Fundamentals of Pr

Fundamentals of PR

1. Definition:

While a lot of people seem to have a good idea about public relations, few seem to agree on one definition.

According to the British Institute of Public Relations, "Public relations is a deliberate, planned, and sustained effort to establish and maintain mutual understanding between an organization and its publics" (Jethwaney & Sarkar, 2000).

Kotler sees Public relations as going far beyond the publicity support for marketing. He sees it as the "management function, which evaluates public attitudes, identifies the policies and procedures of an individual or organization with the public interest, and executes a program of action to earn public understanding and acceptance".

2. Essentials of Public Relations:

From the above definitions, the following conclusions can be drawn about PR :

a) Planned and Sustained Effort

It means that PR is organized as a campaign or program and is a continuous activity.

A lot of public relations is ineffective, and not cost-effective, precisely because it is haphazard and unplanned. It is criticized as being intangible and a waste of money. It can be if it is not planned and conducted properly, with clear objectives and assessable outcomes.

These objectives often involve solving communication problems, e.g. converting negative attitudes into positive attitudes, that is, effecting change. When there are objectives, results can be measured against them, making PR a tangible activity. This challenges the false idea that PR is intangible. If a PR program is mounted to achieve a declared objective the results can be observed or measured. If necessary, marketing research techniques can be used to test the degree of success or failure of a PR campaign.

b) Mutual Understanding

Its purpose is to establish and maintain mutual understanding, that is, to ensure that the organization is understood by others. This mutual understanding is thus between an organization and its publics, since many publics groups of people are involved. PRO should strive to identify the tensions between the organization and internal and external publics.

Through the identification of tensions, practitioners promote and create situations in which new meaning is produced through difference and opposition. As organizations receive as well as transmit information, they must listen as well as speak.

c) Evaluates Public Attitudes

It evaluates public attitudes, investigate the current situation that the company finds itself in and its relations with its publics (community, employees, suppliers, distributors, consumers, financial institutions, politicians, civil servants, academics and a whole host of influential opinion leaders). What opinions or attitudes exist? What is the extent and accuracy of awareness? Is there understanding or misunderstanding? Does a good, bad or false image exist? A PR campaign needs to be planned with a full understanding of the trends that will influence the organization's future.

d) Serves the Public Interest

It should serve public interest and be socially responsible and ethical. It should not exploit or corrupt the integrity of the media.

All the above definitions of Public relations observe that organizations and their respective publics need to have mutually beneficial relations and that this relationship determines the success or failure of the organizations. What all this means is that the public relations practitioner must be able to gauge both the external and internal publics attitudes and opinions about the organization by monitoring the interchange of information between them and the organization.

3. Objectives

Public relations is used to address several broad objectives like:

a) Building Product Awareness

When introducing a new product or relaunching an existing product, marketers can use a PR element that generates consumer attention and awareness through media placements and special events.

b) Creating Interest

The business world of today is extremely competitive. Companies need to have an edge that makes them stand out from the crowd, something that makes them more appealing and interesting to both the public and the media.

Whether a PR placement is a short product article or is included with other products in "round up" article, stories in the media can help entice a targeted audience to try the product. For example, around the holiday season, a special holiday food may be promoted with PR through promotional releases sent to the food media or through special events that sample the product.

c) Providing Information

PR can be used to provide customers with more in depth information about products and services. Through articles, collateral materials, newsletters and websites, PR delivers information to customers that can help them gain understanding of the product.

These must be relevant in a cross cultural environment. Pictures of innocuous things in one culture could mean something different in another. For example, a company advertised eyeglasses in Thailand by featuring a variety of cute animals wearing glasses. The ad failed as animals are considered to be a low form of life in Thailand and no self respecting Thai would wear anything worn by animals.

d) Stimulating Demand

People often have the perception of public relations as a group of people who spin everything. Spin can mean to turn around a bad situation to the company's advantage. It is true that part of the purpose of public relations is to show the company in a positive light no matter what. There are certain PR experts that who can turn a company with this particular skill. A positive article in a newspaper, on a TV news show or mentioned on the Internet, often results in a discernible increase in product sales.

e) Reinforcing the Brand

In many companies the public relations function is also involved with brand reinforcement by maintaining positive relationships with key audiences, and thereby aiding in building a strong image. Today it is ever more important for companies and brands to build a good image. A strong image helps the company build its business and it can help the company in times of crises as well.