PUBLIC RELATIONS Public relations PR is the practice
PUBLIC RELATIONS
Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing the flow of information between an organization and its public.
Public Relations is a set of management, supervisory, and technical functions that foster an organization's ability to strategically listen to, appreciate, and respond to those persons whose mutually beneficial relationships with the organization are necessary if it is to achieve its missions and values.
As Public Relations places exposure in credible third-party outlets, it offers a third -party legitimacy that advertising does not have.
It is a pull marketing tactic and has to be creative in the ways it disseminates its clients’ messages.
Public relations is about man, its fundamental function is to enlighten, educate, emancipate, energize, empower, elevate and enrich man.
PR can be used to build rapport with employees, customers, investors, voters, or the general public.
PR informs, creates ideas, persuades people and makes things happen. A number of specialties exist within the field of public relations, such as Analyst Relations, Media Relations, Investor Relations or Labor Relations.
The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) claimed: "Public relations helps an organization and its publics adapt mutually to each other. " According to the PRSA, the essential functions of public relations include research, planning, communications dialogue and evaluation.
Models Of PR 1. The Press Agentry Model. With roots in the 19 th century, press agents worked to influence public opinion by creating news. P. T. Barnum was a master of the art form, weaving fantasy and half-truths into his messages.
The press agent invests no time in research and even less in the discussion of ethics. The aim is behavior manipulation.
2. Public Information Model It emphasizes on maintaining and enhancing the image of an organization simply by circulating relevant and meaningful information among the target audience/public. One-way communication is the focus of the public information model.
Public relations experts depend on. Press releases, news release, video release brochures, even static Web content, or any other recorded communication often directed at the media are tools used by these information dispensers to circulate information about their brand among the public
Newsletters, brochures, magazines with information about the organization, its key people, products, benefits of the products, testimonials, success stories are distributed at regular intervals among target audiences for brand positioning
3. The 2 -way asymmetrical model. The post World War II rise in consumer products created a need for targeted, scientific marketing. PR played a role.
Under the 2 -way asymmetrical model, practitioners used research to get inside the heads of consumers and to help fashion the sell messages. Grunig and Hunt called it “scientific persuasion. ”
While asymmetrical communication is two way, the goal is anything but balanced. It’s all about persuasion to trigger a transaction, thus its popularity with marketers.
4. The 2 -way symmetrical model. Uses communication to negotiate with publics, resolve conflict, and promote mutual understanding and respect between the organization and its public
The 2 -way symmetrical model casts public relations in the role of mediator versus persuader. Under that model, PR pros listen to the concerns of both clients and key publics and help them adapt to one another
The move away from pseudo events and half-truths was a significant shift toward more ethical practices.
The objectives of public relations Public relations objectives fall into two distinct camps: 1. Awareness/informational objectives are the most common and easiest public relations objectives to achieve, but they can be difficult to measure. 2. Motivational objectives is difficult to achieve but they tend to be easier to measure because they are ‘bottom-line’ oriented and are based on clearly measurable results that can be quantified.
Steps of the Process: 1. Begin with “to” followed by a verb describing the direction to the intended outcome. Possibilities include: “to increase”, “to decrease, ” and “to maintain. ” 2. Specify the outcome to be achieved. Again three possible outcomes: knowledge, predisposition or behaviour. Each objective should spell out a single, specific outcome.
3. State the magnitude of change or level to be maintained in measurable terms. The watchwords are quantifiable and realistic. A combination of judgement based on experience and benchmark data is used to set outcome levels. 4. Set the target date for when the outcome is to be achieved. Typically, outcomes must be achieved in order, with one necessary before another.
Push strategy: involves directing effort at intermediaries so that they are motivated to direct their promotional effort at customers, thereby pushing the product down the distribution channel. Pull strategy: involves aiming promotional activities at end users so that they demand the product from intermediaries, thereby pulling the product down the distribution channel.
Pass strategy: applies when there is a need to enter markets blocked or protected by parties other than end users; examples include government, pressure groups, and other opinion formers, as well as employees. Corporate public relations is employed in parallel to implement a pass strategy to address markets where access is constrained either by noncustomers target audiences or non-product related issues. Examples might include a lobbying campaign to amend the regulatory climate or an educational programme to overcome concerns over the introduction of new technology.
LOBBY Lobby groups are established to influence government policy, corporate policy, or public opinion. An example of this is the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, AIPAC, which influences American foreign policy.
Such groups claim to represent a particular interest and in fact are dedicated to doing so. When a lobby group hides its true purpose and support base it is known as a front group.
SPIN In public relations, "spin" is sometimes a pejorative term signifying a heavily biased portrayal in one's own favor of an event or situation. implies disingenuous, deceptive and/or highly manipulative tactics.
The techniques of "spins”, include selectively presenting facts and quotes that support one's position. Another spin technique involves careful choice of timing in the release of certain news so it can take advantage of prominent events in the news.
Five Things Every Small Business Should Know About Public Relations Twitter, Facebook and Linked. In are great, but the basics of public relations remain. You still need coherent messages, valuable networks and great stories. Here are five must-haves for successful PR. Write Well. All the tools in the world won’t help if nobody reads your tweets, posts, pitches or press releases. Josh Ochs, a social media guru in Los Angeles, says, “Great messaging is the key to everything on Facebook and twitter. The more time you spend perfecting your messaging in social media, the more you will make friends and make money. ” He suggests creating all messaging in a tone that is “light, bright and polite Bonus tip: when pitching a story, aim for the “Wow” factor. I just placed a nice feature about a litigation attorney who represents major banks in class action defense. It was a dull story until I mentioned her hobby, collecting Buddhas from around the world. Stress at work, Zen at home. Think about what makes your story or business unique to others.
Network. Press the Flesh. Meet customers. Meet media. Meet friends. Check out your competition. No one exemplifies this better than Bob Gold, a public relations pro from Torrance, Calif. He speaks at or attends more than six major shows in his specialty, technology and cable TV, with appearances at the Consumer Electronics Show, Cable and Television Association for Marketing, the National Association of Broadcasters and more. At the Digital Hollywood event in May in Los Angeles Gold created a super-panel of speakers including someone from Google, and lined up a prestigious moderator’s gig, increasing his profile in front of important business contacts. Bonus tip: Drive editorial coverage before the events. Gold suggests obtaining the media list in advance and pitching reporters and setting up meetings before the show.
Learn the Tools. Eric Schwartzman, author and social networking expert, follows the latest research and learns quickly. A Gartner Research study found 80% of smart phone users are using purchasing decisions within a 10 -20 mile radius of their location. Schwartzman suggests capitalizing on this by telling entpreneurs “You need to register your biz with Google Places, Bing Local, and Yahoo Local and you should also register with paid services like Universal Business Listings and Local. Eze. ” And don’t forget Yelp! Stay local, stay relevant and keep digitally connected with your market. Bonus tip: If you’re going to plunge into Twitter and Facebook to reach customers, learn some strategies. Andreas Ramos, Director of Global Consulting at Acxiom, recommends only 2 books: “Social Media Marketing” by Liana Evans and “Inbound Marketing” by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah. “Quick reads, very relevant, ” Ramos says.
Make Friends with Media. Always return calls, always help with reporters on deadline, even if you can’t be quoted, consider helping with background or “off-the-record” assistance. My clients who are quick and helpful in this manner always seem to get chosen for “Top 100 Attorneys” or “Best Business Schools” or earn feature stories in the future. Those that don’t help the media usually get left behind. Pick up the phone. A great way to start a grassroots movement is via phone calls. Don’t assume your clients or the media looks at every email. Do you? Probably not. Josh Ochs provides a good example on how to fill seats for his social media boot camps. “We start with personal phone calls to our best customers and ask them to retweet or post our event on their Facebook wall. We follow up with a quick email to each individual customer with the exact messaging we want them to share. This quickly drives a small movement that is seen by thousands of people at the same time and is extremely effective. ”
A study published in April by the Financial Times and web effectiveness experts Bowen Craggs & Co found that many corporate websites are failing when it comes to making information easily accessible to journalists. The FT Index 2011 report suggested the reason companies and PRs often struggle to engage with journalists in the digital era is often down to the fact many press officers and communications advisers are former journalists who left the industry before the advent of online and social media. This guide is intended to help PRs, press officers and companies large and small get noticed by journalists. It includes lessons learnt in the study and tips from David Bowen (pictured), a former journalist who is now a senior consultant at Bowen Craggs & Co advising companies, including several multinationals, on their online communications.
1. Do not always give the journalist the story on a plate Journalists do not want to write the same story as their rivals. Give them a ready-made story, and they will either ignore it, or look for a way to put a different twist on it (not necessarily in the company’s favour)FT Index 2011"Most journalists want to have some sort of edge over their competition, " David Bowen told Journalism. co. uk. "There's a certain sort of journalist that will pick stuff up and run with it but most want to have an advantage over everybody else. ”The advice from the study is: "Give them a ready-made story, and they will either ignore it, or look for a way to put a different twist on it (not necessarily in the company’s favour). "The last thing they want is to write the same story as other people. What they do want is leads, which explains the keenness with which they have taken to Twitter. ” "Companies need to take a journalist-centred view" and consider what the reporter wants, Bowen added.
2. Make company information easy to find and clear The FT and Bowen Craggs & Co study stated that journalists "tend to be in a hurry, and impatient" and as a result the "inclination is often to pick up the phone rather than trawl a site". The solution, Bowen advises, is to make sure basic information is easy to find and that it is not too long. "Include brief information and hard facts written in in a succinct way. "Another suggestion from Bowen is to produce a fact sheet that can viewed on a webpage or downloaded. His advice is to include a print button to allow journalists to easily print the key information and omit other parts of a page. Bowen encourages companies and PRs to imagine the journalist reading the brief is in the back of a taxi on the way to an interview, skim-reading it online, perhaps on a phone, or on a print-out. The report says: "Companies can make themselves unpopular by failing to make press contacts easy to find. "
3. Put a selection of company images on your site or on Flickr, assigning creative commons licences Journalists need photos to accompany stories and you can help by providing a library both as part of your site and on Flickr. Sub editors, reporters and picture desks will frequently perform a search for creative commons images, those which have been assigned a licence to allow them to be published. You can adjust the level of copyright to control how images can be used. The study heralded two companies for providing strong picture libraries: Nestlé, which includes video, documents and photos and Novartis. "But in general I'm always surprised by the very poor selection of photographs, " Bowen said. Some companies and PRs have started to wise up and create picture libraries, particularly on Flickr. "There has been a real trend to do this during the last year, " he said. He advises to include a range of images: of people, buildings and logos
4. Send media releases in the body of an email PDFs and Word documents can be problematic. Many journalists will not have the Word application on their computer and some company mail systems will isolate or restrict emails. Do not waste precious space in the subject field. Some journalists will be reading their emails on mobile devices where space is limited to around 35 characters. Keep the subject snappy and to the point. Bowen said it is good practice to both include the contents of the media release in the body of an email and to include a document as an attachment. "But the ability to cut and paste is important, " he said.
5. Learn how to monitor Twitter Companies need to understand Twitter – both to feed journalists leads and to get early warning that a nasty news storm is about to blow in Use it as a "proxy search mechanism", Bowen advises. "The thing that really came across [in research for the FT study] is the importance of an understanding of social media, particularly Twitter. " "Journalists use it as a source for possible scoops. " The real trick is getting journalists to follow you by providing enough interesting nuggets of information, Bowen said. But more important than tweeting interesting pointers is to learn to monitor what other people are saying about you. Learn how to set up columns to follow keywords in an application such as Tweet. Deck. The report says: "Companies need to understand Twitter – both to feed journalists leads and to get early warning that a nasty news storm is about to blow in. "
Main elements of the marketing mix of Manchester United: First of all the product includes providing an excellent football team that plays and wins in an exciting way. However, there are other ingredients of the product including merchandising such as the sale of shirts, and a range of memorabilia. The product also relates to television rights, and Manchester United's own television channel. In one respect the place is Old Trafford where home games are played, but Manchester United also plays at a range of other venues. And, of course its products are sold across the globe, through the club's website and a range of other sales media.
Manchester United markets itself as a global brand. The club also engages in a range of joint promotional activities, for example with the mobile phone company Vodafone. Manchester United books, shirts, programmes, keyrings and many other items are sold and promoted through its website. The club has positioned itself at the upmarket premier end of the market and, as a result, it tends to charge premium prices as evidenced by the high cost of a season ticket to watch home league games. Positioning or repositioning a product - refers to locating that product within a market for example presenting it is an upmarket or downmarket product. Positioning it as a product for younger consumers or older consumers etc.
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