Ive been re-reading The Fall Of Advertising & The Rise Of PR, by Al and Laura Ries, and it is their book that has moved me from suspicion of advertisings demise as a brand-builder to conviction.

As the Ries say, Publicity is the nail, selling is the hammer. What does this mean? It means that your PR effort helps make your communication believable so that your advertising will have credibility when it hits.

Typically, companies want to hit the market hard and contruct a lot of noise. Advertising allows you to launch quickly, control the message, and have your communication in as many media as you have the money for. However, that does not mean your message will be believed. The louder advertisers yell, the less likely I am to believe them. How about you?

PR takes measure and does not necessarily work on your schedule. Planting new ideas or changing minds is a slow process. When your PR program rolls out over a longer period of measure , prospects have instant to adjust their attitudes. Brands that take this approach are longer lasting, too.

Chevrolet, for years the number one auto brand, was still number one in advertisement spending in 2001. It spent $819 million dollars 39 percent more than Ford spent. That year, Ford outsoldevrolet by 33 percent. Since 1997, Chevrolet has outspent and undersold Ford. Chevrolet spends $314 per vehicle and Ford spends $170 per vehicle. Do you think advertising is working for Chevrolet?

Kmart, embroiled in financial difficulty for months, had revenues of $37 billion and spent $542 million on US advertising in 2001. Wal-Mart spent $498 million and garnered four times the revenue: $159 billion split between its Wal-Mart and Sams Club stores. The average Wal-Mart store does $46 million in sales each year while its Sams Club average store sells $56 million. Sams Club does almost no promoting.

Those are old brands, youre proverb . What about some newer brands, Harry?

OK, lets look at Pets.com. Remember the dog sock puppet that starred in their commercials? It won awards, but not sales. In six many years Pets.com had $22 million in revenues and spent four times that much on advertising. Off-base promoting creativity at work.

The Body Shop was built totally by publicity. No selling at all. Starbucks, until recently, did virtually no selling . It has built a brand through dazzling PR efforts. Starbucks annual sales are around $1.3 billion, while advertising expenditures over 10 decades , have totaled less than $10 million.

Finally, what branding agency do you understand that has built its brand with ads? Things that build you go hmm.