UPS's most loyal customers were affected by this mess. These customers send packages almost exclusively by UPS and use the software to print labels and track packages online. UPS's experience demonstrates some of the differences between marketing and public relations. It also answers the question why people in these two professions sometimes do not meet eye to eye.

Indistinct Boundaries. Often, the line between marketing and public relations is very indistinct. Those things that are referred to as marketing, often are the responsibility of the PR department. In other words, in some companies public relations means more than media relations.

Scott M. Cutlip, Allen H. Center, and Glen M. Broom in their PR bible, which is called "Effective Public Relations", define marketing as "the management function that identifies human needs and wants, offers products and services to satisfy those demands, and causes transactions that deliver products and services in exchange for something of value to the provider."

On the other hand, they define public relations as "the management function that establishes and maintains mutually beneficial relationships between an organization and the publics on whom its success or failure depends."

This may sound like a bunch of hand wringing over semantics. However, there is a clear distinction in these two definitions. A marketer is primarily focused on a customer. At the same time, PR professionals deal with those components that might not contribute to the bottom line, though are still essential to the company's ability to conduct the business.

Knowledge Management, Reputation Management. The task of the marketing department is to concentrate its efforts on knowledge. It has to find out who the customers are, how they behave, what the company's next product will be. Meanwhile, the PR department has to pay attention to reputation management. It means to learn what the word in the street is about the company, in what way the company is doing to influence that opinion, how the company can communicate its message.

In other words, the difference between marketing and public relations departments is in the following: marketing deals with product awareness, whereas public relations deal with company awareness.

Marketing and Public Relations Functions. Over the last several years, particularly in the so-called high-tech PR arena, the functions of public relations seem to be limited to producing press releases about products and services. However, public relations departments have broader functions that include monitoring a public opinion, consulting management about policy decisions and strengthening relationships with the company's public.

The reason of that may be the organizations' infrastructure. Public relations are often a division under the marketing umbrella. However, these two are distinct - different and equal - that should cooperate. Marketing in public relations sphere plays an important role and vice versa.