Public Relations - What is it and what’s in it for you?
By Dennis Rutzou

Public relations is a term that seems to mean different things to different people and it happens anyway, whether you try to control it or not. Sounds confusing, but in truth it is really quite simple.

At Dennis Rutzou Public Relations we define public relations as "the management discipline of communication". It is the umbrella subject under which all the communications activities for an organisation are grouped. Public relations happens anyway, because people will form opinions about your organisation or product on how they are exposed to it, but without control and direction these attitudes could be unfavourable.

The public relations planning process should commence by establishing the objectives that the organisation is trying to achieve, or it could be linked to a particular project, such as a product launching, a stock exchange float, or whatever. The second most important planning task is to define the target audiences that the PR activities will try and influence and inform. In public relations terminology this step is known as ‘defining the publics’.

The logic behind this step is that these are the groups with whom you have to develop and sustain an harmonious relationship if you are to achieve the objectives. The development of the public relations activities should explore all those communications opportunities that exist to inform the target publics. It can include printed material, such as newsletters and brochures, an Internet site, media training, public speaking, event planning and management, issues and crisis management, media coverage and advertising.

It is interesting to reflect that in a planning sense, advertising is part of public relations, but it is also accepted that it is a specialised function that often calls for a separate brief to an advertising specialist. However, the content of the advertisements should be consistent with the overall direction.

There is much confusion about advertising and media coverage with some seeing them as alternatives, with editorial publicity acting as a replacement for advertising. The truth is that the two techniques are complementary and each have outstanding communication benefits.

Media coverage has high credibility, after all it carries the endorsement of a third party, namely the journalist who wrote it and the editor who permitted it to be published. The story or article appears as news and that’s what the person purchased the publication to read. But you do not control the message, nor can it be repeated. In some ways, advertising is the opposite. It has low credibility as it is the words of the company describing their product, service or organisation, and the publication was not purchased to read the ads. But the message can be totally controlled and it can be repeated at will, budget notwithstanding.

Research has an important role to play in a public relations program. It can be partly explained by the understanding that communication is two-way, which means that it is as important to listen as well as talk. Research can provide part of the listening function by monitoring the attitudes of the target publics. Research, event management, issues and crisis management and media training are also becoming seen as disciplines that often require specialist training.

In developing a public relations program it is also important to realise that one of the ground rules is that "Effective communication requires the repetition of credible core messages and the degree of repetition will invariably be underestimated".

A major reason why this distortion occurs is that those closest to the campaign see all the detail of the communication activities, whereas the target publics are only exposed to a much smaller percentage.

So what’s in it for you?

Public relations is unique as the umbrella function of organised communication can achieve many corporate and marketing objectives. So, when management is considering such issues as their corporate profile, a new product launch, or a complex issues campaign, they should reach for the phone and call in the specialists.

March 2004

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