What are the major decisions in “Marketing Public Relations ?

The management has to work on the Marketing Public Relations through proper planning to get effective results. The management must have clear idea on the objective it wants to achieve, finalise the public relations message and tools, implementing the plan and evaluation.

1) Marketing objectives – The organisation can be greatly benefitted by MPR before the launch of a product, service, organisation, personality, etc. Even before the advertisement or other promotion tools are utilised in the target market, MPR can create lot of excitement about a product, etc. in the market place. It can be an editorial in a leading newspaper that will boost the dealers, shareholders, salesforce, business partners, and public at large. The announcement through PR campaign of a launch of a new product creates lot of awareness in the market place. For example, Reliance Jio created lot of news through its MPR campaign of cheapest call and internet service provider through its mobile SIM in the India. As a result of this, major international players in the Indian market were forced to change their plans and strategies.

This way the organisation creates news stories in the market even without advertising, sales promotion, direct marketing, or personal selling. The organisation saves its costs without much investment in these promotion tools. Apple has learned the art of effective execution of this. It hardly does any advertising.

The advertising for Apple products is mostly done by its intermediaries like ecommerce sites, network carriers, etc. It relies on its product and pricing strategies and publicity gained through trade shows and media relations.

2) Selecting the message and tools – When the Chief Minister of an Indian State, Mr. Narendra Modi, was selected as the Prime Ministerial candidate from the BJP party, the election campaign mostly relied on the development work he had done as a Chief Minister of that state. Though his reign as the chief minister was marred by the riots in Gujrat during his reign, the campaign managers searched for stories that were unique to him and set him apart from his rivals in a positive sense.
The management has to select messages that are unique and create a positive influence in the market place. The Non-profit organisations organise events for fund raising. The organisation has to first select the message and then the tools available at its disposal. Below are the commonly used PR tools –

1. Press Releases –Writing article for the editorial page in a newspaper or a magazine – guest editorial, letters to the editor, etc. These can be in audio or audio-visual mode as well for radio and TV broadcasting.

2. Organisations publications – Annual reports, brochures, articles, newsletters, magazines, etc. It is not necessary that this material will get picked up by communication media like newspapers, etc. Public relations team personally create these messages for a positive impact.

3. Organising events – organising news conference, seminars, trade shows, competitions, etc. that will reach the masses.

4. Sponsorship – Sponsoring sports, cultural programs, music competitions, educational workshop, or other events that are followed by majority of the audience. The organisation pays a fee to have its name associated with such programs.

5. Product placements – Placing a company’s product on Television shows, movies, special events, video games, or book is product placement. On various reality TV shows one can see the judges consuming different types of colas with company’s names distinctly visible, giving away Kitkat, etc. at kids shows.

6. Speeches- Executives from the organisation often address media or give talks at various shows like trade shows, discussion forums, etc. This builds the company’s image and value.

7. Cause-related marketing/ Public-Service activities – contributing to marathon events, blood donation events, raising awareness for about breast cancer, AIDS, etc.

8. Social media marketing and blogging

3) Implementation and Evaluation – Organisation should maintain good relations with media houses and their editorial staff. A PR specialist may work on a great story, but it might not get published by the editor of a certain media house. Also, it is difficult to measure the MPR effectiveness if it is used along with other promotion tools. Professor Kotler lists 3 commonly used measures to measure MPR effectiveness- Number of exposures, acceptance in the market place, and contribution to sales and profits. Number of exposures refers to the exposures in the media. The public in the market place is randomly asked about the acceptance via questionnaires, interviews, etc. The change in attitude and awareness is calculated. Finally, the sales and profit in measured before as well as after the MPR implementation.

These steps need to be followed carefully and systematically for a successful PR campaign. Most of the organisations in today’s times have realised the value of Marketing Public Relations and investing in it cautiously.