Public Relations

What is PR?
It is a concept which has evolved over the last two decades
in India and is here to stay. It is an important part of the
marketing mix and used widely in public and private
enterprises, corporations, government, NGO’s and so on.
 Public Relations is all about publicity. Publicity is defined as any
information usually printed, which brings to a person, place or thing to
the attention of the public. In short, Public Relations means bringing to
the attention of a defined target audiences a specific message by
means, other than paid advertising.

Paid advertising is the process of telling people about a product or

service through announcements in the media- newspapers,
magazines, radio, television, neon signs, hoardings and so on. The
advertiser pays for space or airtime. People are absolutely clear that
the information they are exposed to in this way, is an advertisement.
They may or may not believe it.
Public Relations on the other hand, may cost money but is
not obtained through the overt exchange of funds for a
message by a medium.

PR costs nothing except the fees paid to the agency or

consultancy to come up with and execute ideas or a
publicity programme.

PR is about reputation – the result of what you say, what

you do and what others say about you.

PR aims to earn understanding and support, influence

opinion and behaviour.
Public Relations is a dynamic business communication tool
which can transform the performance of any company, be it
a one-man band or a multinational.

The most widely accepted and popular definition of PR is

from the Institute of Public Relations (IPR), which defines
Public Relations as, “the planned and sustained effort to
establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding
between an organisation and its publics.”
Reasons for Growth of Public Relations:

The growing popularity of the PR as a profession can be

attributed to several reasons:
Growth in corporates :
Businesses are growing bigger today. Big corporates are in the forefront. Thus arise
many complexities. With it comes, the need to tackle several problems, manage
reputation and effective communication, managing target audiences at all levels including
employees. The need for PR thus arises.

Internal communication:
Regular communication with employees is important today. In fact is a must. Keeping
employees informed, abreast of what is happening in an organisation is important in
order to keep them motivated, give them a sense of belonging and consequently
ensuring greater productivity. This is a need fulfilled by PR.

Globalisation:
Globalisation is a process of integration and unification of the world into one giant
market. Globalisation is often used to refer to economic globalization, that is, integration
of national economies into the international economy through trade, foreign direct
investment, capital flows, migration, and the spread of technology. To achieve this,
communication and Public Relations plays a vital part.

Growth of media:
With the burgeoning growth of media in the last decade or so, the number of tools or
mediums available to express or communicate has increased tenfold. Public Relations
thus finds effective means to communicate through the growth of new media.
Benefits & Scope of Public Relations:
No matter how good you are, if you don’t communicate with your target audiences, you
will lose out to competitors who are using public relations more aggressively and
effectively to ensure communication.
Every organisation can benefit from PR. If you don’t manage the information by which
people form their opinions, their views of your company will be based solely on what they
hear from other sources.
You cannot quantify what you lose if you don’t use PR, but companies which use it can
see the benefits.
Quite simply, PR can help in building a positive image and thus helps to minimise
damage when something goes wrong.
It helps to manage the information by which people form their opinions.
There can be no quicker way of reaching your target audience than through PR.
PR helps to maintain communications with your most important business audiences.
It is cost-effective and credible.
Please remember, PR takes time. It is not an overnight process. It is an on-going
endeavour.
The scope of PR today is far - reaching and encompasses several industries and
sectors. Social and religious leaders, politicians, entrepreneurs, industrialists are all
closely associated with the PR process at some point or the other.