TOPIC 1

INTRODUCTION
PUBLIC RELATIONS
 Definition of public relations
Deals with relationship management.
Involves building mutual relationships and maintaining them.
Organizations interact with several parties e.g customers, government
(maintenance of security, regulations, control etc), competitors (commonality
of interests) society (provides acceptance of activities, products or culture of
the organization/public opinion), civil interest organizations e.g environmental
organizations, organizations concerned with religious norms, employees,
shareholders, suppliers etc. Each of these parties have;
Interests that you have to take into account
Obligations to fulfil
You have to develop policies and clearly defined systems
to deal with conflicts that may arise between the various
interest groups.
Public relations manages the co-relationship between
interests and obligations.
In the process of interaction with the parties involved,
there are likely to be some conflicts i.e conflicting interests
between the parties involved.
The management function that identifies, establishes and
maintains mutually beneficial relations between an organization and
the various publics on whom its success or failure depends (Cutlip a.
and Glen M. ).
Public relations is the planned and sustained effort to establish and
maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an
organization and its publics.
It is ‘the planned and sustained effort’ — meaning that PR activity
is organized as a campaign or programme and is a continuous activity
it is not haphazard.
Its purpose is ‘to establish and maintain mutual understanding’ —
that is, to ensure that the organization is understood by others.
 This mutual understanding is thus between an organization and its
publics, since many groups of people are involved.
The management of communication between organization and its
publics (Gruning J. E. and Tudd H).
A communication function of management through which an
organization adapts to, alters or maintains their environment for the
purpose of achieving organizational goals.
 The firm needs to have flexibility. Public relations should be seen
as an exchange process i.e mutual process.
Common elements in all the definitions
i. PR conducts a planned and sustained program as part of
an organization’s management.
ii. PR monitors awareness, opinion, attitude and behavior
inside and outside the organization.
iii. PR analyses the impact of policies, procedures and
actions that are in conflict with the public.
iv. PR adjusts the policies, procedures and actions that are
in conflict with the public
v. PR counsels management on establishment of policies that are
mutually beneficial to the organization and public.
vi. PR establishes and maintains a two-way communication
between the organization and the public.
vii. PR produces specific changes in awareness, attitudes and
behavior.
viii. PR produces new and maintained relationships between the
organization and the public.
In summary PR is a management function that maintains a
mutually beneficial relationship between the organization
and the public.
It is a management to environment scanning.
Uses open door policy.
It is a two-way communication system.
Public relations process consists of the following;
Research and analysis – what is the problem or situation?
Policy formulation and programming – what is going to be
done about it, when, by whom and in what order?
Communication and action - how will the public be told?
What activities have to be carried out?
Evaluation or feedback - was the audience reached and
with what effects?
Public Relations is;
Deliberate – intentional objectives
Planned – organized
Performance – actual policies and activities.
Public interest – mutually beneficial
Two-way communication – feedback and response
Management function – top management decision making
Public relations practitioners operate at two distinct
levels;
As advisors to top management in an organization or to
other clients
As technicians who produce and disseminate messages in
multiple media channels
Characteristics of personal public
relations
Public relation starts at an individual level. There are various
characteristics that describe personal public relation.
1. They care about what others think of them.
2. They actively seek to gain approval.
3. They actively create conditions that will motivate others to help
him.
4. They actively eliminate obstacles.
5. People practice public relations unconsciously.
6. Everybody would want others to look at them positively and this
is known as personal relations PR.
Personal PR – Building individual image and reputation which is
important in their career.
Qualities of PR people
Ability to get along with all kinds of people
Ability to communicate effectively
- Talk to everyone
Ability to organize
- Good public relation should be able to co-ordinate activities
and other people in given sector
- In any institution, a public relation practitioner interact with both
internal and external publics hence is called upon to co-ordinate these
two terms of the publics for the well being of an organization.
Imaginative/creativity
--A public relation practitioner should think and act creatively e.g. in
the event of crisis in an organization.
-He should come up with creative strategies to manage the situation
before the organization image is tainted.
Should have personal integrity and honesty
- Since he/she is the point person for the media in any given
organization, he/she has the responsibility of exhibiting high level of
integrity and honesty
Ability to find out/to seek knowledge
 Relations between PR and other fields
Can be distinguished from:
advertising,
marketing,
sales promotions,
propaganda
publicity
1) PR Vs Advertising
Advertising presents the most persuasive possible selling
message to a perspective audience for a product or service
at the lowest possible cost.
-PR is not a form of advertising but a much bigger activity.
-PR relates to communication of the total organization and
not just the marketing function of advertising.
Whereas PR is relational, advertising is more transactional .
Adverts are over-exaggerated and tend to make

false claims, highly sensational and repetitive
because its activities are limited to specifically
selling and buying tasks.
PR is also more extensive and comprehensive

whereas not all organizations may do advertising, it
is important that every organization is involved in
PR.
While PR uses both mass media and interpersonal

communication, advertising uses mass media and machine
assisted communication.
PR is not paid for but it is presented as part of news/feature

or editorial while advertising is paid for or sponsored.
PR has the focus of informing, educating and creating

understanding while advertising has the basic purpose of
selling.
 2) PR Vs Publicity
PR aims at gaining an organizations or individuals positive exposure
to their key stakeholders while publicity is about credibility which is
aired in between news stories like in the evening TV news casts.
PR is about strategies used to enhance a company’s reputation
while publicity is used in spreading of information to gain public
awareness for a product and can be seen as a result of effective PR
planning.
PR is the art of doing good and telling others about it to gain
goodwill while publicity is the end result of a PR campaign.
While PR strives to identify and understand key publics in order
to develop best strategies and tactics to assess current
relationships with each other, publicity is not always planned and
it is not always good.
Publicity is about getting attention and it’s a one way
communication. Information is made known so that publicity is a
result.
This result may be uncontrollable and may be good or bad for the
subject concerned so that some personalities or organizations receive
both good and bad publicity e.g. a pop star musician may get good
publicity for a concert and bad for taking drugs.
Behavior has a great bearing on whether publicity is good or bad.
In comparison, PR is very much about the behavior of individuals,
organizations’ products or service of both publicity and PR do not
need the viewer to pay for information.
Both are done to gain sponsorship.
Publicity is one way; PR is mutual/ two way.
PR enhances company’s image-builds positive image and
drops negative. Publicity gives both good and bad image.
Publicity is a product of PR.
3) PR Vs Marketing
Marketing is the management process responsible for identifying,
anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably as
defined by the Chartered Institute of Marketing
It uses 4 P’s
 Price
 Product
Place
Promotion
-PR is part of marketing
-While marketing aims at gaining growth PR aims at getting support
Marketing is concerned with Saturation of market PR is concerned with
sustainability
Marketing focuses on conception PR focuses on engagement with
market
Marketing Seeks to create, expand, and maintain a collection of
customers for profit purposes. PR Seeks to initiate change of attitude in
consumers/publics
Marketing Seeks to exploit a transactional relationship between an
organization and its markets PR Seeks to manage communication
between organizations and key publics in order to maintain and build
a positive image by influencing reputation.
Marketing is paid for- it’s a budget consuming activity PR is Freely
done
In marketing the target audience basically comprises consumers
and potential customers in PR Targets various publics including
legislators and politicians
Marketing adds value through increased income through increased
sales resulting in profits PR adds value by decreasing expenses that
arise when critically/ potentially threatening issues in a
organization’s internal/external environment are ignored.
Marketing is designed to arouse interest in a particular product or
service with the hope of increasing its usage PR is a broad and
ongoing marketing function designed to help earn the supportive
public attitudes needed for an organization to exist.
-PR comes in all aspects of marketing.
 How marketing relates to PR
They are five conceptual models on the relationship between
marketing and PR:
-According to Phillip Kotler, PR, is a distinct function but it should be
managed as part of a company’s marketing functions.
-In 1978, Kotler et al identified five conceptual models or relationships
between marketing and PR as follows:
1) Separate and equal function
-Traditional view in which the two functions are difficult in
their perspectives and rules
-marketing identifies and meets the consumer’s needs. PR
serves to create and maintain goodwill towards a company
from its various publics in order to enable it achieve its
goals.
2) Equal but overlapping functions
-This view advocates that although they are separate and important, they share
same common grounds
-Areas such as product publicity and consumer relation form the most obvious
areas or formal interests in PR and marketing
-Here PR seems to serve something or a counter balance to the policies of
marketing department, advisory marketers on the potential wider social impact
and possible PR to their policies.
3) Marketing as the dominant function
-This reflects the view that the PR function exists to serve the
needs of the market so as to facilitate marketing of a company’s
goods and services
-In some cases, marketing is viewed as a sub-function of PR.
Here the argument is that survival of a firm depends on how it builds
relationships with its key stakeholders/publics
-These includes customers, employees, shareholders, communities,
government
-satisfying customers-task of marketing is only one of a firm’s task. Must be
balanced against the needs those other groups. Therefore, marketing
should be placed under PR to ensure that good will of all stake holders is
maintained
4) Marketing and PR as convergent functions
-Views marketing and PR as a function whose concepts and
methodology are rapidly convergent.
-This view recognizes that the two are both concerned to some
degree with right services and marketing recognizes need for and
acknowledges importance of understanding, influential attitude,
perceptions and images in formulating the programs.
Kotler argues that this 5th model could offer a solution to the
interdepartmental rivalry of the between the two by synthesizing activities of the
two, reducing conflicts and lack of coordination
-He also argues that divisions between the two is showing signs of breaking
down and closer integration between the two functions is likely to become
increasingly common.
PR support for marketing activities
-PR operate primarily as a publicity function helping to extend the
reach of marketing budget, complimenting the use of advertising and
other marketing techniques
-The increased cost of the media space and out time, the increased
fragmentation of media audiences and increased competition for the
attention of audiences have led to an increased realization that
advertising alone can no longer be relied upon to deliver results of
PR.
-As a result of this change in consumer market price many firms have
been forced to examine the basis of many of their market strategies
and particularly their traditional reliance in mass advertising.
-This has led to a move towards more narrowly targeted and focused
markets
-Strategies requiring a shift away from a heavy reliance on
advertising to the adaption of multichannel communication have
recently become popular. E.g. strategies employ direct marketing,
PR, sponsorship and sales promotion
 4) PR Vs Propaganda

Propaganda is a means of gaining support for an opinion, belief or
-

creed.
-Propaganda concentrates on matters of the mind and hit
emotional, intellectual or spiritual topics which people may not
agree on.
-For the recipient of propaganda there is often little tangible gain
only some inner satisfaction.
-The main difference is in perception rather than in practice. PR has
positive connotation, propaganda is negatively perceived.
-Effective PR material is factual, newsworthy and impartial.
Propaganda is not.
-PR is a management function and source of the message is in the
public, source of propagation is not always clear.
-PR seeks to create understanding and build acceptance from public-
goodwill. Propaganda does not.
-Commonly propaganda is a systematic effort to influence other
people’s beliefs, attitudes or action with an emphasis of
manipulation.
-PR is associated with the business/commercial section. Propaganda is
associated with political sector or religious cults.
-Propaganda like PR is a systematic form of purposeful persuasion.
-PR practitioners and propagandists are both interested in producing
changes in awareness, attitudes and behavior.
5) PR Vs Sales promotion
-Sales promotion consists of short term skills usually at the
point of sale but also in direct response marketing to launch
a new product as to revive and increase sales.
-It consists of below the line efforts i.e. use of media other
than traditional mass media to help sell goods or services.
PR is a long term activity.
PR VS SPINNING
Spinning is a highly manipulative tactic of communication
associated with politics and agenda setting.
 It is highly biased mostly emphasizing the negative.
 It focuses on putting information in either a positive or
negative light depending on the side the presenter is
representing
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PR SPINNING
PR is based on accurate information. Spinning is biased, inaccurate,
one sided and has distorted facts
PR’s purpose is to inform and educate. Spinning aims at
manipulating or influencing using highly developed tactics
PR adheres to principles of effective communication. Spinning does
not follow any standards. The ends justify the means.
PR is predictable. Spinning is reactionary and spontaneous.
PR cuts across the board. Spinning associated with politics
PR is planned and long term It has ad hoc techniques e.g. non-
denial denial
 Publics
Publics refer to stakeholders in whom a firm has interests and who have an interest in a
firm and its activities.
-employees,
-shareholders,
-consumers,
-community groups,
-government,
-financiers,
-competitors
-civil society among others.
Publics can be classified as internal publics and external publics.
The reason for this is the choice for communication media because
there are some media that are appropriate for internal and not
external publics.
Internal publics have personalized media e.g face to face.
External publics can be reached through other external media.
Practitioners in public relations go by titles such as
Corporate relations
External affairs
Public affairs
Consumer relations
Corporate communications
Relationship management
Relationship management is the most appropriate terminology followed by
corporate relations.
Requirements for success in Public Relations
Personal characteristics /qualities
Professional characteristics /qualities
1. Personal qualities
Are common characteristics shared by among the best people in
PR
PR people are keen to know i.e they have an inquisitive or probing
mind. This quality is largely complemented by professional growth.
PR people by nature are not introverts i.e they are outgoing. These
people are social and waiting to be with others as opposed to being
on their own.
Skilled in public speaking and hence should be able to handle
publics.
PR person must be an achiever and result oriented i.e should be a
performer. PR has specific targets.
A PR person must have a positive public appeal i.e someone
likeable, recognizable, outstanding from the crowd e.g tall, short,
dress, speak etc
PR people must have the ability to accommodate others. This is
favourable to people without emotional upsets. One needs to focus
on issues and not personality. Also one has to accept that he/she is
not perfect.
Ability to research and evaluate the results of a PR campaign, and
learn from these findings.
Ability to organise: that calls for patient planning.
2. Professional qualities
PR people from the point of view of professionalism must
respect honesty and ethical conduct.
PR requires continuous learning e.g see what internet has
done to PR like ordering products, payment of products
through internet etc.
Publicrelationsasamanagementdiscipline

- PR can play an important strategic role in managing organizational

relationship with the stakeholders with the aim of achieving the
organizations goals.
- PR practice is the act and social science of analyzing trends,
predicting their consequence, counseling organizational leaders and
implement plan which will serve both the organization and the
organization and the public interest
- A number of common themes can be distilled from
various definitions of PR to show that PR is a management
discipline.
Management –working with and through other people to
achieve an organization’s objectives and goals through use
of resources (usually scarce) efficiently and effectively.
1) PR is essentially a communications function but with emphasis on the two way nature of
the communication’s process.
2) PR is concerned with establishing and maintaining mutual understandings and good will
between organizations and particular groups of people-publics.
3) PR serves as an intelligence function, analyzing and interpreting trends and issues in the
environment that may have consequences for an organization and its stake holders.
4) PR is concerned with assisting organizations to both formulate and achieve socially
acceptable goals thus achieving a balance between commercial imperatives and socially
responsible behavior.
Role of Public Relations in organizations
PR starts with top management. Behavior of senior corporate officers is key to
effective PR function. Integrity and socially responsible actions of top mangers
are essential for PR success.
Long term success in PR calls for
Top management’s commitment to and participation in PR
Retention of competent PR counsel
Incorporation of PR perspectives in policy making
Two way communication with internal and external publics
Coordination between what is done and what is said
Clearly defined goals and objectives
 1. Staff Role
PR is a staff function – advise and support to line managers
Line management expects the following from PR people;
Loyalty
Help with PR aspects or decisions
Skill in articulating principles and in enhancing public understanding of the
organization.
Inspiration to help all members do their best
Influence in restraining other members from saying or doing anything
detrimental to the organization’s welfare.
2. Decision making role
In expert or technical areas such as “expert prescriber” role. Expert practitioners define
problems, develop programs, and take responsibility for its implementation.
3. External role
It gives competitive strength through;
(i) Differentiation
Corporate identity through branding using corporate logo, corporate architecture
(buildings)
corporate colour
Staff/employees
Services and products and the way they are branded
Market and image dimension i.e who are the organization clients
and what is their opinion about the organization
(ii) Pre emphasizes efficiency i.e effective delivery of services
(iii) Helps in resolving conflicts and crisis . PR does not eliminate
but help in resolving conflicts
(iv) Helping the enterprise achieve growth. This could be growth in
market share, volume of products or services generated etc.
MODELS OF PUBLIC RELATIONS
- Models describe a set of values and a pattern of behavior that
characterizes the action taken by a PR department or individual
practitioner to all PR programs.
- There are 4 models that differ from one another in terms of two key
variables:
purpose
Direction-the extent to which the communication between an
organization and its public goes. Either one-way (monologue) or two-
way (dialogue)
The first three models reflect a practice of public relations
that attempts through persuasion to achieve the
organization’s goals.
The fourth focuses on balancing self-interests and the
interests of the other group or public.
1) Press Agentry /publicity model
In this model information moves one way—from the organization to
its publics.
- Its purpose is propaganda e.g. using celebrity names, and attention
gaining devices, promotions, and publicity and truth is not essential.
- It has little research, if any.
- Public relations practitioners operating under this model are always
looking for opportunities to get their organization’s name favorably
mentioned in the media.
- The louder the noise, the more attention-getting the story, whether
true or face, the better they are doing their jobs.
 -
2) Public information model:
This differs from press agentry because the intent is to inform rather
than to press for promotion and publicity, but the communication is still
essentially one-way. In this one truth is important.
- Little research is done and the PRO’s decide what information gets to
the public.
Today this model represents public relations practices in government,
educational institutions, nonprofit organizations, and even in some
corporations.
 3) Two-way asymmetric:
Its purpose is to increase the persuasiveness of messages. It uses social science
research methods.
Public relations practitioners use surveys, interviews, and focus groups to
measure public relationships e.g. attitude evaluation to come up with programs
that will gain the support of key publics.
Although feedback is built into the process, the organization is much more
interested in having the publics adjust to the organization than the reverse. In
this way it is a two-way communication with imbalanced effects.
Two different models have since been developed under this model:
the cultural interpreter model
and the personal influence model.
The cultural interpreter model depicts the practice of public relations in
organizations that do business in other countries, “where it needs someone who
understands the language, culture, customs, and political system of the host
country.”
The personal influence model depicts a practice of public relations in which
practitioners try to establish personal relationships with key individuals, “as
contacts so favors can be sought.”
 4) Two-way symmetric:
This talks about organizations and their publics adjusting to each other.
Social science research methods is used to achieve mutual understanding and
two-way communication rather than one way persuasion.
Other names for the symmetrical model were created by James E. Grunig
(2001): mixed motives, collaborative advocacy, and cooperative antagonism. He
intended to present an ethical model that “balanced self-interests with the
interest of others in a give-and-take process that can waver between advocacy
and collaboration.”