Public Relations

Public Relations

Meaning of Public Relations

1. Council of the Institute of Public relations (British) 1948:- “Public relations practice is the deliberate, planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain mutual understanding between an organization and its public.”

Interpretation:

n     PR is “the deliberate, Planned and sustained effort” that is, PR activity is organized as a campaign or programme and it is a sustained activity. It is not a disorganized activity.

n     The purpose is “to establish and maintain mutual understanding” Its aim is to make the organization understood by the others. This mutual understanding is thus between an organization and its public or rather publics, since various groups of people are involved.

2. The Mexican Statement (1978):- “Public relations practice is the art and social science of analyzing trends, predicting their consequences, counseling organization leaders and implementing planned programmes of action which will serve both organization’s and the public interest. ”

Interpretation:

n     The Mexican Statement refers to “Analyzing trends” which implies the application of research technique before a PR programme.

n     The definition embraces the public affairs and social conscience aspects of an organization. Public relations is about goodwill and reputation. An organization will be judged by its behavior and its sense of responsibility the interest of the public at large.

More definitions:

1.    Classic definition: - Creating an understanding for or goodwill towards a company, person or product.

2.    Sam Black in “Practical Public Relations” says that, “the fundamental purpose of public relations practice is to establish a two-way flow of mutual understanding based on truth, Knowledge and full information.”

3.    John Maston defined PR as: - “Public relations is finding out what people like about you and doing of it, finding out what they don’t like about you and doing less of it.”

Analysis of Definitions

n     A planned effort or management function

n     Identify existing relationships

n     Evaluate the Relationships

n     Design Policies to Improve Relationships

n     Implement the Policies

Two New Concepts of Public Relations

n     The Black Box Concept

n     The SRIF Formula

          S- Strongest

          R- Relevant

          I- Influence

          F-Factor