BASICS OF

PUBLIC
RELATION
Unit I
BASICS OF PUBLIC RELATION
• Unit I: [Concept and Evolution of Public Relations]
• 1. Defining Public Relations: Functions and Types of Publics
• 2. Evolution of Public Relations
• 3. Scope of PR: Issue Management, Lobbying, Corporate
Social Responsibility, Public Opinion, Advertising,
• Propaganda, Publicity and PR as a marketing tool
• 4. Ethics in PR, PRSI Code, IPRA
 Defining PR: Functions and types
• Public relations is a strategic communication process companies, individuals and
organizations use to build mutually beneficial relationships with the publics. A PR specialist
drafts a specialised communication plan and uses media and other direct and indirect
mediums to create and maintain a positive brand image and a strong relationship with the
target audience.
• Public relations are the skilled communication of ideas to the various public with the
objective of producing a desired result.
 Definitions:
• “Public Relations is the deliberate, planned and sustained effort to
establish and maintain mutual understanding between on
organization and its publics.”-Institute of PR, USA
• “Public relations are the attempt by information persuasion and
adjustment to engineer Public support for an activity, cause,
movement or institution.”- Edward L. Bernays
• “Public Relations is a combination of philosophy, sociology,
economics, language, psychology, journalism, communication and
other knowledges into a system of human understanding."-
Herbert M. Baus
• The purpose of Public Relations practice is to establish a two way
communication to resolve conflicts of interest, and to establish
understanding based on truth, knowledge and full information.
• "Public Relations is distinctive management function which helps establish
and maintain mutual lines of communication, understanding, acceptance
and cooperation between an organization and its publics; involves the
management of problems or issues; helps management to keep informed on
and responsive to public opinion; defines and emphasizes the responsibility
of management to serve the public interest; helps management keep
abreast of and effectively utilize change, serving as an early warning
system to help anticipate trends; and uses research and sound and ethical
communication as its principal tools." - Rex F. Harlow
• ‘Public Relations is ‘the communication and interpretation and
communication of ideas from an institution to the publics and the
communication of information, ideas and opinions from those publics to the
institution, in a sincere effort to establish a maturity of interest and thus
achieve the harmonious adjustment of an institution to its community.
Scott M. Cutlip and Allen H. Center
 Objective of Public
Relations:-
• The main objective of public relations is to maintain a
positive reputation of the brand and maintain a strategic
relationship with the public, prospective customers,
partners, investors, employees and other stakeholders
who leads to a positive image of the brand and makes it
seem honest, successful, important, and relevant
 Functions of Public Relations
• 1. Anticipating, analysing, and interpreting the public opinion and attitudes of
the public towards the brand and drafting strategies which use free or earned
media to influence them.
• 2. Drafting strategies to support brand’s every campaign and new move through
editorial content.
• 3. Writing and distributing press releases.
• 4. Speechwriting.
• 5. Planning and executing special public outreach and media relations events.
• 6. Writing content for the web (internal and external websites).
• 7. Developing a crisis public relations strategy.
• 8. Handling the social media presence of the brand and responding to public
reviews on social media websites.
9. Counselling the employees of the organization with regard to policies,
course of action, organization’s responsibility and their responsibility.

10. Dealing with government and legislative agencies on behalf of the

organization.

11. Dealing with public groups and other organizations with regard to social
and other policies of the organization and legislation of the government.

12. Handling investor relations.

 Publics and its Types
• Publics are defined as any group whose members have a
common interest or common values in a particular
situation. There exist several different kinds or categories
of publics: traditional, nontraditional, latent, aware,
active, intervening, primary, secondary, internal, external,
domestic, and international.
Publics all differ greatly. Types of publics include:
1. • Employees
2. • Shareholders
3. • The media
4. • Customers
5. • The general public
6. • Analysts and other financial intermediaries
7. • Students
8. • Educators
9. • Government
10. • Community leaders
11. • Members of the industry in which the concern operates
In order to establish lasting relationships, an organization must gain key knowledge of each of its publics through a
process of answering seven questions
1. How much can the public influence our org’s ability to achieve its goals?
2. What is the public’s stake in its relationship with our org?
3. Who are the opinion leaders/decisions makers?
4. What is the demographic profile of the public?
5. What is the psychographic profile of the public?
6. What is the public’s opinion of our organization?
7. What is the public’s opinion of the issue in question?

Co-orientation allows organizations and publics to evaluate where one another stands in
terms of the issues, values, and needs each party shares in an effort to maintain effective
relationships. It is based upon four questions:
8. What is our organization’s view of this issue?
9. What is the particular public’s view of this issue?
10.What does our organization think the public’s view is?
11.What does the particular public think our organizations view is
While traditional publics generally include employees, media, govt’s, investors, consumers,
multicultural groups, constituents, and businesses, they change depending upon the
organization. All of these groups change respectively as time goes on and organizations
must use research strategies such as co-orientation in order to maintain effective
relationships
 Importance of
Public Relations

• With over 63% of the value of most companies dependent on their public image,
public relations have become a very important topic today for numerous reasons:
• Builds Up the Brand Image: -The brand image gets a boost when the target
customers get to know about it through a third-party media outlet. A good public
relations strategy help the brand builds up its image in a way it wants to.
• It’s Opportunistic: -Public relations strategies make the brand capitalize on the
opportunities. Google was in the news for donating to Ebola. Facebook promoted
LGBTQ rights. Coca-Cola did a PR stunt against obesity. These opportunities even
attract many influencers to share the brand story to their followers.
• Promote Brand Values: -PR is used to send out positive messages which are in line
with the brand’s value and its image. This builds up the brand’s reputation.
• Strengthen Community Relations: -PR strategies are used to convey that the
brand is as much part of the society as the target audience. This builds up a strong
relationship of the brand with the public.
 ELEMENTS OF
PUBLIC RELATIONS

• A planned effort or management function.

• The relationship between an organisation and its publics
• Evaluation of public attitudes and opinions.
• An organisation's policies, procedures and actions as they relate to said
organisation's publics.
• Steps taken to ensure that said policies, procedures and actions are in the
public interest and socially responsible.
• Execution of an action and or communication programme.
• Development of rapport, goodwill, understanding and acceptance as the chief
end result sought by public relations activities.