Public Relations

PPT By: Basavaraju, Begin, Chandra has, Deep, MuniRaju

Public Relations is all about publicity.

Publicity is defined as any information usually printed, which brings to a person, place or thing to the attention of the public.

In short, Public Relations means bringing to the attention of a defined target audiences a specific message by means, other than paid advertising.

Paid advertising is the process of telling people about a product or service through announcements in the media - newspapers, magazines, radio, television and so on.

The advertiser pays for space or airtime. People are absolutely clear that the information they are exposed to in this way, is an advertisement. They may or may not believe it.

Public Relations on the other hand, may cost money but is not obtained through the overt exchange of funds for a message by a medium.
PR costs nothing except the fees paid to the agency or consultancy to come up with and execute ideas or a publicity programme. PR is about reputation the result of what you say, what you do and what others say about you.

PR aims to earn understanding and support, influence opinion and behaviour.

Public Relations is a dynamic business communication tool which can transform the performance of any company, be it a one-man band or a multinational.

The most widely accepted and popular definition of PR is from the Institute of Public Relations (IPR), which defines Public Relations as, The planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics.

Reasons for Growth of Public Relations:

The growing popularity of the PR as a profession can be attributed to several reasons:
Growth in corporate : Internal communication: Globalisation: Growth of media:

Growth in corporate : Businesses are growing bigger today. Big corporate are in the forefront. Thus arise many complexities. With it comes, the need to tackle several problems, manage reputation and effective communication, managing target audiences at all levels including employees. The need for PR thus arises. Internal communication: Regular communication with employees is important today. In fact is a must. Keeping employees informed, abreast of what is happening in an organisation is important in order to keep them motivated, give them a sense of belonging and consequently ensuring greater productivity. This is a need fulfilled by PR.

Globalisation: Globalisation is a process of integration and unification of the world into one giant market. Globalization is often used to refer to economic globalization, that is, integration of national economies into the international economy through trade, foreign direct investment, capital flows, migration, and the spread of technology. To achieve this, communication and Public Relations plays a vital part. Growth of media: With the burgeoning growth of media in the last decade or so, the number of tools or mediums available to express or communicate has increased tenfold. Public Relations thus finds effective means to communicate through the growth of new media.

Benefits & Scope of Public Relations:

No matter how good you are, if you dont communicate with your target audiences, you will lose out to competitors who are using public relations more aggressively and effectively to ensure communication. Every organisation can benefit from PR. If you dont manage the information by which people form their opinions, their views of your company will be based solely on what they hear from other sources. You cannot quantify what you lose if you dont use PR, but companies which use it can see the benefits.

Quite simply, PR can help in building a positive image and thus helps to minimise damage when something goes wrong. It helps to manage the information by which people form their opinions. There can be no quicker way of reaching your target audience than through PR. PR helps to maintain communications with your most important business audiences. It is cost-effective and credible. Please remember, PR takes time. It is not an overnight process. It is an on-going endeavour. The scope of PR today is far - reaching and encompasses several industries and sectors. Social and religious leaders, politicians, entrepreneurs, industrialists are all closely associated with the PR process at some point or the other.