Unit 1 Public Relations Management Part 1

Public Relations Management Unit I Introduction to P.R. – Definition, Nature, History and Development, Role of PR, PR associations. Objectives Of Public Relations, Emergence Of Public Relation. What Is Public Relations? Public relations is a strategic communication process companies, individuals, and organizations use to build mutually beneficial relationships with the public. A public relations specialist drafts a specialized communication plan and uses media and other direct and indirect mediums to create and maintain a positive brand image and a strong relationship with the target audience. Objective of Public Relations The main objective of public relations is to maintain a positive reputation of the brand and maintain a strategic relationship with the public, prospective customers, partners, investors, employees and other stakeholders which leads to a positive image of the brand and makes it seem honest, successful, important, and relevant. Functions of Public Relations Public relations is different from advertising. Public relations agencies don’t buy ads, they don’t write stories for reporters, and they don’t focus on attractive paid promotions. They rather promote the brand by using editorial content appearing on magazines, newspapers, news channels, websites, blogs, and TV programs. Using earned or free media for promotion has its own benefits as information on these mediums aren’t bought. It has a third party validation and hence isn’t viewed with scepticism by the public. The functions of public relations manager and public relations agencies include: 1. Anticipating, analysing, and interpreting the public opinion and attitudes of the public towards the brand and drafting strategies which use free or earned media to influence them. 2. Drafting strategies to support brand’s every campaign and new move through editorial content. 3. Writing and distributing press releases. 4. Speechwriting. 5. Planning and executing special public outreach and media relations events. 6. Writing content for the web (internal and external websites). 7. Developing a crisis public relations strategy. 8. Handling the social media presence of the brand and responding to public reviews on social media websites. 9. Counselling the employees of the organization with regard to policies, course of action, organization’s responsibility and their responsibility. 10. Dealing with government and legislative agencies on behalf of the organization. 11. Dealing with public groups and other organizations with regard to social and other policies of the organization and legislation of the government. 12. Handling investor relations. Types of public relations According to the functions of the public relations department/agencies, public relations can be divided into 7 types. These are: ▪ Media Relations: Establishing a good relationship with the media organizations and acting as their content source. ▪ Investor Relations: Handling investors events, releasing financial reports and regulatory ▪ Government Relations: Representing the brand to the government with regard to filings, and handling investors, analysts and media queries and complaints. fulfilment of policies like corporate social responsibility, fair competition, consumer protection, employee protection, etc. ▪ Community Relations: Handling the social aspect of the brand and establishing a ▪ Internal Relations: Counselling the employees of the organization with regard to positive reputation in the social niche like environment protection, education, etc. policies, course of action, organization’s responsibility and their responsibility. Cooperating with them during special product launches and events. ▪ Customer Relations: Handling relationships with the target market and lead consumers. Conducting market research to know more about interests, attitudes, and priorities of the customers and crafting strategies to influence the same using earned media. ▪ Marketing Communications: Supporting marketing efforts relating to product launch, special campaigns, brand awareness, image, and positioning. Public Relations Examples PR stunts or strategies range from donating to an affected community to running a brand activation stunt in a mall. Some of the examples of successful public relations campaigns are: Google’s Fight Ebola Campaign The outbreak of Ebola virus in 2014 was critical as it was spread among many countries and took many lives. Google, to help the people in need and to build up a positive brand image, started a donation campaign where it pledged to give $2 for every $1 donated to the cause through its website. The public relations strategy attracted the media attention and resulted to be a huge success as Google raised $7.5 million. Paramount Pictures The Ring Publicity Stunt Paramount Pictures, to promote its new horror franchise, The Ring, and to get more user attention, took a step forward and planned a publicity stunt where the protagonist haunted the people in a real-life scenario. The film’s most iconic scene of Samara crawling out of the TV set was recreated in a TV showroom where the protagonist came crawling out of the hidden compartment behind a TV screen and scared people. The stunt went viral and the video received over 10 million views on Facebook. Just Eat & A Sick Customer Just Eat is an online food ordering application which lets users add comments to their orders to inform the delivery person about the right address or to leave the order to the neighbour etc. One unwell customer tried her luck to see if she could get the delivery person to stop en-route and get her some medicines. She wrote: Will you please stop in the Spar on the way and get me some Benylin cold and flu tablets and I’ll give you the money. Only ordering food so I can get the tablets. I’m sick xx. The delivery person delivered both and this public relations stunt went viral over the media. Facebook Paris Support Profile Pictures In response to the tragic shooting in Paris in 2015 where at least 129 people died, Facebook added a France flag filter which the users could apply to their profile pictures to support France. Millions of people applied this filter and appreciated this effort by Facebook. Advantages Of Public Relations ▪ Credibility: Public trusts the message coming from a trusted third party more than the advertised content. ▪ Reach: A good public relations strategy can attract many news outlets, exposing the content to a large audience. ▪ Cost effectiveness: Public relations is a cost effective technique to reach large audience as compared to paid promotion. Disadvantages Of Public Relations ▪ No Direct Control: Unlike paid media, there isn’t a direct control over the content distributed through the earned media. This is the biggest risk of investing in public relations. ▪ Hard To Measure Success: It is really hard to measure and evaluate the effectiveness of a PR campaign. ▪ No Guaranteed Results: Publishing of a press release isn’t guaranteed as the brand doesn’t pay for it. The media outlet publishes it only if it feels that it’ll attract its target audience. Importance Of Public Relations With over 63% of the value of most companies dependent on their public image, public relations has become a very important topic today for numerous reasons: Builds Up The Brand Image The brand image gets a boost when the target customers get to know about it through a third party media outlet. A good public relations strategy help the brand builds up its image in a way it wants to. It’s Opportunistic Public relations strategies make the brand capitalize on the opportunities. Google was in the news for donating to Ebola. Facebook promoted LGBTQ rights. Coca-Cola did a PR stunt against obesity. These opportunities even attract many influencers to share the brand story to their followers. Promote Brand Values PR is used to send out positive messages which are in line with the brand’s value and its image. This builds up the brand’s reputation. Strengthen Community Relations PR strategies are used to convey that the brand is as much part of the society as the target audience. This builds up a strong relationship of the brand with the public. Objectives of Public Relations: Within the overall objective of understanding the public and making itself favorably understood, public relations have these objectives: 1. Creating awareness about the company, its goals, products and services where this counts. 2. Sustaining the awareness as an ongoing process, keeping in mind what the competitors are doing, and knowing that public memory is short. 3. Striving to be accepted by the various publics. Special efforts are required to be accepted by employees. A foreign company has its own requirements for being accepted on this soil. 4. Creating a bond of trust. In times of rumors, misinformation, etc., a company has to establish the truth. In normal times, too, a company has to promote its reliability. Just consider the frequent use of words like believe, trust, reliable, safe, 100%, etc. in building a company image. 5. Getting cooperation from various quarters. A company has many publics on whom it has to depend. Government organizations, providers of various services etc. have to be wooed in such a way that they willingly help the company. 6. Earning recognition. It is not enough to perform feats but it is necessary to get these noticed and talked about. Through winning awards, certifications etc. and getting these read and seen, a company gets recognition. Having so-and-so as a client or collaborator may itself be a recognition. This has to be publicized. How Public Relations Differ from Propaganda and Advertising: Whereas propaganda suggests a blatant and crude kind of publicity, sometimes by bulldozing the audience, public relations are a gentlemanly effort to inform properly and create an understanding. Public relations try to win hearts. As for advertisements, public relations exercises differ from the common run of marketing ads. Public relations may, of course, use press appearances as a medium for creating an understanding, but that is at a level different from marketing. While “ads” are normally understood to be out-and-out sales device, public relations create an atmosphere in which the ads may function effectively. Good public relations are, thus, a subtle and indirect mode of advertisement. Ads and PR are a doubles team to enhance a company’s business and business image. The “Publics” of an Organisation: Every organisation has to list out the bodies and segments of population on whom it depends for its smooth functioning and growth. Let us take a few examples. Publics of a supermarket: 1. Customers who visit it and buy from it 2. Its suppliers 3. Its staff 4. Its potential customers (and that may include the whole town, even visitors from nearby towns) 5. Licensing and taxation authorities 6. Providers of infrastructure facilities and services (e.g. electricity, security, etc.) 7. Its publicity agents, newspapers, etc. 8. Regulator) authorities such as Food and Drugs Administration Publics of a holiday resort: 1. People who have the spending power to visit it and have an access to it 2. Its staff 3. Travel agents who may do bookings for it 4. Transport operators 5. Government maintenance agencies like the municipal corporation 6. Law and order authorities 7. Professional entertainers 8. Emergency service providers like doctors, divers, and adventure experts 9. Publicity machinery The relative importance of each public for the company is determined from experience. Equitable attention is required to be paid to each public. Internal Public Relations: It is curious that when we say a company sometimes we mean all its employees and sometimes only the top management or owners. For the top management, the rank and file is a public, to be entertained and befriended as a category. Internal PR is maintained by means of: 1. Counseling and dialogue: Employees may have to be advised suitably to get adjusted to their jobs. 2. Self-expression forums: Employees should have access to higher management to convey their problems and useful ideas. The employees may express themselves through suggestion schemes. These contribute a fund of ideas based on actual working conditions. However, it is necessary not to promise that the suggestions would all be translated into schemes. At the same time, good ideas need to be rewarded. If a company conducts its own slogan contest, it may give a prize to the winning slogan and save on publicity expenditure. 3. Publications: As seen earlier in this section, house journals help to create a family feeling in an organisation. If a house journal is supplemented by get-togethers (of employees within a town) and camps (of employees from different towns), a bond of cordiality is created. The publication can serve as a base for such get-togethers and camps. 4. Free films, entertainment shows, and educative lectures: Even in the days of overexposure to films through TV, rare and attractive films can be screened specially for employees. Similarly, magic shows, hypnotism shows, gymnastics show, etc. can be arranged for them. Educative lectures, yoga and meditation camps and celebration of special days (e.g. Hindi Day), poetry meets, etc. are some more means of solidifying employee bonds. 5. Felicitations: Employees and their family members can be felicitated for their achievements – merit ranks, scholarships, adventure feats, etc. 6. Inviting family members by creating occasions: A campaign like a tree plantation drive can be used to create a good image in the outside world and an occasion for employees’ family members to meet in informal surroundings. Family members may also be invited for national days like the Independence Day and the Republic Day. External PR: This is a wider area, with many interest groups: 1. Customers: They constitute the biggest public for a company. They can be wooed by having a grievance cell, enquiry booth, “disinterested” educational campaigns (e.g. “night brushing is vital” – message from a toothpaste company), display of posters and pamphlets explaining schemes, creating convenience for weaker age groups and weaker sections, etc. Courtesy and promptness are time-honored PR devices that function through every representative of the company. 2. Financiers: The company’s shareholders, bankers, depositors, etc. like to know about the financial status of the company. By issuing prompt, truthful, and self-explanatory and reader- friendly financial publications and reaching them into the hands of the financial partners, a company can earn their goodwill. 3. General public: There is a vast group of people who are not actual consumers of the company but may be potential consumers. For an airline, there are many who have no plans to fly in the near future but who still view with interest the coming into existence of a new company in this line, its standard of service, etc. Their genera discussions help to create a climate of opinion. Thus an overall good image needs to be projected at all times. A company can stay in the memory of the general public by doing society-useful jobs, e.g. cleanliness campaigns, ecofriendly activities, help in disaster management, etc. 4. Institutions: They include government departments, corporations and public bodies. They are power centres with much capacity to do or undo. To stay good in their eyes, a company needs to do that which appeals to an enlightened group. It needs to project an image as a law- friendly company. A clean administration and standards of probity in the product help to woo institutions. Feedback in PR: To know what the public is thinking of the company in general and on specific points in particular is necessary for it’s image-building. This becomes especially necessary when sales decline despite heavy publicity campaigns. Publicity is a heady wine and likely to induce pride and self-complacency.