The Role of Public Relations
by
Charles Lamson
The primary role of public relations is to manage a company's reputation and help build public consent for its enterprises. Today's business environment has become so competitive that public consent can no longer be assumed: it must be earned continuously.
The term public relations is widely misunderstood and misused. Part of the confusion is due to the fact that public relations covers a very broad area. Depending on the context and one's point of view it can be a concept, a profession, a management function, or a practice. The writers of Contemporary Advertising define public relations (PR) as the management function that focuses on the relationships and communications that individuals and organizations have with other groups (called publics) for the purpose of creating goodwill.
Every company, organization, or government body has relationships with groups of people who are affected by what it does or says. They may be employees, customers, stockholders, competitors, suppliers, legislators, or the community in which the organization resides. Marketing professionals refer to these people as stakeholders because they all have some vested interest in the company's actions. In PR terminology, each of these groups is considered one of the organization's publics, and the goal of PR is to develop and maintain goodwill with most, if not all of its publics. Failure to do so may mean loss of customers and revenues, time lost dealing with complaints or lawsuits, and loss of esteem (which weakens the organization's brand equity as well as its ability to secure financing, make sales, and expand).
A company's publics change constantly. After being acquired by Unilever, Ben & Jerry's faced previously silent, content publics. It still generally projects a sunny, caring image even though it is now part of Unilever. Criticism of the company appears to have increased after the acquisition. The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) accused Ben and Jerry's of misleading the public by claiming that some of its products were "all-natural" when they in fact contained hydrogenated oils and artificial flavors. CSPI called upon the FDA to take action against the company. Ben & Jerry's hedged response was the term "all natural" had various definitions in the food industry, but that it would work with natural food organizations on the issue. In 2005, the company voluntarily recalled pints of its Karamel Sutra ice cream that contained peanuts not mentioned on the label. After receiving one illness complaint about this common food allergy, the recall went forward, with CEO Yves Couette stating that "Our primary concern is always for the health and safety of our consumers."
Because of the powerful effect of public opinion, companies and organizations must consider the breadth of impact of their actions. This is specifically true in times of crisis, emergency, or disaster. But it also holds true for major policy decisions: changes in management or pricing, labor negotiations, introduction of new products, or changes in distribution methods. Each decision affects different groups in different ways. Effective public relations can channel groups' opinions toward mutual understanding and positive outcomes.
In short, the goals of public relations are to improve public opinion, build goodwill, and establish and maintain a satisfactory reputation for the organization. PR efforts may rally public support, obtain public understanding or neutrality, or simply respond to inquiries. Well-executed public relations is an ongoing process that molds good long-term relationships and plays an important role in relationship marketing and integrated communications.
The Difference between Advertising and Public Relations
Since they both use the media to create awareness or to influence markets or publics, advertising and public relations are similar---but they are not the same. Advertising reaches its audience through media the advertiser pays for. It appears just as the advertiser designed it, with the advertiser's bias built in. Knowing this, the public views ads with some skepticism or ignores them outright. So in an integrated marketing communications program, advertising is rarely the best vehicle for building credibility.
Many public relations communications, like publicity, are not openly sponsored or paid for. People receive these communications in the form of news articles, editorial interviews, or feature stories after the messages have been reviewed and edited---filtered---by the media. Since the public thinks such messages are coming from the medium rather than a company, it trusts them more readily. For building credibility therefore, public relations is usually the better approach. Ben & Jerry's, for example, relies heavily on press coverage of its ice-cream giveaways during events it helps sponsor.
However, while advertising is carefully placed to gain particular reach and frequency objectives, PR is less precise. Public relations objectives are not as easy to quantify. In fact, the results gained from public relations activities depend greatly on the experience and skill of the people executing it and the relationship they have with the press. But PR can go only so far. Editors will not run the same story over and over. An ad's memorability, however, comes from repetition. While PR activities may offer greater credibility, advertising offers precision and control. This is why some companies relay their public relations messages through corporate advertising.
Advertising and PR in the Eyes of Practitioners
Another major difference between public relations and advertising is the orientation of professional practitioners. Advertising professionals see marketing as the umbrella process companies use to determine what products and services the market needs and how to distribute and sell them. To advertising professionals, advertising and public relations are "good news" marketing tools used to promote sales.
Public relations professionals take a totally different view. With their background typically in journalism rather than marketing, they believe public relations should be the umbrella process. They think companies should use PR to maintain relationships with all publics, including consumers. As Inside PR magazine says, "Public relations is a management discipline that encompasses a wide range of activities, from marketing and advertising to investor relations and government affairs. To PR professionals, public relations should be integrated "corporate" communications, which is certainly broader than what most people consider integrated "marketing" communications. Public relations people, for example, are also concerned with employee relations and investor relations. Marketing and advertising people rarely are. So public relations is really much broader.
To date, though, few companies are structured with a public relations orientation; most are still marketing oriented, perhaps due to marketing's bottom-line orientation. But in today's world of downsizing, reengineering, and total quality management (TQM), marketing people would be well advised to adopt the multiple-stakeholder approach and relationship consciousness that PR people bring to the table.
Moreover, in times of crisis, the candid, open-information orientation of PR is invariably the better perspective to adopt. Fortunately, with the growing interest in relationship marketing, two-way interactivity, and IMC, companies are finally beginning to embrace a public relations philosophy.
When PR activities are used for marketing purposes, the term marketing public relations (MPR) is often used. In support of marketing, public relations activities can raise awareness, inform and educate, improve understanding, build trust, make friends, give people reasons or permission to buy, and create a climate of consumer acceptance---usually better than advertising. Marketing strategists Al and Laura Ries believe the best way to build a brand is through publicity: Starbucks, The Body Shop, Wal-Mart, to name a few.
In an integrated marketing communications program, advertising and MPR need to be closely coordinated. Many ad agencies now have PR departments for this very purpose. And many companies now have communications departments that manage both advertising and PR.
*SOURCE: CONTEMPORARY ADVERTISING 11TH ED., 2008, WILLIAM F. ARENS, MICHAEL F. WEIGOLD, CHRISTIAN ARENS, PGS. 338-342*
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