PRINCIPLES OF EVENT MANAGEMENT

UNIT 4
PUBLIC RELATIONS

MEANING

Public relations are a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial
relationships between organizations and their publics.

DEFINITION

According to Institute of public relation, USA “Public relation is the deliberated, planned and
sustained effort to establish and maintain mutual understanding between on organization
and its public”.
OBJECTIVES OF PUBLIC RELATIONS

1. Building Product Awareness. When introducing a new product or re-launching an

existing product, marketers can use a PR element that generates consumer attention
and awareness through media placements and special events.
2. Creating Interest. 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.
3. 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.
4. Stimulating Demand. A positive article in a newspaper, on TV news show or mentioned
on the Internet, often results in a discernible increase in product sales.
5. 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.

FUNCTIONS\ ROLE\ TYPES OF PUBLIC RELATIONS

1. Community Relations:
A business should be seen as a responsible citizen of the community it operates in. A
comprehensive community relation programme should focus on building a respectable
image for the company in the community in the long run. Many organizations
implement educational and health related programmes for improving quality of life of
the community members. Such activities help to build their reputation along with
benefiting the society.

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2. Employee Relations:
Employees are the most valuable assets of the company and the organization had to
create employee goodwill for maintaining a loyal workforce. Loyal employees are more
productive and interested in the well-being of the company.
3. Customer Relations:
The most important component of external public is the customer. The customer is the
reason behind the existence of the organization. Public relations informs the customer
about introduction of new products or changes in existing ones. Public relations plays a
crucial role in attracting the attention of the buyer towards the company’s offerings and
helps to differentiate the product from those of its competitors.
4. Financial Relations:
A segment of the company’s public consists of those individuals and institutions the
company has financial dealings with. These include the shareholders, creditors, potential
investors, banks, financial analysts, etc. These parties have to be informed about the
company’s finances, plans for expansions, plans to raise share capital, etc. A well
planned financial relations programme is necessary to improve the organization’s image
and increase the value of its stock.
5. Political and Government Relations:
The Company has to function under the control of government rules and regulations. It
has to forge proper relations with various government officials and political parties to
ensure smooth functioning of the enterprise.
6. Crisis Communication:
The role of public relations takes on vital significance during crisis situations like an
accident, financial scams, bankruptcies, etc. It is the responsibility of the public relations
to give the honest and accurate information to the concerned publics and assure them
of remedial measures taken to control the crisis.
7. Investor Relations:
The PR department helps in handling investor’s events, releasing financial reports and
regulatory filings, and handling investor’s analysts and media queries and complaints.
8. Marketing Communications: Supporting marketing efforts relating to product launch,
special campaigns, brand awareness, image, and positioning.

IMPORTANCE/ ADVANTAGES/ BENEFITS OF PUBLIC RELATIONS

1. Contain more information: Public relation is able to impart more information to the
public than advertisements can. A glance is all that is usually given to an advertisement,
whereas public relation, when presented as news, is given more attention and is
therefore able to contain much more detailed information.
2. Speed: Public relation has an advantage of speed. Information on a major development
can often be issued and reported in a short space of time. Public relation can also be
flexible and reactive.
3. Influence: audiences are more likely to trust messages coming from an objective source
rather than paid-for advertising messages. It is one of the most credible forms of
promotion and can be persuasive.

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4. Reach: a good story can be picked up by several news outlets, exposing your message to
a large audience.

5. Cost-effectiveness: PR can be an economical way to reach a large audience in

comparison to pay for advertising media placement, particularly if it is done in-house.

6. Lead-generation: Information about technological innovations, medical breakthroughs,

and the like results almost immediately in a multitude of inquiries. These inquiries may
give the firm some quality sales leads.

7. Ability to reach specific groups: Because some products appeal to only small market
segments, it is not feasible to engage in advertising and/or promotions to reach them. If
the firm does not have the financial capabilities to engage in promotional expenditures,
the best way to communicate to these groups is through public relations.
8. Image building: Effective public relations help to develop a positive image for the
organization. It informs the public about the activities of the firm. Assist in upholding the
good image of the firm. It also helps in improving the relationship between the firm and
its customers

CHALLENGES/ LIMITATIONS/ PROBLEMS OF PUBLIC RELATIONS

1. Lack of Control Over Message Release – While public relations often uses the same
print, digital and broadcast media outlets as advertising, it differs significantly from
advertising in that marketers do not have direct control over whether a message is
delivered.
2. May Be Higher Cost Than Other Methods – While a PR campaign has the potential to
yield a high return on promotional expense, it also can have the opposite effect (e.g.,
few attend a presentation by a company-paid spokesperson).
3. Special Skills May be Needed to Do PR Effectively – Marketers, accustomed to handling
many of their own promotional tasks, may find that public relations requires a different
skill set than other types of promotion (e.g., skills in dealing with the media), thus
requiring the marketer to spend on a PR professional.
4. No direct control – unlike advertising, you can’t exactly control how your business is
portrayed by the media, when your message will appear, and where it will be placed.
5. No guaranteed results – you may spend time and money on writing a press release,
getting suitable photography and speaking with journalists, but you can never guarantee
your story will be published. This can result in a poor return-on-investment.
6. Evaluation – it can be difficult to measure the effectiveness of PR activities. You can
count media mentions and published stories, but it’s harder to determine the impact
this has on your audience.
7. Repetition – With advertisements a company can ensure that there is frequency of the
message. Public Relation does not have this advantage and the message may only be
given once, if at all.

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8. Mishandling and lack of coordination Public relations may also misfire through
mishandling and a lack of coordination with the marketing department. When marketing
and PR departments operate independently, there is a danger of inconsistent
communications, redundancies in efforts, and so on.
9. Lack of Content Control: First, while public relations uses many of the same channels as
advertising, such as newspapers, magazines, radio, TV and Internet, it differs
significantly from advertising in that marketers do not have direct control over whether
a message is delivered and where it is placed for delivery.
10. Getting Bumped: There is always a chance that a well devised news event or release will
get “bumped” from planned media coverage because of a more critical breaking news
story, such as wars, severe weather or serious crime.

PUBLIC RELATION TOOLS

1. Company Publications- It includes company magazines, annual reports, newsletters,

booklets, pamphlets, audio-visual materials like film slides, audio-video cassettes etc.

2. News and Press Releases-One of the most important tools for PR is the news giving facts
and information about the company, about its product and their release to the press for
publication. Writing and creating newsworthy, credible stories and articles require special
skill on the part of PR personnel.

3. Events- Companies can organize and sponsor a number of special events such as sports
tournaments, music, dance and other arts and cultural programmes, contests and
competition, exhibitions, fairs to capture the attention of the target audiences.

4. Advertising: Messages involving PR can also be communicated through advertising. A

number of companies, industries and their associations use Ads in newspapers, TV etc.

5. Social Service Activity- Companies can build goodwill by donating or contributing money
and efforts to good social or community causes. Company can contribute a small part of
money received from sale for charitable purpose say for eradication of Aids, education of
orphans etc.

6. Speech- Speech is also an important tool to propagate about the product and the
company. The vital views concerning the company and its products being expressed by top
authorities and the personnel of the company are published in the company’s websites,
YouTube and other social media, newspapers etc. The copies of their speeches are
distributed among people. All these steps are necessary to project a better image of the
company.

7. Social media- Social media lets you bypass the media and go straight to your customers.
Using social networking sites such as Face book and Twitter allows following and be
followed by journalists, manage issues by responding quickly to criticisms or negative
perceptions, and increase exposure for business brand.

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8. Newsletters- Print or emailed newsletters are a good way to promote your business,
communicate with customers and keep them informed of new products and services.

9. Brochures and catalogues-'Take home' or mail-out brochures or catalogues can help keep
customers thinking about business and its products and services.

10. Employee relations- Staff are ambassadors for business and brand. Many larger
businesses conduct employee relations - building their business culture and team
relationships by sharing information, promoting involvement and instilling a sense of pride
in business achievement.

11. Speaking engagements-Speaking at events where customers are likely to attend helps
position you as a leader or innovator in your field. As a business owner or leader, building
your reputation as an expert also builds the reputation of your business - and draws new
customers.

12. Institution Identity- Some companies get their “Logos” printed to have their clear
“Identity” among the masses of the country. One immediately identifies a company after
seeing “Logo” of the company. This is also an important tool of public relations.

13. Website- This is the most modern tool of public relations. Companies use their websites
to advertise their products. General public can seek all the vital information about the
company after looking at the particular website of the company.

PUBLIC RELATION STRATEGY

A PR strategy will help to organize PR activities and make strategic decisions around the best
way to communicate. It can also help to use the stories in business to draw in target
audience as well as increase profile and build brand awareness.

Below are some effective public relations strategies.

1. Know Your Audiences

For your message to reach the impact that you want, you will need to first understand and
segment your audiences. Remember that not all audiences are the same. You can reach
some through events, others through social media and yet others through networking
events. Whatever content you generate should have your audiences in mind.

2. Get Organized

PR is achieved through a planned, sustained set of activities. You will need a calendar to
organize your outreach activities. You must also start generating a contact list of media,
opinion leaders, personalities, customers and likeminded companies to engage and
collaborate with.

3. Think like a reporter

Your press release should be interesting and to the point with a sprinkle of insightful quotes
in it. A brief company history at the end can help too and don’t forget to include your
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contact details. The goal here is to ensure the right editor on the right title with an
interesting media release that grabs their attention. The more you can think like a reporter,
the better it gets.

4. Do your Research

There are no substitutes for research and careful planning in your PR work. Research is an
essential part of public relations management as it allows you to be strategic. This ensures
the communication is specifically targeted to audiences who want, need, or care about the
information. Study PR campaigns that you would like to take inspiration from. See what the
competition is up to and think about overcoming them.

5. Work with a Team

First off you will need to set up a dedicated team for your PR efforts. If you have a staffer
who is great in graphics, writes witty copy or simply takes good pictures then get them to
your team. Your team will help you add value to your messaging, provide feedback and help
you distribute your messages. A team can help ensure that any messages you convey are by
design rather than an accident.

6. Enhances Your Online Presence

In this world where everyone is digitally connected you need an online presence to reach to
your customers. The social media like Facebook, Instagram, and twitter are great mediums
to reach your public. You can use them to make announcements, make connections and
publish content.

7. Know your Competition

The key to any successive business is to strengthen your comparative competitiveness. Your
business, and every team within it, must have a source of competitive advantage.
Understanding, identifying, creating, and sustaining a competitive advantage is at the heart
of a good strategy.

8. Create compelling content

Public relations are about sharing the right information to the right places and people. This
helps build your brand and brand reputation. You need to learn your target language,
desires, things that resonate with them, and the things they don’t like. Choose the right
topic for your content. Compelling content should include elements of curiosity, urgency,
relevancy, value and emotion.

9. Think like your Audience

Remember to design your campaign from the public’s point of view, not your own. As a
business you will need to use wording that conveys a solidly positive image, forcing
opponents to take up the negative stance. Run by your message with friends and family to
see what they think of the messaging before sending it out.

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10. Define Goals and Objectives

Knowing what you want to achieve and how you want to get there can help bring clarity to
your approach. This will help in determining which audiences you need to reach, and which
messages and tactics are most likely to help you achieve your goals.

MEDIA, MEDIA MANAGEMENT AND MEDIA PLANNING

a. Media refers to the groups that communicate information and news to people. The goal
of media is to convey an advertising message to the audience through the most
appropriate media channel for their product.

Different Types of Media

In general, you can classify media in three main categories.

1. Print Media
This type of news media used to be the only way of delivering information to the public. For
the generations of the 80s and 90s, print media was the only media of entertain. People
relied on newspapers and magazines to learn everything, from recipes and entertainment
news to important information about the country or the world. Print media includes:
➢ Newspapers – printed and distributed on a daily or weekly basis. They include news
related to sports, politics, technology, science, local news, national news,
international news, birth notices, as well as entertainment news related to fashion,
celebrities, and movies. Today’s parents grew up with this type of printed media.
➢ Magazines – printed on a weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annual basis. It contains
information about finance, food, lifestyle, fashion, sports, etc.
➢ Books – focused on a particular topic or subject, giving the reader a chance to spread
their knowledge about their favourite topic.
➢ Banners – used to advertise a company’s services and products, hung on easily-
noticed sights to attract people’s attention.
➢ Billboards – huge advertisements created with the help of computers. Their goal is
to attract people passing by.
➢ Brochures – a type of booklet that includes everything about one company – its
products, services, terms and conditions, contact details, address, etc. They are
either distributed with the newspapers, or hand over to people.
➢ Flyers –flyers are used mostly by small companies due to the low cost of advertising.
They contain the basic information about a company, their name, logo, service or
product, and contact information, and they are distributed in public areas.

2. Broadcasting media:
Includes videos, audios, or written content that provides important or entertaining
information shared by different methods:
➢ Television – in the past, there were a few channels sharing various types of content,
whereas now we have hundreds of TV channels to choose from. Each channel
delivers a different type of content, so you have a separate channel for news, drama,

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movies, sports, animation, nature, travel, politics, cartoon, and religion. It’s the
number one broadcasting media due to its reach to the audience.
➢ Radio – uses radio waves to transmit entertaining, informative, and educative
content to the public. Due to its high reach to the audience, radio is widely used for
advertising products and services. Radio is one of the oldest means of
entertainment, and today people often hear it to find out the weather and traffic
while commuting.
➢ Movies – film, motion picture, screenplay, moving picture, or movie has world-wide
reachability. It’s the best type of mass media to promote cultures and spread social
awareness. Movies have always played a huge part in the entertainment world.

3. Internet Media
Nowadays, we are relying on the Internet to get the news a lot more often than the
traditional news sources. Websites provide information in the form of video, text, and
audio. We can even choose the way we want to receive the news. Types of Internet media
include:

4. Social networks or websites :

Including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Quora,
Reddit, Pinterest, etc. They are user-friendly and widely used by people around the world.
Although we can find any news here, they may be misleading because of the lack of
regulations on the content shared.
➢ Online forums - an online place where we can comment, message, or discuss a
particular topic. Forums allow us to share knowledge with other people with the same
interest. That’s why it’s regarded as the best platform to seek support and assistance.
➢ Podcast – a series of audios focused on a particular topic or theme. We can listen to
them on a computer or a mobile phone. It’s a platform that allows anyone to share their
knowledge and communicate with the world.

b. Media management

The process of planning the media, buying the media, analysing the media, and adjusting
the communication based on the need assessment put together is called Media
Management. Media management contains the functions strategic management,
procurement management, production management, organizational management and
marketing of media enterprises.

Components of Media Management

1. Media Planning- It is the critical step in designing effective media buys. It involves
utilizing the available media more effectively. Media planning is based on relative merits
and demerits of each media.

2. Media Buying- Media buying involves decision regarding date and time of the media
requirement, and space required for the desired communication.

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3. Analysing the Media- the Company should analyse the media for the benefits it offers.
The benefit should be compared with the cost.

4. Adjusting the communication- The message should be refined to suit a particular

situation. Whenever company brings new things in the product or service, the
communication should be modified to incorporate such changes.

c. Media Planning

Media Planning is a series of decisions involving the delivery of message to the targeted
audience.

Steps in Media planning

1. Market analysis (Target Market)-It is necessary to decide specific market where planned
efforts can be directed. The advertiser needs to identify the target market based on
demographic characteristics, life style etc.

2. Media Objectives: Media Objectives are often in terms of reach, frequency, gross rating
points and continuity.

➢ Reach- How many people are exposed to the advertisement.

➢ Frequency- How many times the target audience are exposed to the advertisement
during given period of time. The frequency is a measure of repetition. It promotes
interest and desire for the product on a continuous basis.
➢ Gross rating points- It counts total exposure.
➢ Continuity- It refers to timing of the media insertions. The message should be relayed
continuously to the potential households.

3. Media Strategy- is to realize company’s media objectives. If the strategy is formulated

properly, it ensures that the company’s ad stands out in the competition.

4. Media Mix- A combination of media types is known as the media mix. No advertiser can
rely on only one medium of advertising to reach his audience. Selecting the media mix
involves several considerations:
• Budget
• Competitors strategy
• Reach/frequency
• Support to Distributors
• Continuity
• Flexibility
• Franchise position
• Stand of acceptance and codes of ethics
• Cost per thousand
• Creative considerations

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5. Media buying-Media buying is the procurement of media inventory. The media

buying functions negotiates price and placement for advertisements.

BRAINSTORMING SESSIONS

Meaning

Brainstorming is a group creativity technique by which efforts are made to find a conclusion
for a specific problem by gathering a list of ideas spontaneously contributed by its members.

Steps involved in Brainstorming

1. Set the goals and objectives- Start by setting goals and defining objectives. Be specific
with what you want to accomplish up front.

2. A team leader- A strong moderator or leader is essential for results, maintaining control
of the session and ensuring objectives are met.

3. Decide the Participants- When deciding the participates, bring in people with varying
points-of-view.

4. State the problem clearly. The purpose of brainstorming is to solve a specific problem. A
good method is to write the problem clearly at the top of the board.

5. Provide the necessary background information. Ideally, you would provide the necessary
information before the meeting, but sometimes you need to provide it during the meeting.

6. Have different environment-Take participants out of the normal work environment to

stimulate creativity.

7. Skill for success-Set the stage and let participants know that everyone will respectfully
listen to the contributions of others.

8. The rules like-

➢ Don’t interrupt other participants

➢ Never say anything negative
➢ Take notes!

9. Generate Ideas- Participants need to break the rules of conventional thinking. The
Participants should really think out of the box in getting challenging ideas. The moderator
should encourage individual ideas rather than group ideas.

10. Discuss and select- Once the brainstorming session is complete, the group can discuss
the list and pick out the most promising ideas.

11. Decide what will happen next with the top few ideas- Define the next steps for moving
the idea further along the process .This may include steps such as presenting the idea to
senior management, gathering feasibility data, etc.

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WRITINGS FOR PUBLIC RELATIONS

If public relations are about developing and maintaining relationships between an

organisation and it’s public, then public relations writing are about applying language to
fostering those relationships.

Here are Essential Elements of good PR writing that will help make your press materials
clearer, more concise and more compelling to various other readers:

1. Planning: Before you start writing, know your objectives, who are your targeted
audience is? And what types of outlets you’ll be pitching.
2. Storytelling: It’s been said that good stories happen to those who can tell them. Honing
your storytelling chops will make whatever you’re writing, whether it’s a corporate
profile, a press release or a Facebook update which helps to keep more engaging.
3. Empathy: Put yourself in the readers’ shoes and focus on their interests and needs
rather than yours or your client’s.
4. Context: Help your readers understand the broader significance of your story and how it
fits into the larger context of your industry, your community or the world.
5. Flow: Good writing has a rhythm that carries the reader along like a catchy melody. Pay
attention to the way you transition between ideas, where you put your paragraph
breaks and even the sounds of the individual words and sentences.
6. Structure: The way you organize a story, which ideas you present and in what order can
have a major impact on whether a reader hits delete halfway through the first paragraph
or reads it all the way till the end.
7. Accuracy: The best writing in the world won’t matter if you get your facts wrong.
8. Intents and purposes: like the advertising copywriter, the PR writer must have a good
idea what the writing he or she produces is supposed to do. The intent of the writing
must be firmly in mind as the writer begins the project. Otherwise, the writing will be
inefficient and ineffective.
9. Publics: the PR writers must think in terms of “publics”, the groups to whom he or she
may be directing a communication.
10. Four-step process of public relations: these four steps include planning, research,
communication, and evaluation. Any public relations campaign, large or small, involves
these four steps to some degree. In some organizations, this is an elaborate process,
while in others the process is fairly informal, but it occurs no matter where the campaign
is taking place.
11. News release: the good news release is essentially a good news story in a public
relations suit.

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