PR Notes - Unit IV Final

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BA (JMC) 204
BASICS OF PUBLIC RELATIONS
FOURTH SEMESTER
UNIT IV: [Corporate Communications and PR]
1) Evolution of Corporate Communications

2) Corporate Communications and Public Relations
3) Defining PR Pitch and Campaign
4) PR Campaign: Research, Setting Objectives, Programme Planning, Budgeting,
Implementation, Feedback/Evaluation
CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS
Corporate communication is the practice of developing, cultivating and maintaining a corporate

identity or brand image. A solid corporate communications team provides initiatives to mold
company image, communicates with internal and external audiences, maintains media relations
with the corporation, handling of crisis communications, internal communications within the
cooperation between the staff, managers, etc. and sustain a long-term positive reputation.
They are also responsible for the reputation of the corporation and its management,
relationships with potential and existing investors, government affairs, and often
communications in marketing also.
Corporate communication sounds very similar to "public relations" or "public affairs", and that is
because this particular section of the cooperate industry was known by those titles before the
21st century. Today, it has taken on a high role after a result of corporate scandals, such as
companies like Toyota.
SCOPE AND DEFINITIONS
Perhaps the best way to define corporate communication is to look at the way in which the
function has developed in companies. Until the 1970s, practitioners had used the term ‘public
relations’ to describe communication with stakeholders. This ‘public relations’ function, which
was tactical in most companies, largely consisted of communication with the press. When other
stakeholders, internal and external to the company, started to demand more information from
the company, practitioners subsequently started to look at communication as being more than
just ‘public relations’. This is when the roots of the new corporate communication function
started to take hold. This new function came to incorporate a whole range of specialized
disciplines, including corporate design, corporate advertising, internal communication to
employees, issues and crisis management, media relations, investor relations, change
communication and public affairs.
NOTES BY MS. DIMPLE ARORA, ASST. PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF

JOURNALISM AND MASS COMMUNICATION, TIPS, GGSIPU
An important characteristic of the new function is that it focuses on the organization as a whole
and on the important task of how an organization presents itself to all its key stakeholders, both
internal and external. This broad focus is also reflected in the word ‘corporate’ in corporate
communication. The word of course refers to the business setting in which corporate
communication emerged as a separate function (alongside other functions such as human
resources and finance). There is also an important second sense with which the word is being
used. ‘Corporate’ originally stems from the Latin words for ‘body’ (corpus) and for ‘forming into a
body’ (corporare), which emphasize a unified way of looking at ‘internal’ and ‘external’
communication disciplines. That is, instead of looking at specialized disciplines or stakeholder
groups separately, the corporate communication function starts from the perspective of the
‘bodily’ organization as a whole when communicating with internal and external stakeholders.
Corporate communication, in other words, can be characterized as a management function that

is responsible for overseeing and coordinating the work done by communication practitioners in
different specialist disciplines, such as media relations, public affairs and internal
communication. Van Riel defines corporate communication as ‘an instrument of management by
means of which all consciously used forms of internal and external communication are
harmonized as effectively and efficiently as possible’, with the overall objective of creating ‘a
favorable basis for relationships with groups upon which the company is dependent’.
Defined in this way, corporate communication obviously involves a whole range of ‘managerial’
activities, such as planning, coordinating and counselling the CEO and senior managers in the
organization as well as ‘tactical’ skills involved in producing and disseminating messages to
relevant stakeholder groups. Overall, if a definition of corporate communication is required,
these characteristics can provide a basis for one:
Corporate communication is a management function that offers a framework for the

effective coordination of all internal and external communication with the overall purpose
of establishing and maintaining favourable reputations with stakeholder groups upon
which the organization is dependent.
One consequence of these characteristics of corporate communication is that it is likely to be

complex in nature. This is especially so in organizations with a wide geographical range, such
as multinational corporations, or with a wide range of products or services, where the
coordination of communication is often a balancing act between corporate headquarters and the
various divisions and business units involved. However, there are other significant challenges in
developing effective corporate communication strategies and programmes. Corporate
communication demands an integrated approach to managing communication. Unlike a
specialist frame of reference, corporate communication transcends the specialties of individual
communication practitioners (e.g., branding, media relations, investor relations, public affairs,
internal communication, etc.) and crosses these specialist boundaries to harness the strategic
interests of the organization at large. Richard Edelman, CEO of Edelman, the world’s largest
independent PR agency, highlights the strategic role of corporate communication as follows: ‘we
used to be the tail on the dog, but now communication is the organizing principle behind many
business decisions’.

The general idea is that the sustainability and success of a company depends on how it is
viewed by key stakeholders, and communication is a critical part of building, maintaining and
protecting such reputations.
Is Corporate Communication Important for Enterprises?
Actually, corporate communication is imperative to an enterprises survival in the modern age.

The following demonstrates why:
1) Corporate Branding: Branding is imperative to a company as it defines who they are,

their products, their message, and their overall goal to the general public. It is how they
are defined in the media and how they are viewed by other competition enterprises. The
function of the corporate communication department is to create favorable association
surrounding the enterprise, and create a positive and respected reputation both within
the enterprise and externally, with competitors and the general public.
2) Building a Reputation: Corporate communication encompasses methods and

processes in promoting a company’s credentials, its positioning pitch and its
acceptability in the marketplace. It involves a series of planned, interconnected
activities and programs to communicate and engage with internal employees and
externally with partners, customers and other stakeholders. Corporate communication
helps highlight a company’s annual earnings and achievements, its roster of products
and services and its philanthropy and community outreach efforts. The intent at all
times is to project a unified message and a consistent corporate identity.
3) Building Corporate Identity: Corporate communication is generally acknowledged as

the best possible method of building long-term corporate identity. A well-articulated and
consistent corporate communication strategy, along with larger advertising and PR
campaigns, reinforces a positive image about your company. This practice has helped
businesses, corporations and even startups to develop and sustain unique corporate
brand identities. Strategic, timely and well-orchestrated corporate communication
initiatives have helped companies to limit negative fallouts of market missteps, crisis
scenarios or unseemly or controversial utterances by key business executives.
4) Building an Influence: The top management or key business executives play an

influential and nuanced role in shaping the corporate communication agenda of an
organization. The communications team will follow their lead, and often use higher-ups
and top management as part of their campaigns. Management can offer strategic inputs
and suggestions to fine-tune specific programs and communicate key organizational
highlights. The communications team takes these insights and translates them for their

audience of clients, customers and employees. The relationship between upper

management and the communications team is vital to sharing corporate wins.
5) Supporting the Corporate Communication Team: The in-house corporate

communication department is the key enabler of any corporate communication effort. A
senior executive and the brand communication manager devise, develop and revise
various initiatives. They understand the need to be flexible and account for evolving
business environments and contextual organizational shifts. The team drafts news
releases, prepares executive briefs for top management, ghostwrites op-eds, blogs,
social media posts and columns for business managers and other higher-ups. The team
arranges interviews of key personnel in relevant industry and trade publications or for
panel-based programs on cable and network news channels. The department can also
liaise with an external PR agency to manage nationwide PR campaigns and press
conferences.
6) Corporate Responsibility: Corporate responsibility refers to a corporation's respect for

the general publics or societies interests. This part of corporate communications makes
the corporation look beyond its traditions and adapt to social implications and changed.
7) Crisis Communications: Crisis communications can be referred to as a public

challenge to the corporation's reputation and image. Challenges such as these can
come in the forms of criminal allegations, media attacks or inquiries, violations of certain
regulations regarding the environment, and more.
8) Benefits and Beyond: A well-managed, flexible and sustained corporate

communication practice can reap both medium and long-term benefits. It enables a
company to have a distinctive identity in a crowded and intensely competitive
marketplace environment. Customers are more loyal to the company and generally feel
positive about buying or consuming the company’s products and services. Business
investors stay committed to investing in the company. Shareholders remain confident
about the capabilities of key executives, and the long-term prospects and profitability of
the company.
Useful Tips for Efficient Corporate Communication
• Utilize corporate communication tools. For efficient corporate communication, your enterprise
ought to rely on powerful corporate communication tools like ezTalks Meetings. It is a video
conferencing solution where you can connect with your colleagues in real time no matter where
you are.

• Proofread all emails to ensure that you come across as professional.
• Be confident in what you do.
• Be careful of verbal communication, meaning that you should be open and inviting.
• Silence your self-phone in a meeting. You want to make sure the person at the other end of the
video conference has your full attention and they know it.
• Keep your social and work life separate.
• Include and respect all colleagues, whether they are above or below you.
• Say what you mean. Don't beat around the bush.
• Keep your emails professional. Do not send personal emails.
• Keep your ears open. A great communications officer is someone who knows what's going on
before the rest of the world does.
• Don't complain. Corporate communication can be a hard department, but it doesn't like
complainers.
• Communicate like a professional. This is a corporate business and needs to be treated in a

professional demeanor.
Closing
Corporate communication is such an imperative aspect to the survival of any enterprise, but it is
the corporate communication department that ensures the corporation has a promising future in
an ever changing industry and remains credible amongst the general public, stakeholders,
investors, and within the corporation themselves.
EVOLUTION OF CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS
The evolution of communication disciplines and techniques that are used by organizations to
promote, publicize or generally inform relevant individuals and groups within society about their
affairs began at least 150 years ago. From the Industrial Revolution until the 1930s, an era
predominantly characterized by mass production and consumption, the type of communications
that were employed by organizations largely consisted of publicity, promotions and selling
activities to buoyant markets. The move towards less stable, more competitive markets, which
coincided with greater government interference in many markets and harsher economic
circumstances, resulted from the 1930s onwards in a constant redefining of the scope and
practices of communication in many organizations in the Western world. Communication
practitioners had to rethink their discipline and developed new practices and areas of expertise
in response to changing circumstances in the markets and societies in which they were
operating.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Communication management – any type of communication activity undertaken by an

organization to inform, persuade or otherwise relate to individuals and groups in its outside
environment – is, from a historical perspective, not new. But the modernization of society, first
through farming and trade, and later through industrialization, created ever more complex
organizations with more complicated communication needs.
The large industrial corporations that emerged during the Industrial Revolution in the nineteenth
century in the UK, in the USA and later on in the rest of the Western world required, in contrast
to what had gone before, professional communication officers and a more organized form of
handling publicity and promotions. These large and complex industrial firms sought the
continued support of government, customers and the general public, which required them to
invest in public relations and advertising campaigns.
In those early years and right up until the 1900s, industrial corporations hired publicists, press
agents, promoters and propagandists for their communication campaigns. These individuals
often played on the gullibility of the general public in its longing to be entertained, whether they
were being deceived or not, and many advertisements and press releases in those days were in
fact exaggerated to the point where they were outright lies. While such tactics can perhaps now
be denounced from an ethical standpoint, this ‘publicity-seeking’ approach to the general public
was taken at that time simply because organizations and their press agents could get away with
it. At the turn of the nineteenth century, industrial magnates and large organizations in the
Western world were answerable to no one and were largely immune to pressure from
government or public opinion. This situation is aptly illustrated by a comment made at the time
by William Henry Vanderbilt, head of the New York Central Railroad, when asked about the
public rampage and uproar that his company’s railroad extensions would cause. ‘The public be
damned,’ he simply responded.
The age of unchecked industrial growth soon ended, however, and industrial organizations in
the Western world faced new challenges to their established ways of doing business. The
twentieth century began with a cry from ‘muckrakers’ (mudslingers/defamers): investigative
journalists who exposed scandals associated with power, capitalism and government corruption
and raised public awareness of the unethical and sometimes harmful practices of business. To
respond to these ‘muckrakers’, many large organizations hired writers and former journalists to
be spokespeople for the organization and to disseminate general information to these
‘muckraking’ groups and the public at large so as to gain public approval for their decisions and
behavior. At the same time, while demand still outweighed production, the growth of many
markets stabilized and even declined, which led organizations to hire advertising agents to
promote their products with existing and prospective customers in an effort to consolidate their
overall sales.
In the following decade (1920–1930) economic reform in the USA and the UK and intensified
public skepticism(doubt) towards big business made it clear to organizations that these writers,
publicists and advertising agents were needed on a more continuous basis, and should not just
be hired ‘on and off’ as press agents had been in the past. These practitioners were therefore
brought ‘in-house’ and communication activities to both the general public and the markets
served by the organization became more systematic and skilled. This development effectively
brought the first professional expertise to the area of communication within organizations and
planted the seeds for the two professional disciplines that defined for the majority of the
twentieth century how communication would be approached by organizations: marketing and
public relations.
Both marketing and public relations emerged as separate ‘external’ communication disciplines
when industrial organizations realized that in order to prosper they needed to concern
themselves with issues of public concern (i.e., public relations) as well as with ways of
effectively bringing products to markets (i.e., marketing). Both the marketing and public relations
disciplines have since those early days gone through considerable professional development,
yet largely in their own separate ways. Since the 1980s, however, organizations have
increasingly started to bring these two disciplines together again under the umbrella of a new
management function that we now know as corporate communication. This trend towards
‘integrating’ marketing and public relations was noted by many in the field, including Philip
Kotler, one of the most influential marketing figures of modern times. Kotler commented in the
early 1990s, ‘there is a genuine need to develop a new paradigm in which these two subcultures
[marketing and public relations] work most effectively in the best interest of the organization and
the publics it serves’.
In 1978, Kotler, together with William Mindak, had already highlighted the different ways of
looking at the relationship between marketing and public relations. In their article, they had
emphasized that the view of marketing and public relations as distinct disciplines had
characterized much of the twentieth century, but they predicted that a view of an integrated
paradigm would dominate the 1980s and beyond as ‘new patterns of operation and interrelation
can be expected to appear in these [marketing and public relations] functions’.
INTEGRATED COMMUNICATIONUntil the 1980s, marketing and public relations were

considered as rather distinct in their objectives and activities, with each discipline going through
its own trajectory of professional development.
Central to this traditional view, was the simple point that marketing deals with markets, while
public relations deals with all the publics (excluding customers and consumers) of an
organization. Markets, from this perspective, are created by the identification of a segment of
the population for which a product or service is or could be in demand, and involves product- or
service-related communication. Publics, on the other hand, are seen as actively creating and
mobilizing themselves whenever companies make decisions that affect a group of people
adversely. These publics are also seen to concern themselves with more general news related
to the entire organization, rather than specific product-related information. Kotler and Mindak
articulated this traditional position by saying that ‘marketing exists to sense, serve, and satisfy
customer needs at a profit’, while ‘public relations exists to produce goodwill with the company’s
various publics so that these publics do not interfere in the firm’s profit-making ability’.

Over time, however, cracks appeared in this view of marketing and public relations as two
disciplines that are completely distinct in their objectives and tactics. Rather than seeing them
as separate, marketing and public relations, it was recognized, actually shared some common
ground.
In the 1980s, for instance, concern over the rising costs and decreasing impact of mass media
advertising encouraged many companies to examine different means of promoting customer
loyalty and of building brand awareness to increase sales. Companies started to make greater
use of ‘marketing public relations’: the publicizing of news and events related to the launching
and promotion of products or services. ‘Marketing public relations’ (MPR) involves the use of
public relations techniques for marketing purposes. It was found to be a cost-effective tool for
generating awareness and brand favorability and to imbue communication about the
organization’s brands with credibility. Companies such as Starbucks and the Body Shop have
consistently used public relations techniques, such as free publicity, features in general interest
magazines and grass-roots campaigning to attract attention and to establish a brand experience
that is backed up by each of the Starbuck and the Body Shop stores.
CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS & PUBLIC RELATIONS
Public Relation is very much popular modern management discipline and vast changes are
taking place in the climate of P.R. globally as well as in India. New Dimensions are also being
added to the practice of P.R. in almost every area of operation. The term Public Affairs,
Corporate Communication, Perfect Relation etc. are some very popular terms that describe the
function of P.R. Actually the term P.R. is comprehensive enough and needs no revision though it
is admitted that it involves much more in terms of the number of publics and the variety of
issues that are today required to be covered.
Since P.R. and corporate P.R. both share similar work of image building or to influence publics,
but they are not the same. P.R. is a practice to maintain relationship with all publics including
consumer while corporate P.R. is an integrated communication and broader than P.R.
P.R. is a very broad term. It can be a concept, a profession, a management, a practice. Every
company, organization or Govt. body has a relationship with their public. They might be
employee’s customer, stock holders, supplies or general public or consumer. It is a
determination and evaluation of public attitudes.
P.R. is a practice of identification of policies and procedures of an organization with a public

interest. It is a development and execution of consumer’s action programme which is designed
to bring about public understanding and acceptance.
Difference between public relations and corporate communication
1. Basically public relation involves much more than activities made to sell the product or spread
the policy and services. It is concerned with people’s attitudes toward the organization or
specific issues.
Today’s every company or organization must consider the public impact of their activities and
decision of policies, because each decision of an organization affects different group in different
way. But by the effective P.R., mutual understanding and positive outcomes can be possible. It
makes favorable influence on public attitude, build goodwill among groups of people of an
organization, and establish and maintain a satisfactory reputation for the organization. Actually,
a well-executed P.R. is a continuous process that moulds or builds a positive and stable
relationship. While corporate P.R. is a goal of the company with social responsibility or corporate
reputation. It is an integral component of the overall communication strategy of the organization.
2. Public relation is a management function that evaluates public attitudes, identifies the policies
of an individual or organization with the public interest and executes a program to earn public
understanding and acceptance. On the other hand, corporate P.R. is designed to promote
overall awareness of a company or enhance its image among a target audience as well as in
the whole society.
3. Public relations are a planned and sustained programme of communication between an

organization and those audiences essential to its success. The audience is replaced by a public.
It is an important practice that attracts the attention of the audience. Basically corporate P.R. is
an extension of the P.R. function. It does not promote any one specific organization or product
or services rather it is a work to promote the overall activities of the firm by enhancing its image,
assuming a position on a social issue or cause or seeking direct involvement in something.
Public relations all activities & attitudes intended to judge, adjust to influence and direct the
opinion of any group or group of person in the interest of any individual, group or institutions and
its public to accommodate each other. On the other hand corporate P.R. is a social and civic
sense. The core of corporate P.R. is that human mankind has now moved it to “we” generation
from “me”. It means it is a philosophy of everyman for himself and the devils care the hind
most.”
4. Public relations is an effort to promote goodwill between itself and the public. P.R. people
learn what others think of them, determine what they must do to earn the good will of others,
devise way to win the good will and carry on programs designed to secure goodwill. Public
Relations helps establish and maintain mutual lines of communication, understanding,
acceptance and cooperation between an organization and public, involves the management
problems or issues, help management to keep informed on and responsive to public opinion,
defines and emphasize the responsibility of management to serve the public interest, help
management keep abreast of and effectively utilize change serving as an early warning system
to help anticipate trends and uses research along with sound and ethical communication
techniques as its principle tools.
On the other hand Corporate P.R. is closely related to the corporate identity. It is designed to
generate investment in the corporation. By creating the more favorable image, the film makes
itself attractive to potential stock purchasers and investors. More investment mean working
capital, more money for research and development and so on. In this instance corporate
communication or corporate identity is almost attempting to make a sale, the product is the firm.
Firms that spend more on corporate P.R. also tend to have higher priced stock. A positive

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corporate image cannot be created just from a few P.R. activities or from few advertisements.
Quality of product and services, innovation, sound financial practical, social responsibility, good
corporate citizenship and wise marketing are just a few of the factors that contribute to overall
image. In addition, the type of product marketed and emotional appeal also contribute. The
study shows that companies are ranked differently on key corporate attributes including
emotional appeal, social responsibility, work place environment, vision and leadership.
5. P.R. is very useful in its traditional responsibility as well as in a more marketing oriented role.
In corporate P.R., the organization remains the source and retains much more control. It is
definitely a promotional mix and must be used with each of the other elements of P.R. Corporate
P.R. are considered integral components of the overall communication strategy. They respect
the same rules as the other promotional mix elements to ensure success.
6. Public relations crops up in different firms in non-business areas as well. Everyone in an

organization performs some sort of P.R. function whether aware of it or not. To this comment
can be added that every act of communication performs some sort of P.R. function as well. It is
as a separate specialist business function that can success best if these two propositions are
properly understood by everybody. People not directly involved in P.R. might well be reminded
that everything you do and everything you say tells somebody else something about what sort
of organization this is”. The formal recognition of this fact is seen when companies include P.R.
in the policy and decision making process. In fact many external P.R. Campaign have to be
support with molding or changing the news, thinking behavior and decision of the public inside
the organization and getting their recognition, acceptance and support. The poor attitudes and
response of some people inside an organization may actually be thought of as “Negative P.R.
and be contributory cause to any P.R. Problems. The company has every communication (may
be oral or written) as P.R. dimension regardless of its actual purpose whether be well or badly
written, designed, conveyed or both. Poorly made sales Literature, impolite receptionist,
truculent deliveryman, and offensive advertisements all create bad impression. On the other
side where “P.R. identified and “P.R. solutions” are proposed at the policy making stage it is
called corporate Public-Relation. Policy decision may create P.R. opportunities of which the
decision makers are unaware. In this case corporate P.R. has the role of identifying such
opportunities and proposing ways of exploiting than, Where the P.R. expertise is involved at
every stage of the decision making processes “P.R. problems” and “P.R. opportunities” can be
identified early and “P.R. solution” and” programmes” put in place in a thoughtful and systematic
way. What can be done to resolve problems? It highlights the good about an organization, but it
does so truthfully and fact fully. It follows that credibility is an important element of any P.R.
programmes.
7. P.R. is a problem solving process, put to use not merely when the problem has occurred but a
Proactive strategy. Organizations which accord priority for corporate and financial P.R. are also
those best likely to place PR activities under marketing. It is more concerned about
communication with audience. It entails facing up to a problems and explaining the background
of them endeavoring to obtain sympathy and understanding through an appreciation of the
difficulties facing an organization and an understanding.

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Corporate P.R. is the way in which the organization communicates the standard of the
management and is particular about the standard at the time of crisis management and provide
for success or failure. Much sponsorship activity and indeed the adoption of such measures as
support for certain charities or other non-commercial community related activities has a bearing
on corporate P.R. It is not a means of allowing the P.R. function to score points off its rivals in
marketing, but it should be a case of enabling the relationship to be clarified not simply between
PR and marketing but between the centre and the brands, between the general management
and the product and most of all between where the organization currently stands and perhaps
where it has stood in the past and where it intends to position itself in the future.
8. P.R. is a sustained programme of communication with a number of different audiences. Every

P.R professional should have the longer term strategy in mind when advising employers or
clients, and within that strategy it is essential that there should be a programme. The
programme has to be prepared and proposed for there to be broad agreement between the PR
function and those who are depending on PR support. The preparation of programme starts with
an appreciation of the organization’s role and its objectives in the short medium and longer
term. The threats and opportunities facing the organization, the requirements of marketing
employee’s relations and investor relations and the overall image of the organization are all
fundamental factors to be taken into account in preparing a strategy.
Corporate P.R. has been described as the single image presented by a company or other
organization giving an impression of unity through all the various manifestation of its activities. It
is known as corporate identity. By manifestations one means not simply different activities but
the opportunities offered to show the identity on such items as motor vehicles premises,
literature, stationary, advertising material, products and so on. Corporate identity came in three
different types which are very much relevant. First of all there is a monolithic identity which
sounds awe some but in fact is best represented by many of the most successful names in
business. Secondly, companies which have diversified often opt for the endorsed identity with
the intension of establishing the relationship between the parent company and its subsidiaries in
the minds of customers and investors, as well employee. The third type of identity is the
branded identity in which the identity of the parent is kept out of sight the concept is that the
brand is more important than the corporate centre. The development of the brand may owe
more to advertising and promotional decisions that to a corporate culture, especially when
competing brands are produced in the same factory manufacturer might maintain a corporate
identity for product customer and concealing the common ownership. So corporate identity is
not preserve simply of the specialist. It reflects on the entire organization and the way in which it
is perceived. It also says something about the corporate culture.
9. P.R. is a system of human understanding. It is merely human decency which flaws from a
good heart with god performance and publicity appreciated because adequately communicated.
This is not only a sincere effort to establish a mutuality of interest but it achieves the harmonious
adjustment of an institution to its community. It is practically a self defining term, whose aim is to
create good will and earns credit for achievements. Public relation is a mode of behavior and a
manner of conveying information with the object of establishing and maintaining mutual
confidence, based on mutual knowledge and under understanding between organizations.

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While a corporate PR carrying out various functions or activities and the different sections of the
public, internal and external that is affected by some or all the functions and activities of P.R.
10. There are many objectives that may be achieved through expert PR activity. Any one of
them, any group of them or all of them may be the basis for an organization’s PR programme.
Professional PR directs every activity towards reaching selected objectives. Extraneous efforts
are avoided. Objectives that could be sought include:
1. The greatest resource of PR is human installed and creativeness.
2. PR must deal with changes in attitude.
3. It is necessary to probe into the minds of people.
4. Favorable image audits benefit.
5. Promotion of product or services.
6. Goodwill of employees or member.
7. Overcoming misconception and prejudices.
8. Forestalling attacks.
9. Goodwill of suppliers.
10. Goodwill of Government.
11. Goodwill of the rest of the industry.
12. Goodwill of dealers and attraction of their dealers.
13. Ability to attract the best personal.
14. Education of the public point of view.
15. Investigation of the attitudes of various groups towards a company.
16. Goodwill of customers or supporters.
17. Formulation and guidance of polices.
18. Fostering the viability of the society in which the organization function.
19. Directing the course of change.
While the objective of corporate P.R. is a specialized policy such as:-
I. Basic premises common to public and private sector.

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II. First responsibility is customer, second will be those who work with them (The men and
women in the factories and offices), third is Board of Directors.
III. Communities (society) in which they live.
IV. Share holders business must make a sound profit.
V. The main work of corporate P.R. are community relation, Public information, customer
information, Govt. information stockholders, dealers, customer relations, Govt. relation and
media relations.
VI. Classified component of corporate P.R. work are : writing, editing, placement, promotion,
speaking, production, programming institutional advertising and other functions also.
11. P.R. is to favorably influence public opinion build goodwill and establish and maintain a
satisfactory reputation for the organization. P.R. effort might rally public support, obtain public
understanding or neutrality or simply respond to inquiries. Well executed PR is an on-going
process that molds good long term relationship. It comprises a variety of activities from crisis
communication to fund rising. Practitioner use many tools besides press conference and news
release. P.R. Professionals spend maximum of their time generating news from basically low-
news demand organization. Their activities range from product publicity and press gentry to
special events management and speech writing etc. Its first function is to plan and execute the
PR programme. The practitioner analyze the relationship between the organization and its
public, evaluate people attitude and opinion towards organization, assesses how the
organization policies and action relate to the public, determine PR objectives and strategies,
develops and implements a mix of PR activities, integrating them whatever possible best with
the organization’s other marketing communication and lastly receive feedback to review and
analyze the activities effectiveness. Public relation personal prepare many of organization
communication literature, such as news release and media kits, booklets, broachers, manuals
and books, letter, inserts and enclosures, annual reports, posters, bulletin, boards and exhibits,
audiovisual material and position papers and even advertising.
Corporate PR has come to denote to enhance a company’s image and increase awareness. It
serve variety of purpose to report the company’s accomplishment. Position the company
competitively in the market, reflect a change in corporate personality, share up stock prices,
improve employee morale or avoid communication problems with representative or agents,
dealers, suppliers, or customers. It is using for better awareness familiarity and overall
impression. Corporate PR is to achieve specific objectives such as develop awareness of the
company and its activities, attract investors, improve a tarnished image, attract quality
employees, tie a diverse product line together and take a stand on important public issue.
Corporate PR can also build a foundation for future sales, traditionally the realm of product
advertising. Organizations feel pride in their logos and corporate signature. The graphic designs
that identify corporate names and products are valuable assets and organization take great
pains to protect their individuality and ownership also.

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Corporate PR can make a good impression on the financial community, thus enabling to raise
capital at lower cost and make more acquisition. It can motivate the employees and attract
better recruit. It is a famous saying that “good PR beings at home.” If the employees of an
organization understand the policies of the company they will be the best ambassador.
Corporate PR can influence public opinion on specific issue.
Lastly we can say that there is very micro difference between the PR and corporate PR is a
process used to manage an organizations relationship with its various publics including
employees, customers, stock holders competitors and the general public. Many PR activities
involve media communication. PR activities include planning, publicity and press gentry, public
affairs and lobbying, promotion and special management, publication, preparation, research,
fund raising and membership drives and public speaking. The tools used in PR include news
release, and media kits. Photography, facture articles, all sorts of printed materials posters,
exhibits, and audio-visual materials.
To help create a favorable reputation in the market place organization use various types of
corporate PR along with corporate identity and image. There we get the conception of
community service which tells us that unless we strive to elevate all, the elevation of a few is the
country’s degradation and delay.
Corporate PR also a management tool but by it the management strives to earn the trusts of its
publics not just their business. A trust corporate citizen does not forget that trust is earned by
during it not only right but also inspiringly every single time to every kind of public and he does
not also forget that goodwill goes where it is well received and stays where it is well treated.
When a business corporation says it “Stands” behind its public the corporate PR manager’s duty
it is to see how many of these publics keeps can “Standing”.
The discipline of corporate PR practice can be summed in the format foundation of business, is
credit, foundation of credit is, confidence, foundation of confidence is characters foundation of
characters is reputation and foundation of reputation is land by PR. In other words we can say
that corporate PR is a creed of social responsibility.
In the conclusion we can say that the technical resources and managing talents of industry in
both public & private sectors have a function in society and obligations to the community much
wider than the discharge of their primary business functions. The reality of present time is that
demands are being made on companies, demands that business obligations be expanded to
include a whole range of social obligation. The purpose of corporate PR is the contribution to
society as a corporate citizen, to cope with pressure mounted increasingly by pressure groups
to harmonize company’s economic goals with the nation’s aspiration; there is need for a distinct,
top level managerial function. It is basically a people relation and a gateway of community
service and social audit.

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PR PITCH AND CAMPAIGN
PR Pitch /Media Pitch
PR pitch is a brief letter, email or phone call offering a news story to a journalist or editor at a
newspaper, magazine, radio or television station. The aim of the pitch is to create interest in the
story and to find out if the contact is willing to use it. Journalists receive many pitches and
therefore respect those that are relevant and newsworthy. A successful media pitch helps small
businesses gain publicity for their company and builds good relations with the media for future
coverage.
Relevant
A good media pitch reflects the interests of the medium and the individual journalist you are
contacting. If your business sells garden care products, for example, identify the gardening
correspondent on your local newspaper. To pitch the story to a national gardening magazine
with many different writers, check the list of contributors to identify the person with a specific
interest in garden care. Read the recent items written by the contributors you target to
understand their perspective on garden care. Targeting the right person increases your chances
of making a successful pitch.
Newsworthy
Your story must be newsworthy because you are competing for limited space or broadcasting
time with many other pitches. If you have developed a breakthrough product, that story is more
interesting to a journalist than news of a routine upgrade to an existing product. A strong local
angle can help your pitch to local media. If you have developed garden care products for
drought conditions, for example, check the weather conditions for the media you are targeting.
Brief
A media pitch must be brief. It is not a press release and only gives the outline details of a news
story or feature article. Explain why the item will be of interest to the audience and provide brief
highlights of the content. Let the journalist know the length of the story and indicate whether you
will supply the content or whether the journalist will need to arrange an interview. Offer to send
additional information if the journalist wishes to proceed with the story.
Structured
Your pitch should cover the key points of the story from a journalist’s perspective — who, what,
where, when, why and how. This provides the framework for the journalist to assess the
potential of the story. Highlight any factors that affect the timing of the story. It may coincide with
an important anniversary, for example, or your breakthrough product may be launched at a local
trade show next month.
Timely

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Journalists work on tight deadlines, particularly in radio and television or daily and weekly
publications. Contact your target media to find out their deadlines. If your story is tied to a
specific date, make sure that you give journalists time to consider your pitch and put together a
story by that date.
4 Steps to a PR Pitch Strategy:
“PR, as an industry, often comes under attack for its inability to map results back to tangible
business benefits,” comments Kimberly Youngstrom, Group Vice President, MWW Public
Relations. “While intuition and experience are essential, PR programs need the substantiation
and justification that sound research and analysis can provide.” Here are four steps that will help
you take more strategic–and intentional–approach to your work.
Step 1: Do Your Homework before You Define Your Next PR Pitch Strategy
Building any PR pitch strategy should start with research. As Tanya Rynders, PR consultant
explains, “When developing a PR strategy, I use competitive insights to ensure that my team
doesn’t replicate an already existing idea. We also seek to uncover audiences that aren’t
currently being targeted.” She adds that research is also necessary for “keeping up with media
outlets that typically write about your brand or product and staying on top of current discussions
and trends in real time.”
Monitoring tools enable us to conduct this research in an efficient and timely way. On the macro
level, monitoring tools expose our companies overall brand perception as well as perceptions of
our competition, industry, and even customer segments. On a micro level, these tools uncover
press and social media discussions about products or services similar to those we’re pitching.
The greater our awareness of the competitive landscape, the better prepared we’ll be to achieve
our goal: create the right message, to the right audience, at the right time.
Step 2: Set Clear, Tangible Goals
Too often, we pitch for the sake of pitching. Maybe our boss has demanded “a press release
each week,” or maybe we’re trying to stay busy and show results. But we all know that you’ve
got understand what you’re trying to achieve if you hope to achieve anything worthwhile. Here
are some questions that will help us set our site on a clear, tangible goal:
Who is our message ultimately trying to reach?
What message(s) do we want to deliver to that customer?
What are we hoping to achieve?
With answers to these questions, we’ll be able to develop a clear, one sentence campaign goal,
which will help keep our messaging and outreach strategy focused. If we know why we’re
pitching and what we are trying to achieve, the next steps to completing our PR pitch strategy
will be that much easier.
Step 3: Hone Pitch Messaging Based on Research

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By now we understand our customer and competitive environment, and we’ve set a clear goal.
We’re ready to shape our message. What we have to say should feel newsworthy to the
influencers we’re trying to engage, resonate with customers, and align to our business
objectives and and brand voice.
At the end of the day, great insights provide opportunities to tell unique stories that resonate
with target audiences.
A well-crafted pitch should be concise and easily digestible. It should inspire action and it
should resonate. It can take some time to craft a message that achieves these results. Write a
first draft, and then spend time trying to poke holes in it. Share it with a colleague or two for
feedback. If needed, edit, and edit some more.
Step 4: Identify and Understand Media Targets
With our pitch messaging completed, it’s time to decide on a distribution channel and
find influencers that will help us to reach our customer.
Don’t spam your message to every contact you have. We’re all flooded by communications and
no one likes getting ones that having no relevance to them. Instead, ask yourself who would
appreciate learning about what you have to say. You can start narrowing your list down by
further asking yourself if your message is best suited for a broadcast approach (press release)
or more personal approach (individual pitching). Does the message have mass appeal or will it
get better pick-up if we pitch it to a narrower, more targeted list of influencers? For example, if
we represent a tech firm announcing a merger with another firm we have a mass-appeal
message, in which case a press release may be best. If we are the same firm announcing an
upgrade to a current product, our message has a narrower appeal, and we should focus on
select influencers.
We’ll want to build our media list based on the subjects journalists in our niche are already
writing about. With the right tools it should take minutes to determine which journalists have
covered our competition, industry, and subject matter regardless of beat. Combine that list with
journalists with whom we’ve built relationships and we’re ready to go!
Ultimately, PR pitch strategy is the foundation to campaign success. In simple terms, it means
thinking through every decision you make so that it yields the best possible results—instead of
functioning on auto-pilot. PR professionals bring to the table a strategic way of thinking about
the communication between a company and its customer and it’s extremely important that we
remember this as we approach every project. If we follow the above steps and use the available
PR tools, developing good strategy can be quicker and much more effective.
PR CAMPAIGN
A public relations campaign is a series of activities that are planned in advance and relate to a
specific goal. This contrasts with other areas of PR, such as general ongoing publicity tactics, paid
advertising, and reacting to events. Ultimately a public relations campaign has three characteristics:

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identifying an objective, finding the message that will help achieve that objective and communicating
that message to the appropriate audience.
Specify an Objective
A good public relations campaign will have a clear objective. In theory this could simply be to
raise awareness of a product, service or brand, but ideally it will be more specific. This could
include a company increasing sales of a product or a pressure group changing public or
government behavior. A specific objective not only makes it easier to focus the planning and
execution of a campaign, but also to quantify its success.
For example, an objective to increase positive consumer opinions by 50 percent through the use
of social media sets a measurable goal while providing a basic look at a strategic tool that will
be utilized to achieve the desired result.
Deliver a Message
Public Relations requires a clear message for the organization to communicate. A good rule of
thumb is to make the message as clear and concise as possible without losing precision or
risking ambiguity. Ideally the message will not just inform the audience of a particular fact or
viewpoint but will spur them into taking a particular action.
Target an Audience
Public Relations campaigns occasionally target the entire population but usually need to target a
specific group. This should be the group most likely to respond as desired to the message. For
a company, this could be the type of consumer most likely to buy a particular product or service,
which takes into account interests, tastes and spending power. For a membership group, this
could be potential members.
For a campaign group, this could either be potential activists and supporters, or it could be
people in authority with the ability to make decisions that promote a cause. For example, a
promotional effort for luxury handbags or briefcases would fall on deaf ears in an impoverished
community while zip codes with high real estate values could embrace the message.
Pitfalls to Avoid
There are a wide range of other factors that can affect the success of a public relations
campaign. One is that it operates to a planned budget and that the money is spent in the most
effective way possible. Another is that it does not fall foul of any regulatory issues – for example,
by defaming somebody or by breaching rules on incentives offered to public figures. Public
relations staff also needs to plan carefully to make sure a message cannot be misinterpreted or
cause offense.
8 Steps to a Successful PR Campaign

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Reputation is everything in business – the old saying ‘it takes years to build and only seconds to
lose…’ is totally true. So you have the choice of either leaving it to chance, or taking control and
ensuring you can choose the image of your business that reaches your audience.
A great way to do this is through PR, either in-house or by using a specialised communications
agency. Controlling your public relations message allows you to manage the positive flow of
information about you or your company. It also allows you to handle any negative comments
and give the correct responses at the right time.
Audiences are increasingly resistant to traditional marketing techniques, so PR is also a great

way to slip past any defences and connect with your audience via channels that they already
know and trust. Here's a simple guide that will help you to create a PR campaign that will
ensure you're able to remain in charge of the image you're projecting:
1. Know your outcome
Before you start contacting journalists, or writing fancy press releases, you need to decide what
your objectives for the PR campaign actually are. Taking the time to thoroughly investigate this
is vital. It will help you to be focused and stay on-message in everything you do. It will also give
you chance to monitor how effective your strategy is as it progresses.
A PR campaign can achieve many things – whether you want to add to the size of your
audience reach, boost sales, or improve your brand's reputation. List your aims, and set
yourself measurable targets – such as increasing sales by 10%.Whether you plan on
implementing your PR campaign by yourself, or using an external company, it's essential to
have a thorough knowledge of what you want to achieve, and to have a realistic timeframe in
place.
You should make sure your targets are SMART:
Specific – what do you want to achieve?
Measurable – how will you measure it?
Achievable – how will you achieve it within your budget?
Realistic – Is what you want to achieve realistic with your resources?
Timed – What timeframe will you use?
2. Focus everything around your audience
By this stage, you should already have created focused customer personas to help you
completely understand your customers’ wants and needs. These will also help you to decide
which publications to engage with. Everything you do during your campaign should be focused
on addressing these wants and needs. This can get a little tricky, as you will often be
communicating through an intermediary – such as a newspaper.

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You obviously want the journalists to buy into your business, but your message should be
primarily aimed at the potential customers in the audience, so always keep this at the forefront
of your communications.
3. Decide whether to use professionals or go it alone. Create a smart strategy
At the heart of any good PR campaign is a strong strategy. It needs to incorporate all aspects of
your business, and be part of the fabric of your operations.
The idea is to give off a consistent and positive image whenever you interact with customers –
whether that is through your website, or by securing press coverage for an event.
Creating a timed schedule for press releases and social media postings is important, as is
dedicating a certain amount of time to responding to the questions and interactions social media
channels generate.
You can use your schedule to plan ahead for upcoming events that are relevant to your sector.
By doing this, you can have a pre-prepared reaction, and ship it off to media companies as soon
as the announcement is made.
This can be a great way to gain coverage, as immediacy is incredibly valuable for journalists.
Here's a top tip – you can prepare multiple press releases for the different possibilities of a
future event, and then fire off the most relevant one as soon as the event happens –
guaranteeing your view is out there first.
4. Start creating targeted press releases
To give your press releases a chance of being picked up by media, it's important to construct
them carefully and distribute to the right people.
The best press releases have a strong news angle, rather than simply being adverts for a
business. No newspaper is going to print a story that is solely promotional. Be sure to include
relevant quotes – that can easily be used as sound bites – and include all the information a
journalist would need to write a story from what you send.
Distribute them to a media list that is relevant to your market, and don't be afraid to fire them off
to radio stations and TV channels, while making it clear that you're available for interview.
5. Make golden contacts
Shrinking budgets and dropping readerships mean journalists are spending less time than ever
before actually gathering news.
As a result, many are more than happy to receive press releases, and use stories that are pre-
prepared in this way. It saves them time and effort in finding their own stories, generating
interviews, and doing extra research.

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Despite this, the average journalist or editor receives hundreds, if not thousands, of press
releases each day. The best way to ensure they click on yours is to make anything you release
interesting and newsworthy – of course – but to also try and send it to a focussed list of
contacts.
Take the time to research the best people to send your press releases to, and don't be afraid to
follow up with a brief phone call to ensure they have received what you've sent. Obviously
exercise caution, and don't waste anyone's time, but never be afraid to give journalists a quick
call to update them about your situation and plans. Rather than sending your press releases to
the generic news desks of publications, find out which journalists write the most relevant articles
for your sector. You can then focus on building valuable relationships with those people.
6. Find creative news angles
Generating stories and angles that will get your press releases noticed can be difficult, so here
are a few ways to get your creative juices flowing:
Are you offering a new product or service?
Are you approaching an anniversary, such as five years trading?
Can you identify a problem your customers are facing, and then conduct research or a survey
highlighting this issue?
Can you offer a perspective on a relevant news story?
Has one of your customers or clients done something newsworthy?
Do you have a strong opinion on a development in your sector?
7. Use your personal brand
If you have a lot of competitors, and you're all offering roughly the same service, then you need
to find something that is unique. One thing you can guarantee is unique about your company is
you. By creating and promoting your personal brand alongside your business, you can generate
a multi-dimensional PR campaign. If you need an example of this, look no further than Sir
Richard Branson. The Virgin boss has 3,209,013 Twitter followers as I type this – Virgin itself
has just 76,842.
8. Assess how effective your campaign is
If your campaign isn't working, you need to identify that and work out why before you waste too
much time on it. On the flip side if it’s working great, try and work out exactly what the sweet
spots have been so you can repeat your successes.
Constantly refer to your strategy to assess whether you are meeting your aims and targets or
not. Conducting a formal monthly review is a great way to do this. Done well, PR represents a

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fantastic, cost effective way to ensure your customers are clued up about what you do, and that
you are always broadcasting the most beneficial business image.
PR CAMPAIGN: RESEARCH, SETTING OBJECTIVES, PROGRAMME PLANNING,

BUDGETING, IMPLEMENTATION, FEEDBACK/EVALUATION
THE PUBLIC RELATIONS PROCESS—RACE
Public relations works best when it is a strategic management function. Strategic Public
Relations is focused on achieving goals and objectives that contribute to the overall purpose
and mission of an organization. To be strategic, public relations practitioners need accurate
information about the situations they face, the audiences they communicate with, effectiveness
of their communication efforts, and the overall impact the program has on building and
maintaining relationships with critical stakeholders, without whom the organization could not
fulfill its purpose. Public Relations practitioners may be tempted to start with tactics—such as
press releases, a blog, an event, and so on—but these first should be determined by research,
to help inform the overall goals and strategies of the function, otherwise they may be wasted
efforts.
Constructing the Strategic Plan for a Public Relations Campaign
This process is primarily composed of four steps: using research to define the problem or
situation, developing objectives and strategies that address the situation, implementing the
strategies, and then measuring the results of the public relations efforts. The process always
starts with research and ends with evaluation.
The four steps are essentially the following:
1. Use research to analyze the situation facing the organization and to accurately define the
problem or opportunity in such a way that the public relations efforts can successfully address
the cause of the issue and not just its symptoms.
2. Develop a strategic action plan that addresses the issue that was analyzed in the first step.
This includes having an overall goal, measurable objectives, clearly identified publics, targeted
strategies, and effective tactics.
3. Execute the plan with communication tools and tasks that contribute to reaching the
objectives.
4. Measure whether you were successful in meeting the goals using evaluation tools.
Step 1: Formative Research to Analyze the Situation

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The first step in the process is analyzing the problem or opportunity. This involves research,
either formal or informal, to gather information that best describes what is going on. Research
used to understand the situation and help formulate strategies is called formative research.
For example, a natural gas company may be considering the route for a new pipeline. It must
conduct research to understand what possible obstacles it might face. Are there any
environmentally protected or sensitive regions in the area? Are there strongly organized
neighborhood groups that might oppose the project? What is the overall public support for
natural gas and transportation pipelines? Additionally, are there acceptable alternatives to the
pipeline construction? Alternative routes? Alternative drilling procedures? Alternative
construction times? All of these questions should be considered before the first shovel breaks
ground.
According to Cutlip, Center, and Broom, “Research is the systematic gathering of

information to describe and understand situations and check out assumptions about
publics and public relations consequences”. Much of this information may already exist and
may have been collected by other agencies. Research that has previously been conducted is
called secondary research. Secondary sources are the least expensive way to gain
background knowledge.
However, you may need to conduct primary research or data you collect yourself for your
purposes. You may need to conduct interviews on focus groups. There are many different
methods to collect the data that is needed to fully understand the situation. Analysis of previous
news stories would give you a good idea about the way a story might be framed by media.
Another analysis of blogs and other social media is also a good idea. Again the purpose for
gathering the information is to help with understanding the situation.
Using a SWOT Analysis
A very popular tool for analyzing situations is the SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities,
threats) analysis. This breaks down a situation by looking at the internal and external factors
that might be contributing to the situation before developing strategies. The internal factors are
the Strengths and Weaknesses of the organization. The external factors are
the Opportunities and Threats existing in the organization’s environment.

24
The first step is to look internally at the strengths and weakness of the organization. For
example, the energy company may find that it has very strong relationships with members of the
media, has good employee morale, is financially sound, and has a culture that values
innovation. It may also find that it has weak relationships with environmental groups and
neighborhood associations, has a culture that promotes confidence in its decisions (perhaps
even bordering on arrogance), and has dedicated few resources in the past toward community
relations. This information helps inform the possible strategies it needs to take regarding the
construction of a new pipeline.
The external factors, opportunities and threats, are usually the reasons the organization finds
itself in the situation. In the case of the energy company, it sees an opportunity to drill into a new
methane gas deposit and provide that energy to its clients. To the energy company, this appears
to be a win-win situation because it can continue to provide energy to meet the demand of its
consumers. However, it also needs to assess the possible threats, which include probable legal
actions from opposition groups that could lead to court injunctions. Other threats might include
negative coverage of the project by the media, leading to a damaged reputation and lower
public support for the project.
After conducting the SWOT analysis, you can couple the internal factors with the external
factors to suggest possible strategies.
• SO strategies focus on using organizational strengths to capitalize on the external

opportunities.
• ST strategies also use organizational strengths to counter external threats.
• WO strategies address and improve organizational weaknesses to be better prepared to take

advantage of external opportunities.
• WT strategies attempt to correct organizational weaknesses to defend against external threats.

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Constructing a Situation Analysis
Once enough data and information has been collected so that you really do understand the core
contributing factors and not just the surface conditions, then it is time to write a two-paragraph
statement that summarizes the situation. The first paragraph should redefine the situation using
the data collected by your research. Highlight the insights gained through formal and informal
research. The second paragraph should identify the problems, difficulties, and potential barriers
to resolving the issue. These also should have been identified in the research, and the research
also should help you recommend solutions to these barriers.
From the description paragraphs, a succinct one-sentence problem/opportunity statement is

written that cuts to the core of the situation and identifies the consequences of not dealing with
the problem or opportunity.
Step 2: Strategic Action Planning
The strategic plan should be focused on resolving or capitalizing on the situation identified in the
problem/opportunity statement. It begins by flipping the problem/opportunity statement into a
goal.
Care should be taken not to write goals that suggest that the public will do something you want
them to do. Because publics cannot actually be controlled, it might set up the organization for
failure. Instead, focus should be on what can be done to achieve the goal, such as
communicate and act in such a way that earns the consent or endorsement of these publics.
The goal provides the direction for the strategic plan and objectives provide the direction of
specific and measurable outcomes necessary to meet the goal. A good objective meets the
following criteria: it should be an end and not a means to the end; it should be measurable; it
should have a time frame; and it should identify the public for the intended outcome. Anderson
and Hadley (1999).
• End and not means to an end - An objective should be an outcome that contributes to the
goal. There are three possible outcomes for these objectives: cognitive (awareness,
understanding, remembering), attitudinal (create attitudes, reinforce positive attitudes, and
change negative attitudes), and behavior (create behaviors, reinforce positive behaviors,
change negative behaviors). The opposite of these outcome objectives are what Lindenmann
called “Output Objectives,”Lindenmann (2003) which are the means to an end. They include the
communication efforts to reach the objectives such as placement of messages in influential
media. These are actually strategies and not objectives.
• Measureable - Objectives also help hold public relations professionals accountable for their
efforts. Public relations should engage only in strategies and tactics that actually contribute to
larger organizational goals. Measurable objectives often require a comparative number, such as
65% awareness of a product or program. An objective cannot be set to increase awareness by
20% if the current level of awareness is unknown. This is why formative research is needed to
establish benchmarks. If no such benchmark exists, then it is customary to establish a desired

26
level, such as “increase awareness to 85%.” The problem with this is that you do not know how
close you are to that figure before the campaign. This might be an easy objective to achieve (if
your level of awareness is already at or above 85%) or a very difficult one (if your awareness
level is around 20%).
• Time frame - When will the objective be met? If there is no time frame specified, then it cannot
be accountable.
• Identify the public - It is a good idea to identify overall objectives before tying them to a
public. This helps to think about which publics are connected to the objective. However, to make
an objective truly measurable it must identify a public, because different publics will be at
different levels of awareness, attitudes, and behaviors. For example, the objective may be to
increase attendance at employee benefits meetings. Research may find that the messages are
getting clogged at middle management, which has many people who have a negative attitude
about the meetings and are not encouraging employees. One objective might focus on
increasing the level of awareness of employees while creating another objective focused on
increasing positive attitudes of middle management. Of course, this also means that you should
look into your meetings and find out how to improve them.
The objectives should advance overall business goals such as increase sales, increase share
values, retain employees, improve social responsibility, or reduce litigation. They should also be
written within the parameters of possible public relations outcomes.
However, there are many variables that contribute to increased sales of the product that are not
under the control of public relations such as price, product quality, and availability. Unless the
public relations effort can be isolated to show that it was the variable that moved the needle on
sales (such as positive publicity in one market that showed increases to sales while all other
elements in the marketing mix remained the same), you may be setting yourself up for failure.
And, if sales do increase, you will not be able to take credit for the increase because of the other
important variables. You would have to share credit with marketing, quality control, and sales
representatives. Public relations can contribute to this larger goal through increased awareness,
improved attitudes, and possible consumer trials of the product. Provided that the product is of
high quality, reasonably priced, and available to consumers, these activities should contribute to
increased sales.
Generally there is a hierarchy to the different levels of objectives. Lindenmann identified three
levels of objectives: outputs, outtakes, and outcomes.
Output objectives are focused on the effectiveness of meeting strategies such as the number
of placed messages in the media, the size of the audience that received the message, the
percentage of positive messages that were contained in the stories, and so forth. It is helpful to
measure output objectives because they provide a good indicator of how well the strategy has
been implemented. However, they are not considered objectives as defined in this section
because they are not ends but means to an end.

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Outtake objectives are focused on increasing awareness, understanding, and retention of the
key message points. It is far more important to know that the audience received the message
than whether it was sent out.
Outcome objectives are perhaps the most important, but also the most difficult to achieve. For
example, let’s say the public relations program is for the state highway patrol to increase
awareness of the importance of seatbelt usage and the objective is to decrease the number of
fatalities caused by not using a seatbelt. There is a diffusion process that occurs with adoption
of this behavior. First, drivers need to be aware and understand the safety advantages of
seatbelts. Next, they need to have a positive attitude about wearing seatbelts. Finally, this
positive attitude will hopefully translate to increased use of seatbelts. However, because people
are not always the rational beings we would like them to be, there is a declining measure of
success at each level. People who know what is good for them do not always like it. “But
seatbelts are uncomfortable.” “What if the seatbelt traps me in the car after an accident?”
“Seatbelts wrinkle my clothes.” Even if someone has a positive attitude toward an issue, they
may still not behave congruently with the attitude. It could be out of habit, laziness, or
dysfunction. So to increase behaviors by 30%, attitude needs to increase by a higher level
(50%) and awareness by an even higher level (80%).
Once the goal of the Public Relations program and measurable objectives have been
established, it is time to turn attention to strategies. Strategies provide the means by which
objectives are reached. There are certain elements that should be included in this step. First,
identify what is trying to be accomplished with each public (tie the strategy to an objective).
Second, segment audiences based on common characteristics. Third, create communication
strategies that are focused on the self-interests of the publics. And, fourth, identify how publics
will be reached with messages or actions.
Tie Strategy to Objective
Too often public relations programs have been primarily tactical and have skipped the strategic
step of creating objectives. Public relations professionals are doers and often want to get to the
action first. However, too many tactics have been executed because of tradition (“We always
send out press releases”) than because of strategy. What makes public relations strategic is
having the action tied to the real needs of the organization. If you come up with a really clever
tactic but it does not help meet any objectives it should be seriously reconsidered. Far too many
resources often are wasted on creative tactics and fall short of addressing the needs of the
issue. At the same time, brainstorming on strategies may lead to a legitimate idea that was not
considered during the objectives phase, and it may require reevaluating the objectives. But if a
strategy cannot be tied to an essential outcome, then it should not be executed.
Segment Audiences
All groups within publics should be differentiated based on common characteristics such as
demographics, geographics, or psychographics. Demographics include variables such as
gender, income, level of education, and ethnicity. Females may be connected to the issue very
differently than males. College graduates may have different attitudes than high school

28
graduates. Geographics describe your public by their location. People living within a thousand
feet of a pipeline may have different attitudes toward energy companies than those who live a
mile or farther from those lines. Psychographics segment your audience based on their values
and lifestyles. People who are single, adventurous, drive fast cars, and spend a lot of their
income on entertainment may have very different opinions about seatbelts than people who
have small children, drive minivans, and invest most of their money on securities. It is important
to segment your key publics because it will help you identify their self-interests.
Create Communication Based on Self-Interests
People pay more attention to communications that are tied to their values, needs, and goals.
You should ask yourself what your publics value and care about (based on research). Knowing
the demographic, geographic, and/or psychographic differences of key publics, you can create a
message that connects them to your program. Once the self-interests have been identified, a
primary message can be created that will give direction to the communication efforts. These can
become slogans if they are clever and effective enough.
Choose Communication Channels
The last element in the strategy is identifying the channel or medium through which you can
reach target publics. The channels can be mass media, such as newspapers or television or
radio programming. They can be transmitted by other mediated channels such as e-mail, blogs,
or Twitter. They can also be town hall meetings, mediated slide shows, and face-to-face
(interpersonal) communication. Sometimes the channel is a group of people, usually opinion
leaders, such as teachers, scientists, doctors, or other experts. Usually the target audience is
reached through multiple points of contact to reinforce the message. Often, there are several
strategies for each public and for each objective.
The most creative element in the strategic planning stage is the tactic. Tactics are the specific
communication tools and tasks that are used to execute the strategy. The challenge is to create
tactics that cut through the clutter of all the messages competing for the audience’s attention. A
great deal of brainstorming takes place during this stage to develop the most creative and clever
messages, designs, and activities. However, there is also the temptation to get carried away
with the creativity and lose sight of the tactics’ purposes. A cardinal rule is to always evaluate
your tactics within established strategies and objectives.
BUDGETING IN PR
Nothing goes for free, so also effective PR does not come cheaply. Certainty of programmes
and sellable ideas invariably ease the task of costing campaigns. An adequate budget is
essential to achieving optimal results. The organisation must, therefore, benefit and get
maximum returns from its spending. Whether the PR Unit is given a particular budget to work
with or asked to submit a proposal, a reasonable, reliable and achievable cost should be made.

29
Once the objective of the programme, the audience, message, channels of communication and
activities are identified, it is easier to make a realistic budget. A realistic plan of action must be
presented together with the cost of each activity. Unless a budget was once presented and
succeeded, the need to maintain, increase or decrease it should be related to the financial
position and projects of the organisation.
The major areas of costing in PR include prints and production, exhibition, workshops and
seminars, media briefings and conferences, advertising, transportation, sponsorship,
supplements and media coverage. Most activities can have fixed costs of expenses, including
taxes and services but a mandatory contingency not exceeding 15% of total cost must be added
for any unexpected eventualities. This may be necessary because there is a clear distinction
between direct cost and indirect cost. For instance, a hall booked for an hour for press briefing
may extend to three or more hours, while an entertainment provision for the briefing of a number
of journalists may witness additional attendance of some of them coming with their crews.
A good budgeting plan may address the problems, objective, public, strategy, media, message
and anticipated result. There should also be a time frame for each budgeted activity. But it must
always be known that the budget estimate by an in-house PR department must be slightly
different from that of outside consultants’. This may be so, since in-house practitioners will not
consider such expenses on salaries and equipment, which may be at their disposal.
Sometimes, some programmes are better handled by the in-house or consultation on the
demand of the non-specific aspects of the programme. For instance, while a consultant may
demand for a consultancy fee and hiring of equipment, the in-house may only request for cost of
maintenance of such equipment where available. It is expected that a well equipped in-house
PR Unit must have such facilities as video, photo camera, public address system, TV and Video
Machine for viewing and editing, computer, Tel/Fax, E-mail and other relevant tools. But the
consultants may need to charge for the hiring or the use of such equipment, which may be
additional burden to an ill-equipped PR department.
Consultancy fees vary from one firm to the other, depending on their reputation and size. Their
charges could be based on hourly charges for executive time. Monthly or yearly retainership
could be charged for a programme that runs for a year. Some specific programmes, which are
done on an ad- hoc basis, also attract special fees based purely on the volume of work covered.
Whether it is in-house or consultancy, an acceptable and accountable mechanism should be put

in place to monitor cost-effectiveness of the programme which may allow adjustment for total
success. An intelligent resource should be allocated by the management to implement the PR
advice.
As we know public- relations is a meanapment discipline. It requires a proper budget for the
smooth functing of various activities campaign of PR. Budgeting is an important aspect of
planning. Budgeting is an important aspect. It depended on the priorities.

30
There are generally two type of view about the way to arrive at the budget for PR campaign.
One is need based budget and the other is related to sales turnover or to profits. Narrative
budgeting system in PR.
Benefit shadow pricing is another processing budgeting which assign values of goods and
services that may be not have a market for example someone is asked how much they are
willing to pay for a product( which is not the market) as if it is available in the marketplace. The
assumption is that the individual estimates a price which could be aggregated to represent a fair
market value.
- Cost benefit compensation is the benefit in relation to the cost involved.
Therefore, budget should be broadly allocated for media cost, creative charges, and other
operation charges of the various promotional activities of campaign. This allocation is made for
particular period of time, usually a year.
Even budget should be reviewed time to time and should provide scope for effective control
system on expenditure. Provision for response to sudden change. Though various methods are
followed in establishing the budget, objective of task oriented method is most effective. It is a
realistic, appropriated and approachable.
Step 3: Communication Implementation
The best public relations programs include both communication and action. The old adage
“actions speak louder than words” is as true for public relations as it is for other business
disciplines. Sometimes an organization needs to act, or react, before it can communicate. For
example, if employees are not attending training seminars it might not be enough to try more
creative and persuasive messages. The seminars might need to be more relevant and
interesting for the employees providing something to communicate that might change behaviors.
Organizations should not only expect stakeholders to behave in ways that benefit the
organization; sometimes the organization needs to change its actions and behaviors to improve
these critical relationships.
Two additional components to the public relations process usually are developed during the
communication and action stage: the planning calendar and the budget. Once the tactics have
been determined it is best to plan the development and execution of the tactics using a
calendaring tool such as a Gantt chart.. A Gantt chart is a horizontal flow chart that provides a
graphic illustration of when tasks should begin and end in comparison to all other tasks.
Sample Gantt chart (Numbers within Bars Are Days to Accomplish Task)

31
The costs for developing, distributing, and executing the tactics should also be determined. You
might want to start with the wish list of all tactics and pare them down to those that will provide
the greatest return on investment. Some tactics may fall by the wayside when you project their
costs against their potential of meeting your objectives.
Step 4: Evaluation
According to Paine, four concerns should be addressed when evaluating the effectiveness of a
public relations campaign:
• Define your benchmark.
• Select a measurement tool.
• Analyze data, draw actionable conclusions, and make recommendations.
• Make changes and measure again.
If you have followed the steps in the public relations process then you have already identified
your audiences and established objectives for each. If your objectives are measurable then you
already have the criteria by which to evaluate the success of your program. If you set the
objective of increasing awareness by 40% then a benchmark has been set against which to
measure. The benchmark compares your current situation to your past. Paine also recommends
comparing the data gathered to other organizations, such as key competitors. Comparative
analysis makes the data much more relevant. Instead of knowing how much press coverage


32
has been achieved; it can be compared to how much the competition is getting to determine
what is called share of voice.
Based on this evaluation, the tools that will best help measure against stated criteria are
selected. Generally, the same tools that helped establish the benchmark data are used. If
primary research was used to establish benchmarks then the same methods are repeated to
evaluate success. If you surveyed employees to establish awareness and attitude benchmarks,
then a follow-up survey is the obvious measurement tool. If you used attendance at employee
meetings to establish behavior benchmarks, then counting attendance after the public relations
program is the appropriate measurement tool. As noted previously, primary research is the most
expensive and requires the most expertise, but it is the best measure of the real impact of a
public relations effort on stated outcome objectives, such as changes in awareness, attitudes,
and behavior.
Probably the most popular evaluation tools used in public relations measure the output
objectives. There are several ways to measure the effectiveness of communication output, but
some are better than others. One of the earliest methods was clip counting. A clip is an article,
broadcast story, or online message that mentions the company or product. You can either hire a
clipping service or collect your own clips. At the end of a predetermined period, the number of
clips obtained is examined. This measure is the most simple and convenient way to measure
output and is one way to monitor media coverage. It is also the least informative because you
do not know what the clips mean(they are only counted, not evaluated) except that, perhaps, it
has stroked the egos of some senior management by getting their names in the media.
Many public relations measurement services will analyze media coverage to evaluate the
percentage of articles that contain program key messages, the prominence of the message (for
a press release, whether it was printed on page 1 versus page 16; in a broadcast, how much
time was allocated to the story and where it appears in the program), the tone of the message
(positive, neutral, negative), and how the media efforts compare with key competitors (share of
voice). These organizations provide metrics that help establish benchmarks pertaining to
program output objectives and strategies. However, to know if these communications actually
affected people’s awareness, understanding, attitudes, or behaviors, primary research such as
surveys needs to be conducted.
Evaluation and measurement should not take place only at the end of your efforts. You should
be monitoring the media constantly to determine whether your message is available for people
to see (what advertisers call “reach,” public relations professionals call “opportunities-to-see,” or
OTS). If the media strategy is not working, course corrections in the middle of the program are
required, not after the program has been completed.
Although sophisticated measures of communication output have been developed over the
years, it is still more critical to consider the outtake and outcomes of those messages. Getting
the communication into various channels, be they traditional or new media, is only the means to
the end of affecting attitudes, opinions, and behaviors. The outcomes need to be measured in
order to tie back to organizational goals and purposes.

33
Cost comparisons between public relations and advertising messages are not generally used or
encouraged as an evaluation tool because of the difficulty in measuring the actual impact of
these messages. However, we do know that although public relations and advertising generate
the same amount of product awareness, brand recall, and purchase intention, public relations
content produces higher levels of product knowledge and positive product evaluation than
advertising.Stacks and Michaelson (2009), pp. 1–22.
To measure attitudes and opinions, the most popular tool remains the survey. Public opinion
polls and attitude surveys can be conducted and compared to benchmarks to determine
whether the messages and behaviors of an organization have had the intended effect.
Intentions to behave and preferences for purchasing can also be measured through surveys,
providing some figures on people’s inclinations.
Behaviors can also be measured against benchmarks. Increases in employee retention,

increased donations, and improved sales and investments could all be used to measure
behaviors. Often the connection between communication strategy and behavioral changes
could be due to other variables, so it is important to isolate and track the impact of the public
relations efforts in order to evaluate whether they are the driving force in the change.
Summary
The process by which strategic public relations efforts are accomplished is very structured. It
suggests that formal research be conducted for formative and evaluative purposes. It requires
connecting communication efforts with goals, objectives, and strategies. This process works
best with planned efforts such as public relations campaigns. You may wonder how it fits for
everyday tasks such as responding to a reporter’s inquiry or writing a speech for an employee
meeting. Because these steps are required for strategic public relations, they fit everyday duties
as well. Regardless of the situation, before acting or responding the public relations professional
asks, “What do I know about this situation?” (situational analysis); “What do I want to
accomplish with my messages?” (goals and objectives); “How will I accomplish this with my
messages?” (strategy); and “What will I say?” (tactic). This process should be ingrained if the
public relations professional is to become a strategic communicator.


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1

UNIT IV: [Corporate Communications and PR]

1) Evolution of Corporate Communications

Corporate communication is the practice of developing, cultivating and maintaining a corporate

SCOPE AND DEFINITIONS

NOTES BY MS. DIMPLE ARORA, ASST. PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF

Corporate communication, in other words, can be characterized as a management function that

Corporate communication is a management function that offers a framework for the

One consequence of these characteristics of corporate communication is that it is likely to be

NOTES BY MS. DIMPLE ARORA, ASST. PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF

Is Corporate Communication Important for Enterprises?

Actually, corporate communication is imperative to an enterprises survival in the modern age.

1) Corporate Branding: Branding is imperative to a company as it defines who they are,

2) Building a Reputation: Corporate communication encompasses methods and

3) Building Corporate Identity: Corporate communication is generally acknowledged as

4) Building an Influence: The top management or key business executives play an

NOTES BY MS. DIMPLE ARORA, ASST. PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF

audience of clients, customers and employees. The relationship between upper

5) Supporting the Corporate Communication Team: The in-house corporate

6) Corporate Responsibility: Corporate responsibility refers to a corporation's respect for

7) Crisis Communications: Crisis communications can be referred to as a public

8) Benefits and Beyond: A well-managed, flexible and sustained corporate

Useful Tips for Efficient Corporate Communication

NOTES BY MS. DIMPLE ARORA, ASST. PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF

• Proofread all emails to ensure that you come across as professional.

• Be confident in what you do.

• Keep your social and work life separate.

• Say what you mean. Don't beat around the bush.

• Keep your emails professional. Do not send personal emails.

• Communicate like a professional. This is a corporate business and needs to be treated in a

EVOLUTION OF CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS

NOTES BY MS. DIMPLE ARORA, ASST. PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF

Communication management – any type of communication activity undertaken by an

INTEGRATED COMMUNICATIONUntil the 1980s, marketing and public relations were

NOTES BY MS. DIMPLE ARORA, ASST. PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF

CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS & PUBLIC RELATIONS

P.R. is a practice of identification of policies and procedures of an organization with a public

Difference between public relations and corporate communication

3. Public relations are a planned and sustained programme of communication between an

NOTES BY MS. DIMPLE ARORA, ASST. PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF

6. Public relations crops up in different firms in non-business areas as well. Everyone in an

NOTES BY MS. DIMPLE ARORA, ASST. PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF

8. P.R. is a sustained programme of communication with a number of different audiences. Every

NOTES BY MS. DIMPLE ARORA, ASST. PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF

1. The greatest resource of PR is human installed and creativeness.

2. PR must deal with changes in attitude.

3. It is necessary to probe into the minds of people.

4. Favorable image audits benefit.

5. Promotion of product or services.

6. Goodwill of employees or member.

7. Overcoming misconception and prejudices.

10. Goodwill of Government.

11. Goodwill of the rest of the industry.

12. Goodwill of dealers and attraction of their dealers.

13. Ability to attract the best personal.

14. Education of the public point of view.

15. Investigation of the attitudes of various groups towards a company.

16. Goodwill of customers or supporters.

17. Formulation and guidance of polices.

19. Directing the course of change.

While the objective of corporate P.R. is a specialized policy such as:-

I. Basic premises common to public and private sector.

NOTES BY MS. DIMPLE ARORA, ASST. PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF