Lecture 6Public RelationsPage 1
Notes are taken from
i)Marketing Communication, Blythe J (chapter 6), (1999), Prentice Hall
ii) Principles of Marketing, Kotler P et al (chapter 19), 1996, Prentice Hall &
iii) The MacDonald's libel suit - this used Internet Technology by the defendants. The website makes fascinating reading of a public relations campaign that went wrong. Read for yourself at
6. Introduction to Public Relations.
6.1 Introduction.
Public Relations is about creating a favourable images of a company in the consumers' mind by direct representation the the press and television media. A key distinction is that the message is not paid for directly, as is the case for normal advertising; rather the PR staff are often ex-journalists who use their contacts in the various media to place Press Reports and thereby solicit a news item favourable to the company.
The Institute of Public Relations (1984) has defined PR as:
the planned and sustained effort to establish, maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics: customers, employees, stakeholders, trade bodies, suppliers, Government officials, and society in general.
6.2Public relations and its purpose.
The Public Relations departent is the organisation's public face to the Government and Press. They rarely initiate advertising campaigns to promote specific brands or products. Rather, they organise press conferences, manage staff training workshops, run jamboree events like Christmas parties, handle complaints from customers and set the internal organisational attitudes towards the customer: all so that the organisation is perceived in a positive way.
This is achieved by (i) word of mouth, (ii) press, (iii) TV and (iv) personal recommendation.
Good PR is more effective than advertising for the following reasons:
press coverage is free so that means the promotional budget is better used
the message is more credible 'because it is in the newspaper' (of course it depends on what type of newspaper.
the chance of the message being read is greater since people buy newspapers to read articles and so tend to skip advertisements.
Like Maslow's hierarchy of needs for individuals, organisations too have needs. Pearson (1980) has identified these on five levels (LAMSO):
No / Organisational / Requirements / Typical PR activity5 / Leadership / Having a respected position in the companies chosen field: customer satisfaction, employee involvement, industry leadership in technology or a mix of these. / Corporate image building activitie, customer care, publicity about new products, sponsorship of research in universities and the arts.
4 / Acceptability / Approval by external stakeholders, government, customers, suppliers, society in general. / External PR, shareholder reports, lobbying of government departments and MPs, EU, events for suppliers and customers, favourable press releases.
3 / Morale / Employee job satisfaction / Staff newsletters, morale-boosting activities.
2 / Survival / Cash flow, profits, share performance, customers. / Publicity aimed at customers; events publicising the firm and its products.
1 / Output / Money, machines, manpower, materials. / Staff programmes to attract the right people.
While useful as a concept it is not so useful as a practical guide. Each situation is different. What is true is that PR should not be regarded solely as a publicity device.
Yes, a product may need promotion and PR is involved; but there are also promotion-free times when PR is necessary. If the government were to propose a 70% VAT levy on blank video tapes to cover costs of illegal copying of films, the PR department of the various video tape manufacturing companies would wish to lobby the government with reasons why this would be a bad idea.
Clearly they would be arguing out of self interest, so they would try very hard to identify those objective reasons why the government should not carry out its plan. In this sense the PR department is promoting the defence of a company product rather than the direct sale of a specific product. It is also carrying out this defence, in all probability, in as discreet a manner as possible.
Taking this further, into the long term and the strategic areas of business, we have what is termed 'relationship marketing'.
Public relations departments use many different tools:
Press relations -Placing newsworthy information in the news media to attract attention to a person, product or service.
Product publicity -Publicising specific products.
Corporate communications -Creating internal and external communications to promote understanding of the firm or institution.
Lobbying -Dealing with legislators and government officials to promote or defeat legislation and regulation.
Counselling -Advising management about public issues and company positions and image.
Public relations can have a strong impact on public awareness at a much lower cost than (paid-for) advertising. The company does not have to pay for the space or time in thee media. Rather, it pays for a staff to develop and circulate information and to manage events. If the company develops an interesting story, it could be picked up by different media, having the same effect as advertising that would cost a lot more money. And it would have more credibility than advertising.
Despite its potential strengths, public relations, like sales promotion, is often described as marketing's stepchild because of its limited and scattered use. Public relations units are normally at headquarters. Its staff is usually busy dealing with various publics:- stockholders, employees, legislators, regulators - that public relations programmes to support marketing often get ignored. Marketing managers and public relations practitioners do not always talk the same language. On the one hand public relations people see their job as communicating the best side of the company. On the other hand, marketing managerstend to be much more interested in how public relations and advertising affect the sales figures.
This schism is however being closed. many companies are setting up special units to suppport corporate and product promotion and image making directly. Many companies hire marketing public relations firms to handle their PR programmes or to assist the the company public relations team. In one survey of marketing managers, three quarters reported that their companies use marketing public relations. They found it particularly effective in building brand awareness and knowledge for both new and and established products. In several cases, it proved more cost effective than advertising. (Tom Duncan, A Study of How Manufacturers and Srvices Companies Perceive and Use Marketing Public Relations (Muncie,IN: Ball State University, 1985)
6.3The more important public relations tools.
6.3.1 News
PR professionals find or create favourable news about the company and its products or people. Sometimes news stories occur naturally. At other times, the PR person can suggest events or activities that would create news.
6.3.2Speeches
Speeches create product and and company publicity. Increasingly, company executives must field questions from the media or give talks at trade associations or sales meetings. These events can either build or hurt the company's image.
6.3.3Special Events
These range from news conferences, press tours, grand openings and firework shows to laser shows, hot air balloon releases, multimedia presentations, and star-studded spectaculars that will reach and interest target publics.
6.3.4Written materials
These materials include annual reports, brochures, articles and company newsletters and magazines.
6.3.5Audiovisual materials.
Companies increasingly use films, videos, slide shows, audio-cassettes for communication and PR purposes.
6.3.6Corporate-identity materials
Logos, stationery, brochures, signs, business forms, business cards, buildings, uniforms and even company cars and trucks make effective marketing tools when they are attractive, distinctive and memorable.
6.3.7Public service activities.
These include activities that might improve public goodwill to the company. These include fundraising for worthy causes (e.g. to fight illiteracy, support the work of a charity or help the aged) which if carried out effectively will help to raise public recognition.
6.3.8 Sponsorship
This is any vehicle through which a company gains public relations exposure. In Europe, the sponsorship industry is growing, with many firms committing huge sums to of money around the world into the sponsorship of sport and the arts because it makes good sense as a marketing tool.
6.4Main public relations decisions
In considering when and how to use productpublic relations, management should set PR objectives; choose the PR messages and vehicles; implement the PR plan; and evaluate the results.
6.4.1Setting public relations objectives
The first task is to set objectives for public relations. These are usually defined in relation to the types of news story to be communicated, the communication objectives to be achieved (for instance, awareness creation, knowledge dissemination, generation of specific publicity for target groups) and the specific target audiences.
6.4.2 Choosing public relations messages and vehicles.
The organisation next finds stories to tell about the product. Suppose a well known company wants more public recognition. It will search for possible stories: Do company staff have unusual backgrounds? Is the firm contributing to unusual community projects? Have any socially beneficial products been launched by the company? Usually this search will uncover hundreds of stories that can be fed to the press. The chosen stories should reflect the image sought by the company.
If there are not enough stories, the company should sponsor newsworthy events. Here the organisation news rather than finds it. Ideas might include hosting major conventions, inviting well known celebrities and holding press conferences. Each event creates many stories for many different audiences.
Creating events is particularly important in publicising fund raising activities for non-profit organisations. Fund raisers have developed a large number of special events such as art exhibitions, auctions, benefit evenings book sales, contests, dances,dinners, fairs, fashion shows, marathons and walkathons.
6.4.3Implementing the public relations plans.
Implementing public relations requires care. Take, for example, the placing of stories in the media. A great story is easy to place, but, unfortunately, most stories are not earth shattering and would not get past busy editors. Thus one of the main assets of public relations people is their personal relationships with media editors. In fact, PR professionals are former journalists who know many media editors and know what they want. They view media editors as a market to be satisfied so that editors will continue to use their stories
6.4.5Evaluating public relations results.
Public relations results are difficult to measure because PR is used with other promotion tools and its impact is often indirect. If PR is used before other tools come into play, its contribution is easier to evaluate.
The easiest measure of publicity effectiveness is the number of exposures in the media. Public relations peoplee give the client a 'clippings book' showing all the media that carried news about the product or service and a summary such as the following:
Media coverage included 3,500 column inches of news and photographs in 350 publications with a combined circulation of 79.4 million; 2,500 minutes of air time on 290 radio stations and an estimated audience of 65million; and 660 minutes of air time on 160 television stations with an estimated audience of 91million.
The summary would also give an indication of the cost of the time and space had they been purchased at current advertising rates.
This exposure measure is not very satisfying, however. It does not tell how many people actually read or heard the message, nor what they thought afterwards. In addition, because the media overlap in readership and viewership, it does not give information of the net audience reached.
A better measure is the change in product awareness, knowledge and attitude resulting from the publicity campaign. Assessing the change requires measuring the before and after levels of these awareness levels of these measures. Finally, sales and profit impact, if obtainable, is the best measure of public relations effort. If advertising and sales promotion had also been stepped up during thee period of the PR campaign, their contribution has to be considered.
6.5Summary
Public relations is about gaining favourable publicity and creating a favourable company image. It is the least used of the main promotion tools, although it has great potential for building awareness and preference. Public relations involves setting the PR objectives, choosing PR messages and vehicles, implementing the PR plan and evaluating PR results. Public relations must co-ordinate with the other elements in the promotion mix.
However, things can go wrong things can go wrong things can go wrong things can go wrong. PR cannot eliminate censure, only try to minimise it. There are PR disasters and they can tell us as much about PR as the notes above. Consider three examples:
1The furore over Monsanto's promotion of genetically modified food backfired. People have needs and wants - they also have suspicions and fears. People began to realise that if they eat genetically modified food then they themselves might become genetically modified. This has occurred during a Europe wide ban on beef and the associated mad cow disease.
2The censure over Microsofts alleged monopolist activities in pc operating systems. People are grateful for well performing computer systems, but when they see Microsoft kill off a rival before their eyes they begin to wonder how many other innovations in computing have been killed off at birth by Microsoft. In the recent federal case DoJ(+twentystates)vMicrosoft, Judge Jackson ruled Microsoft were monopolist and might have to be broken up into two: an operating systems company and an application package company. This will open up the market to competition and cheap prices should result.
3The hamburger company, McDonalds tried to suppress criticism of its policies - such as selling a food product which was unsuitable for children yet marketing it to children. Its practice was to threaten critics with a charge of libel and take them to court if they did not sign a disclaimer. Unfortunately they pushed some north London activists too far. Two of them decided to defend themselves in court. Being poor and the times being the middle 1990s the defendants used the web to log what was going on at the trial on a daily basis. The website (www. mcspotlight.org) soon attracted attention and support. Media editors thought it would make a fine ‘David and Goliath’ story. McDonalds policy of suppressing free speech started to back fire against it.
The PR people at McDonalds could not kill off this site since the web is a free frontier promoting free speech. They would have been wiser to dip out of their court case at an earlier stage, rather than carry on 'hurting the little man'. Corporate culture is not loved (this was written as the WTO riots were taking place in Seattle (1999) and Euston, London.).
You should follow this up by reading the website. Some examples from the website are attached. They will help you appreciate that much marketing is biased towards putting the company in a good light and does not necessarily do what is good for people. Great wisdom is needed in discerning the true messages being broadcast around the media.
You are urged to be wise, and not gullible.
Notes are taken from sources at the top of page 1 Brian Morris