What is PR?

Public relations is a strategical approach towards the creation of goodwill and brand image
through developing a cordial relationship between the organization and its target audience.
Every organization exists in a social, legal, political environment where it has to interact with
different agencies and individuals.
Importance
 Increases Awareness:
 Creates Brand Image and Reputation:
 Develops Loyalty:
 Promotes Goodwill:
 Builds Trust and Credibility
.
Functions of Public Relations
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.
.
Publics and its Types
>Publics are defined as any group whose members have a common interest or common
values in a particular situation.
>There exist several different kinds or categories of publics: traditional, non-traditional,
latent, aware, active, intervening, primary, secondary, internal, external, domestic, and
international.
Publics all differ greatly. Types of publics include:
• Employees
• Shareholders
• The media
• Customers
• The general public
• Analysts and other financial intermediaries
• Students
• Educators
• Government
• Community leaders
• Members of the industry in which the concern operates
.
Issue Management
In the course of business operations, there is a wide variety of issues management,
problems that must be analysed and resolved. By creating plans to manage these issues,
companies can handle problems quickly and effectively.
Along with resolving the problems, the issues may need to be communicated. Using public
relations effectively can help to handle the management of the issues. This is known as issue
management.
Steps for Issues Management
There are five steps to managing a public relations issue:
1.Identify potential issues - When you identify a potential issue, you become aware of a
current or likely problem based on feedback from customers, employees or vendors.
2. Set priorities - Take time to understand what needs to be done, which steps need to be
handled first, and how the issue will be managed.
3. Establish a position on the issues - Create a plan for responding to the problem, what the
company will share about the problem, and how the issue will be presented to the public.
4. Develop the response - Once you have clarified your position in the problem, you can
now create a response that will be shared with the affected party and media, if necessary.
5. Monitor the issue - Watch the response to the issue, how the resolution is working, and if
changes need to be made to the plans.
Lobbying
Lobbying is a fast-growing field that is closely connected to public relations, for the role of a
lobbyist is to influence legislators, using the art of persuasion, on behalf of an organization’s
point of view on various issues.
Lobbyists aim to influence the policy making of the institutions to produce policies and
legislation that are beneficial to their employers.
Public Opinion
It is the constant forming and revising of people’s opinions on public figures, organisations
and issues.
In order for a phenomenon to count as public opinion, at least 4 conditions must be
satisfied:
• There must be an issue
• There must be significant number of individuals who express opinions on the issue
• There must be some kind of a consensus among some of these opinions
• This consensus must directly or indirectly exert influence
Public Opinion is an expression of a belief held in common by members of a group of public
on a controversial issue of general importance.
The public opinion-formed process emanates from the expressed individual opinions of
members of a group.
CSR
Corporate social responsibility, or CSR, refers to a business's efforts to balance generating
profits for owners with socially and environmentally responsible business practices.
Corporate social responsibility involves ethical consideration in all strategic management
processes. Corporate social responsibility is a form of management that considers ethical
issues in all aspects of the business.
Types -
 Competitiveness
Strategic management seeks to give the company a competitive advantage in the market. A
company that better incorporates social responsibility into its operations will be in a better
position than competitors.
• Mission Statement
The mission statement is a critical output of the strategic management process. It identifies
what the company offers and to what markets. The mission statement also reflects the
ethical and moral standards of the company.
• Integration
There are several stages in the integration of CSR in the company's strategic management
process. The main idea is to make ethical consideration a tacit part of the company's psyche.
Advertising
Advertising is a 'paid form' of communication intended to inform and influence a specific,
target group. The reasons for advertising are many and varied. An advertiser may be used to
urge and remind people to buy a product or service.
Advertising also helps to build & maintain the 'brand image' of a product or service, and
adds to its values (as perceived by the customers).
Advertising can be mainly classified as:- a) Product Advertising: b) Institutional Advertising
or Public Relations Advertising.
Propaganda
Propaganda is the manipulation of symbols to transmit accepted attitudes and skills. It
describes political application of publicity and advertising, also on a large scale, to the end of
selling an idea cause or candidate or all three.
Propaganda is defined as an expression of opinion by individuals and group which is
deliberately to influence opinion or action by other individuals or groups with reference to
pre-determined end.
Publicity
Publicity, on the other hand, is a free-of-cost write-up, on the product or service, and issue,
of an organisation and its activities, in the news columns or editorial columns of a
newspaper and magazine, or the non-commercial time on television and radio. It is
information generated and put across by journalists (media) on their own, or on a special
request by the company/ organisation's spokesman.
PR as a marketing tool
• Marketing is all about communicating the right message to the right people.
• Marketing & public relations are kissing cousins
• Now the new term called MPR is acceptable
• PR is a vital support system to marketing
• New product launch to projecting, protecting, positioning, promoting are in PR domain
• PR is now fifth P of marketing – others Product, Price, Place and promotion
• Businesses need a PR team to design and implement the most compatible PR program
MARKET PUBLIC RELATIONS GOALS
• Enlarge awareness base
• Develop a loyal customer base
• Build credibility
 Adopt relationship marketing
• Earn consumer testimonials to inspire new customers
• Build market excitement at pre-and post-advertising launch stages
• Inspire sales force and dealers
• Keep promotional cost under tab
• Influence the opinion leaders
• Build and maintain corporate image
• Support to new product launches
• Assist products to attain maturity
• Recycle and reposition the products