PR vs Marketing - Let Battle Commence

I bumped into a tweet last week which mentioned the difference (or lack of) between PR and marketing. If you study the books and consult with the relevant trade bodies you will be very clear on the differences. But what of reality in this fast changing media environment?

Marketing is about selling stuff (er...simplified) encompassing sales and associated activities. PR on the other hand is more about communication with not only customer, but influencer and other stakeholders . It's about engaging with and convincing those various publics.

My angle on this is measurement. As the media environment has moved online so the arguments become louder over what are the best metrics. There now appears to be a lot more ways to show change. We used to talk about media output as the measure of PR success. Now we are told real insight comes from understanding outcomes. One of the outcomes which is most often touted is impact on sales. This is where I think the problems arise. Where marketing and PR are increasingly stepping on each others toes.

Both disciplines are starting to use very similar metrics. Sure, the online environment rather points you towards using a fairly prescriptive selection however PR is just a little bit more than just sales.