PR is a major mass-promotional tool. It builds good relations with a company’s various contacts by obtaining positive publicity, building up strong co-operate image, and handling & heading off unfavorable stories, events, and rumors. Public relations department may execute any or all of the following tasks:

• Press relations or press agency:

It is all about creating and placing interesting information in the news media to draw attention to a person, goods, or services.

• Product publicity:

Product publicity is for publicizing the detailed products and publicity can be positive or negative both.

• Public affairs:

In public affairs, a company has to build and maintain local and national community relations.

• Lobbying:

It is all about to build & maintain cooperative relations with the government officials and legislators to persuade legislation and regulation.

• Investor relations:

To maintain excellent relationship with shareholders, investors and others in financial community who invest their money in your business.

• Development:

Public relation department has to create good relationships with NGOs, donors, or members of other non-profit organizations to gain financial and volunteer support.

Public relations are used to promote product, people, place, ideas, activities, organization, and even nations. New York’s state turned its image around when its “I ♥ New York!” and that campaign brought million tourists to New York. .

Role and Impact of Public Relations

Public relations have a powerful impact on public awareness at a lower cost than advertising. There is a clear difference between publicity and advertising. “Publicity” is in a non-paid printed form and its impact can be negative and positive but “Advertising” is in a paid form and it has a positive impact for good or services.

The company does not compensate for the time or space in media. Rather than that it pays for a team to develop and circulate required information and to mange events. Public relations outcomes can sometimes be spectacular. The publisher Scholastic, Inc., used public relations to turn a simple new book introduction into a major international event, all on a small budget. Scholastic sponsored low-cost sleepovers, games, and costumes contests to whip up consumer passion for the fifth installment of its Harry Potter series.

Despite its potential strengths, PR is sometimes described as a marketing stepchild because of its often limited and scattered use. The public relation department is usually located at cooperate head offices and its staff is so busy to deal with various public, stockholders, other employees, legislators, city officials- that public relations plans to support product marketing objectives may be ignored. Many PR practitioners see their jobs as communicators. In contrast, marketing managers are much more interested in how advertising and PR affect brand building.

Public relations can be a powerful brand-building tool. The situation is changing, however. PR is playing an increasingly vital brand building role, although, public relations still captures only a small portion of the overall marketing budgets of most firm. So advertising and Public relations must work hand in hand to build and maintain brands of goods and services.