Marketing and Public Relations, although historically distinct subfields within the broader field of Communication, share a parallel intellectual evolution.
Modern marketing thought traces its development from production orientation to product and sales orientations, and ultimately to the marketing concept and societal marketing, where value creation for customers and society becomes central.
Similarly, Public Relations has moved from press agentry and public information models to the two-way asymmetrical, symmetrical and dialogic approaches championed by Prof. Em. James E. Grunig and other scholars, emphasizing mutual understanding, relationship management, and stakeholder engagement.
A key convergence in both disciplines is the shift toward people-centred communication. Contemporary marketing philosophy, as articulated by father of modern marketing, Philip Kotler, Kevin L. Keller, and the integrated marketing communication (IMC) movement, positions marketing as a holistic process involving research, co-creation of value, and continuous engagement with customers.
Likewise, modern PR scholarship conceives PR not as mere publicity but as the management of relationships across all internal and external stakeholders, recognizing organization–public relationships (OPRs) as strategic assets.
This historical convergence illustrates an important point: in both fields, communication has become more proactive, strategic, evidence-based, and dialogic. The older “hear me” or “buy me” approaches are increasingly obsolete, replaced by frameworks grounded in listening, participation, and co-creation (“let’s talk”, “let’s build value together”).
However, despite decades of scholarship promoting broader, strategic understandings of Marketing and PR, many institutions continue to adopt narrow, reactive, and messaging-oriented conceptions of their Communication functions.
Communication departments are often treated as downstream implementers, responsible for packaging and disseminating decisions made elsewhere, rather than upstream contributors to policy, product design, stakeholder research, and organizational strategy.
This structural misunderstanding leads to a systemic paradox: communication teams are expected to “fix” or “sell” decisions from which they, along with critical stakeholder insights, were excluded. When such campaigns fail, communicators are blamed, reinforcing a cycle of underfunding and diminished influence.
Budgeting practices further entrench this problem. Organizations often allocate disproportionately to outbound, one-way messaging, while underinvesting in research, engagement, and stakeholder dialogue; the elements proven to increase relevance, trust, and long-term outcomes.
Ironically, the cost of sustaining manipulative or purely promotional communication can exceed the investment required for genuine two-way communication, which reduces waste, enhances precision, and fosters long-term credibility.
To break this cycle, institutions must reconceptualize Communication Departments not as appendages to strategy but as the organization’s nervous system.
In biological terms, the nervous system keeps the body alive by sensing internal and external environments, transmitting information to the brain, and coordinating responses. Communication functions operate in the same way: they detect stakeholder signals, interpret opportunities and threats, and enable responsive organizational behaviour.
For this system to function, communication cannot be confined to a single office. It must be distributed, with communication competencies embedded across departments, reinforced through internal communication infrastructures, and supported by professionals who work closely with teams in operations, finance, production, and policy development.
This reframing extends communication beyond small corners into the factories, branches, communities, and digital spaces where organizations interact with stakeholders. Every interface – customer service, HR, policy engagement, field operations, community partnerships – becomes part of a strategic communication ecosystem. In such a system, stakeholder interactions continually feed insights into decision-making, allowing organizations to adapt quickly and intelligently.
In contrast, weak internal communication inevitably undermines external communication. An organization that lacks internal coherence cannot project consistent, credible messages outward. As long recognized in PR scholarship, you cannot communicate externally what you do not live internally. In the end, Jesus’ words still ring true: a house divided against itself cannot stand.
Reconceptualizing Communications Departments requires institutions to:
- Acknowledge communication as a strategic, not merely tactical, function;
- Integrate communicators into upstream decision processes;
- Invest in research, stakeholder dialogue, and feedback systems;
- Distribute communication competencies across all units; and
- Treat communication as the organization’s sensory and interpretive infrastructure.
Such a paradigm aligns with contemporary Marketing and PR scholarship, enhances organizational intelligence, and builds the responsiveness and relational capacity required to thrive in complex stakeholder environments.
About the Author:
Pious D. Serwonu is a postgraduate student at the University of Media, Arts and Communication and a practising Public Affairs Officer with over ten years of experience. His research interests span gender issues, organizational culture, crisis communication and corporate social responsibility. He is committed to leveraging strategic communication to advance national development and promote a healthier planet.
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