ASSIGNMENT ON PUBLIC RELATIONS

SUBMITTED TO:
Mr. Vijay Rathee

SUBMITTED BY:
NIKHIL PARMAR Roll No. -509

University Institute Of Law and Management Studies, Gurgaon , Haryana

Public Relations is the planned and sustained effort to establish & maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organization and its public. A firms public includes its employees, stakeholders, trade unions, general public, customers ( past , present & future ), charities, media, government and politicians, etc.

THE ROLE OF PUBLIC RELATIONS To Identify the public To influence the opinions of the public Transforming neutral opinions into positive opinions Reinforcing the favourable opinions Changing or neutralizing hostile opinions

Publicity is a sub function of public relations that acts as a bridge between the organization (its products) and its public. Publicity is usually carried out in the form of : 1. A News Item, a press release or an article in a newspaper or a mass medium like T.v. 2. An Interview or Speech Delivered by the company executive at a press conference. 3. A One on One Communication with the target audience. Use of Publicity has its own advantages : Public believes the credibility of information. Articles projecting the company as responsible corporate. Overall cost of publicity is much lower than the cost of advertising.

MAJOR DECISIONS IN PUBLIC RELATIONS A. SETTING OBJECTIVES Build Awareness : It can publish Stories/Articles in the media or take part in social activities to attract the attention of the customer towards its products. Build Credibility : It can be achieved when news regarding the company is carried out in editorial section of the Publications/Newspapers or news is carried out as in broadcast medium. Motivate Sales force : Before launching the product, companies use to publish new product in various media, it boost up & motivate the salespersons and create interest in them & also stimulates the channel members to stock new products to reduce lead time. Cut down Promotional cost : Publicity & Personal Relations can help the firm in cutting down its promotional cost to an extent. B. SELECTING THE MESSAGE AND MEDIA VEHICLE Here Public Relation Manager identify & develop interesting news & stories for the media. They must conduct news events or sponsorship programs. They should be developed with care & precautions, should be timely, interesting, accurate and in the public interest. It can be carried out in various media like Newspaper, Newsletters, T.V, Internet, Radio broadcast, Etc with different patterns. C. IMPLEMENTING THE PLAN

It requires care and diligence. It seeks to develop healthy relationship with media personnel to get a good mileage for the companys Public Relationships activities.

MAJOR ACTIVITIES OF PUBLIC RELATIONS DEPARTMENT 1. PRESS RELATION : It is required to place newsworthy information into the news media to attract the attention to the companys products or services. 2. CORPORATE COMMUNICATION : It includes Internal and External environment/communication process to promote the understanding of the organization.

3. PRODUCT PUBLICITY : All the efforts & activities related to promote the product by means of publicity. 4. LOBBYING : It involves dealing with legislators & government officials to promote or defeat legislation & regulation.

5. COUNSELING : Related to advising the management about public issues, company position & image.

MAJOR TOOLS OF PUBLIC RELATIONS Firms can use a number of tools to communicate with the public and create a positive image for themselves in the society. A Few Examples of public relation tools are : Preparing Brochures, Newsletters, Logos, In-house magazines, Annual reports & News release. Use of Publicity, which is an un-paid form of communication in media to enhance the image of the company. It can be used to provide information about new product launches, mergers, R&D, carried out by the firm,so on. It is an effective tool as public believe in the credibility of the news. Examples of publicity based public relations tools can be: NEWS RELEASE : Single page containing 300 words. Apart from news it contains companys name, address, name of contact person. FEATURE ARTICLES : It is prepared for specific publication & contain upto 3000 words. CAPTIONED PHOTOGRAPHS : A photograph with a brief description of pictures contents. Commonly used at the time of new launch, improvement in products, additions in features, etc. PRESS CONFERENCE : It is called by company to announce a major news event. Sponsor a Social Event, it helps in increase the brand recognition. Free media coverage of the firm. Like Sahara Parivar shirts worn by Indian Cricket Team and is aired on T.V, etc.

TECHNIQUES OF PUBLIC RELATIONS

There are many techniques available to influence public opinion. Let us see how a firm can communicate with some of its important targets. Consumer Communication : Companies use variety of communication tools like : Customer Press Release Promotional Videos Consumer Exhibitions, competitions, prizes, product launch events, celebrity endorsements, websites, etc. Business Communication : A company can communicate to its business associates & other publics through : Company products & videos Direct mailings Trade exhibitions Trade press release Articles Websites Share holder meetings Media relations Annual report, Brochures, etc

Employee Communication : Employee morale is strengthened if the firm is perceived favorably by the public. Hence firms uses various techniques like : In-house newsletters & magazines

Internal/employee communication channel Intranet & E-mail Notice boards Company get-togethers & picnics Employee Conferences, etc.

EVALUATING PUBLIC RELATIONS It is quite difficult to measure whether the key message have been communicated to the target audience, as the number of techniques used in public relation to reach various target audience is quite large. It requires regular research to check it out. However, main measures of effectiveness concentrate on the process of public relation & they include: Monitoring the amount of media coverage obtained : In the case of press media, a company can maintain press cuttings to know how many times its news items appeared in various print media. Organizations can hire the services of a clipping service (a firm clip news release & sends to the parent firm). In case of T.V, the firm can request the T.V channels to record the date & time of telecast. Measuring attendance at meetings, conferences, etc. Measuring the number of inquires or orders received, in response to specific public relations efforts. The company must try to measure these before & after the public relations campaigns.

REFERENCES: Marketing management, ICFAI center for management research, ref.no. MM052K4 25, page no-346 to 350

THANK YOU