Pratim

Hari Nandu
(46136657)

PUBLIC REALTIONS

Thursday 11:00 am Workshop

Total Number of Words:

1995
 INTRODUCTION
“Public relations” refers to describing efforts put in for promoting the organisation and company’s
image and reputation in front of their customers and society. They also help building as well as
sustaining good relationship between an organisation and their stakeholders. Stakeholders consist
of customers, employees, neighbours, governments, competitors, media houses and society in
general. Public relations can often me misunderstood with advertising which often promotes
products, brands and the oraginisation through paid communication in the media. But that’s not
what public relations is, public relations use written materials, sponsorships, good deeds,
giveaways and other creative ways to create a positive publicity and goodwill for the organisation.
Public relations is also used as a part of crisis management to fight against negative publicity. One
of the main aims of public relations is to
inform the public, their prospective
customers, partners, employees, investors
and other main stakeholders to maintain a
positive view about the organisation, it’s
leadership, it’s products and political
decision. To have success in the field on PR,
one really needs to have a deep understanding
of the interest and concerns of all of the
company’s stakeholders. A public relations
professional should be well aware of how to address the required concerns with effective and
powerful tool of public relations trade. A Public Relation professional acts as the front face of an
organisation usually determining its own objectives. Main contribution of Public Relations is to
influence the media and maintain a healthy and pro relationship with stakeholders.
According to Dr. Jacquie L’Etang from Queen Margaret University, public relation professionals
can be viewed as "discourse workers specializing in communication and the presentation of
argument and employing rhetorical strategies to achieve managerial aims."
 THEORY IN PRACTICE
STRENGTHS WEAKNESS
1. Influence 1. No Direct Control
2. Reach 2. No Guaranteed Results
3. Cost-Effectiveness 3. Evaluation

RELEVANCES OF PUBLIC RELATIONS

1. Educating the People to a point of view: One of the Public Relation’s main aims is to
educate the public. Public relations can educate the people about anything that directly or
indirectly affects them. Higher education, a particular topic, may be important about the
contents of the product not directly from the product. Thus, when Lipton’s Company
introduced ‘Dalda’ brand Vanaspati in India, people took to it as camel ghee because of its
yellow colour and were hesitant to consume. It could be talking about housing, sanitation,
hygiene, civic awareness etc. Any point which they have is given to public relations of
which correct image. It may concern kids, adults, elderly people whose stuff is thrashed
and inseminated.

2. Forestalling Attacks, Oppositions and Politics: Rumours are very easy to spread. In
today’s competitive marketing environment, marketers can go to extreme cases to make
sure their company and product stays in the game, game of making profits. And to compete
against their rival brands sometimes rumours are spread which can either affect favorably
or unfavorably depending on the luck and fortune of the company, loss of one is a win for
another. Similar was the with the two biggest Cola company in the market. Two companies,
Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola have been the biggest rivals from many years, and spend
millions of dollars annually just to make a brand image of their product being safe and
better than any other rivals.

3. Image creation and Building: Today’s market situation is really vast, there are multiple
substitutes of every product, surviving in such a competitive market itself is really difficult
task, but not only that Public Relations also involves building the image of their own, which
will be the mirror of the company towards general public and society. And this image once
made will stick with the company and product for a really long time. At times famous
 celebrities and sportsperson are also endorsed with the brand so that the customers and
society can relate to the goodwill of these ambassadors and judge the product they are
endorsed to. Minute points like market share of company, their relations with employers,
timeliness of delivery also give public an image of opinion.

4. Helps creating and maintaining Reputations and Status: Public Relations being a
strongest and the most powerful tool of a company, also acts as a face of the company, so
a good Public Relations helps establishing and maintaining a reputation and status of the
company and the product amongst the consumers and society.

LIMITATIONS OF PUBLIC RELATIONS

1. Lack of Control Over Message Release: Public Relations often uses the same style, print,
digital and broadcasting media outlet every time they advertise about their company and
product, such kind of advertising in the markets have no kind of direct control over the
delivery of the message and often message can be misinterpreted which might work in the
favour the company.
2. Lack of Control Over Message Content: When Public Relations transmits the necessary
information to a particular media member i.e. a reporter, the message can be edited and
recrafted according to the reporter to fit in according to his particular content and story,
which at time ends into a completely different message and not what was planned.
3. May Be Higher Cost Than Other Methods: While a Public Relations campaign has the
potential to yield a high return on promotional expenses, it can also have the opposite effect
(e.g., only few will attend a company-paid spokesperson presentation).
4. Message May Not Appear at All : When dealing with Media, at times the content that
should be aired or mentioned about your product and company can get replaced because of
a more critical breaking news like a terrorist attacks or some act of god like earthquakes
and tsunamis.
5. Special Skills May be Needed to Do Public Relations Effectively: Promotion and public
relations are two different set of skill sets, often mistaken as the same. A proper marketer
knows and understands the importance of a professional Public Relations and knows which
task is handled by him, like media skills and engaging with the public, society and
customers.
 POSITIVE IMPACTS OF PUBLIC RELATIONS

1. Lyft x Stranger Things (from Netflix):

Stranger Things being one of the biggest “Netflix” show had a really good response in United
States, so when Season 2 was released, the trailer really took the internet and was everywhere in
the news, this is when “Lyft” an American carpooling company which tied up with “Netflix” to
give their customers an unique riding experience as well as building the hype for the premier.
Customers got a chance to experience what it actually felt like they were stuck in the Upside Down,
in Hawkins, Indiana just like the tv show. According to one of the articles, the ride-sharing service
included of flickering of lights, radio making a static, malfunction with seats and locks, Driver
vomiting a slug like creature from his mouth.

The goal achieved through carrying out this campaign was:

• To give a unique riding experience to LYFT customers
• To promote the new “Netflix” series, and make sure consumers are aware of the release of
the series.
 2. Star Wars: Passing the Box-Office Baton to the Avengers:

Avengers: Infinity War when released broke many records

and one of them were of largest opening weekend ever by
grossing more than $250 million. Before Avengers:
Infinity War, Star Wars: The Force Awakens held the
record, but after seeing the Marvel Studios break the
record, the studio which created Star Wars, LucasFilm,
was not at all bitter about it, instead they were proud of
their friends at Marvel Studios and as a token of
appreciation sent a heart-warming tweet of
congratulations. Earlier “Star Wars got the torch from
“Jurassic World” by going ahead from the latter, when
Star Wars beat the Jurassic Parks’ most awaited sequel

which earned $208.80 million on their

opening weekend. Then it was the
producer Frank Marshall, who handed the
torch to LucasFilm.
The goal achieved through carrying out
this campaign was:
• To show the goodwill of the
company, showing they
appreciate the efforts put in by

“Marvel Studios”.
• Earn respect of the movie lovers everywhere, not only their own fandom, but also targeting
“Marvel Studios” fandom.
• Just this small post on social media, led the company to achieve a lot of media coverage
across multiple countries.
 NEGATIVE IMPACTS OF PUBLIC RELATIONS

1. KFC helps a Competitor:

2009, was really bad year for KFC. KFC decided launch a
new scheme in which a consumer can visit “oprah.com”
where they could download a coupon for their new meal
for the next 24 hours. Everything seemed to be perfect, but
Oprah Winfrey on her daytime talk show advertised about
these coupons, causing a widespread coupon awareness
which lead to massive amounts of consumers heading to
KFC outlets across the nation. The problem that KFC
faced was that they did not anticipate these many number
of people to show up trying to use these coupons and soon they realised they couldn’t keep up with
the demand and would actually lose a lot of money because of the promotion. To not lose so much
money, KFC decided to stop honoring the coupons, which caused the KFCs competitor to
announce that customer can get those KFC coupons to them, and they’ll honour the coupons with
equivalent meals.
The reason why this content did not hold well in the marketplace were:
• The company didn’t plan well, and should have been prepared for even the worst outcome.
• Once the disaster was made, they should have stuck to their word, but instead they
discarded the coupon.
• One of the biggest loss was when their competitors used the coupons for their benefits, and
“KFC” lost their loyal customers to their competitor.
 2. McDonald’s Gaffe of Olympic Proportions:

McDonalds in the year of

1984 came up with a new
scheme for The Olympics
Games. They distributed
scratch-off tickets which
had name of every Olympic
Event in which America
had participated. Well the
offer was that if an
American in the event printed on the coupon wins any medal, then they’d win free food. This
Public Relations stunt as to boost up the business with minimal risk, as the U.S.A hadn’t won any
medal in the previous Olympic because of the boycott. Unfortunately, in 1984 Olympics games
biggest competitors of U.S.A – USSR, Germany and North Korea decided to stay absent as the
protest from competing. Since there was no major competition for U.S.A, athletes brought home
174 medals causing a loss of millions of dollars in free food.
The reason why this content did not hold well in the marketplace were:
• The company didn’t narrow down all the possible errors or else they would have never
faced such a terrible loss.
• The Public Relations team should have done their research well in advance, because if they
had done that, they could have predicted abstention from the Olympics by the biggest
competitor in the USA.
• Company decided to distribute free food, at least if they made the offer in such a way that
customers had to buy at least some amount, then the losses would have been lower.
 CONCLUSION
CONCEPTS TO BE APPLIED BY PUBLIC RELATION MANAGERS

1. Reputation Management: One of the main functions on Public Relations is to maintain

the company’s reputation among the costumers and society. It involves planning and
implementation of different policies, procedures and strategies to demonstrate the image
of an oraginisation to public.
2. Relationship Management: In this the role of Public Relations is to identify the key target
and setting out strategies to build and maintain a mutually beneficial relationship between
company and public.
3. Risk Management: In this the role of Public Relations is to prevent the organisation and
company from any possible hazard and recommending in necessary precautions which
should be taken to overcome potential hazard.
4. Strategic Management: The Public Relations practitioners acts as a counsellor and leader
to the management team in helping the organisation and company to develop certain
policies for the betterment of both public and company’s interest.
 REFERENCES

1. “What you need to Get a Job in Public Relations after College – After College”. 5 March
2014. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
2. L’Etang, Jacquie (2 September 2004). Public Relations in Britain: A History of
Professional Practice in the Twentieth Century. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-4106-
1081-1. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
3. Your Article Library. 2020. 7 Advantages Of Public-Relation (PR). [online] Available at:
<http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/marketing/public-relations/7-advantages-of-public-
relation-pr/49166>
4. Migrator. (2019, January 17). Advantages and disadvantages of public relations. Retrieved
from https://www.nibusinessinfo.co.uk/content/advantages-and-disadvantages-public-
relations
5. Advantages and Disadvantages of Public Relations. (2016). Retrieved May 11, 2020, from
https://www.knowthis.com/public-relations/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-public-
relations/
6. Abbott, E. (2018, July 16). 'Strange Mode': Netflix And Lyft Team Up to Deliver
Immersive 'Stranger Things' Experience. Retrieved from
https://www.business2community.com/social-buzz/strange-mode-netflix-lyft-team-
deliver-immersive-stranger-things-experience-01943697
7. Taylor-Reynolds, J. (2017, August 4). Top 10 Most Elaborate PR Stunts (That Were
Complete Fails). Retrieved from https://www.businesspundit.com/pr-stunts-fails/