LESSON 10 - PUBLIC

RELATIONS

Advertising and
Promotion
Management
LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Definition of public relations

Evolution of public relations

Objective of public relations

Public relations tools

Role of public relations

Advantages and Disadvantages of Public relations

What is Public Relations?

“Public relations is the management

function that identifies, establishes, and
maintains mutually beneficial relationships
between an organization and the various
publics on whom its success or failure
depends.”
Evolution of PR
• Began in America in the 1800s
• Around 469 BC, the Greek philosophers (like
Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle) realized the
value of public opinion.
• The philosophers taught noblemen that art of
persuasion through rhetoric (public speaking)
• PR first served to manage and manipulate
public opinion through sociology and mass
psychology,
• PR was criticised for being a major form of
propaganda.
The age of Print – 18th Century
• The print introduced and used a lot by
political class to persuade followers

• Benjamin Franklin used the printing press to

campaign against slavery, increase national
security, and improve education.
20th Century: The age of mass
media

• PR has served to build strong relationships and

maintain a positive public image
• Introduction of mass media e.g television and radio
• Helped spread information world-over and paved way
for effective public relations campaigns ever created.
• In an effort to increase sales of their cigarettes in the
early 1900’s, amid the Women’s Liberation Movement,,
Lucky Strike (company) hired Edward Bernays who
made women smoking a feminist issue , with intent to
liberate the women, paid women to smoke, took
photos and shared on mass media – themed ‘Torches
of Freedom’ .
21st Century: Age of Digital and
Social Media

• In the early 2000s, public relations became

prominent as the internet created a platform
where information was readily available to
the public.
• In 2008, Barack Obama used Social Media
widely to campaign and win the US elections
• Social media has become a major
communications tool world-over, embraced
mainly by the youth who are seen as digital
natives.
The History of PR
Advertising and Public Relations

• Today’s major brands tend to be born with

publicity, not advertising
• Advertising is used to maintain brands and
PR is used to establish brands.

The Fall of Advertising & The Rise of PR by Al

Ries and Laura Ries (2014)
Evolution of Public Relations

• The public relations industry has therefore

evolved greatly since it first began in the
early 1800s.
• In fact, it has dramatically changed even in
the last decade with the introduction and
expansive growth of the social media.
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 which leads to a
positive image of the brand.
Scope of Public relations

• Public relations began as a media relations

activity (i.e., publicity).

• Today, public relations includes employee

relations, investor relations, community
relations, public affairs, lobbying, and
social media.
Importance of Public
relations
a) Enhances a firm’s online and offline
presence.
• Social media, press releases, and connections
with promotional sites that publish content
can be useful to firms in resolving conflicts
and promptly establishing dialogue during
crisis moments
• PR enables firms to monitor the interests of
consumer, partners , employees and identify
threats.
Importance of Public relations

b)Enhances community relations

• It helps in building ties with the local
community by joining groups, donating
time to charity or any causes related to the
firm’s business.
• Participation in community activities
establishes a firm’s reliability
• This can be achieved through an ongoing
relationship with several important
influencers.
Importance of Public relations

c) Promotes brand values

• PR can enhance a firm’s reliability since
trust plays an integral role in determining
the success of a business.
• PR can increase credibility by enhancing a
firm’s reputation through thought
leadership, influencer connections and
networking strategies.
• PR can facilitate sharing of positive
messages to a firm’s audience in line with
the brand image.
Importance of Public relations

d) Reputation Management
• Media connections can enable an
organization to repair their damaged
image through a simple press release.
• PR agencies provide business with an
opportunity to build such connections
Importance of Public relations

e) 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.
Example of Public relations
Initiatives by Coca Cola
• The Coca-Cola Central, East
and West Africa (CEWA) Limited together
with its partners launched a job-creation
initiative dubbed Kuza Kazi in Kwale County,
where the youth are trained on
entrepreneurship aimed at tackling the
challenge of high unemployment.
• A total of 135 beneficiaries of the Kuza Kazi
initiative received a full starter kit
consisting of an ice box, a sunshade,
products such as soft drinks, water or juices
and branding materials, as an initial
investment into their businesses.
Reactive Vs Proactive Public
Relations
• Reactive PR must react or respond to a
public relations issue or problem.

• Proactive PR allows organizations to plan

and execute public relations activities on
their own timeline.
Reactive Public Relations
• Establish your audience and their
expectations.
• Address them in a language that they
resonate with and a message that they can
comprehend and will accept as reasonable
• Take cognizance of your brand and what it
stands for.
• Apologize if you must, however, remind
your audience that your brand cares and
ensure you have clarity in what it does.
Reactive Public Relations
• Remain on course, when things have gone
wrong. Remember that the media will
want to extract juicy stories from you to
add fuel to their story.
Proactive Public Relations
• Involves creation of content and stories
that promote a firm’s brand, products and
company in a positive light.
• Leverage engaging case studies, quotes
and stories to attract your target audience
and show them who you are and what you
do.
• Create a content calendar to track the
right time to send your release.
• Seek interview opportunities on social
media and online PR platforms.
Tools for Reactive and
Proactive Public Relations

Reactive Public Proactive Public

Relations Tools Relations Tools
• Press releases • Press releases
• Press conferences • Content(blogs, videos)
• Social media • Social media channels
channels • Influencers and trend
setters
• Content(videos and
• New technologies
blogs)
(chatbots, AI)
PR Tools
 PR Tools
Press Release -A press release is a news story written by
an organization to promote a product, organization, or
person.

Advertorials -Advertorials are advertisements in the form

of news stories or reviews in newspapers. Advertorials
allow you to associate your advertising with the credibility
of the newspaper.

Blogging -digital forms of press releases and newsletters

Social media networks are utilized in PR to establish a

direct communication with the public, consumers,
investors and other target groups.
 PR Tools
Events -Companies can draw attention to new
products or other company activities by arranging
special events like news conferences, seminars,
exhibits, contests, anniversaries, sponsorship in
sports and cultural events.
What is the Difference Between Public
Relations and Advertising?

Public relations is not a form of advertising –it is wider than

advertising

Public relations relates to all communication of the entire

organization while advertising is limited to products or services
being sold

Public relations is not free advertising because it is time consuming,

and time is money.

PR involves the entire organization while advertising is limited to

special buying tasks such as promotion of goods and services.
What is the Difference Between Public
Relations and Marketing?

Marketing is the management

function responsible for identifying,
anticipating and satisfying customer
requirements profitably, while
PR is not profit oriented but aims at
creating awareness through
provision of information.
Types of Public Relations
• Community Relations: Handling the social aspect of the
brand and establishing a positive reputation in the
social niche like environment protection, education,
etc.

• Customer Relations: Handling relationships with

the target market and lead consumers. Conducting
market research to know more about interests,
attitudes, and priorities of the customers and crafting
strategies to influence the same using earned media.

• Government Relations: Representing the brand to the

government regarding the fulfilment of policies like
corporate social responsibility, fair competition,
consumer protection, employee protection, etc.
Types of Public Relations
• Internal Relations: Counselling the employees of the
organization about policies, course of action,
organization’s responsibility and their responsibility.
Cooperating with them during special product launches
and events.

• Media Relations: Establishing a good relationship with

the media organizations and acting as their content
source.

• Investor Relations: Handling investors events, releasing

financial reports and regulatory filings, and handling
investors, analysts and media queries and complaints.
Types of Public Relations
• Marketing Communications: Supporting marketing
efforts relating to product launch, special
campaigns, brand awareness image and
positioning.
Role of Public Relations
• Generate goodwill among consumers, the media,
and other target audiences by raising the
organization’s profile
• Stimulate demand for a product, service, idea, or
organization
• Head off critical or unfavorable media coverage
• Maintain good relationships with influencers—the
people who strongly influence the opinions of
target audiences
• Build and maintain a positive image
• Inform target audiences about positive
associations with a product, service, brand, or
organization
Advantages of PR
• Reach: A good public relations strategy can
attract many news outlets, exposing the
content to a large audience.
• It can help the company utilize certain
organic touchpoints that are hard to
capitalize on otherwise.

• Better Communication: Public relations help

the company to communicate more
information to the public than other forms of
communication media.
Advantages of PR
• Credibility: Public trusts the message coming from
a trusted third party more than the advertised
content.

• Cost effectiveness: Public relations is a cost-

effective technique to reach large audience as
compared to paid promotion.
Disadvantages of PR
• Difficult To Measure Success: It is hard to measure
and evaluate the effectiveness of a PR campaign.

• No Direct Control: Unlike paid media, there isn’t a

direct control over the content distributed through
the earned media. This is the biggest risk of
investing in public relations.

• No Guaranteed Results: Publishing of a press

release isn’t guaranteed as the brand doesn’t pay
for it. The media outlet publishes it only if it feels
that it’ll attract its target audience.
GROUP DISCUSSION
Equity Group has launched a private sector focused
stimulus package worth 678 billion Kenya shillings to
accelerate economic recovery and resilience in
the Eastern and Central Africa region as it recovers from
the devastating health, social, humanitarian, and
economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Explain the type of PR Equity Group is pursuing.

Discuss the advantages that Equity stands to gain from this
initiative.
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