Every once in a while, I run into a senior executive or manager who has a bias about public relations and marketing professionals. Because PR or marcom professionals may lack specific in-depth industry or technical expertise, this person believes, PR professionals cannot possibly be as knowledgeable and therefore will not be as effective in telling the company’s story.

“Bias is an inclination or outlook to present or hold a partial perspective, often accompanied by a refusal to consider the possible merits of alternative points of view.” – Wikipedia

This bias often exists for a reason. While the PR pro is likely adept or expert at messaging, understanding the media landscape, and working with journalists, analysts or other key constituents, he or she is not likely to possess the same industry or technical expertise as other managers. Clearly, a PR professional is going to have very different expertise than a CEO or engineer.

The key is to remember that this difference is an asset, not a liability. Wouldn’t it be unfair to hold a bias against all engineers, simply because they don’t have classic marketing experience?

As Steven Johnson points out in his national best seller, “How We Got to Now,” there is often a benefit to working at the margin of a field, or “at the intersection point between very different disciplines.” He explains that many of the innovations that shaped our modern world were conceived by people who “borrowed metaphors” from other disciplines. Take, for example, Edourad-Leon Scott de Marinville, one of the first people to conceive of the idea of recording sound. He borrowed the idea of “writing sound waves” after drawing on the ideas he gleaned from the fields of “stenography and printing and anatomical studies of the human ear.”

Experienced PR professionals, writers, and content creators frequently have worked (or work at) the fringe of many industries or functional areas such as engineering, human resources, and finance.  Remember, these professionals often help with earnings announcements, staff reductions, announcements of executive appointments, or have to explain new engineering feats, and many of us do this work for companies in an array of industries.

This broad experience gives PR professionals a significant advantage that executives and managers can and should harness. PR professionals can take a campaign idea that worked in one area and apply it in another area. For instance, a well-crafted survey of consumer perceptions of the connected car may be newsworthy and help position a software vendor as a thought leader. Similarly, a maker of point-of-sale terminals could talk with retailers about their needs and publicize the results, thereby positioning themselves as a thought leader.

PR professionals, therefore, can see the “aesthetic possibilities” to which other executives or managers may be blind.

Johnson reminds us “that working within an established field is both empowering and restricting at the same time. Stay within the boundaries of your discipline, and you will have an easier time making incremental improvements, opening the doors of the adjacent possible that are directly available to you given the specifics of the historical moment.”

Executives and managers sometimes can see the incremental steps that the company and its representatives can take, but they fail to see the big PR moments that are directly in front of them. This happens because they are focusing on other areas of responsibility such as designing products, recruiting talent, or raising money. The value that the PR professional can bring is to help remove blinders to the bigger ideas that can help the company make significant strides in increasing awareness with key stakeholders.

Finally, it is important to remember that there are pros to the outside or external PR or marcom agency perspective.

PR agencies have an advantage over in-house marketing teams because they exist outside the confines of other functional areas within an organization. They typically employ individuals with different years of experience, varying skills, and they come from a variety of backgrounds.

What is your perspective on the bias that sometimes exists toward those in marketing and PR?

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