Public Relations in Marketing

Anyone who corrected the spelling of a statement or wrote a report with the intuition of a reporter played the role of an editor. If he just composed a letter or an email, then he wrote. If he expressed his ideas in a written communication, then he initiated a relation degree, evolving gradually to a permanent connection with the language and will have a strong desire of communicating efficiently and effectively ideas to people.

If you consider yourself as an interactive person in the human networking field, it means that you perform a task of Public Relations.

Al Rise and Laura Rise made some statements in their book The Fall of Advertising and Rise of PR, which are far from praising the advertising industry. The authors say that advertising is heading towards a new period of decline in the favor of PR. But not all public relations professionals agree with Rise, as some of them say that The Fall of Advertising and Rise of PR is a generalization that exacerbates the role of public relations in brand communication, raising a conflict between advertising and PR that does not actually exists. Here are some of the main targets and mechanisms of the PR.

Public Relations

The PR activity is usually handled by an agency from the outside of the company; it is prepared to undertake efforts to build a strong positive public image and to handle any possible event that could affect the company's image. Besides the main clues involved in creating a public image and its constituents, we can identify 6 primary objectives for PR:

- Promoting the goodwill. There is a building function of the image of public relations. The events from industry and community activities that are reflected favorable by a company are highlighted properly.

- Promoting a product or service. Press releases and media events that increase the number of those who know about the company actions can be enhanced by PR. The large companies communicate press releases every time whenever new products are salable.

- Preparing the internal communication. Spreading information and correcting the actions of misinformation in a company can reduce the rumors impact and can increase the employees support. For events that involve the work force reduction or companies merging, the internal communication can help to dismiss the rumors that circulate among the employees of the company or the local community

- Fighting against negative advertising. This is a function of control the PR failure. The negative events aren't hidden, but it is tried the prevention of negative advertising for the public image of a company.

- Lobbies organization. The PR can help a company in negotiating with government representatives. For example, the brewing industry has lobbying organizers that monitor the legislation and analyze the laws that could restrict the advertising of beer and wine.

- Providing advice. The managers' teams help the company representatives to take decisions regarding the positions that should be taken for the public, they prepare the employees and anticipate the public reactions- all these are part of the function of providing advice.

There are several ways in which a company can use positively the PR and can convince by using the methods listed above. The aim is to gain as much control over the market. A firm may integrate its efforts with other PR marketing communications by using the following methods:

- Press releases. A file or information that represents a good news topic can offer to the company the change to take advantage of the free space in the press.

Press releases bring benefits to the company, as they offer the possibility of to create positive publicity through the media. Here are some ideas for a good system of public relations: new products, new scientific discoveries, new staff, new features, innovative practices on the corporation, such as energy saving programs and benefits for employees, annual meetings of the representatives, charitable services for community.

The only risk of press releases is that the company has no certainty that the subject will appear in the press. Also, the news can have different meanings, which could distort the original message.

- Stories. A company can't write a story or an article for a newspaper and it can't create a story for television, but it can invite the reporters to make an exclusive story about the event considered as being important by the company. Such a story brings advantages to the company much more than a press release, as it can be controlled easier.

- Letters of information. Internal publications, such as letters of information, can spread positive information about the company among its employees. The letters of information can be distributed to important members of the community, as government officials, Chamber of Commerce or Tourist Bureau. The distributors are often glad when they read about an important client, so the information letters can be sent to this group.

- Interviews and press conferences. Interviews and press conferences can highlight the usefulness of PR. Often, interviews and press conferences are permitted in cases of crisis, but companies have often successful press conferences, by announcing scientific discoveries, or explaining details of the company's expansion.

- Press conferences are important and credible because they use the mass media channels to present information regarding the company.

- Sponsored events. Sponsored events were considered an important form of PR. A company can involve in community events through sponsorships. Raising funds for various nonprofit organizations gives a positive image to the companies.

- Advertising. The advertising is the free exposure in the media of the company's activities, products and services. A major advantage of the publicity, if the information is positive, is its credibility. Non-profit organizations often use advertising in the form of stories and information to gain the public interest.

Once the PR ways are known, they must be put into practice. Since building the reputation and the relation with various communities is in fact the essence of the PR activity, it still remains the question: How can be measured the efficiency?

The efficiency of PR campaigns is a hot topic in the world of public relations, no matter if you're a developer or a consumer of this type of activity. There are unanimously accepted the following affirmations in this type of activity.

- The value of a brand includes its reputation;

- A company is worth in the eyes of investors differently from the strict accounting details;

- The trust, the relation of an organization with the environment where it develops its activity, is essential.

A first step in achieving an accurate assessment is the establishment of goals and the relation between the tools used and their targets. Compared to them, there can be reached a first control key. At this moment, in practice, it is the most common form of assessment. Therefore, once the details are analyzed by the PR agencies, there must be defined the main points.

To develop the strategy and integrate the elements is also necessary to use specific market studies. In parallel, the evaluation studies if the tendencies and benchmarks are also useful as a tool to measure and coordinate the general market situation and competitors. Finally, it is reached a complex audit of the communication process and of the perception on organization.

Analysts and practitioners claim that this tool is essential: the complex research before and after the campaign. At the same time they reject the application of the methods of measuring PR activity by assimilating it with other activities in the field of communication.

References:

The Rise, Laura Rise, The Fall of Advertising and The Rise of PR, Harper Collins Publishing, 1999

Sergio Zyman, Armin brott -The end of advertising as we know it, Publisher John Wiley & Sons, 2002

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