promotion - public relations
Introduction
The Institute of Public Relations defines public relations as follows:
“The planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics”
What is meant by the term “publics” in the above definition?
A business may have many “publics” with which it needs to maintain good relations and build goodwill. For example, consider the relevant “publics” for a publicly-quoted business engaged in medical research:
• Employees
• Shareholders
• Trade unions
• Members of the “general public”
• Customers (past and present)
• Pressure groups
• The medical profession
• Charities funding medical research
• Professional research bodies and policy-forming organisations
• The media
• Government and politicians
The role of public relations is to:
• Identify the relevant publics
• Influence the opinions of those publics by:
o Reinforcing favourable opinions
o Transforming perhaps neutral opinions into positive ones
o Changing or neutralising hostile opinions
Public relations techniques
There are many techniques available to influence public opinion, some of
which are more appropriate in certain circumstances than others:
Consumer communication
Customer press releases
Trade press releases
Promotional videos
Consumer exhibitions
Competitions and prizes
Product launch events
Celebrity endorsements
Web sites
Business communication
Corporate identity design
Company and product videos
Direct mailings
Web site
Trade exhibitions
Internal / employee communication
In-house newsletters and magazines
Intranet
Notice boards
Employee conferences
Email
External corporate communication
Company literature (brochures, videos etc.)
Community involvement programmes
Trade, local, national and international media relations
Financial communication
Financial media relations
Annual report and accounts
Meetings with stock market analysts, fund managers etc
Shareholder meetings (including the annual general meeting
Given the wide range of techniques used in public relations, how is it possible to measure the effectiveness of public relations?
It is actually quite difficult to measure whether the key messages have been communicated to the target public. In any event, this could be quite costly since it would involve a large amount of regular research. Instead, the main measures of effectiveness concentrate on the process of public relations, and include:
• Monitoring the amount of media coverage obtained (press cuttings agencies play a role in keeping businesses informed of this)
• Measuring attendance at meetings, conferences
• Measuring the number of enquiries or orders received in response to specific public relations efforts.
© Tutor2u Limited All Rights Reserved. All materials published on www.tutor2u.net are protected by copyright and may not be reproduced in part or in whole, for whatever reason, without the prior written permission of tutor2u. The use of tutor2u content for commercial gain of any kind is strictly forbidden. We reserve the right to take legal action against any party or parties found to have breached our copyright. Damages and other remedies are available to us in respect of copyright infringements. About tutor2u tutor2u is a leading publisher of e-learning resources for Economics, Business, Politics and related subjects. Our materials are used by over 3,500 schools and colleges in the UK and in educational institutions in over 85 other countries. tutor2u was named Online Learning Resource of the Year at the prestigious BETT Show - the World's leading educational show. |
Privacy & terms of Use |
Contact us |
Teacher Newsletters & Subject Blogs |
