IMC_1 Public Relations (PR)

PUBLIC RELATION

“Public Relations is defined as helping an organization and its publics adapt mutually to each other.”

Public relations is a planned and sustained activity to help an institution create a social climate favorable for its growth. It is based on the fundamental belief that the survival of any enterprise, public or private depends today on the sensitive response to changes in public opinion.

The International Public Relations Association defines public relations as “Public relations is the art and social science of analyzing trends, predicting their consequences, counseling organisation leaders and implementing planned programmes of action which will serve both the organization’s and the public interest.”

Public relation is a two way process. On the one hand it seeks to interpret an organization to society while on the other it keeps the organization informed about the expectation of the society. Fundamentally public relation is a means by which an organization improves its operating environment.


ROLE OF PUBLIC RELATIONS
Public relations people have the role of being always in the middle – pivoted between their clients/employers and their publics. They must be attuned to the thinking and needs of the organizations they serve or they cannot serve well. They must be attuned to the dynamics and needs of the publics so they can interpret publics to the clients, as well as interpret the clients to the publics.


WHO NEEDS PUBLIC RELATIONS?
The diverse institutions and individuals requiring professional Public Relations go beyond the more traditionally defined corporate world. Who are they? And Who are the “Publics” of Public Relations?

Following are the main “publics” of Public Relations:

A College or University: A public relations expert needs to defuse those crisis situations where student bodies could be in revolt over demands, where there is a change in educational policy, where something could be wrong with the examination papers or simply when, in interaction with State and Central Governments, grants have to be sought or when a college organizes intercollegiate festivals.

Case: public relations for college festivals like Kshitij – Mithibai college, Brouhaha of sidnam college, Drishti of Narsee Monjee college.

A Newspaper: Some of the better newspapers have Public Relations Staff quite separate from the advertising department or the marketing people.

A Non-Profit Body: From the point of view of the organisation, whether it is Rotary, UNICEF, the Institute of Cerebral Palsy, the Red Cross, or any number of charitable and cultural and social service organizations, a Public Relations cell is an integral part of the institution. It has to interact with a number of bodies for its very existence, for the support of its causes, for mis-understandings that can crop-up as, at every stage it is public money at stake.

An Individual: An aspirant to a political post needs it, so does a person standing for president-ship of a chamber of commerce. So does an actor, a producer or a gallery owner, or a non-resident who is seeking to make a mark in the Indian business circle.

A Cause: The problems exist – AIDS, drugs, population explosion and other environment concerns, slums, poverty of every sort, child abuse, women’s rights on abortion and property and marriage laws, the handicapped, uneducated – and the champions and doers for these causes are only in thousands, not in millions. If PR agencies unite and pool in their resources they can help in tackling such problems.


CORPORATE BODIES:

Corporate organizations constitute bulk of recognized Public relations activity involving numerous publics.

• Employee Interaction:

The most important “public” of Public Relations activity in a corporation is the employee. He is vital in a more crucial way than people imagine. The employee could be viewed as a decision-maker, someone who cannot merely be a target for communication but who would also be dictating the direction in which the company moves. Which means that the Public Relations Practitioners cannot be mere purveyors of information, but have to ensure an involvement and participation of and direction from employees. Employee aspirations have soared as a result of which a PR expert has to remember some basic tenets. He has to ensure the least amount of secrecy and holding back of information. He has to cater to many strata of employees, he has to convey the company’s plans, ideas, projects and vision, and also ensuring better communications during a crisis. Effective Public Relations begins at home!

• Shareholder Interface:

A shareholder relation is a key aspect of corporate Public Relations. Shareholders, particularly those who have stayed with a company for many years because they value their investment in it, deserve more than just the statutory annual report, interim report or ‘not well’ shareholders visits to the company which turn out to be a mere picnic. A well-treated shareholder can do a lot for the company’s image in terms of his feedback to his peer group. For, armed with his detailed knowledge of the company’s financial status, twinned with the kind of “treatment” the company the metes out to him in terms of goodies like shareholders meets and gifts and information, he can be a better ambassador of the company than the organisation could ever imagine. Also now there are new investor associations, which are championing the rights of shareholders. This is an issue companies need to be aware of so that their interaction can extend beyond shareholders to these associations.

Example: Balrampur Chini
The “Stretch” philosophy of Balrampur Chini Mills, is yet another inspiring example of public relations. Stretch is the philosophy of the company, their baseline and also the attitude that reflects everything they do, according to their Managing Director Vivek Saraogi. It is used as the title of their annual reports; it is also a pocket-sized document that is sent out to a few thousand people encapsulating anecdotes that have compiled with great sensitivity. These anecdotes embody the Stretch philosophy, as you would apply it to everything from uncompromising integrity to stretch as a boon, as an education. It has inspired the depressed individual as well as the corporate chief alike.

The annual report for they year 2000-01 gives an overview of the sugar industry and the role of Balrampur. In the new scenario of progressive de-regulation, the future of the industry in the international context and then goes into the Measurement of Value, the requirements of Corporate Governance, analytical reports and a focus on Community Development. The 68-page report leaves no stone unturned, giving an invaluable picture without actually doing any pictorial spreads.


Consumer Consciousness: Where public relations comes in, when marketing products is concerned, is in revealing the character of the company that is behind a product. It could be summed up as the reassurance factor beyond brand image. Llew von Essen in his Handbook of Public relations quotes, “Public Relations Techniques can be effectively used to put the company’s side of picture across; to explain marketer’s problems, talk about product complexity, review market conditions and pressures, show how good companies are in combating these pressures and above all highlight how the consumer benefits from product improvement, research and keen competition.

Dealer Dealings: Most of the companies, especially those with large dealer networks, have no integrated approach to communicate or formulate a corporate personality in the minds of the dealers. However, a handful of companies have through their Public Relations efforts, instituted even such things as financial funds for dealers that have served them well when they have they have required sums of money for, say, a wedding in the family or a crisis arising out of an accident.

• Media Monitoring:

The area, which occupies considerable amounts of time for any Public Relations department is the relationship with the media. To many people, this is probably the only function of a public relations person. To the Chief executive, this is the area, which is likely to create the greatest problems. To the public relations expert, this is what brings in the best opportunities to communicate the product-policy-plan conundrum of the company through well-mustered plans. To the journalist or the television producer, it is sometimes a reactive situation of reviving unsolicited plugs, but also one, which could provide material for analysis, projection of industrial progress and background for potentially explosive stories.

• Government Goodwill:

When public relations was in its infancy, the strongest focus, and perhaps the need of the day, was lobbying with the powers that be. Today, the needs of the company to interact with the policy makers, not just through their government liaison departments, but also through their public relations managers who are expected to be able to study the complete picture and present not just a case for license but a total image package.