Page 47 - MARKETING & PUBLIC RELATIONS EBOOK IC88

 bulletins, mentioning new facilities, innovations and improvisations that add value
 greetings, gifts, souvenirs
 invitations for special events
(d) Public Relations

1. Public Relations (PR) efforts made with a view to establish and maintain mutually beneficial
relationships between an organisation and the public, including its prospective customers. PR is
based on the recognition that without the active support from the public, the organisation will
have difficulty to carry on and grow. PR seeks to shift the public form

 hostility to understanding
 prejudice to acceptance
 apathy to interact
 ignorance to knowledge

2. PR tools include

 all the tools of publicity
 entertainment, lunches and dinners
 lobbying
 journals/newsletters
 sponsorship of sports and other activities
 special drives
 interest group meetings, involving representatives of various publics

3. PR is different from advertising on the following grounds

 Advertising is oriented towards marketing and selling, while PR is aimed at creating an
understanding which may help selling efforts to succeed.
 PR can overcome the negative impact of an advertisement, if it has offended the public because
of some unintended interpretations of language or visuals.
 PR, in trying to improve credibility, may be candid in admitting errors, while advertisements will
generally, only state the positives.
 Advertisements can use imaginative visuals, which PR cannot.
 If PR is effective, there can be savings in advertisements.
 The costs of advertising can be measured but not of the PR effort.

(e) Personal Selling

1. Personal Selling is another element of the promotion mix. Advertisements and other non-
personal communications are one-way communications. They provide information, which, it is
assumed, would be adequate for prospects to make choices to buy. They do not answer
questions or allay fears of customers. Decisions are not made on the basis of information at the
cognitive level.

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