Public Relations

Presented By
Name: ID:
Menna Allah Ahmed Fouad 20080910
Yasmine Yehia 20080999
Menna Allah Magdy 20080105
Ahmed Wagdi 20080740
Amr Zakria Helmy 20081027

Presented to:
Dr. Mahmoud Ramadan

c ontent
Over
I. Introduction and meaning…………………………4
i. What is public?
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 ii. What are relations?
iii. Practice of PR.
II. Definitions of PR by some renowned people……...5
i. Interpretation of the definitions.
III. History of public relations…………………………6
IV. Elements of public relations……………………….6
i. Human relations.
ii. Empathy.
iii. Persuasion.
iv. Dialogue.
V. Objectives of public relations………………………7
VI. Public relation practitioner sociology and psychology
point of view………………………………………..8
VII. Various publics for public relations………………...9
i. Stockholders relations.
ii. General public relations.
iii. Customer relations.
iv. Government relations.
v. Dealer relations.
vi. Complaints.

VIII. Essential qualities of good public relations………11

IX. Need for public relations………………………….12
i. Communication.
ii. Information load.
iii. New information order.
iv. Mutuality and understanding.
X. Mediums of PR……………………………………13
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 i. Letters.
ii. The telephone.
iii. Charts.
iv. Flannel boards.
v. Word of mouth.
vi. Post cards.
vii. Telelecture.
viii. Facsimile.
XI. Planning process of PR……………………………15
i. PR objectives.
ii. Message
iii. Strategy
iv. Resources
v. Selection of media resources
vi. Evaluation
vii. Review
viii. Analysis

Meaning and introduction

Public relations, commonly called as PR is an activity aimed at increasing common and
understanding between an organization and individual and one or more groups called “publics”.

What is public?
Public is a group of similar ideas, an assortment of persons having the same interests, problems,
circumstances and goals. They vary in their forms and sizes they have a multitude of wants and
desires. Each group has its own likes and dislikes. Groups can be classified as: Employees form

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a public, employers form another group. Other members of the public can be dealers,
wholesalers, investors, etc. Each of these groups is a public and everyone tries to attract a district
audience with its varied tools and techniques. A public may also be made up of a number of
individuals who are unorganized and hard to identify but who for widely varied reasons have a
common interest in the matter at issue. Today, however, when modern means of common make
vast number of people aware of controversial issues and common interests, publics tend to be
large and impersonal. These publics involve people, who are not known to each other and are
widely distributed over the country, or even among a number of countries. The members of such
public rarely meet each other face to face or have much direct communications. The impersonal
but powerful publics are numerous in today’s high complex society. But finally the public is any
group of people who share common interest.

Relations
It is the outcome of mutual understanding derived from the process of sharing of common
interest whereas relationship is the definite type of relation or interaction taking place between
two individuals, group or departments. To understand any relationship, it is necessary that one
understands the wants of those involved.

The term PR is also applied to the profession responsible for handling such assignments.
Corporations, government, agencies, politicians, and entertainers are among these who use
public relations. Their publics vary from employees and shareholders to an entire community or
members of the news media. The communication between an organization and it’s publics
ranges a simple news release to a sophisticated campaign featuring films, ad’s speeches and
television appearances. Such communications is aimed at gaining the goodwill of the public. The
basis of any effective PR campaign is public benefit. If an organization does not serve the needs
of public, the public will not support it. PR experts help an organization learn what the public
wants and then establish policies that reflect concern for public’s interests.

PR generally is practiced through:

 Corporate PR department: in a corporate department, specialists handle corporate PR
activities for only that company.
 PR agencies: in agencies specialists carry out PR activities for several companies.
 Public information departments: non-profit organizations like colleges and government
agencies have public information departments that work to strengthen the image of the
organization.

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 Definitions of PR by some renowned people
Frank Jefkins: public relations mean what it says- relations with the public. It is practically
a self-defining term. It aims to create and maintain confidence. It is a system of
communication to create goodwill. It produces that intangible quality or asset-goodwill, and
earns credit for achievement.

K.R.Balan: “the discipline which brings out the rewards in generating “mutual
understanding” and the risks involved in misunderstanding between individuals, groups,
governments and nations in this restless world the shape and content of which tend to be
rapidly changing.”

Editor of PR news: PR is the management function which evaluates public attitudes,

identifies the policies and procedures, of an organization or an individual with public
interests, plans and executes a program or action to earn public understanding and
acceptance.

Interpretation of the above definitions:

 It measures, evaluates and interprets the attitude of various related public.
 It assists management in defining objectives for increasing public understanding and
acceptance of organizations products, plans, policies and personnel.
 It equates these objectives with the interests, needs, and goals of various related
public.
 It develops, executes and evaluates a program to earn public understanding and
acceptance.

History of public relations

Public relations is a term was first formally used by “Thomas Jefferson” in the year 1807, while
drafting his seventh address to the congress delgates when he scratched out the words “state oh
thought” and wrote “public relations” instead. Informally Sir Walter Raleigh used it even earlier
during the land rehabilitation movement, while persuading people from different parts of

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America to settle in the rural parts of Virginia. This was the first organized effort to win and
mobilize public opinion.

Elements of public relations

Human relations:
It is getting along well with the word public both internally or externally. No person can work
independently and everyone who works in an organization directly or indirectly depends on one
another.

Empathy:
Means feeling with the other person to analyze others point of view and is regarded as primary
pre-requisite for a satisfying experience in a relationship where a certain degree of depth of
understanding is expected.

Persuasion:
There are 2 forms individuals or groups

a) Force or compulsion. B) Persuasion.

If one party compels another to do something instead of persuing him this is called despotism. It
is against the principle of proper conduct sanctioned by society. A sense of human interest on the
person who is being persuaded will understand and appreciate the cause and effect of this action.

Dialogue:
It is a conversation with purpose. It is not a bargain basement transaction but it is a low form of
negotiation. Dialogue is a reasonable exchange of ideas bringing into view a new form of
knowledge, the use of dialogue is for influencing behavior like selling goods or inspiring
innovative ideas.

Objectives of public relations

The main objective of public relations is to establish good understanding by sharing a common
problem or interest with the public. By public we here mean both an internal public and a public
external to the organization. Mutual understanding can be established only by sharing a common
interest, by communications and relations.

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However the following are the broad objectives of public relations:
 To promote mutual understanding.
 To avoid the risk involved in misunderstanding.
 To win friends, and influence people.
 To change the behavior and attitude of the public.
 To help in fund raising.
 To promote goodwill.
 To create and maintain the image or reputation about the company.
 To forestall attack by the competitors or opponents.
 To undertake a public relations education program.
 To help the public to love life and work for better or for worse without conditions.
 To improve internal staff relations.
 To provide information about the activities of the company to the press and writers.
 To prepare and supply the public with information about the organization like price,
quality, export, employment, and other special features.
 To ascertain public opinion, conduct opinion research, and understand public attitudes on
the organization, profession, and practice.
 To sponsor dealer and distributor relations schemes.
 To undertake programs like sales training courses for retailers, and wholesalers.
 To establish press relations, publicity articles preparation, press release, photographs.
 To communicate with the employees on their benefits, accident prevention labour
relations and collective bargaining.
 To undertake a campaign of public education about an industry or profession and it’s
contribution to the public.
 To establish relations with federal and state legislators, agencies.

Public relation practitioner sociology and

psychology point of view
The task of the relations expert is applied sociology. In other words, he must advice his
clients bearing in mind the essential features of sociology and psychology. In particular:

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  He must hold a mirror to his organization so that it can see where it actually stands and
how it really looks in the opinion of the public. Thus is one of his essential duties, and in
most cases, it provides the organization with knowledge of itself, which is nothing short
of astonishing.
 He must collect all available data, so to have a sound knowledge of all his details and
inter-relationships on which to work out a clear suggestion for building up the picture to
be presented.
 In doing this, he must help to overcome the many prejudices and biased opinions that are
almost always present, and he must be frank in pointing out and attempting to eliminate
the weak points and negative aspects of the organization’s projects or policies.
 All this forms the basis for the public relations action which must then be carried into
effect as a long term strategic plan founded on exact knowledge of the process of
communication and making full use of all means of communication.
 In carrying out the plan, he must keep in mind the fact that public relations are always a
two-way communication. Every public relations statement has an echo, which must be
regarded as the feedback in cybernetics. Experience shows him how the message was
received, and from this he must draw his own practical consequences, in complete
disillusions and if necessary with readiness to self-criticism.

Various publics for public relations

Stockholders relations:
The owners of the company are the shareholders with whom the company always has to
communicate about various matters. Most companies use personal visits, telephone calls,
mailing and supplementary reports to keep shareholders informed, interested, and satisfied.
Communication with them may include reports, matters on corporate meetings, dividend

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enclosures, magazines, special mailing, notices, resolutions, and press release. Communication
with the shareholders may cover many subject matters such as:

 Issue of share certificates.

 Share transfer application and procedures.
 Certificate of transfer.

General public relations:

It is with effective communication and through appropriate media that a company maintains
contacts with the public. It is the means to create and build goodwill. It also helps as a driving
force to reach the public, and brings the company and the public together, linking with society in
general. It is not possible to build satisfactory public image for the company. The public should
be informed about various products of the company and their uses; comparative advantages,
price differentials, after sale services and changes must be communicated promptly. Audio
visual, direct mail, sales promotion, advertisements, news bulletins, annual reports, posters, and
pamphlets are few of the many media used to reach the public.

Customer relations:
An effective system of communications should provide opportunities for customer information.
The customer is the ultimate object whose satisfaction and goodwill are of the utmost
importance for the success of an organization. It is the communication which establishes the
contacts with the customers who buys and is the source of products. It is the responsibility of
communication:

 To prepare welcome letters, personally addressed, signed by the chief executive officer to
all old as well as new customers.
 Media like pamphlets and booklets printed in an attractive manner summarizing the
company’s product are the purpose of communication.
 Enclosing handouts, progress reports to each bill mailed to customers. This act as a
repetitive reminder to the customer about the company.
 Preparing brochures and other informative folders directed to specific customer groups
like fanners, small business, women, and other special users.

Government relations:
Communication with the government and its departments is another important dimension of
external communication. Business communication with the government covers several dealings
touching many government departments. A corporate enterprise has to communicate with the
registrar of companies, controller of capital issues, finance department, industrial department and
labor department. The relations of a company with the government are many sided.

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Correspondence with the government may cover export-import matters, foreign exchange
dealings, listening, registration, taxation matters also.

Dealer relations:
A communication network should not overlook the importance of dealer communication. The
dealer is a trader who carries on the business of buying and selling and other dealings. A dealer
is an important party in external communications. The relation of the company with its dealers,
like those of other outsiders, is said to be dealer communication. The quality of the product, the
trading, policy, practice, procedure, and the image the dealers to promote are the fundamental
factors which must be given major consideration in the subject matter of communication.

Complaints:
Public relations firmly believe in openness and honest communication. Public complaints,
suggestions and response constitute a complaint communication system. The public is any group
of people which shares a common interest. An organization with its effective communication
talent has to establish and maintain mutual understanding between an organization and its public.
Complaints made by the public are to be attended to, and suggestions offered should be
considered. A complaint is really a favor done to the company. Correspondence with the
company is a good means of communication; in particular, face-to-face conversation is still
effective. Acknowledging a complaint and giving a decision without delay promotes goodwill. It
is social responsibility of business as a form of activity to entertain and be responsive to
complaints and suggestions. The social responsibility of a business entails obligations which a
business owes to society. Communication sets in all spheres of enquiries, complaints and
suggestions.

Essential qualities of good public relations

Without reaching for the moon, tentative analysis of experience with a large number of public
relations managers has indicated, in a general sense, the following as the basic qualities required
in successful managers:

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  Mental ability: a combination of planning sense, foresight, orderliness of mind and
judgment, which will result in willingness to think straight, and in thoroughness and
promptness of decision.
 Ability to see the other person’s point of view, and to be as critical of oneself as of
others; this is the basis of the ability to work with other people.
 Integrity, in the sense of mental honesty.
 A restrained self-confidence, coupled with initiative and resourcefulness.
 A balanced temperament particularly the absence of such traits as emotional instability, a
sense of marked inferiority, forcefulness and self-centered outlook.

Need for public relations

The need for public relations is clearly defined in the points below:

Communication: the means for communication have reached, technically, almost a stage of
perfection. It is today financially possible for practically everybody at least in the advanced
nations to receive information. The level of education of a wide circle of the population is rising

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rapidly and this ensures a steady increase in the capacity of receiving information which is
guaranteed by the ‘constitution.’ Adequate information is, therefore, theoretically possible
although it is by no means guaranteed in each individual case.

Information load: also called message load or quantity, the skeptic will, of course, draw our
attention to the flood of information to which we are all exposed today. The proper reply to this
is that this flood is largely without direction and that it is incomplete or inaccurate. Information
must be prepared. Essential information must be separated from trivial matter, and the interest of
the receiver must be aroused in the right direction. In the organization that ignorance, the
inability to appreciate or organization, superficial knowledge is extremely likely result in
dislikes, dissatisfaction and outright rejection with all their disastrous consequences. What we
require is a fair means of information which eliminates existing or awakened suspicions, which
builds up understanding, and creates confidence. This is what we call public relations.

New information order: whether we are correctly informed is far more difficult to answer.
Many books, many discussions in academies in radio and television and countless lectures, not
excluding those in ‘information society’ and ‘new information order’, a correct reply is yet to be
received. The only answer, according to the philosopher Karl Jaspers given in 1963, is ‘we in the
free world have the chance to share the responsibility and find ways of receiving the best
possible information.’

Mutuality and understanding: going by the definition of public relations, the mutuality is
based on interaction between consideration for public opinion, and the need of the communicator
or organization to inform or establish contact. Understanding is created by providing insight
into, and reporting on all essential matters. Confidence is cultivated by bringing the aim of the
organization into harmony with the public interest, thus winning and maintaining goodwill
among the general public.

From all these facts, it is clear what the purpose of this ‘activity in, for and with. The public’ is:
to act and not react; to create an atmosphere of confidence by an active information policy, the
passive part of which consists in answering queries; to inform the public and exert influence
towards the inside as a form of corporate and social counter control to establish direct or indirect
connections with the public, to fulfill a kind of interpreter’s function towards the public and to
control communicative reaction.

Mediums of PR
Letters
letters which enable one person to reach another despite the limitations of time that can cut down
on personal visits and telephoning, are among the most ancient and perhaps still the most
important media of mass communications. It has been said that letters are the only selling

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medium that, if taken away, would disrupt the entire modem business structure. They are sent
out with every kind of enclosure; pamphlets and leaflets, order banks, samples, pictures, return
post cards, and many others. The well-written letter has a major advantage over all other media it
is directed personally to an individual. If it designed to please and flatter him rather than to
irritate him as an invasion of his privacy, it commands his attention for a little while perhaps just
long enough to motivate him to do what the writer wants him to do. Mail is a personal thing. A
person likes to receive a letter written for him as well as addressed to him. He likes to express
regard for him, offer him a better job, make a promise or enclose a cheque.

The telephone
A telephone is more effective than a letter as a last minute reminder or an incitement to action.
The telephone is good for getting a person to do something he should do although he might
prefer not to such as attending a meeting. He can dodge a letter more easily than the personal
commitment of a personal conversation. But for a technical or monetary commitment both
parties will find it advisable to put it in writing to seal the telephone agreement. The secret of
success in a large-scale telephone campaign is to obtain a reliable telephone operator – people
with pleasing telephone personalities and the persistence to keep after each number until they
actually reach the proper party and drive the message home. The maximum effect is obtained in
a telephone drive when every prospect is reached over the phone by a personal acquaintance.
The telephone being an instrument of human contact, courtesy and tact in its use are important in
winning the understanding and goodwill of the person on the receiving end. The telephone
personality of an organization and its employees is a vital aspect of its relations with the entire
community, with many different publics, and with every individual connected by phone.

Charts
Charts are by far the most-used visual aid. A chart may be painted, printed or drawn. It must be
large enough and simple enough to be seen and comprehended in the presentation setting.

Flannel boards
Flannel boards consist of aboard covered with felt. Sticky-backed visuals are placed on the
surface, allowing a speaker to put some movement and flexibility into an otherwise static
presentation.

Word of mouth
It spreads like wild fire. If the subject and content are right, it can burst into spontaneous
combustion just as an entire forest may suddenly be overrun by conflagration. Through word of
mouth, rumor and innuendo may spread with extreme speed and spontaneity if the subject is
close to the emotion of people. Feeling and thought must quickly take wing on word of mouth.
In stimulating a word-of-mouth campaign the important thing is to present subject matter of such

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interest as to cause people to repeat it to others. Word of mouth is perhaps the most subtle of
publicity tools. It takes the form of gossip and slander at times if timely action is not taken to
control it. Though it is the hardest to control, all our efforts need to be made. Its manipulation is
not subject to cut-and dried mechanics, as is the case with so many publicity media and
instruments. The things that contribute to word-of-mouth circulation are:

 A spectacular and successful event or product.

 A spectacular publicity or activating campaign.
 A good catchword or slogan.
 Capitalizing on a mass trend or catchword.

Post cards
Post cards are quick and easy to prepare, quick and easy for the recipient to absorb, economical
to mail to constituents and an effective adaptation of direct mail to reach large numbers of
people with a message that can be punched home in a paragraph. In many campaigns, a large
number of individuals can be stimulated to sign and then send post cards to their own friends and
contacts. This personal touch has more influence with the recipient than would a communiqué
from a stranger.

Telelecture
This is a useful technique for making an audio/visual presentation at a distance. With the help of
the telephone company there is a hook-up from a speaker’s office, a meeting or classroom,
where visuals can be shown while the speaker is heard. Members of the audience can question
the speaker through a two-way hook-up. This permits the speaker to ‘appear’ at many locations
without the full time or expense of going there, and it permits remote groups to engage speakers
they otherwise would not attract.

Facsimile
It sends between distant cities via telephone line, exact copies of blueprints, layout, and other
visual materials. It is now used increasingly to transmit copy between the offices of an agency
and clients or between an organization and a communication medium.

Planning process of PR
Public relations are not merely a process of getting stories and pictures into newspapers. It is
much more. It has to be properly planned, orderly executed, and a number of details need careful
attention. Public relations costs money, requires manpower, needs expertise, and consumes time
and resources. So it should be well planned and executed in an orderly manner.

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PR objectives
The first step is to set out clearly the PR objectives before any campaign is launched. The
publicist must have a clear idea as to what is intended to be achieved. His approach should be
positive and purposeful. The next step is to decide, who is the audience to be reached, i.e. local,
regional, national, or international. And apart from geographical area, it should be considered if
any specialized audience or a section of the community or professional people is also to be
reached.

Message
After deciding the public the company has to decide what message they want to pass through the
campaign, what is it they want the people to know about them or what they want to tell or
inform the public about.

Strategy
A strategy is a long term planning or the methods that a company adopts to make itself a
successful company. For a PR campaign also strategies are required to be formed to so that they
can create an impact or impression in the minds of the people as well as they can build a fair and
favorable image in the market.

Resources
The publicist has also to think about the resources in terms of money and staff available to him.
The campaign has to be planned keeping in view the resources which the publicist would be able
to mobilize.

Selection of media resources

Another point that requires a decision is about the media to be employed for the campaign:
whether publicity is to be conducted with one medium or more than one or through multi-media.

Evaluation
After deciding upon the above things the publicist should evaluate the whole process to check
whether everything is properly being done or not or whether they have to add anything else or
not, etc.

Review

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After evaluation again there should be a review of the entire thing to give it a final check.

Analysis
After the campaign there should be an analysis of the entire process so that they will come to
know whether the campaign was successful or not and if not then where it went wrong. If any
draw backs are pointed out then again the whole process is repeated from the point of identifying
the publics.

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