When we launched the Marketing Management Survey with MS&L three years ago, we had to overcome concerns that the data might not be relevant to most readers.

A survey of marketing executives, after all, seemed somewhat removed from the traditional realm of corporate PR, which tended to dominate industry discussions then.

But, of course, those worries were for naught, as the increasing role that PR has played in the marketing mix has become more and more obvious. Practice areas like consumer and ...