Public Relations
Public relations are very believable—news stories, features, and events
seem more real and
believable to readers than ads do. Public relations can also reach many
prospects who avoid
salespeople and advertisements—the message gets to the buyers as "news"
rather than as a salesdirected
communication. As with advertising, public relations can dramatize a
company or product.
Marketers tend to underused public relations or to use it as an
afterthought. Yet a well-thought-out
public relations campaign used with other promotion mix elements can be
very effective and
economical.
a. Public Relations
Public relations involves building good relations with the company’s
various publics by obtaining favorable publicity, building up a good
corporate image, and handling or heading off unfavorable rumors,
stories, and events. Major functions are:
1). Press relations or press gentry.
2). Product publicity.
3). Public affairs.
4). Lobbying.
5). Investor relations.
6). Development.
Public relations are used to promote products, places, ideas,
activities, organizations, even nations.
b. The Role and Impact of Public Relations
Public relations can have a strong impact on public awareness at a much
lower cost than advertising. Despite its potential strengths,
public relations are often described as a marketing stepchild because of
its limited and scattered use. This may be changing, however. Many
companies today are looking for public relations to take a more active
role in marketing and promotion planning. Marketing public relations
departments are being formed. Public relation tools are being used by
the companies in evaluating public attitudes, identifying the issues of
public concern and to execute the different programs that can gain
public acceptance. It means that the public relations is that marketing
function which evaluates public attitudes, identifies areas within the
organization that the public may be interested in, and executes
a program of action to earn public understanding and acceptance.
c. Major Public Relations Tools
Major tools include:
1). News.
2). Speeches.
3). Special events (mobile marketing).
4).Written materials (such as annual reports, brochures, articles, and
company newsletters).
5). Audiovisual materials (such as films, slide-and-sound programs,
video and audio cassettes).
6) Corporate identity materials (such as logos, stationery, brochures,
signs, business forms,
business cards, buildings, uniforms, and company cars and trucks).
Companies also improve public relations by contributing time and money
to public service
activities. A company’s Web site can be a good public relations vehicle.
Consumer and members of
other publics can visit the site for information and entertainment.
Major public relations decisions include:
1). Setting public relations objectives.
2). Choosing public relations messages and vehicles.
3). Implementing the public relations plan.
4). Evaluating the results.
d. Major Public Relations Decisions
As shown in the fig major public relation decisions are:
Setting Public relations objective that means deciding what are the
results that the companies want to achieve by using public relation
tools, than second step is choosing the message that companies can
communicate to public to fulfill the role of public relation, next step
of this system is implementation of the program and finally evaluation
of the program in order to judge the success level of public relations
tools used.
e. Publicity
Public information is information about a company’s goods or
services appearing in the mass
media as a news item. Stimulation of demand for a good, service, place,
idea, person, or
organization by unpaid placement of commercially significant news or
favorable media
presentations. Publicity is more credible to consumers than any other
promotional mix element
Although publicity is generally thought of as not paid for, firms incur
publicity-related expenses
that include the cost of employing marketing personnel assigned to
create and submit publicity
releases, printing and mailing costs, and related expenses.
KEY TERMS
Advertising:
Any paid form of non personal presentation and
promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an
identified sponsor.
Personal selling:
Personal presentation by the
firm's sales force for the purpose of making sales
and building customer relationships.
Sales promotion:
Short-term incentives to
encourage the purchase or sale of a product or
service.
Public relations:
Building good relations with the company's various
publics by obtaining favorable publicity, building up
a good corporate image, and handling or heading off
unfavorable rumors, stories, and events.
Direct marketing:
Direct connection with carefully targeted individual consumers to
both
obtain an immediate response and cultivate lasting
customer relationships—the use of telephone, mail,
fax, e-mail, the Internet, and other tools to
communicate directly with specific consumers.
Personal Communication Channels:
In personal communication channels, two or more
people communicate directly with each other.
Non-personal Communication Channels:
Non personal communication channels are media
that carry messages without personal contact or
feedback.
Public Relations:
Public relations involves building good relations
with the company’s various publics by obtaining
favorable publicity, building up a good corporate
image, and handling or heading off unfavorable
rumors, stories, and events.
Advertising:
can reach masses of geographically dispersed buyers
at a low cost per exposure, and it enables the seller
to repeat a message many times
Publicity
Public information is information about a
company’s goods or services appearing in the mass
media as a news item. Stimulation of demand for a
good, service, place, idea, person, or organization by
unpaid placement of commercially significant news
or favorable media presentations.
Sales Promotion:
Sales promotion consists of short-term incentives to
encourage the purchase or sale of a product or service.
Whereas advertising and personal selling offer reasons to
buy a product or service, sales promotion offers reasons to
buy now.
Catalog Marketing:
Catalog marketing involves selling through catalogs mailed
to
a select list of customers or made available in stores
Kiosk Marketing:
Some companies place information and ordering machines
(called kiosks) in stores, airports, and other location
Database marketing
is the process of building, maintaining, and using
customer databases and other databases for the purposes of
contacting and transacting with customers.
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