Al Ries is up to his old tricks again, God bless him.
He was recently featured in a BusinessWire seminar in which he reiterated the case for PR's dominance over Advertising.
I'll post more on this in future days, but here's a paraphrased taste:
"Advertising is the afterburner that goes into effect only after the field’s been prepped by PR. The Volkswagen brand was launched in 1950. By 1959, VW was the #1 import with 20% of the market. In 1960, the very first VW ad ran (created by DDB).
"What built the Volkswagen brand? Was it the award-winning DDB campaign? Or was it the ten years of favorable PR? Advertising is the afterburner.
"Botox is another brand built by PR. After nine years of PR only, the chief distributors of Botox were able to afford a $50 million advertising campaign.
"Other recent PR-based brand successes: Red Bull, jetBlue, Linux, Google, Starbucks and Amazon.com"
Think about it - how many ads for Starbucks can you remember seeing on tv or in a magazine? I can't think of many, if any. Yet who would argue with the fact that Starbucks is one of the world's dominant brands?
How DARE the ad guys suggest that "Ads Create Brands." Takes moxy, eh?