PUBLIC RELATIONS

Dr. Utsav Krishan Murari

 Major concepts of the excellent public relation agency

The basic concept of the Best PR agency in India is that they

advertise the organizations and Companies by using a free paid
method. Public Relations use traditional media, in-person
engagement process, and various other social media concepts
for building an excellent purchase bond between the Company
and consumers. These agencies are very helpful and powerful
because they also help the Company through its crisis time.
Public Relations are one of the best of earning a great
increment in potential consumers without paying for actual
media advertisements.
Structured management of PR agency
 The Best PR agency in India uses slightly different looks of

the PR structure so that they can benefit customers as well as

the Company. They use the following given facts for the
perfect structure planning.
• Identify the planning strategy
Every PR agency needs to identify the core points of the
products, and then they start planning the advertisement
method. The production of advertisement completely varies
for different organizations.
• Reach out customers
This part of structure planning is very crucial and sensitive
because the agency needs to pay proper attention to the crucial
needs of the customers.
Functions of PR
Functions performed by corporate PR Departments and PR agencies
have many factors in common. Given below are most of the common
functions:
1. Public Relations Policy: Develop and recommend corporate public
relations policy and share it with top management and all
departments.This is truer for PR agencies.
2. Statements and Press Releases: Preparation of corporate statements,
sometimes speeches for executives and press releases are to be prepared
by the PR personnel. In the process, they are in a position to articulate
and project positive image of the company or product or policies.
3. Publicity: Issuing announcements of company activities and
products to media and community. Planning promotional
campaign using media is also a vital function. Handling
inquiries from press and people at large is a part of the function.

5. Publications: Preparing and publishing in-house magazines is

also sometimes the function of a PR agency.
4. Maintaining Relations: The PR personnel are expected to
maintain
liaisons with Government units at local, national and international
levels. They are expected to uphold good relations with the
community as ‘good neighbours’. This includes compliance with
environment protection standards, giving employment opportunities
to locals, and cooperating and participating in locality development
programmes. Communication between company and shareholders
and with other investors is also an important part of maintaining
relations. Sometimes the PR agency may have to prepare
annual/quarterly reports and planning meetings of stockholders.
Major Areas of PR Activity
Press Relations: PR persons have to maintain cordial relations
with the press at all levels, from editor to reporter. Press and PR
are both dependent on each other for their bread and butter.
Providing well written and well-timed press releases, helping the
correspondent to write their articles, easy accessibility,
forbearance of press criticism, avoiding biases and undue
favours to some papers are some of the features of press
relations. The PR man should project the culture of the
organisation while disseminating information about the product
or service. Journalists need news to remain in the business, and
PR needs publicity. Thus, there is a give and take between the
two. This interdependence of PR and press should be
understood.
Advertising: A product does not sell on its own merit, it needs
to be advertised. The purpose of advertising may be to
disseminate information, persuade or influence people to
consume the product. There are many media for advertising like
newspaper, radio, TV and so on. Usually, it is the PR person who
decides the budget and which media to use for advertising.

Publications: Bringing out brochures, folders, pamphlets,

circular letters, in-house-magazines and similar materials are the
responsibility of PR department. While preparing the material
simplicity, clarity, cost, true image of the organisation and
attractiveness are the points to be remembered.
Other Media coordination: Use of other audio-visual media,
films, exhibition, hoardings, puppetry and folk-songs come
under the range of operations of PR department. Good public
speaking and courteous speaking over the phone can also add to
the positive image as spoken words are still one of the best
modes of communication. They have to maintain good relations
with other publicity media like radio and television.

PR with Constituents: Along with the local press, PR persons

also have to have a liaison with local community, financial
analysts, bankers, major leading institutions, share-holders and
potential investors. Internal PR activities include maintaining
relations with all employees including executives and other
senior personnel, so the PR man gets all the information, keeps
himself informed of all the happenings in the organisation.
Functions of PR

Public relations functions are designed to help build trust and

credibility with groups that are important to your organization.
They help raise awareness about your organization as well as
give it a chance to define, control and distribute its message to
those both inside and outside your company. Effective public
relations functions can also promote your organization, help
communicate during a crisis or defend its reputation from
attacks people make on it in the media.
 Media Representation

Representing a company or individual to the media is one of the

more well-known functions of public relations. Media
management includes developing and distributing both written
and video news releases, pitching stories to journalists and
responding to reporter inquiries. Depending on the organization,
spokesperson duties may also be handled by the public relations
department. Media representation also includes monitoring and
measuring news coverage of the organization or individual.
 Crisis Communication

Protecting a company from a threat to its reputation is another

public relations function. While media representation is a part of
crisis communication, preparing a crisis communication plan and
training leadership and employees on its components is handled
by a public relations department. A crisis communication plan
developed by a public relations team typically includes
determining specific logistics for expected reporters, the
designation of an official spokesperson for the crisis, the
development of targeted messages for internal and external
audiences and training for company leadership on how to handle
tough or hostile questions.
 Content Development

Preparing documents, written and electronic, is another function

of public relations. Examples of content developed by a public
relations department include company newsletters, blogs,
speeches and annual reports. Content may also be written for
another member of the company, such as a letter to employees
from the CEO. Often, a public relations department will work
with another department to ensure a project fits with an overall
company message. For example, a public relations department
may work with advertising and marketing departments on
creating a description, report or other content about a new
product or service.
 Stakeholder Relations

Stakeholders are any persons or groups who have an interest in

or could be affected by an organization's objectives or actions,
such as the company's employees, lenders and government
agencies. Representing an organization to stakeholder groups is
another function of public relations. For example, you'll want to
give employees and prospective employees a positive image of
the business, and make it seem relevant, successful and
important, so people want to work for you.
 Social Media Management

Establishing, monitoring or growing an organization's or

individual's online presence is another function of public
relations. Specific tasks may include creating or updating
Facebook pages, tweeting information and keeping an eye on
what others are saying in cyberspace about an organization.
Types Of Public Relations
According to the functions of the public relations department/agencies, public relations can
be divided into 7 types. These are:
 Media Relations: Establishing a good relationship with the media organisations and

acting as their content source.

 Investor Relations: Handling investors events, releasing financial reports and

regulatory filings, and handling investors, analysts and media queries and complaints.
 Government Relations: Representing the brand to the government with regard to the

fulfilment of policies like corporate social responsibility, fair competition, consumer

protection, employee protection, etc.
 Community Relations: Handling the social aspect of the brand and establishing a

positive reputation in the social niche like environment protection, education, etc.
 Internal Relations: Counselling the employees of the organisation with regard to

policies, course of action, organisation’s responsibility and their responsibility.

Cooperating with them during special product launches and events.
 Customer Relations: Handling relationships with the target market and lead
consumers. Conducting market research to know more about interests, attitudes, and
priorities of the customers and crafting strategies to influence the same using earned
media.
 Marketing Communications: Supporting marketing efforts relating to product launch,

special campaigns, brand awareness, image, and positioning.

Advantages Of Public Relations

 Credibility: Public trusts the message coming from a trusted

third party more than the advertised content.
 Reach: A good public relations strategy can attract many
news outlets, exposing the content to a large audience.
Moreover, this medium can help the company utilise certain
organic touchpoints that are hard to capitalise on otherwise.
 Cost effectiveness: Public relations is a cost effective
technique to reach large audience as compared to paid
promotion.
 Better Communication: Public relations help the company to
communicate more information to the public than other forms
of communication media.
Disadvantages Of Public Relations

 No Direct Control: Unlike paid media, there isn’t a direct

control over the content distributed through the earned media.
This is the biggest risk of investing in public relations.
 Hard To Measure Success: It is really hard to measure and
evaluate the effectiveness of a PR campaign.
 No Guaranteed Results: Publishing of a press release isn’t
guaranteed as the brand doesn’t pay for it. The media outlet
publishes it only if it feels that it’ll attract its target audience.