Relations

Advertising Career Scope

In the era of globalisation and digitisation, global connectedness has increased significantly. Industries leverage this connectedness to promote their products and services across international borders. As a result, the need for advertising is increasing rapidly to increase sales of products and services in global markets. This need is creating myriad job opportunities for professionals in the advertising industry and providing lucrative career development pathways for them. If people with creative skills and an extroverted personality who love to generate and embrace new ideas can leverage the growth of the advertising sector for their career development. 

Skills required for Careers in Advertising

To develop a career in the advertising field, individuals need the following skills:

• Creative thinking
• Communication skills
• Storytelling
• Digital marketing
• Graphic design 
• Content creation 

Career Scope in Public Relations

With increasing global connectedness, brands also need to manage their reputation globally. PR agents help with brand reputation management. Without these agents, brands cannot interact effectively with their targeted audiences or stakeholders. Thus, the need for the support of PR agents is increasing worldwide. 

Skills needed for Careers in Public Relations

• Communication skills, including persuasion, negotiation, conflict management and interpretation
• Empathy
• Openness to new experience 
• Linguistic skills 

Corporate Communication Career Scope

Not all people have the expertise to provide the right information in the right way. Thus, if the right information is not delivered in the right manner in the corporate context, it can hinder the business operations or workflow of companies. Large-sized organisations prominently need corporate professionals to manage their corporate communication to avoid hindrances in their workflow. Thus, multinational corporations are recruiting individuals with dexterity in corporate communication skills.

Skills required for Corporate Communication 

The skills required to develop a career in the corporate communication field depend on the needs of organisations to achieve their corporate objectives through communication. Thus, the skill requirements related to corporate communication vary for each company. However, there are some generic skills that all individuals need to excel in corporate communications. These skills have been mentioned below: 

• Linguistic skills
• Communication skills
• Strategic thinking 
• Teamwork
• Leadership 
• Managerial skills

Top Advertising, PR and Corporate Communications Courses and Institutes in India

Advertising Courses and Institutes

Check out the top advertising courses and institutes in India here:

Course Name and Duration	Institution	Fee	Admission Process
PG Diploma in Management- Communication  2 years course	Mudra Institute of Communication (MICA)	INR 21,00,000	Based on 20% weightage of CAT, XAT & GMAT scores / 30% weightage of MICAT scores and 20% weightage of Group Exercises and 30% of Personal Interviews
Postgraduate Diploma in Advertising and Public Relations  1 year course	National Institute of Advertising	INR 2.16 lakh	Based on GMAT/ CAT scores and Personal Interview
MBA in Advertising Management and Public Relations 2 years course	NMIS Institute of Management and Commerce	INR 4 lakh	Based on scores obtained in NIMSEE, CAT, MAT, CMAT or GMAT
Postgraduate Diploma in Advertising and Marketing Communication 2 years course	Apeejay Institute of Mass Communication (AIMC)	INR 8.50 lakh	Based on Appejay Entrance Test
MBA in Advertising and Public Relations	Devi Ahilya University	INR 2.83 lakhs	Based on DAVV CET scores followed by a Group Discussion

Corporate Communication Courses and Institutes

Corporate communication is an area of management studies. Thus, any high-quality management course can help you develop skills related to this area. Corporate communication-related skills can help you excel in all corporate settings and leverage significant career opportunities based on them. 

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• Top Ranked MBA Colleges in India 2023
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Public Relations Courses and Institutes

Check top PR courses and institutes in India mentioned below:

Course Name and Duration	Institution	Fee	Admission Process
Masters in Public Relations 2 years course	University of Mumbai	INR 23,825 (Per Semester)	Through Department of Communication and Journalism Entrance Test (DJC Entrance Test)
Postgraduate Diploma in Advertising and Public Relations	Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC)	INR 1,23,000	Through IIMC Entrance Exam
Advanced Diploma in Mass Media – Journalism and Public Relations 1 year course	Mumbai Educational Trust Institute of Mass Media (MET IMM)	INR 3,02,080	Through MET Entrance Test followed by a group discussion and personal interview
Postgraduate Diploma in Advertising, Public Relations and Marketing 1 year course	International Institute of Mass Media (IIMM)	INR 37,500 (Per Semester)	Through an Entrance Test Conducted by IIMM followed by a personal interview
Postgraduate Diploma in Public Relations 1 year course	Aligarh Muslim University		Through AMU Entrance Exam followed by a personal interview

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