Functions of PR

1. Facilitates Company’s Overall Operations: PR fosters prestige and

reputation which can help companies to sell products, attract and keep good
employees, and promote favorable community and government relations.
2. Aids Promotion:
Public relations can help in promotion of products. Awareness and interest in
products and companies can be generated. Desire to buy a product is helped
by unobtrusive things that people read and see in the press. People
increasingly understand that media has its own interests to serve but still
they are more likely to believe the story on a product appearing in the media
than the claims made by the company in its ad.
3. Helps in Tackling Social and Environmental Issues
• Public relations helps in handling social and environmental issues and
ensures that they are settled to the mutual benefit of all parties involved.
If the company has a good record of fulfilling its societal obligations and
safeguarding the environment, its occasional breach will be looked at with
benevolence and the organization will be allowed to mend its ways
amicably by government bodies and pressure groups.
• The company will be spared the damages that would have befallen on it if
the pressure groups had been stridently opposed to it. The company gets
the benefit of doubt in tricky and messy situations and survives to live
another day because of its impeccable public conduct in the past.
4. Ensures that Customers Are Treated Well
• The company realizes that customers are habitual storytellers. If a customer is not treated well by a
company he will spread the story far and wide. And if he perceives that the company has gone out of its
way to be of help to him, he will be equally profuse in its praise. The need to maintain good public
relations  ensures that customers are presented with useful information, are treated well and have their
complaints dealt with fairly and speedily.
5. Helps in Attracting and Retaining Talented Employees
• Public relations creates and maintains respectability in the eyes of public so that best people are
attracted to work for the company. It promotes the sense of identification and satisfaction of employees
with their company. Talented employees will stay in an organization only if they are proud of belonging
to the organization.
• An employee will not feel proud of his organization if stories of the organization’s sordid deeds and its
shoddy behavior are out in the open. But when the public respects his organization he feels good to be
a part of it. Activities such as internal newsletters, recreation activities and awards for service and
achievement can be used.
6. Stakeholders Give It Benefit of Doubt
• Public relations helps in managing misconceptions about a company so that
unfounded opinions do not damage its operations. If the company has a good
reputation, the public gives the benefit of doubt to the company till the facts are
verified, and the truth is out. This period when the public suspends its judgement
about the company till the truth is out has become important these days as the
media is likely to keep the company embroiled in some controversy or the other.
• It is debatable if the companies’ misdeeds have increased but they are definitely
being reported more now, due to the proliferation of media and its constant
search for controversies to keep the public interested. In such times, a company’s
credibility among its stakeholders con be a strong deterrent to media fetish for
stirring controversies.
7. Develops Reputation as a Good Supplier and Customer
• Public relations helps in building a reputation as a good customer for its suppliers and
a reliable supplier for its distributors and customers. Customers and suppliers are likely
to believe that a  company with good reputation with other stakeholders will also keep
its commitments to them. With increasing globalization of business, getting favorable
international media coverage has become imperative for attracting customers and
suppliers from across the world.
• When distances between a company and its suppliers and customers increases what
appears in the media about the company becomes a very important criteria in the
decision of the suppliers and customers to consider doing business with the company.
Detailed evaluations obviously follow but a company with a bad media coverage gets
blocked out right in the beginning of the customers’ and suppliers’ evaluation process.
• 8. Politicians and Public Officials are Favorably Inclined
• Public relations influences the opinions of public officials and politicians so that they feel that a company
operates in public interest. With companies looking at establishing designing, manufacturing, and
marketing facilities globally, perception of the host government about the company has become a very
important factor in its success as a global player. A government is likely to expedite the entry of a company
in its country if it has a good reputation of becoming a good local citizen rather than if it is known for rabid
profiteering.
9. Responds Effectively to Negative Publicity
• A company that understands the need to maintain good public relationship with its stakeholders will
respond quickly, accurately and effectively to negative publicity. It understands that negative publicity can
overwhelm a business sooner than bad products and services and will put all its resources in setting the
record straight. It will not wait for the negative publicity to die down on its own.
• It knows that stories in the media will cease to appear after some time but people will have formed
negative opinions and their interaction with the company will reflect the opinion formed. A sawy company
will counter negative publicity vigorously and will not rest till public confidence in the company is restored.
The functions of public relations manager and
public relations agencies include:
• Anticipating, analysing, and interpreting the public opinion and attitudes
of the public towards the brand and drafting strategies which use free or
earned media to influence them.
• Drafting strategies to support brand’s every campaign and new move
through editorial content.
• Writing and distributing press releases.
• Speech writing.
• Planning and executing special public outreach and media relations
events.
• Writing content for the web (internal and external websites).
• Developing a crisis public relations strategy.
• Handling the social media presence of the brand and responding to public
reviews on social media websites.
• Counselling the employees of the organization with regard to policies,
course of action, organization’s responsibility and their responsibility.
• Dealing with government and legislative agencies on behalf of the
organization.
• Dealing with public groups and other organizations with regard to social
and other policies of the organization and legislations of the government.
• Handling investor relations.