Advertising and marketing – it’s what we do. So in our line of work, sometimes we come across companies that are stuck in an “we” mindset: How we want our brand to be portrayed. What we think the strengths of our products or services are. Who we think should buy our brand. And as marketers, it is our job to help transform this thinking. Because, after all, its really about them – the consumer.

In order for any advertising and marketing initiative to be successful, you can’t ignore one of the most fundamental basics in the realm of marketing: understanding your target audience. But it goes beyond that. You’ve got to truly understand them: not just who you think they are but who they actually are. And, where they are and why they like you. By being honest with yourself about your target audience, you can effectively communicate with them to achieve your objectives and even get them to act on your behalf.

Even big name brands have had to learn this the hard way. Tommy Hilfiger, a brand recognized the world over, only gained success by learning some lessons along the way. The American powerhouse brand first attempted to establish their brand into Europe without adjusting their marketing and product strategies to fit the very different European target audience. After going back to the drawing board, Hilfiger returned with a more tailored brand message to the newly desired market: a more upscale, sophisticated brand than what is seen in the States. They changed not only their marketing strategy but even went as far to change their products to fit European tastes; choosing the European preferred wool over cotton.

Unfortunately, we aren’t all in Tommy’s shoes. We might not have the opportunity to learn the hard way and still have the chance to start over. For some, the first chance is really all there is. At the start of any new initiative, we must define who our target audience truly is, not just who we think or want them to be.

Each of our clients has a unique set of problems or conditions we help them to deal with to accomplish their goals; but the end game seems to always be “sales.” As advertisers, we have been happily charged with that responsibility: delivering strategic messaging to the target audience, creating leads, and eventually, sales. It was golden when we as marketers were able to use consumer marketing techniques to create leads. The days when we persuaded the target audience to notice or prefer a brand, interact and become comfortable with that brand, and eventually test out the product or service.

What the heck is a lead, anyway?

But recently, it seems that expectations have been altered. Companies have become driven by instant gratification, which in turn altered the definition of a lead. For us, a lead can be anything from a consumer visiting a web site or walking into a brick and mortar store location. It’s someone who feels comfortable with a brand or has interacted with a product. But for some, it now seems that a “lead” is a line item in a database – a name, phone number, email address, etc. In some cases we’ve become responsible for immediate spikes in the lead and sales numbers. Unfortunately, this forces us to alter the ad strategy, creating a much more direct response approach. This can be extremely detrimental to the power of the brand long term (e.g. – in desperate need of a giant spreadsheet full of leads, I’m forced to give away something for free to get the lead pipeline flowing, but the brand is not a discount brand).

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Advertising and public relations: sometimes we ask what the difference is. Sometimes it seems more than that; PR vs advertising in a battle of the ages. But we are mistaken to think that the two are so different or work against each other. In fact, the two probably need each other more than you might think.

While many purists remain on both sides, still more have seen the light and realized that, in some cases, it’s extremely important to create advertising and public relations campaigns that go hand in hand strategically.

Don’t believe me?  In 1993, when Jack in the Box restaurants suffered a crippling E. coli outbreak, advertising guru Dick Sittig created a new ad campaign that featured an updated, business attired mascot (the Jack that we all know and love today).  When paired with an industry-leading food safety initiative, the combined powers of advertising and public relations kept the company out of bankruptcy and revived an otherwise struggling brand.

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I can’t believe its already been more than a year since Tiger Woods was “rescued” from his car by his wife armed with a golf club, and went from being every kid’s role model to the scum of the earth. While the memory of the media firestorm is still very fresh, its hard to remember what it was like when Tiger was still the hottest product endorser on the market. As we blogged about earlier this year, he quickly became like the plague for brands that once clamored for him — except, of course, for Nike.

That Nike commercial with a somber-looking Tiger in one continuous shot with the haunting voice-over of Tiger’s deceased father is still vivid in my mind. It’s a revolutionary spot that not only acknowledged the controversy, but conveyed that while Nike didn’t condone his behavior, they clearly wanted to give him a second chance. It was a huge risk for Nike to go from “Just Do It” to making a moral statement.

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For those of you who don’t know me, I am a self proclaimed “PR princess.” Don’t believe me? Check out my Twitter bio. I even graduated from college with a degree in PR and freelanced in the field for some time. So how, you may ask, did I end up working as an account coordinator for an advertising agency?

The truth is that it isn’t so strange for someone like me to be working in advertising: I don’t see public relations and advertising as separate entities. While there may be PR firms and ad agencies, I think that it makes sense strategically to employ tactics from each discipline to achieve the best mix of results.

I think Fast Company blogger Wendy Marx puts it best; advertising versus PR is like the battle between the sexes. While each maintains specific characteristics and powers, in the end, there are a lot of similarities between the two. And to top it all off, they need each other in order to be successful. I mean, what would spaghetti be without the meatball?