One of the first questions that investors ask when they size up an industry or a prospective investment site is--how large is your market? How big is its potential rate of growth, who are the key players?
Same thing with PR. In the Philippines, this has been a problem from the very beginning. We do not know how large, or small, the PR industry is, because there are no figures and statistics that anyone can refer to. Nobody seems to know how much the many corporations, PR agencies and other private-sector organizations, and even government agencies who practice PR, actually, all together, do spend annually on their PR projects.
Oh, a PR Agency may know how much it does, as may a number of big corporations, but not many others. Or, if a respectable number do, their figures are not made available to any central organization, like an industry association, where they may be verified, collated and analyzed for
the benefit, first, of PR practitioners themselves, and second, of prospective Clients or investors from here and abroad.
PR expenditures take several forms: actual project costs, fees earned as retainer or as part of project costs, or commissions from suppliers. Taxes are paid on these, and part of income is invested in business development and expansion. PR has its own economics and practitioners develop their own business models.
All together, these constitute factors that determine how large, or small, or progressive or retrogressive, the PR industry in our country is, or will be.
But first, let there be reliable figures on revenues, incomes and expenditures from which PR practitioners derive these. These figures and statistics will help us plan our growth intelligently.
And enable prospective investors to look with greater interest on the PR market in the Philippines.
