PR defined

Rex Harlow, a pioneer PR educator, defines

PR as:
• Good performance, publicly appreciated
• PR stands for Performance and the Recognition
• Doing good and getting credit for it

British Institute of Public Opinion

Public Relations is the deliberate, planned and
sustained effort to establish and maintain
mutual understanding between an
organization and its publics.
 PR defined
The Public Relations Society of America
(PRSA):
"Public relations helps an organization and its
publics adapt mutually to each other." According
to the PRSA, the essential functions of public
relations include research, planning,
communications dialogue and evaluation.

Edward Louis Bernays, considered the founding

father of modern public relations, defined public
relations as a management function which
tabulates public attitudes, defines the policies,
procedures and interests of an organization. . .
followed by executing a program of action to earn
 PR defined
Equtsche Public Relations Gesellschaft of the
Federal Republic of Germany
Public Relations is the conscious and legitimate
effort to achieve understanding and the
establishment and maintenance of trust among
the public on the basis of systematic research.

Dansk Public Relations Klub of Denmark

• Public Relations is the sustained and systematic
managerial effort through which private and
public organizations seek to establish
understanding, sympathy and support in those
public circles with which they have or expect to
obtain contact.
 PR
• PR is a set of management,
supervisory, and technical functions
that foster an organization's ability to
strategically listen to, appreciate, and
respond to those persons whose
mutually beneficial relationships with
the organization are necessary if it is to
achieve its missions and values.
 PR

• Essentially it is a management function

that focuses on two-way communication
and fostering of mutually beneficial
relationships between an organization
and its publics.

• Building and managing relationships

with those who influence an organization
or individual’s important audiences has a
central role in doing public relations.
 PR
• Public relations is the practice of managing
the flow of information between an
organization and its publics.

• Public relations gains an organization or

individual exposure to their audiences using
topics of publics interest and news items that
do not require direct payment.
 Key Words
Deliberate: PR activity is intentional. It is intended
to influence, gain understanding, provide information
and obtain feedback.
Planned: It is organized. It is systematic; requiring
research and analysis.
Performance: Effective PR is based on actual policies
and performance. No amount of PR will generate
goodwill and support if the organization is
unresponsive to community concerns.
Public Interest: PR activity should be mutually
beneficial to the organization and the public. It is the
alignment of the organization’s self-interests with the
public’s concerns and interests.
Two-way communication: effective PR is two way
communication, listening and giving feedback to the
publics.
Importance of public relations

• PR places exposure in credible third-party outlets,

thus offering a third-party legitimacy not found in
advertising .
• Common activities include speaking at
conferences, working with the press, and
employee communication.
• PR can be used to build rapport with employees,
customers, investors, voters, or the general public.
• Almost any organization that has a stake in how it
is portrayed in the public arena employs some
level of public relations. A number of specialties
exist within the field of public relations, such as
Analyst Relations, media relations, investor
relations, or labour relations.
 Importance of public relations
• The main goal of a public relations department is
to enhance a company’s reputation. PR staff are
skilled publicists who present a company or
individual to the world in the best light. The role
of a PR dept is a reputation protector.
• The business world of today is extremely
competitive. Companies need to have an edge
that makes them stand out from the crowd,
makes them more appealing and interesting to
both the public and the media. The public are the
buyers of the product and the media are
responsible for selling it.
• Public relations provide a service for the company
by helping to give the public and the media a
better understanding of how the company works.
 Importance of public relations
• In a company, PR is also customer relations. The dept
assists customers if they have any problems with the
company. PR thus exists to show the company at their best.
• PR also helps the company to achieve its full potential.
They provide feedback to the company from the public.
This usually takes the form of research regarding what
areas the public is most happy and unhappy with.
• People often have the perception of PR as a group of
people who spin everything. Spin can mean to turn around
a bad situation to the company’s advantage. The purpose
of PR is to show the company in a positive light no matter
what.
 Skills necessary to work in PR
• A high level of communication skills, written and verbal.
• Good at multitasking and time management.
• Some form of media background or training is important
in order to understand how the media and advertising
work.
• Organizational and planning skills are also important in
PR.
• The PR worker must also be able to cope very well under
pressure. He or she must have the ability to cope with a
barrage of questions from the media and the public.
• If a company comes under critical attack, it is the PR
dept who must take control of the situation. They must
effectively answer the criticism and turn it around in
order to protect the company’s reputation.
• A PR worker usually has some form of relevant college
qualification. Competition for jobs in PR is fierce. The
hours are long and can be stressful.
 Key Tools for PR Practitioners
• Press releases
• Press briefings/ conferences
• Site, press and VIP visits
• Photography
• Editorial coverage
• Hospitality events
• Adverts
• Features
• Interviews
•
Key Tools for PR Practitioners
•Surveys and results of market research
•Corporate literature and publications
•Newsletters
•Annual reports
•Open days
•Web sites
•Published surveys and reports based on
consumer, medical or scientific research
• Competitions
 PR PROCESS
• Establishing a PR program on behalf of a business
or industry, or a professional group, involves the
following 7 steps:
• 1. Analysis of the situation
• 2. Definition of problem areas
• 3. Identification of pertinent publics
• 4. Establishment of specific objectives
• 5. Planning of program
• 6. Implementation of program
• 7. Periodic evaluations of progress
 SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS
• Broad study of all aspects of the business that
affect the publics, starting with people in the
business or industry awareness of pr situation: eg
– board members,
– appropriate committee chairman and members, and so
on) who appear to have.
• people outside the business but able to observe it
more closely than the average layman eg:
– editors of trade publications,
– government officials concerned with the regulations of
the business or profession
 SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS
• approach the public for more views thru:
– opinion or attitude research study,
– market research, conducted by a recognized
research firm.
• Aim: To provide a profile of the business as
it appears in the public mind.
 PROBLEM DEFINITION
• From interviews and research activities.
• They may reveal some interesting parallels, or
differences
• May indicate cause & effect r\ships. The public &
industry players may have misconceptions
• In such an event, correction of industry thinking
will be called for.
• PR is involved in changing the attitudes of the
client & of certain publics.
• Sometimes PR changes the attitude of his client or
employer.
 PROBLEM DEFINITION
• In todays climate, the role of PR practitioner is
enlarging.
• PR should be capable of observing and analyzing
the social, economic, and political trends
• This helps management or clients become aware
of their significance to the institution they
represent.
• Through such expanded awareness, the staff or
clients come to view their business or institution in
a new and different perspective.
 PUBLICS IDENTIFICATION
• A public is a group of people bound together by a
specialized interest eg:
– Students are a public in a college
– Employees in the steel mill may constitute one of the
publics of a steel industry
– dairy farmers are a special public of the association
representing milk processing industry;
– automobile dealers a public of the association
representing automobile manufacturers,etc
PUBLICS IDENTIFICATION
• Customers of a particular business always
are a primary public; for a professional
society, individual members are.
• Association’s members should not be
overlooked in any PR effort; their
understanding and support are necessary.
 ESTABLISHING OBJECTIVES
• Once the problem areas are defined, objectives
should be established, usually outlined in terms of
the respective publics involved.
• General objectives are drawn with perspective in
order to serve as guides over the long range.
• If drawn only in respect to immediate, short term
problems, they don’t provide continuity of direction,
may need revision constantly.
• Any PR program must be flexible; modifiable as
time and circumstances require.
• If drawn with sufficient perspective, small
 ESTABLISHING OBJECTIVES
• short-range objectives are developed from time to
time.
• In addition, if sound communications networks
have been developed to obtain long-range
objectives, these networks will facilitate the
solution of passing and temporary problems.
• But common sense demands a long-range plan
with specific objectives against which results may
be measured.
 PROGRAM PLANNING
• Involves spelling out in detail activities and
communications to be employed to the key publics
that have been pinpointed in the objectives.
• Eg if a hospital finds it has lost standing in the
public mind because a good number of patients are
dissatisfied with services.
• The hospital identifies, as one of its publics, health
workers who are responsible for service delivery.
 PROGRAM PLANNING
• The objective here is to mobilise internal support
so that all units of the hospital can play a role in
dealing with the identified problem.
• This way, staff may provide information on the
methods by which high quality service may be
provided to patients.
• The program plan will outline the activities to be
directed toward gaining the support of staff for this
mutually beneficial purpose.
 PROGRAM PLANNING
• It may, e.g. call for review of policies that promote
better interaction with outsiders, esp patients.
• Further, the plan may call:
– for a series of meetings between management and staff
to review progress made;
– for special articles to be prepared for in house
publications that are circulated among the staff;
– for paid advertisements in industry publications,
addressed to residents;
– conduct of special training for staff on customer care;
– all these measures are designed to improve performance
 IMPLEMENTING THE
PROGRAM
• This stage involves carrying out the steps.
• It calls primarily for hard work by the PR staff.
• The implementation of PR program always
requires active participation of people outside PR.
• Occasionally, you may have to recruit staff who are
working in the organization, though not in PR
office, to assist in PR efforts.
• Carrying out the program can involve a wide range
of functions, always guided by the long-range plan
and the organization’s policies.
 PERIODIC EVALUATION
• Periodic evaluations of progress are necessary.
• Such evaluations should be made on a continuing
basis, preferably by PR staff.
• Progress reports should also be made regularly to
the membership, interested committees and board.
• Evaluate contribution of the campaign using the
most commonly used measures of PR effectiveness.
• All PR activity should add value.
• For several decades, the quote “Any publicity is
good publicity” worked for PR.
• This is no longer the case
 Methods, tools and tactics
• PR and publicity are not synonymous but many PR
campaigns include provisions for publicity. Publicity is
the spreading of information to gain public awareness
for a product, person, service, cause or organization,
and can be seen as a result of effective PR planning.
Publics targeting/ audiences
• A fundamental technique used in PR is to identify the
target audience, and to tailor messages to appeal to
it.
• It can be a general/ nationwide/ worldwide audience,
but it is more often a segment of a population.
• In addition to audiences, there are usually
stakeholders, people who have a "stake" in a given
issue. All audiences are stakeholders but not all
stakeholders are audiences.
 Methods
• Sometimes the interests of differing audiences
and stakeholders common to a PR effort
necessitate the creation of several distinct but
still complementary messages. This is not
always easy to do, and sometimes – especially
in politics – a spokesperson or client says
something to one audience that angers another
audience or group of stakeholders.
Lobby groups
• Lobby groups are established to influence
government policy, corporate policy, or public
opinion.
• Such groups represent a particular interest and
are dedicated to doing so.
 Methods
Spin
• In public relations, "spin" is sometimes a derogatory
term signifying a heavily biased portrayal in one's
own favour of an event or situation.
• PR relies on creative presentation of facts.
However, “spin" often, though not always, implies
deceptive and/or highly manipulative tactics.
• The techniques of "spin"s include selectively
presenting facts and quotes that support one's
position phrasing in a way that assumes unproven
truths, drawing attention away from distasteful
items, and ambiguity in public statements.
• Another spin technique involves careful choice of
timing in the release of certain news so it can take
advantage of prominent events in the news.
 Spin doctor
• Skilled practitioners of spin are sometimes
called "spin doctors”.
• State-run media in many countries also engage
in spin by selectively allowing news stories that
are favorable to the government while
censoring anything that could be considered
critical.
• They may also use propaganda to indoctrinate
or actively influence citizens' opinions. Privately
run media also uses the same techniques of
'issue' versus 'non-issue' to spin its particular
political viewpoints.
 Meet and Greet
• Organizations use a Meet and Greet as a
method of introducing two or more parties to
each other in a comfortable setting.
• It involves incentives, usually food, to
encourage employees or members to
participate.
The talk show circuit.
• A PR person "does the circuit" by being
interviewed on television and radio talk shows
with audiences that the client wishes to reach.
 Others
• Books and other writings
• After a PR practitioner has been working in the field for
a while, he or she accumulates a list of contacts in the
media and elsewhere in the public affairs sphere.
• Direct communication (carrying messages directly to
constituents, rather than through the mass media) with,
e.g., newsletters – in print and e-letters.
• Collateral literature, traditionally in print and now
predominantly as web sites.
• Speeches to constituent groups and professional
organizations; receptions; seminars, and other events;
personal appearances.
• A DESK VISIT is where the PR person literally takes their
product to the desk of the journalist in order to show
them what they are promoting.
 Front groups
• One of the most controversial practices in PR is the
use of front groups —organizations that purport to
serve a public cause while actually serving the
interests of a client whose sponsorship may be
obscured or concealed.
• Coal mining corporations have created
environmental groups that contend that increased
CO2 emissions and global warming will contribute to
plant growth and will be beneficial. Trade groups for
bars have created and funded citizens' groups to
attack anti-alcohol groups.
Conveying the message
• The method of communication can be as important
as a message. Direct mail, advertising and public
speaking are used depending upon the intended
audience and the message that is conveyed.