South Africa, Nov. 3 -- What the client is really buying is judgement, and judgement is invisible. So, buyers do what people always do when they cannot assess quality directly. They look for proxies. Who else trusts this firm? Where have I seen that name before? Did the last thing I read from them leave me better informed?

Marketing, PR and media are the three ways those proxies get made. That is the whole job. Most firms have lost sight of it by treating each one as a separate activity, with its own supplier, its own calendar and its own measure of success.

Three disciplines, one question

Strip away the jargon and each discipline answers a different part of the single question a buyer is asking.

Marketing is what you say about yourse...