The corporate affair is a collection of strategic activities aimed at marketing an organization, and its ideals to potential stakeholders (consumers, the general public, stakeholders, media, government, and so on). The goal of public relations is to track public attitudes, identify issues that may elicit public concern, and develop programs to create and maintain positive relationships between a firm and its stakeholders. Public relations can improve the public’s general awareness of a company and can create specific images such as quality, innovativeness, value, or concern for social issues.
Public relations methods
Firms use a number of public relations methods to convey messages and to create the right attitudes, images, and opinions. Public relations professionals prepare materials such as brochures, newsletters, annual reports, and news releases that reach and influence desired stakeholders.
Publicity-includes the firm’s activities designed to gain media attention through articles, editorials, or new stories. By encouraging the media to report on a firms desired image.
- News (or press) releases-used to draw attention to a company event, product, or person affiliated with the firm.
- Feature articles-full-length story prepared for a specific purpose or target audience. Feature articles typically focus on the implications or economic impact of a firm’s actions. They are also very useful when responding to negative events or publicity.
- White papers-more technical and focus on very specific topics of interest to firms stakeholders. White papers are similar to feature articles, however, they are more technical and focus on very specific topics of interest to the firm’s stakeholders. White papers promote a firms stance on the important product or market issues and can be used to promote the firms own products and solutions.
- Press Conferences-a meeting with news media called to announce or respond to major events. Media personnel receives invitations to a specific location, with written materials, photographs, exhibits, and even products given to them.
- Event sponsorship-local evens-high school, international evens Tour de France
- Product Placement-beverages, computers, clothing, and automobiles. These firms have a strong interest in placing their products in the hands of movie and television characters that consumers see as enjoying the product or using the product as part of the action.
- Employee Relations-Provide organizational support for employees with respect to their jobs and lives. Employee relations can encompass many different activities, including internal newsletters, training programs, employee assistance programs, and human resource programs. The firm has much less control over how the message will be delivered. Another drawback involves the risk of spending a great deal of time and effort in developing public relations messages that fail to attract media attention.
Negative Public Relations
Unexpected and often unfavorable public relations resulting from an ethical or legal inquiry, unsafe products, accidents, or the controversial actions of employees and executives. Sometimes public relations campaigns themselves cause problems, leading to unintended consequences on the parts of the campaign creators. The city of Bost underwent a bomb scare after Ted Turner and Turner Broadcasting.
Negative publicity is critically important when its effects reduce the degree of trust that customers have in a specific industry or firm. Tylenol cyanide-tampering.
Negative stories receive more attention now than in the past. To avoid negative publicity is vital to avoid negative incidents and events that can create problems. Firms can achieve this goal through effective ethical and legal compliance programs, safety programs, quality-control procedures, and programs designed to enhance employee integrity. One of the great public relations lessons learned over time is that firms must expedite new coverage of negative events rather than try to block the news or cover up facts about the incident.