Introduction to public relation

Public Relations (PR) is the way organisations, companies and individuals communicate with the public and media. A PR specialist communicates with the target audience directly or indirectly through media with an aim to create and maintain a positive image and create a strong relationship with the audience. Examples include press releases, newsletters, public appearances, etc. as well as utilisation of the World Wide Web.

The world of business is characterised by fierce competition and in order to win new customers and retain the existing ones, the firms have to distinguish themselves from the competition. But they also need to create and maintain a positive public image. A PR specialist or firm helps them both create and maintain a good reputation among both the media and the customers by communicating in their behalf and presenting their products, services and the overall operation in the best light possible. A positive public image helps create a strong relationship with the customers which in turn increase the sales. PR aims at creating favourable image of the organisation. Still in the business circles sometimes there appear to be confusion. The main reason for this lack of understanding PR can be traced in the history of private sector in India. Apart from the government and governmental organisations, where PR has thrived as the legacy of British raj, the private sector has not justified its role in the marking the proper role of PR.

DEFINiTIONS

According to institute of public relations , USA:-

Public relations are the deliberate , planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain mutual understanding between an organisation and its public.

According to Edward l. Bernays:-

Public relations is the attempt by information persuasion and adjustment to engineer public support for an activity , cause, movement or institution.

Common PR Tools and Techniques

In order to build a relationship with the target audience and maintain it on a high level, PR specialists use a variety of tools and techniques. Some of the most common ones include:

Attendance at public events. In order to attract public attention and keep it engaged with a particular organisation or an individual, PR specialists take an advantage of every public event and the opportunity to speak publicly. This enables them to directly reach the public attending the event and indirectly, a much larger audience.

Press releases. Information that is communicated as a part of the regular TV or/and radio programme, newspapers, magazines and other types of mainstream media achieves a much bigger impact than advertisements. This is due to the fact that most people consider such information more trustworthy and meaningful than paid adds. Press release is therefore one of the oldest and most effective PR tools.

Newsletters. Sending newsletters relevant information about the organisation or/and its products/services - directly to the target audience is also a common method to create and maintain a strong relationship with the public. Newsletters are also a common marketing strategy but PR specialists use it to share news and general information that may be of interest to the target audience rather than merely promoting products/services.

Blogging. To reach the online audience, PR specialists use the digital forms of press releases and newsletters but they also use a variety of other tools such as blogging and recently, microblogging.
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It allows them to create and maintain a relationship with the target audience as well as establish a two-way communication.

Social media marketing. Like its name suggests, it is used primarily by the marketing industry. Social media networks, however, are also utilised by a growing number of PR specialists to establish a direct communication with the public, consumers, investors and other target groups.

Some other tools of pr. o o o o o o o o Advertising Radio / TV Films/ slides Exhibitions/trade fairs House journal Sponsorship Event management Plant tour.

IMPORTANCE OF PUBLIC RELATION

Evalutes public attitudes

Formation of policies & procedures

Enhances community relations

Helps in influencing public

Co-ordination and communication of programs

Developing goodwill

Generating annual reports

Managing government affairs

Managing crisis situation

Improvement of internal staff relations

Public relations in different sectors

In todays modern and fast world of service industries, where Indian GDP is 54.1% contributed by service sector and which is gaining lots of importance. To understands the public realtion in services and its functioning as a tool for management. According to two American PR professionals scott m. Cutlips and Allen H. center, PR is a planned effort to influence opinion through good character and responsible performance based upon mutual satisfactory two way communication.

Role of public relation manager in different sectors

Sectors 1. Government organization i. ii. iii. policy. Roles Implementation of public Assisting the news media in govt activities. Mobilization of support increasing the agencys sensitivity to its public.

Sectors 2. NGOs i. ii.

Roles To engage heavily in relationship building.

iii.

To enhance social capital. To distribute knowledge the society. about their activities among

3. Education centers

ii. iii.

i.

To maintain internal peace. To solve dispute of the students.

To maintain good relations. To maintain customer employee relations. To solve internal disputes. To look after customer satisfaction. To manage the public relations activity. coverage. To generate quality media ensuring effective and positive brand rebuilding. enforcement and image

4. Banks

i. ii.

iii. 5. MNCS

i. ii. iii.

PUBLIC RELATION ACTIVITIES

The various stages of the public relations process involve combinations of a variety of activities

Advertising Preparation, purchase and placement of purposefully planned and executed messages in selected media to further the interest of an organization or person. Persuasive material that is presented to the public as the acknowledged appeal of an identified party who has paid to have it appear. Corporate Philanthropy Recognition of corporate obligations and responsibilities to communities by making monetary and other contributions to charitable organizations.

Corporate Sponsorship Providing support to an event or a cause by devoting corporate resources in exchange for an opportunity to enhance good will, product image and sales. Development Fundraising activities and membership drives designed to influence an organizations relationships with various publics.

 External Communications Controlled and uncontrolled messages disseminated in the mass media as well as other communications media, including pamphlets, brochures, nonbroadcast videos, speeches, etc.

Internal Communications Planned messages disseminated to employees through a variety of communications channels, including newsletters, bulletin boards, payroll stuffers, posters, etc. Lobbying Direct attempts to influence legislative and regulatory decisions in government. In Canada, there are two tiers of lobbyists. According to the Lobbyists Registration Act, Tier I is for an individual (government relations consultant, lawyer, accountant, etc.) who, for pay, provides certain types of lobbying services on behalf of a client. Tier II includes employees whose jobs involve a significant amount of lobbying for their employers.

Promotion Using techniques such as events, promos, ads and stunts to create and stimulate interest in a person, product, organization or cause. Publicity General: Information about an organization, person, issue or cause published or broadcast in the news media because of its value or relevance/importance to the community or the media outlets audiences. Public Relations: Dissemination of purposefully planned and executed messages to selected media to further the interest of an organization or person without specific payment to media.

Public Relations Research The term public relations research does not describe specific types of research methodology such as content analysis, public opinion polls or readership surveys. Instead, the term refers to any type of research that yields data for use in planning and evaluating public relations efforts. Four basic categories of public relations research activities are most common: environmental monitoring, public relations audits, communication audits and social audits. Public relations research can be formal or informal, primary or secondary, qualitative or quantitative, etc. Special Event Management The use of a project, program, action or happening, generally involving public
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participation, to meet overall organizational goals. Special events often are designed to obtain publicity or other exposure.

CORPORATE PR
Corporate PR can have many different platforms including internal and external functions. Internal functions of corporate PR can range from employee social media, such as a blog, to an internal newsletter highlighting employee affairs. External PR for corporations can be vaster and include numerous messages to various publics. In my experience with Comcast-Spectacor, I worked in community relations, or CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility), which is just one of the ways corporations exercise public relations. Another, and more publicized function of PR in corporations, is crisis communications. Crisis communications is typically executed in-house and is a part of the existing PR team, however, depending on the size of the company and the severity of the situation, crisis communications teams can be brought in to asses a particular case. More recently, corporations are using social media, and social media contests, to connect and engage their publics. The main function of corporate PR is to connect with various publics using means such as press releases, social media, products and events to facilitate the building and managing relationships. No matter what PR industry you chose one thing remains the same, knowing your audience is essential to running and executing an effective PR strategy.

DEFINITION OF CORPORATE PR Corporate Public Relations as the name implies, businesses are tend to acquire fame amongst their competitors and the people. The major operate of corporate pr is to associate with the public through various media like press release, social media, etc in order to manage their relationships. Targeting the audience and executing the process effectively will have a massive reach.

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Importance of Corporate Public Relations in Businesses

A corporate entity, like any other individual, exists in a society. It needs to establish, nourish and maintain relationships with various members of the society for its existence. For establishing, nourishing and maintaining healthy and sustaining relationships one needs to communicate effectively and consistently. Here comes the role of Corporate Public Relations. According to the book Essentials of Corporate Communication by Cees van Riel and Charles Fombrun the term Corporate Communication can be defined as the set of activities involved in managing and orchestrating all internal and external communications aimed at creating favorable starting points with stakeholders on which the company depends. The role of a Public Relations Officer (PRO) in communicating the right information, in the right way to the right group of people is very crucial. A PRO must be able to disseminate accurate information on a timely basis to the concerned group of Public. By doing so he/she will earn reputation, credibility and authenticity for the respective corporate entity. A PRO deals with various Publics. Publics include employees, stakeholders, government, channel partners, educational institutes, media, industry bodies and institutes, agencies, customers and general public. A PRO is in short the face of a corporate entity and helps build a Corporate Image that is unique to the company.

Corporate Public Relations sometimes act like a firefighter for the company. It emerges as a savior at the time of crisis. It was just because of a strong PR strategic campaign that the Cadbury worm controversy was put out. Similar is the case with Nokia battery blast case. A PR campaign begins with the identification of the problem or challenge, setting the public relations goal and priorities, and executing the plan efficiently and accuracy. In the process of executing the PR campaign a PRO must be swift in conceptualizing relevant messages and disseminate them through proper channels to the concerned party.

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Functions of corporate Public Relations

Communication Management

Media
Government Affairs Publicity Investor Relations Community Relations Social Responsiblity Influencing Public Managing Employees Public Affairs

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Crisis management
Crisis management is the communications management function used to convey accurate facts and data to the general public and to specific publics during a crisis situation in order to prevent or minimize negative publicity that could adversely affect the success of company. Crisis management involves identifying a crisis , planning a response to the crisis and confronting and resolving the crisis. Crisis management is occasionally referred to as incident management, although several industry specialists such as Peter Power argue that the term "crisis management" is more accurate.

Public relations practitioners play a crucial role in crises, the same role they have every day: maintaining and improving their organizations relationships by effectively communicating with its target audiences. Public relations practitioners are not normally responsible for resolving the underlying problems that created a crisis situation. They cannot independently determine their organizations actions. A public relations units goal during a crisis is to get the organization through the situation with as little damage to its reputation, credibility, and key relationships as possible. In some cases, effective crisis communication can actually enhance an organizations reputation. DEFINITION OF CRISIS MANAGEMENT The response to a crisis that affects a company, such as a product recall, a technology breach, or a legal issue. Crisis Management is the process of remedying the issue, attempting to diffuse the damage, and the attempts to retain a company image and credibility. EXAMPLES OF CRISIS MANAGEMENT Johnson & Johnson did not share the same fate as Firestone when crisis struck the company in 1982. One of Johnson & Johnson's well-known products, Tylenol was tampered with. Someone had been placing cyanide pills inside of Tylenol bottles, and it was killing people. Johnson & Johnson reacted quickly and pulled
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their product off the selves. Instead of suffering long-term damage to their reputation, Tylenol regained consumer confidence quickly because their crisis management plan told them to act in the interest of the consumer.

Sometimes crisis management is used to protect a company from its customers. In 1991, a Pepsi customer claimed to have found a syringe in a can. Once the story hit the press, there were numerous reports of people finding screws, syringes and bolts in Pepsi cans. The Pepsi Company immediately denied that this was possible and that these claims were fraudulent. Pepsi started running ad campaigns against these incidents saying that they were "copycats" and Pepsi cans are "99.9% safe." This gave Pepsi enough time to discover what was happening. A grocery store surveillance camera caught a customer placing a syringe in the Pepsi can. Pepsi now had the proof they needed to refute the claims that their soda was unsafe to drink.

Cadbury India in the year-2004 Some worms were found in few bars of dairy milk chocolate. That time Demand for dairy milk chocolate sharply decrease and customers loose their confidence in it. But Cadbury India search the reason behind this incident and they find the problem of poor packaging. Double layer packaging launched within 90 days. They promoted the product by featuring brand ambassador Amitab bacchan.

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Public Relations Practices in Crisis Management

Public relations events can happen to any company at any time. In some cases, the public relations exposure is planned. But when a business faces a public backlash from a scandal or some other negative event, public relations practices for crisis management must be put into action. The public relations steps a company takes in crisis management will have longterm effects on profitability and company growth.

Timing
One of the mistakes that companies sometimes make in a public relations crisis is waiting too long to address the situation, according to Ellie Whims, writing on the All About Public Relations website. An effective public relations practice in crisis management is to recognize the problem as early as possible and begin working to develop a solution as soon as possible. Do not assume that the situation will solve itself or that people will forget about it. The sooner you address the issue the less chance it has of getting out of control.

Honesty
Releasing incorrect or incomplete information to address a crisis situation will only serve to make the problem worse. It can often work to the company's advantage to find ways to put a positive spin on a crisis. Releasing a positive spin on a bad situation can indicate that the company accepts responsibility and has learned from the experience. But the situation may require the company to stand up, admit a mistake and present as many pertinent facts as necessary. Honesty is a public relations practice that can sometimes be difficult, but it is necessary in diffusing a crisis.

Crisis Procedure
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Identification of errors: to protect workers and public. Taking emergency steps/procedure: Periodic review of emergency procedures: Preventing media from spreading of wrong news about co. product. Letting media know about the new and everlasting changes in product. The PR should have an immediate communication with companys top management and even work staff as per the type of crisis.
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7. After all this the PR should take necessary steps to take the company out of crisis. In a crisis situation, a company typically has emergency procedures in place to protect workers and the public. A periodic review of emergency procedures to ensure they are adequate and up to date is good business and good public relations. If a crisis occurs and the company instituted proper emergency procedures to prevent a problem, that information needs to be released immediately. If the crisis occurs as a result of company error, that information will find a way into the media quickly. The company needs to offset any potential public relations issues by letting the media know what the company did to prevent the crisis. If those facts can get out before the accusations of company negligence, that can put the accusations against the company into question.

Follow Up
Addressing a crisis when it happens with procedural information and honesty are good practices when addressing the beginning of a crisis. For the public to regain confidence in the company, the company needs to release regular updates on the progress of the final resolution to the crisis. Allow the media to see the progress in your crisis management program and prepare a statement for the media when the crisis has officially ended. Types of Crisis Crisis refers to sudden unplanned events which cause major disturbances in the organization and trigger a feeling of fear and threat amongst the employees. Following are the types of crisis: 1. Natural Crisis Disturbances in the environment and nature lead to natural crisis. Such events are generally beyond the control of human beings. Tornadoes, Earthquakes, Hurricanes, Landslides, Tsunamis, Flood, Drought all result in natural disaster.

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2. Technological Crisis Technological crisis arises as a result of failure in technology. Problems in the overall systems lead to technological crisis. Breakdown of machine, corrupted software and so on give rise to technological crisis.

3. Confrontation Crisis Confrontation crises arise when employees fight amongst themselves. Individuals do not agree to each other and eventually depend on non productive acts like boycotts, strikes for indefinite periods and so on. In such a type of crisis, employees disobey superiors; give them ultimatums and force them to accept their demands. Internal disputes, ineffective communication and lack of coordination give rise to confrontation crisis.

4. Crisis of Malevolence Organizations face crisis of malevolence when some notorious employees take the help of criminal activities and extreme steps to fulfill their demands. Acts like kidnapping companys officials, false rumours all lead to crisis of malevolence.

5. Crisis of Organizational Misdeeds Crises of organizational misdeeds arise when management takes certain decisions knowing the harmful consequences of the same towards the stakeholders and external parties. In such cases, superiors ignore the after effects of strategies and implement the same for quick results. Crisis of organizational misdeeds can be further classified into following three types:

iii.

Crisis of Skewed Management Values

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Crisis of Skewed Management Values arises when management supports short term growth and ignores broader issues.

iv.

Crisis of Deception Organizations face crisis of deception when management purposely tampers data and information. Management makes fake promises and wrong commitments to the customers. Communicating wrong information about the organization and products lead to crisis of deception.

v.

Crisis of Management Misconduct Organizations face crisis of management misconduct when management indulges in deliberate acts of illegality like accepting bribes, passing on confidential information and so on.

vi.

Crisis due to Workplace Violence Such a type of crisis arises when employees are indulged in violent acts such as beating employees, superiors in the office premises itself.

vii. Crisis Due to Rumours Spreading false rumours about the organization and brand lead to crisis. Employees must not spread anything which would tarnish the image of their organization.

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viii. Bankruptcy A crisis also arises when organizations fail to pay its creditors and other parties. Lack of fund leads to crisis.

ix.

Crisis Due to Natural Factors Disturbances in environment and nature such as hurricanes, volcanoes, storms, flood; droughts, earthquakes etc result in crisis.

x.

Sudden Crisis As the name suggests, such situations arise all of a sudden and on an extremely short notice. Managers do not get warning signals and such a situation is in most cases beyond any ones control.

ix. Smoldering Crisis Neglecting minor issues in the beginning lead to smoldering crisis later. Managers often can foresee crisis but they should not ignore the same and wait for someone else to take action. Warn the employees immediately to avoid such a situation.

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Pr in media relations

The relationship between the news media and the PR industry is a complex and increasingly symbiotic one. The media is the central vehicle for much of the PR industry's messages. PR practitioners want to place their stories in the news or other publications and Program. Without being able to do this, PR would lose one of its main avenues for communication with the public. The media in turn has become more dependent on PR to supply content to fill air time or column inches. Whilst newspapers have been steadily shedding staff over the last couple of decades they have simultaneously managed to produce ever thicker publications, and the ever growing ranks of PR are happy to help fill the pages. The power of the big agencies and spin doctor goes beyond this however. As the primary point of contact between businesses and the media, PR people can control access to information which journalists want. This gives them tremendous leverage in negotiating with journalists, as they are in a position to refuse information. Newspapers are withering. Network television has watched audiences decline. Radio is splintered. Magazines are shrinking. Meanwhile, there are millions of bloggers and Facebook users, Twitterers and texters and Linked-in business people. As reporters disappear from traditional media, PR practitioners are forced to consider and to use social media. But, do they know how and are they patient enough to make social media effective communications tools for clients? Social media present challenges, not the least because they break down traditional categories of audiences employees, customers, shareholders. The public and universal nature of social media means all audiences can read communications intended for any one audience.
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Case studies on public relations

Ford India Sparks a PR Crisis Over Ads That Depict Violence Against Women
Ford Motors India unit found itself in the middle of a PR crisis today, and if one of the basic rules for crisis communications is to disclose everything and disclose it immediately, then at least Ford India did that partially right. But that was about the only thing Ford Motor Co.s Indian subsidiary did correctly in an episode that made international news today. The company was working with WPPs JWT India agency on a series of ads for the Ford Figoand a leaked mockup showed women bound and gagged in the trunk of a car driven by Italian Prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. Another showed Paris Hilton with the Kardashians in the trunk. The tagline: Leave your worries behind with Figos extra large boot. The ads were never published commercially. But the entire concept was mind-bogglingly dumb in a country with a series of horrific incidents of sexual assaults against women. Ford India said it regretted the incident and called the images contrary to the standards of professionalism and decency within Ford, adding, "We deeply regret this incident and agree with our agency partners that it should have never happened. The ads were not approved by Ford, according to Business Insider, adding that the agency made the mockups and posted them to website Ads of the World without approval. (They have since been removed.) We take this very seriously and are reviewing approval and oversight processes, and taking necessary steps to ensure nothing like this ever happens again, Ford spokeswoman Sethi Deepti told the washingtonpost.com, via email.

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Case study: Union Carbide

The Bhopal gas tragedy would be a nightmare of a case to handle. At the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India, toxic gases were released. More than 2,000 people died immediately. It is estimated that 8,000 died within the two weeks following in addition to the approximate 16,000 more who have died from disease related to the incident. It is said that the crisis was caused by an sabotage. From a crisis communications standpoint, getting a good idea of the situation would have been difficult considering the distance between India and the US (Hendrix). Considering this, I think a decent job managing the crisis was done. According to Hendrix, Union Carbide made some very important decisions early on. The company decided to accept responsibility using an attachment/forgiveness strategy and provide aid to victims. I think this strategy was very effective because it showed the public that they were not denying what had happened and gave people the feeling that Union Carbide would attempt to take care of the situation. It also was decided to be available to and share information with the media. Union Carbide: Held press conferences Hosted press tours Had key people available for interviews Issued press releases In the book Public Relations Cases by Hendrix, the fact sheet shown has a large amount of information and is organized effectively. Although the incident occurred more than 20 years ago, the same principles apply: short, concise writing. Included in the fact sheet is information on the incident, the cause, who is taking responsibility, legalities, settlement information, relief efforts, medical assistance, medical effects, status of the plant in Bhopal and litigation. There also is environmental and safety information about the companys safety record, safety and environmental goals and achievements and improvements made to training and procedures. Union Carbide also had to keep its internal audiences informed, which was done through employee news bulletins, employee publications, video messages, newsletters, annual stockholder meetings and individual letters and phone calls. Now, Union Carbide would have to worry about blogs, Twitter and more. From the standpoint of 20 years ago though, this case was handled probably the best it could have been considering the number of deaths and distance from the incident. Source: Public Relations Cases by Jerry Hendrix (1988)
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Summary
Public in Public relations Public in public relation is a group of persons to whom the organisation has to deal or communicate. From public relations point of view there are two types of public i.e. Internal and external. Internal consist of staff / workers, while external consist of customers , shareholders, press, community, government etc. The important role that a PR has to play is making public (internal + external) in public relations . PR in employee relations and communications No organisation can work without employees . Employees are the most important persons which make the company to reach its desired level .The company should train employees about the new techniques or upcoming techniques which will directly or indirectly lead to organisations/company benefit. The organisation should provide incentives, facilities to employees. The success and failure of any organisations much depends on better employer employee relationship. In this case PR has to play an important role. The vital tools and techniques for employee relation and communication are House journal Video journal Electronic newspaper Notice boards PR AS A PROFESSION Profession means any thing which makes a specialized in a specific field. Professional PR play its important role in almost all the areas , some of those are Government institutions, business and industries, education institutions, hospitals and health care .

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The code of conducts and ethics in PR The code of conduct and ethics are very essential for any organisation to run very efficiently. There are two important association involved in this connection and those are IPRA , PRSI . The IPRA stands for international public relation association. It was started on 1st may 1955. IPRA is having more than 800 members from 15 different countries. The IPRA is a supreme policy making association for PR profession at international level. It conduct meetings with different members from time to time with different countries. PRSI stands for public relation society of India. The PRSI is informal body was frame in the year 1958. To give importance to PR PROFESSION every year in INDIA on 21 st april is observed as PR day. CERP Stands for Centre European Des Publiqua. It is an international association for Pr professionals which has been designed by European countries for only those countries which follows French language. House Journal House Journal is a Publication issued by an industrial undertaking a business house or a Public service organisation which is not deviced for profit. Types of House Journal: Internal House Journal External House Journal Internal External House Journal PR in-Crisis Management Crisis are time of danger, great difficulty, turning point for better or worse of any organisation. Due to crisis the management Shareholders, Suppliers, Distributors, Financers and the public gets effected.

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Conclusion
Many people perceive public relations as quite less than respectable as clever strategies to convince the public that something wrong is right. Some see public relations professionals as manipulators of the public mind, rather than conveyors of truth. Of course it is possible to use public relations skills to advance less than noble causes. All too often, we know that bad people and bad causes are advanced through the adopt use of public relations. Therefore it is vital that good people with good intentions also master effective public relations skills. Remember, too, that public relations is a two way street: not only must you present your organization to the public, but you must also present the public back to your organization and colleagues. Help them understand how the public perceives their actions. The public relations professional is often the conscience of a company or campaign. Its not always a popular spot to be in, but its an important job. If done well, your PR work should serve both your organization and the news media, and also be a valuable contribution to the greater public good.

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