Advertising Principles

and Practices

Public Relations
 Questions We’ll Answer
• What is public relations, and what are
different types of public relations
programs?
• What key decisions do public relations
practitioners?
• What are the most common types of
public relations tools?
• How do you measure the results of public
relations efforts important?

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GE Goes Green with Ecomagination
• GE is committed to being on the
cutting edge of cleaner power
and environmental technology.
• GE’s investing
\ $1.5 billion by
2010 in R&D for green
technologies plus running a
campaign to encourage their Visit the
Site
publics to go green.
• Won a 2006 Silver Effie;
49% of those surveyed
liked the dancing elephant
commercial “a lot.”
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 What is public relations?
• Used to generate goodwill for
an organization.
• Focuses on relationships with
an organization’s publics.
• Publics/stakeholders—all the
groups of people with which
an organization interacts—
employees, members, local
communities, shareholders,
customers other institutions.
• Publicity—getting news
media coverage.
• PR is a managerial function
and a tactical function.

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Who practices public relations?
• Companies
• Governments
• Nonprofit organizations
• Travel/tourism industry
• Labor unions
• School systems
• Politicians
• Organized sports
• Agencies (for clients) and
in-house departments

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 Public Opinion
• What people think; their
beliefs based on perceptions
or evaluations of events,
people, institutions or
products (not necessarily on
fact).
• PR strategists want to know:
– What publics are important to
us now and in the future?
– What do these publics think?
• Opinion Leaders—
important people who
influence the opinions of
others—are especially
important.. 17-6
Reputation: Goodwill, Trust,
and Integrity
• Goodwill is a company’s greatest asset—PR’s job
is to create it.
• “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember
anything.”
• Integrity is not just about having a positive
image, it’s a result of a company’s actual
behavior.

Principle:
Public relations is the conscience of the
company, with the objective of creating trust
and maintaining the organization’s integrity.

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Comparing PR and Advertising
•Media use • Seek to persuade
media gatekeepers to
carry stories about or
•Control “cover” their
companies.
•Credibilit • Gatekeepers are
writers, editors,
y producers, talk-show
coordinators, and
newscasters.
• This aspect of PR is
called publicity.

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Comparing PR and Advertising
•Media use • With news stories,
PR people are at
the mercy of the
•Control media gatekeeper.
• They don’t have to
•Credibilit run your story.
• Advertising runs
y exactly as the
client who paid for
it has approved.

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Comparing PR and Advertising
•Media use • Public tends to trust
the media more than
they do advertisers.
•Control • Consumers assume
a story is legitimate
•Credibilit if it appears in the
media; this is an
y implied third-party
endorsement.

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 Types of PR Programs
• Media relations •Focus on
developing media
• Employee contacts
relations •Knowing who in the
• Financial relations media might be
interested in the
• Public affairs organization’s story
• Fund-raising •Relationships must
be built on honesty,
• Cause marketing accuracy, and
professionalism
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 Types of PR Programs
• Media relations •Programs that
communicate
• Employee information to
relations employees
•Related program is
• Financial relations internal marketing
• Public affairs – Communication
efforts aimed at
• Fund-raising informing
employees about
• Cause marketing marketing
programs
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 Types of PR Programs
• Media relations • Communications
aimed at financial
• Employee community
relations • Press releases to
• Financial relations business
magazines,
• Public affairs meetings with
• Fund-raising investors, annual
(financial) reports
• Cause marketing
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 Types of PR Programs
• Media relations • Communication with
government and with
• Employee the public on issues
relations related to
government and
• Financial relations regulation
• Public affairs – Lobbying to get
legislators to
• Fund-raising support a bill
– Issue management
• Cause marketing (monitor and
communicate to
and with public) 17-14
 Types of PR Programs
• Media relations • The practice of
raising money by
• Employee collecting donations
relations • Used by nonprofits:
• Financial relations museums, hospitals,
Red Cross, etc. and
• Public affairs directed at potential
• Fund-raising donors
• Sometimes called
• Cause marketing development
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 Types of PR Programs
• Media relations • Companies
associate
• Employee themselves with a
relations cause, providing
• Financial relations assistance and
financial support
• Public affairs • Whirlpool and
• Fund-raising Habitat for
Humanity
• Cause marketing
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 Other Types of PR Programs
• Corporate Reputation Management
– Focused on image, reputation, trust
• Crisis Management
– Anticipating and planning for disasters from a media
perspective and with stakeholders
• Marketing Public Relations
– Plan and deliver programs to drive sales and build
customer satisfaction to communicating to address
consumer wants and needs
• Public Communication Campaigns
– To change public opinion, discourage harmful
behaviors
– “Truth” campaign to protest smoking

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 Public Relations Planning:
Research
• A communications audit assess the internal and external environment.
• Benchmarking identifies a baseline from a previous audit, or a
competitor.
• Gap analysis measures differences in perceptions between publics, or
between a public and the organization.
• Three types of publics:
– Latent publics are unaware of their connection to an organization an an
associated problem.
– Aware publics recognize their connection with a problem but don’t
communicate about it.
– Active publics communicate and act on a problem.

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 Public Relations Planning:
Objectives and Strategies
• PR objectives are to change the public’s
knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors related
to a company brand or organization.
• Typical PR objectives focus on:
– Creating credibility
– Delivering information
– Building positive images, trust, and corporate goodwill

Principle:
Before changing behavior, a communication program
may need to change beliefs, attitudes, and feelings.

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 Public Relations Planning:
The Big Idea
• Creative ideas get attention
• A Nevada conservation
program used a 50-year-old
tortoise as a mascot to promote
desert ecology
• TBS’s Cartoon Network used
electronically lit cartoon
characters on buildings and
bridges to promote their show
“Aqua Teen Hunger Force,”
causing bomb scares in Boston
– Cost TBS $2 million and the
network head resigned
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 PR’s Role in IMC
• In integrated programs, PR and advertising
communicate complementary messages.
• Because they’re often separate functions, the
message may be inconsistent.
• PR and advertising use many of the same tools.
• PR’s greatest strengths is in an IMC program are
raising awareness, creating credibility, and
providing media contacts.
• In this fragmented media society, PR and
advertising must merge or find common ground to
be part of the IMC program.

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Two Main Categories of PR Tools
• Controlled media
– Sponsoring organization pays for media and
controls how and when the message is
delivered.
• Uncontrolled media
– Sponsoring organization doesn’t pay for
media; the media controls how and when the
message is delivered.
– Semicontrolled media include electronic
media over which companies maintain some,
but not all control (e.g., company Web sites vs.
other Web sites, blogs, chat rooms).

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Table 17.1 Public Relations Tools

Controlled Media Uncontrolled Media

(Company controls the use and (Media controls the use and placement)
placement) • The news release (print, audio, video,
• House ads email, faxes
• Public service ads • Features (pitch features)
• Corporate, institutional, advocacy • Fillers, historical pieces, profiles
advertising • The press conference and media
• Publications: brochures, flyers, advisory (media kits, fact sheets,
magazines, newsletters background info)
• Annual reports • Media tours
• Speakers • Bylined articles, op/ed pieces, letters
• Photographs to the editor
• Films, videos, CD-ROMs • Talk and interview shows
• Displays, exhibits • Public service announcements
• Staged events
• Books
Semicontrolled Media

(Some aspects are controlled or initiated by the company, but other aspects aren’t)
• Electronic communication (Web sites, chat rooms)
• Special events and sponsorships
• Word of mouth (buzz)
• Weblogs (blogs) 17-23
 PR Tools: Advertising
• House ads
– Used in a company’s own
publication or programs (self
promo)
• Public service announcements
– Run free on TV, radio, or
print for a charities or civic
organizations
• Corporate advertising Visit the
Site
– Focused on corporate image
or viewpoint
– Corporate identity
advertising
– Advocacy advertising
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 PR Tools: Publicity
• News releases
– Deliver PR messages to external
media; answer five “Ws”
– VNRs contain video footage
• Pitch letters
– Engaging letter about a feature story
idea sent to editors who have to be
“sold,” usually a human interest angle
• Press conferences
– An event at which a spokesperson
makes a statement to the media; a
media kit may be sent ahead of time
• Media tours
– “Press conference on wheels”;
spokesperson makes speeches and
announcements, holds press
conferences, and offers interviews
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Media Assessment of News Values
• Editor’s decide to use news releases based on news value.
• News value is based on timeliness (something just
happened or is about to happen), proximity (a local angle),
impact (importance or significance), or human interest.

Replace

Prentice Hall, © 2009 17-33

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Communications Campaign Plan
• Even in PR, the media and messages must work
together to deliver communication objectives.

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