FUNDAMENTALS OF

MARKETING MANAGEMENT

Home Assignment

Topics : Prepared By:

Public Relations Jasmeen

Kaur
Publicity 17
Personal Selling MFM Sem 1
 PUBLIC RELATIONS
Not only must the company relate constructively to customers, suppliers &
dealers, it must also relate to a large number of interested publics.

A public is any group that has an actual or potential interest in or impact on the
company’s ability to achieve its objectives. Public relations include a variety of
programmes to promote or protect a company’s image or individual products. PR
department monitors the attitude of organization’s publics and distributes
information and communication to build goodwill. The best PR department
council top management to adopt positive programmes and eliminate
questionable practices so negative publicity does not arise in the first place.

They perform the following 5 functions :

a. The Press Relations : Presenting News and Information

about the organization in the most positive light.
b. Product Publicity : Sponsoring efforts to publicize specific
products
c. Corporate Communications : Promoting
understanding of the organization through internal and external
communication.
d. Lobbying : Dealing with legistators and government officials to
promote or defeat legislations and regulations.
e. Counseling : Advising management about public issues and
company positions and image during good & bad times.
 ELEMENTS OF PUBLIC RELATIONS

a. A planned effort or management function.

b. The relationship between an organisation and its publics
c. Evaluation of public attitudes and opinions.
d. An organisation's policies, procedures and actions as they relate to
said organisation's publics.
e. Steps taken to ensure that said policies, procedures and actions are in
the public interest and socially responsible.
f. Execution of an action and or communication programme.
g. Development of rapport, goodwill, understanding and acceptance as
the chief end result sought by public relations
h.

SOME POSSIBILITIES THAT WOULD CALL FOR PUBLIC

RELATIONS

Promotional Opportunity:
To inform the new service / policy which call for Public Relations to make
wider publicity.

Competitive:
To over come the resistance (pre-set mind condition).

Controversy:
To eliminate the contradictory conditions in between the organisation and the
public.

Adverse publicity:
To inform the truth or correct issues and thereby removing the misunderstanding.

Catastrophe:
Announcement of any unfavourable issues.

Crisis:
Whenever threats arises.
 Marketing Public Relations or
Publicity
Many companies are turning to MPR to support corporate or product promotion
and image making. MPR serves the marketing department.

The old name for MPR is publicity : The task of securing editorial space – As
supposed to paid space – in print and broadcast media to promote or hype a
product, service, idea, place, person or organization. It plays an important role in
the following task :

• Launching new products

• Repositioning a mature product
• Building interest in a product category
• Influencing specific target groups
• Defending products that have countered public problems
• Building the corporate image in a way that reflects favorably on its
products

Major decisions in MPR

In considering when and how to use MPR, management must establish

marketing objectives, choose PR messages and vehicles, implement the plan
carefully and evaluate the results.

• Establishing objectives : It can build awareness by placing

stories in the media to bring attention to a product, service, person,
organization or idea. It can build credibility by communicating the message
in an editorial context. It can help boost sales force and dealer enthusiasm
with stories about a new product before it is launched. It can hold down
promotion cost because MPR costs less than direct mail and media
advertisement.

• Choosing messages and vehicles : PR ideas include

hosting major academic conventions, inviting experts or celebrity speakers
and developing news conferences. Here the challenge is to create news.
 Each event is an opportunity to develop a multitude of stories directed at
different audiences.

• Implementing the plan and evaluating results :

The easiest measure of MPR effectiveness is the number of exposures
carried by the media. Publicist supply the client with a clippings book
showing all the media that carried news about the product.

This measure is not very satisfying because it contains no indication of

how many people actually read, heard or recalled the message and what
they thought afterwards : nor does it contain information about the net
audience reached because publications overlap in readerships.

A better measure is the change in the product awareness, comprehension

or attitude resulting from the MPR campaign.
 PERSONAL SELLING

Personal Selling is an ancient art. Effective sales people today however have
more than instinct; they are trained in the methods of analysis and customer
management. Companies now spent huge money each year to train sales people
and to transfer them from passive order takers into interactive orders takers.

They are taught the SPIN method to build long term relationships with :

• Situation questions that ask about facts or explore the

buyers’ present situation, for example : What system are you using to
invoice your customers ?
• Problem questions that ldeal with problems, difficulties &
dissatisfactions the buyer is experiencing. for example : What parts of
the system creates errors ?
• Implication questions that ask about the consequences of a
buyers problems. For example : How does this problem affect your
people’s productivity ?
• Need – Pay off questions that asks about the value or
usefulness of a proposed solution. For example : How much would you
save if your company could help reduce the errors by 80% ?

Most sales training programmes agree on the major steps involved in any
effective sales process.

• Prospecting and Qualifying : Companies are taking

the responsibility for finding and qualifying leads so sales people can
use their expensive time doing what they can do best ; SELLING. It
does so by contacting them through mail or phone to access their
level of interest and financial capacity.

• Pre-Approach : The sales person needs to learn as much as

possible about the prospect company and its buyers. It should set
call objectives, i.e., to qualify the prospect, gather the information,
make an immediate sale, to choose the best contact approach (a
personal visit, a phone call or a letter). Finally, it should plan an
overall sales strategy for the account.

• Presentation and Demonstration : The sales

person tells the product story to the buyer using a features,
 advantages, benefits and value approach (FABV). Features describe
physical characteristics, advantages describe why the features
provide an advantage to the customer, benefit describes the
economical, technical, service and social benefits delivered by the
offering. Value describes the offering’s worth (often monitory terms).

• Overcoming objections : Customers typically pose

objections :

 Psychological resistance includes resistance to interference,

preference for established supply sources or brands, apathy,
reluctance to giving up something, unpleasant associations
created by sales representatives, predetermined ideas, dislike
of making decisions and neurotic attitude towards money.
 Logical resistance might be objections to the price, delivery
schedule or product or company characteristics.

To handle these objections the sales person maintains a positive approach, ask
the buyer to clarify objections, questions in a way that the buyer answers his own
objections, denies the validity of objections or turns it into the reason for buying.
Although price is the most frequently negotiated issue, others include contract
completion time, quality offered, purchase volume, risk taking, product safety etc.

• Closing : Closing signs from the buyer include, physical

actions, statements or comments and questions. Representative
can ask for order, recapitulate the points of agreement, offer to help
write up the order, ask whether the buyer wants A or B etc. The
sales person might offer specific inducements to close such as a
special price, an extra quantity or a token gift.

• Follow up and maintenance : Follow up and

maintenance are necessary to ensure customer satisfaction and
repeat business. Immediately after closing, the sales person should
cement any necessary details about delivery time, purchase terms
and other matters important to the customer. The sales person
should schedule a follow up call after deliver to ensure proper
installation, instruction and servicing and to detect any problems,
assure the buyer of the sales person’s interest and reduce any
cognitive dissonance. The sales person should develop a
maintenance and growth plan for the account.