Conclusion

Getting the right messages to the right people at the right time is still the essence of success. However, it should be pointed out that the greatest public relations strategy in the world can only succeed if the senior management of the company are doing their jobs well and recognize the important role that communications has to play in any public company.

Financial public and corporate relations people, however successful, should keep in mind at all times that they are only part of the communications process. Like comedians who long to play Hamlet, we need to be aware that most of us have a talent to communicate and amuse, but that does not necessarily qualify us to run the whole operation.

A ‘good’ public relations campaign is one that is effective, not necessarily one that gets noticed. Financial public relations may require more discipline and more technical knowledge than most aspects of communication activity: it also needs to be every bit as creative as the most sophisticated consumer public relations.

A checklist

A new company flotation requires a different financial public relations campaign to a company’s presentation of results or a new stock market listing. However, there are a number of key points that need to have been addressed before embarking on any campaign.

• Do you know what are the objectives of the campaign and what is the preferred timescale for achieving these objectives? Do these objectives fit with the long-term strategy for the organization?

• Have you clearly identified the key strengths that are going to be the core of the campaign message?

• Have you identified the weaknesses of the organization and its management, and developed a communications plan for dealing with them when they arise?

• Have you identified who will be the principal spokesperson ensured that they are properly prepared and media trained, and decided who will support them in presenting the case?

• Is your campaign coordinated with all the other public relations and marketing activity being carried out by the organization?

• Have you a clear timetable of events, checked that it fits in with the rest of the company’s financial calendar and with all Stock Exchange rules and regulations?

• How are you going to measure your success?

(Anne Gregory. Public Relations in Practice. – Kogan Page, 2001. – P. 67-86)

Exercises

1. Discuss the following questions.

1. Why is financial public relations industry growing in size?

2. How can the scope of financial public relations be defined at its most basic?

3. What is the basic task of financial public relations?

4. Why should companies be very focused about the messages with their results which are put out?

5. Why are corporate and financial public relations associated with Siamese twins?

6. What contribution does financial public relations make to the success of a company?

7. What are the rules that govern financial public relations?

8. Why has financial public relations become a major industry?

9. What is the place of investor relations in the public relations industry?

10. Why is consistency of the message so important in financial public relations?

11. Why is it difficult to be truly open in financial public relations?

12. How does financial public relations fit in with other areas of public relations?

13. Which is more helpful in the area of financial public relations – an in-house PR expert or a consultancy PR adviser?

14. What role did financial public relations play in Vickers’ winning the contract for the Bristol Army’s new main battle tank?

15. In what way is financial public relations different from other aspects of communication activity?

1. Say what the following refer to in the text of the article under the headlines:

How do you define financial public relations?

… their … (para 1, line 2)