Why use PR

PR – the rationale On the door of our office, we have a poster which sums up pretty well – albeit in a colourful manner – what public relations is.

“A man takes a girl out for a romantic evening. At the end of it, he tells her that he is the world’s best lover - that’s advertising. If he tells her she needs a lover and he’s the best man for the job, that’s marketing.

But if, before he can say a word, she tells him that she’s heard he is a great lover - then that’s public relations.”

You get the general idea.

In simple terms, we think of PR as communications management. It creates awareness, educates and influences public opinion, promotes and protects reputations and encourages organisations to communicate.

Public relations is almost always a key element in any communication mix - and if it’s not, it should be! PR is now a communication form in its own right.

While public relations can be applied to all sorts of individuals and groups, the activities generally fall into the following broad areas:

• Media Relations • Government Relations • Financial and Investor Relations • Internal Communication and Employee Relations • Community Relations and Social Responsibility Within those categories, there are a whole range of activities which can be applied from crisis management at one end of the spectrum to event staging at the other (perhaps not so different, after all).

I’ve been in PR now for 20 years and have noticed attitudes to the profession have changed dramatically, especially in the past three or so years. More and more business people are recognising a need for PR to help them communicate either with their own staff, the media, their ‘stakeholders’. This is the age of transparency.

And how we, as PR practitioners, do business has changed. The scattergun approach is no good today. Clients need a sustained, measured, targeted programme if they want to get results. It may involve a specific aspect of your business or a strategic plan for the whole entity.

- John Durning, Durning Public Relations, PR & Media Adviser, Christchurch, New Zealand; ph 64-3- 365 2579; email john@durning.co.nz



Why use PR - To learn more about this author, visit John Durning's Website.

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