Explain Public Relations and major functions of public relations.

We commonly see a great story on an organisation in newspapers even though the organisation may have experienced lawsuits recently. This is the effort from the organisation to create a positive image about itself in the market. The organisation has used part of its promotion budget to create positive image.
Public Relations is referred to as managing communications by an organisation between itself and its publics. An organisation is not only concerned about its customers, business partners, dealers and suppliers but also the public at large. Public Relations involves various programs to disseminate information that an organisation wants the public to know. The public consists of customers, employees, stakeholders, intermediaries and general public at large. Some organisations don’t take advantage of this promotion tool considering it as a minor element. But most of the major successful organisations use Public Relations to build and maintain successful relations with the public.

Public Relations reaches many people who avoid advertisements and personal selling. It reaches in the form of news and is economical as well. Sometimes organisations get free publicity through media.
For example, the advertising for Apple products is mostly done by its intermediaries like ecommerce sites, network carriers, etc. It relies on its product strategies, pricing strategies and publicity gained through trade shows and media relations.

Public Relations is focussed on building good relations with the public at large by doing favourable publicity, creating a good brand image, dealing with unfavourable news, events, and rumours that directly affect the company’s image. It helps overcome challenges, builds prestige for individuals, organisations, products, services, etc. In today’s world politicians hire PR experts to win elections, and movie stars work with PR agencies to create certain image in the market.

Many organisations have a dedicated PR (Public Relations) department and others hire PR firms. This arm of Promotion mix has gained lot of importance in recent times as the audience is exposed to a number of media outlets on a daily basis. For example, before buying a movie ticket a person checks various blogs as well as newspapers for the review of that movie. Organisations work hard in maintaining good relations with journalists and media houses for highlighting favourable news, events, etc. about the organisation.

The major functions of public relations are –

• Press relations – News presented such that it creates positive image about the organisations.

• Product Publicity – sponsorship done to promote products.

• Corporate communications – communicating with the internal and external media to promote understanding of the organisation and its role to the public at large.

• Lobbying – dealing with the law makers and government officials to work out favourable laws or regulations for the industry or the organisation.

• Counselling – Giving inputs to the management about public issues, image and company’s position in difficult as well as good time.