1.2.1. Publicity and Public Relations

Public relations, or PR, is the component of marketing communications that is uniquely suited to fostering goodwill between a company and its various publics. PR efforts are aimed primarily at consumers, employees, suppliers, stockholders, governments, the general public, labor groups, and citizen action groups.

When effectively integrated with advertising, personal selling, sales promotions, and sponsorships, public relations is capable of accomplishing objectives other than goodwill. It can also increase brand awareness, build favorable attitudes toward a company and its products, and encourage purchase behavior.

Public Relations Activities and Functions

Public relations entails a variety of specific functions and activities, of which the following are most important: advice and counsel, publications, publicity, relations with various publics, corporate image advertising, and matters of public opinion.

Advice and Counsel. Public relations input is required in any decision that has significant implications for any of an organization’s publics. For example, a decision to construct a new manufacturing facility in a geographic area where wildlife may be disturbed would require PR advice and counsel to determine how best to deal with environmentalists and other concerned citizens groups.

Publications. Public relations personnel prepare a variety of publications: newsletters for employees, pamphlets and brochures for stockholders, reports for governmental agencies on matters involving corporate interests, and so on.

Publicity. The public relations department serves as the prime source of an organization’s contact with the news media. News releases and press conferences are two of the most important avenues for corporate publicity. Publicity activities take two extreme forms:

1) disseminating positive publicity (e.g. news about product innovations and announcements of corporate philanthropic activities), or

2) dealing with negative publicity during periods of corporate crisis (such as the situations with Audi of America and the Suzuki Samurai).

Relations with Various Publics. Public relations personnel deal with various publics in matters involving company decisions, policies, or impending actions that have ramifications for these publics. Dealing with employees in matters of plant closings, with stockholders during times of financial exigency (such as a takeover crisis), with environmentalists during periods of ecological conflict (such as the massive Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska), and with governments in matters of public policy are some of the major forms of public relations.

Corporate Image Advertising. This form of advertising is often the work of the public relations department in coordination with the organization’s advertising department.

Public Opinion. Public relations departments work closely with marketing research departments on matters involving public opinion. Because public opinion is often volatile, it is important that PR departments spot emerging trends that have relevance for corporate policies and actions.

Miscellaneous. Public relations departments are sometimes responsible for handling speaker’s bureaus, corporate donations, scholarships and awards programs, and other specialized programs.

Specific Forms of Public Relations

It is very important now to make some finer distinctions so that the marketing communications aspects of public relations are brought into sharper focus and distinguished from more general PR activities.

As just described, PR involves relations with all of an organization’s relevant publics: employees, stockholders, governments, and so on. Most PR activities do not involve marketing per se but rather deal with general management concerns. This more encompassing aspect of public relations can be called general PR. Interactions with employees, stockholders, labor groups, citizen action groups, and suppliers are typically part of a company’s general, non-marketing public relation.

This chapter only deals with the narrow aspect of public relations involving an organization’s interactions with consumers or with other publics (such as governments) regarding marketing matters (like product safety). The marketing-oriented aspect of public relations is called marketing PR, or MPR for short.

Marketing PR can be further delineated as involving either proactive or reactive public relations. Proactive MPR is dictated by a company’s marketing objectives. It is offensively rather than defensively oriented and opportunity seeking rather than problem solving. Proactive MPR is another tool in addition to advertising, sales promotion, and personal selling for promoting a company’s products and services.

Reactive MPR, by comparison, describes the conduct of public relations in response to outside influences. It is undertaken as a result of external pressures and challenges brought by competitive actions, shifts in consumer attitudes, changes in government policy, or other external influences. Reactive MPR typically deals with changes that have negative consequences for the organization. Reactive MPR attempts to repair a company’s reputation, prevent market erosion, and regain lost sales.