Lecture 6
Public Relations
Page 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 www.mcspotlight.org/case
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.
6.2
Public 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):
Notes are taken from sources at the top of page 1
Brian Morris
Lecture 6
Public Relations
Page 2
No
Organisational
Requirements
Typical PR activity
5
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 promotionfree 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.
Notes are taken from sources at the top of page 1
Brian Morris
Lecture 6
Public Relations
Page 3
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 )
6.3
6.3.1
The more important public relations tools.
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.
6.3.2
Speeches
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.
6.3.3
Special 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.
6.3.4
Written materials
These materials include annual reports, brochures, articles and company newsletters
and magazines.
6.3.5
Audiovisual materials.
Companies increasingly use films, videos, slide shows, audio-cassettes for
communication and PR purposes.
Notes are taken from sources at the top of page 1
Brian Morris
Lecture 6
6.3.6
Public Relations
Page 4
Corporate-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.
6.3.7
Public 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.
6.4
Main 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.
6.4.1
Setting 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 nonprofit 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.
Notes are taken from sources at the top of page 1
Brian Morris
Lecture 6
6.4.3
Public Relations
Page 5
Implementing 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
6.4.5
Evaluating 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
65 million; and 660 minutes of air time on 160
television stations with an estimated audience of
91 million.
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.
6.5
Summary
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:
Notes are taken from sources at the top of page 1
Brian Morris
Lecture 6
Public Relations
Page 6
1
The 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.
2
The 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 (+twenty states)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.
3
The 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