Chapter 1
What is public relations?
Chapter Aims
This chapter attempts to define public relations and its complexity. There is a brief history of the discipline to explain how it emerged and to provide context. An overview of the sector follows that looks at the structure, skills and tasks and what distinguishes it from other disciplines. It concludes by looking at the different ways of understanding public relations and introduces the idea of theory.
Introduction
If you asked a hundred people to define public relations, you would get a hundred different answers. Ian Burrell, the Media Editor on The Independent, called it one of the most misunderstood professions (2014). From popular culture who are the role models? In the UK we have Malcolm Tucker, the fictional Director of Communications for the government in the series In The Thick of It, who is aggressive and abusive and uses lies and rumours to achieve his ends. What of Samantha Jones, in the US-devised Sex and The City who gives the impression that PR is about party planning, celebrities and drinking cocktails. More recently the character of Nan Flanagan, in the True Blood series, focuses on how PR can be used by the American Vampire League to promote equal rights for vampires. These are hardly ringing endorsements for the profession.
So what is the reality? PR is far more complex and difficult to explain. It touches everything and everyone. When Save the Children launched their ‘Read On. Get On’ campaign to encourage dads to read to their children for ten minutes a day and secured substantial media coverage in newspapers, isn’t this a good thing? Isn’t it a good thing when local authorities encourage more people to recycle their waste by encouraging local residents to use recycling bins?
What about a company such as Unilever who took their Lifebuoy soap brand and established a powerful social mission by creating accessible and affordable soap bars and promoting healthy hygiene habits, with the aim to change the hand washing behaviour of one billion people across Asia, Africa and Latin America. India has the highest number of children under five dying from diarrhoeal disease, over 380,000 deaths a year or more than 1,000 deaths per day. These can be prevented. Handwashing Behaviour Change Programmes are now central to the Lifebuoy brand. Linking the organisation’s values and products with a social need puts responsibility central to communication.
On a different note, Unity PR won numerous awards for their hard-hitting PR programme for vInspired to tackle internet trolling. They used real-life trolling tweets projected onto the walls of the Waterloo Station underpass in London. This created an experiential and immersive space where passers-by felt just as threatened as if they had received real tweets. The campaign saw #lolzNOTtrolls trending on Twitter worldwide two hours after launch and was reported in over 74 pieces of traditional media. Just over 9,000 young people actively engaged with Facebook to discuss the impact of trolling. Changing attitudes and behaviours is often at the heart of what PR practitioners do.
Changing perceptions isn’t always easy. In 2005, Centrepoint, the UK’s leading youth homelessness charity, celebrated its fortieth anniversary. With a mission to change people’s attitude to young people who find themselves homeless, Centrepoint commissioned a series of photographs of young people staying in Centrepoint services. The images – of vibrant, dynamic young people full of energy and enthusiasm – were a powerful reminder that the horror of homelessness can happen to anybody. It helped pull in donations and put pressure on the UK government to change its policy towards youth homelessness.
Then there is perhaps the traditional view of PR – how to grab consumer attention. Edelman’s launch of Xbox 360’s Halo 4 in Europe – a game worth $3 billion that has sold over 45 million copies worldwide – resulted in a campaign for virtual reality, real reality. Working with the Principality of Liechtenstein, a real-life replica of the Halo universe was created and 70 media, super-fans and bloggers were invited to play the game for real. As a result, Halo 4 became the best selling Halo title ever released, making more than $220 million worldwide in the first 24 hours. The event secured more than 250 stories, with coverage in 20 markets and reached more than 14 million people via Twitter.
What about when organisations get PR wrong? The response by BP to the Gulf of Mexico environmental disaster in 2010 when 11 workers died has become a case study of how not to communicate. Poorly judged comments by the CEO Tony Hayward, long silences and a complete disconnect with the local communities in the regions that were affected by the disaster caused long-term damage to BP’s reputation and share price. Trust in BP has been severely damaged and they are now due to pay an $18.7bn environmental fine.
All of this shows aspects of PR in action. It is capable of having a tremendous impact by helping organisations and individuals connect, communicate and build relationships with those necessary for their survival and success. But how do we explain it?
In Search of a Definition
Public Relations is an emerging profession with its modern-day origins in the late nineteenth century. Yet it is only in the last 50 years that the practice of PR has come under serious study and defining the practice still vexes both practitioners and academics alike. One of the earliest and most helpful definitions is by Harlow (1976), who suggests that:
Public relations is a distinctive management function which helps establish and maintain mutual lines of communication, understanding, acceptance and cooperation between an organisation and its publics; involves the management of problems or issues; helps management to keep informed on and responsible to public opinion; defines and emphasises the responsibility of management to serve the public interest; helps management keep abreast of and effectively utilize change, serving as an early warning system to help anticipate trends; and uses research and ethical communication techniques as its principle tools.
(Harlow 1976: 36)
The key words here are management, meaning that public relations doesn’t just happen, it must be deliberate; mutuality, in that it is not one-sided; publics plural, meaning that there are a variety of different types of audiences around which relationships need to be built; responsibility and public interest, in that it is about a wider duty of care both inside and outside the organisation.
In 1978, at the first World Assembly of Public Relations Associations agreed that public relations ‘[i]s the art and social science of analyzing trends, predicting their consequences, counseling organisational leaders and implementing programmes of action that will serve both the organisations and the public interest’ (Mexican Statement 1978). Here the idea that PR is both an art and a science is an interesting one. An art because of the importance placed on showing empathy and understanding, the role of storytelling and creativity; yet a social science because it uses tools from psychology such as persuasion and is grounded in research and evaluation techniques. Again, the ideas of mutuality and a duty of care predominate these definitions.
Over time, the definition has been broadened to incorporate the concept of reputation. The UK’s CIPR talks of PR being:
About reputation – the result of what you do, what you say and what others say about you. PR is the discipline which looks after reputation, with the aim of earning understanding and support and influencing opinion and behaviour. It is the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics.
(Chartered Institute of Public Relations, n.d.)
We will look at the word reputation shortly, but other key words to think about include the concept of it being planned, returning to the idea of PR being a deliberate and thought-through activity. The idea of mutual understanding embeds the idea of a conversation, an exchange of viewpoint and a relationship. The concept of the organisation is important as it implies that PR does not just belong to one type of organisation, but is applicable to all sorts of organisations from small businesses to FTSE 100 companies, from professions and trade associations to governments and activist groups, and also includes those from the private, public and third sectors. Then there is the idea of publics again in the multiple sense and not just a single entity. Organisations need to communicate with a range of different types of publics (also known as audiences or stakeholders) from customers to investors, from employees to politicians. All are relevant and important.
The year 2012 saw yet another definition when the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) consulted its members on how they would define PR, given the impact of social media. They came up with: ‘Public Relations is a strategic communications process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organisations and their publics.’ This mirrors the simple and earlier definition of leading PR scholars, Grunig and Hunt, who suggested: ‘the management of communication between an organisation and its publics’ (1984: 6). This was later refined to ‘an organisation’s managed communications behaviour’ (Grunig 1997, cited in Grunig et al. 2006: 23). The role of Grunig and Hunt in PR history is one that will be explored later in this chapter.
What does this tell us? It tells us that PR is not tied to one particular PR tool (e.g. social media or media relations) as these are the tools PR people use. It also suggests that people interpret things differently. Guth and Marsh (2006: 7) argue PR people should avoid arguments around wording and concentrate on the elements of PR itself. They suggest that the ideas that underpin PR are straightforward (see Table 1.1).
A number of common themes emerge. PR is an organisational function, but organisations should be viewed broadly and not in the narrow sense of multinational corporations but including those of all shapes and sizes. It also embodies the view that organisations need relationships. This leads to the idea of PR being a relationship function. Ledingham and Bruning (1998: 62) defined the organisation–public relationship as ‘the state that exists between an organisation and its key publics in which the actions of either entity impact the economic, social, political and/or cultural well-being of the other entity’. This moves PR away from a narrow definition of relationships as in an information exchange to something more meaningful and mutual. Ledingham (2003) went on to argue that this relationship perspective of PR was fundamental to the understanding of PR as a managerial and strategic function.
Table 1.1 The five elements of PR
| Public relations is management function | The relationship between an organisation and the publics important to its success must be a top concern of the organisation’s leadership. The PR practitioner provides counsel on the timing, manner and form important communication should take. In other words, practitioners aren’t just soldiers who follow orders; they’re also generals who help shape policy. And like all managers, they must be able to measure the degree of their success in their various projects |
| Public relations involves two-way communication | Communication is not just telling people about an organisation’s needs. It also involves listening to those same people speak of their concerns. This willingness to listen is an essential part of the relationship-building process |
| Public relations is a planned activity | Actions taken on behalf of an organisation must be carefully planned and consistent with the organisation’s values and goals. And since the relationship between an organisation and the publics important to its success is a top concern, these actions must also be consistent with the publics’ values and goals |
| Public relations is a research-based social science | Formal and informal research is conducted to allow an organisation to communicate effectively, possessing a full understanding of the environment in which it operates and the issue it confronts. PR practitioners and educators also share their knowledge with others in the industry through various professional and academic publications |
| Public relations is socially responsible | A practitioner’s responsibilities extend beyond organisational goals. Practitioners and the people they represent are expected to play a constructive role in society |
Source: Adapted from Guth and Marsh (2006: 7)
PR is also a society function. Here ideas around corporate responsibility and corporate citizenship are important, moving our understanding of organisations beyond economic entities to expecting them to demonstrate a degree of societal accountability. Some argue PR itself supports the free flow of information that underpins freedom of speech, decision making and democratic processes. Indeed, some go further (Fitzpatrick and Bornstein 2006; Berg 2012) arguing that advocacy, campaigning and communicating play a powerful role in securing a healthy democracy.
These ideas may sound idealistic but the more PR is researched and understood the more these aspects become apparent. But where does reputation fit in and what does it mean? According to the Oxford English Dictionary, reputation can be defined as the condition, quality or fact of being highly regarded or esteemed. In other words, it is the beliefs and opinion someone has about another person, organisation or object. A useful way to think of reputation comes from a quote by Abraham Lincoln: ‘Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.’ PR is about both – ensuring the character of the tree is based on authenticity, honesty and good behaviour, allowing its shadow to be an accurate portrayal. As Doorley and Garcia (2011) suggest, reputation is based on how the organisation behaves, how it communicates and the type of relationships it has. Here the idea of the Corporate Identity Mix is useful as it draws on communication, symbolism and behaviours as key drivers of reputation as suggested by van Riel and Balmer (1997). It also connects to the concept of image and identity alignment (Davies et al. 2003). He argues that image is the external focus of the organisation (what your publics or stakeholders think of you) and identity is in the internal focus (what your employees think of you and how they behave, which forms the basis of organisational culture). It is identity on which image is based and both are necessary to secure reputation.
Why is it important? Reputation is fundamental to the success of any organisation whether from the public, private or third sector. Scholars such as Schreiber (2008) argue reputation is a core intangible asset of an organisation helping it to create barriers to competitive threats; provide competitive advantage; help with strategic value through relationships and ultimately underpin and drive financial value. Building on the ideas of Gregory (2010), reputation is important because simply it means people will buy an organisation’s products and try new ones; buy shares in it; believe its advertising; want to work for it; do business with it whether as a supplier or distributor; support it in difficult times; give it higher financial value; donate money to it or volunteer to work for it.
Yet there is debate about the concept of reputation. Some practitioners disagree with this definition, arguing that reputation is not the primary focus of many PR activities that might for example be about getting people to buy more products or change their behaviours. Yet as a PR practitioner you cannot get away from the concept that public relations is entwined with the reputation concept and it is reputation that often provides the basis on which these other activities can take place.
A Brief History of Public Relations
Evolution
Earlier definitions place PR firmly within a management perspective, but where does it have its origins? In many respects, PR has its roots in the basic human need to communicate and history is full of examples of early forms of PR. In ancient Rome, Julius Caesar published a daily paper called Acta Diurna to outline his achievements and encourage support. In Egypt, art and architecture were used to impress the public of the greatness of priests and pharaohs. In England, the Bayeaux Tapestry outlined the importance of the Norman Conquest, and the role of Magna Carta signed by the English barons in 1215 has more than just political significance – it is a symbolic communication tool of liberty.
The arrival of the printing press saw the rise of public communication in the form of pamphlets and the instigation of what we now know as newspapers. During the seventeenth century the word propaganda entered the public domain as the Catholic Church established the need to spread the faith to tackle the rise of alternative forms of Christianity. In the eighteenth century the French Revolution proclaimed the importance of free speech with the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizens (1789). The subsequent Ministry of the Interior that was established under the new French government sent agents out across the country to win public support for the revolution. The American Revolution too relied on public communication using speeches, newspapers, public meetings and pamphlets to win people to their cause.
During the nineteenth century with industrialization, evolving democratic processes, improved literacy and rising education standards, improved communication through railways, the telegraph and newspapers all increased the need for governments to communicate with citizens and businesses to communicate with early consumers. The age of public relations had been born. The First World War saw nations use communication to rally support using mass media tools to gain popular support for the war effort.
Key figures during the twentieth century include Ivy Ledbetter Lee, who joined one of the first publicity bureaus in the USA, who cited ‘accuracy, authenticity and interest’ as their guiding principles. This philosophy was outlined in his Declaration of Principles (1906), commonly regarded as one of the first documents to outline what PR is (though he didn’t use the term). Edward L. Bernays, the nephew of Sigmund Freud, was the first to use the phrase ‘public relations counsel’ in his book Crystallizing Public Opinion (1923), stating that words such as propagandist and publicist had negative connotations.
In the UK, leading figures included Sir Stephen Tallents, a civil servant who had a keen interest in communication and promotion from his time working at the Empire Marketing Board, the BBC and the Post Office. In 1948 he was behind the establishment of the Institute for Public Relations.
So the rise of public relations is entwined with social, economic and political developments. Consequently, the way it has evolved and developed is culturally grounded and country specific. There is no one universal history of PR as the history of PR is linked to the history of the country in which it operates. Given this notion, then, there are times when PR has been used for causes and issues that we may now consider immoral and unethical but as Lamme and Miller (2010) argue, PR practice and PR historians must embrace the embarrassing if we are to fully understand how PR has evolved. They cite the PR-inspired Torches of Freedom campaign in 1929 under the direction of Bernays that aimed to get women to smoke as a classic example.
Understanding PR through the lens of social history has become a new field of interest to practitioners, students and scholars. Leading academics in this field include Günter Bentele, Jacquie L’Etang, Meg Lamme, David McKie, Karen Miller (Russell) and Jordi Xifra and their reflections on the emergence of the profession are worth exploring for any student of PR.
To try and codify the differences and similarities of PR evolution, Bentele (2010) put forward an idea of a stratification model to describe the evolution of communicative structures and processes (see Table 1.2). Each overlaps and builds on the other and some aspects of what has gone before may still coexist.
Building on this idea, Watson (2013, 2015b) suggests the concept of proto-PR to explain PR-like activities that took place prior to roughly the 1870s when PR as an occupation began to emerge and when communications started to be strategically planned. So we can look broadly to the mid nineteenth century in Western liberal, democratic societies for the birth of PR but for some countries this started much later.
Eureka!
Table 1.2 Summary of the evolution of PR
| Public Relations as a developing social system: twentieth century | Growth, consolidation, professionalisation, globalisation |
| Emerging occupational field: nineteenth century | Emergence of the field: mid nineteenth century to around 1918 |
| Communication of organisations: End of Middle Ages, Modern Age | Pre-history of PR |
| Public Communication: Antiquity, Middle Ages | Pre-history of PR |
| Inter-personal communication: History of Mankind | Pre-history of PR |
Source: Adapted from Bentele (2010)
A pivotal moment in PR scholarship and history came in 1984 when American scholars Grunig and Hunt undertook one of the first major studies of PR. They built on the idea of systems theory, an idea that was becoming popular in business at the time and that will be further explored in Chapter 2. Put simply, systems merely means the importance of connecting an organisation with its environment – a clear role for communication. Grunig and Hunt identified four categories of communication relationships with publics and put these into an historical context. These have become one of the most influential models affecting the study of PR (See Table 1.3). At long last PR had a theory that justified and explained its existence.
The idea of press agentry falls into the most basic and simple form of PR in terms of generating publicity. Understanding is not necessary – it is about pure promotion. Controversially truth is not essential – it is about the publicity and often this falls into the idea of propaganda. Some aspects of Celebrity PR today perhaps link to this idea with its stunts and constant exposure. It is very much one-way with the focus on the sender. Public information allows the flow of information from sender to receiver but this time truth is fundamental and is about ensuring people are aware of important information. A simple example might be how local authorities inform residents about dustbin collection. This still remains very simplistic.
Table 1.3 Characteristics of four models of PR
| Characteristic | Press agentry/publicity | Public Information | Two-way asymmetric | Two-way symmetric |
| Purpose | Propaganda | Dissemination of information | Scientific persuasion | Mutual understanding |
| Nature of communication | One-way; complete truth not essential | One-way; truth important | Two-way; imbalanced effects | Two-way; balanced effects |
| Communication model | Source to receiver | Source to receiver | Source to receiver with feedback | Group to/from group |
| Nature of research | Limited | Basic; readership | Formative; evaluative of attitudes | Formative; evaluative of understanding |
| Where you see it applied the most | Sports, theatre product promotion | Government; non-profit associations; business | Competitive business; agencies | Regulated businesses; agencies |
Source: Adapted from Grunig and Hunt (1984: 22)
As the model develops so it gets more sophisticated as it moves into scientific persuasion. Here organisations try and build relationships with publics and listen to them but in the end they still want to persuade publics to change their attitude and behaviour and the feedback component is really there to help organisations persuade publics better by understanding them. Examples of this might include local authorities trying to persuade us that recycling is a good thing by providing useful information, statistics, facts about the environment and perhaps celebrity endorsement; or a charity trying to persuade us to donate money to a good cause; or an organisation wanting us to try a new product or service. Finally, there is two-way symmetrical PR that is much more about building true relationships, dialogue and conversation, enabling each side to influence and shape the views of the other with each side willing to alter their behaviour to accommodate the need of the other. This is sometimes described as the ideal form of PR and an example of excellence.
Yet there is criticism of excellence in terms of its simplicity and idealism arguing that it doesn’t reflect vested interests (Cheney and Christensen 2001; L’Etang 2006). L’Etang (2006) in particular argues that the two-way symmetrical model is partisan as power tends to reside with the organisation and there can never really be mutual relationships. Grunig himself recognised some limitations and working with Dozier (Dozier et al. 1995; Grunig 2001) built the idea of a mixed-motive symmetrical model drawing on ideas from game theory whereby the organisation tries to use symmetrical practices to find an acceptable win–win zone between the interests of the organisation (pure asymmetry) and that of its publics (pure cooperation).
So scholars such as L’Etang (2008) suggest that it is not always a less excellent form of communication to try and persuade. The idea of persuasion has haunted PR scholars, given its historical connection to propaganda with its connotations of coercion, untruthfulness and mind control. In recent years, however, persuasion has undergone somewhat of a transformation with many scholars such as Perloff (2010) arguing that persuasion can be ethical and indeed of critical importance.
Culturally appropriate models
Given the note of caution above, the four models have their uses but to say that only one form of PR is excellent is not helpful. L’Etang (2008: 319) argues that the Grunig typography is not appropriate for cultures ‘with different paths of historical evolution’.
Work of scholars such as van Ruler and Vercˇicˇ (2004), Sriramesh (2004), Sriramesh and Vercˇ icˇ (2009) also suggest that PR practice can be developed and explored in different cultural contexts with due understanding placed on how the environment shapes the PR profession.
Contemporary Public Relations Practice
Structure
In many respects, the structure of the PR industry is simple. There are organisations that need PR. There are the target publics whom organisations need to build relationships with, whether to sell products or services or for wider organisational objectives. It is the PR team in these organisations that helps come up with the communications strategy or plan to communicate with the target audiences. In the middle are the various channels or platforms that are used by the organisation to communicate with their publics. Supporting this process are PR agencies that offer a range of services to support organisations with their communication. These agencies may provide sector expertise (for example, specialising in health, art or food); they may provide specific subject expertise (for example, public affairs or lobbying; employee communications or issues and crisis management; some may just provide national UK services while others work globally with PR teams in different countries). Some agencies provide only PR services while others provide full-service expertise across a range of communication disciplines including research, insight, marketing communications and advertising. The differences between these we will explore shortly. See Table 1.4 for a summary of the industry structure.
The industry is represented in the UK by two bodies. The Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR), and the Public Relations Consultancy Association (PRCA). It should be noted that these bodies do not control the work of PR practitioners and it is not a requirement that PR practitioners join either body but they do represent the interests of the profession. The issue of accreditation vexes the profession and there is considerable debate about whether membership of a professional body and associated qualifications should be compulsory if PR is to be considered a profession. The UK also has a branch of the International Association of Business Communicators.
Table 1.4 Summary of the structure of PR
| The organisation | Channels | Publics |
| These come in all shapes and sizes | Also known as platforms, vary depending on what you are trying to achieve | Vary depending on the organisation and what you want to achieve |
|
|
|
| Conducted by in-house teams Sometimes with PR agency or freelance support |
Most are interconnected and interrelated | The list is endless |
Internationally, bodies such as the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management (GA), which is a confederation of the world’s major PR and communication management associations and institutions from around the world represents around 160,000 practitioners and academics, and strives to give voice to the practice and improve standards globally. On the consultancy side, the International Communications Consultancy Organisation (ICCO), is the voice of PR consultancies around the world. The ICCO membership comprises national trade associations in 31 countries across the globe representing around 2,000 PR firms. It aims to provide a forum for practitioners to come together to discuss issues of mutual concern and best practice.
The PR Census conducted by the PRCA in 2013 suggests despite some economic gloom the market is thriving with the PR industry worth around £9.62 billion, with 62,000 employees across the sector including consultancies, in-house teams and freelancers. As Francis Ingham, PRCA Director General stated at the launch of the 2013 Census:
Not only is the PR industry contributing more to the economy, it is earning more, developing wider expertise and feeling much more optimistic than back in 2011. We’ve earned that through sheer hard work. If ever there was proof that what we do is valuable – this is it.
The CIPR State of the Profession survey in 2015 also points to a growing and maturing profession. In particular, the majority of UK practitioners said they are working more closely with all departments in their organisation, demonstrating the growing importance of PR to driving value.
The PR process – four key steps
PR just doesn’t happen, it has a clear process that underpins it. This falls into four broad categories: research and insight (understanding the organisational challenges, issues and publics necessary for success); planning (the strategy phase looking at solving the problems and/or building the relationships and involving the concept of objective setting and messaging); communication (the implementation phase that executes the ideas using a variety of channels or platforms from face to face to social media); evaluation (measuring the effectiveness of activities – did it achieve what it set out to do?).
Although this process sounds linear and you do one after the other, in practice practitioners switch between these functions as new information is received and as the environment changes. Each of the steps must link and connect to each other but sometimes it has more of a cyclical feel as argued by L’Etang (2008) and illustrated in Figure 1.1.
This process takes place on a variety of levels. At the organisational or corporate level, PR plans will look across the entire organisation and can take the form of corporate communications. Many corporate plans will contain sub-plans that will address particular target publics. Then there will be plans that focus on particular products or issues. At whatever level the PR practitioner works, the four key steps of planning are critical. Variations of the planning process can be found in PR scholarship and practice. For example, Gregory (2010) talks of a ten-step process, while the CIPR itself published its Planning, Research and Evaluation (PRE) Toolkit. This goes back to PR being a strategic and management discipline.
Figure 1.1 Summary of the PR process capturing the dynamic nature of the planning process
Source: adapted from Guth and Marsh (2006: 17)
Competencies
Much has been written about the competencies – both technical skills and behaviours – of a PR practitioner (CIPR and DTI 2003; Fawkes and Tench 2004; Turk 2006). So much depends on the role the PR practitioner takes and this can vary between organisations and sectors. Some PR practitioners may have to undertake more event management than others, whereas some may have to produce more written communication in the form of company newsletters or blog posts. There is no one central list to the main activities in PR. Building on the work of Oliver (2009: 9) who outlines a rough guide to the main PR activities with her eight-factor PR integration model and Fawkes (2012: 10), a summary table has been created that merges these ideas and includes new areas for consideration into a framework that looks at the occupation of PR, associated concepts and the type of tools necessary for communication (see Table 1.5). There is no absolute right and wrong and the table merely tries to capture the depth and breadth of PR.
A useful study contributing to the skills debate is the European Communication Professional Skills and Innovation Programme (ECOPSI). This aims to map and
Table 1.5 Summary of PR activities
| Part 1 – PR Types | |||
| PR as reputation management and integrated communication | |||
| PR type | PR discipline | Explanation | Tools/Techniques |
| Corporate PR Communicating on behalf of the whole organisation, not just about goods or services | Internal or Employee Communication | Communicating with employees to align the culture and values of the organisation and its behaviours | Newsletters; suggestion boxes; intranets; social media; face-to-face; workshops |
| Public Affairs | Communicating with opinion formers e.g. politicians. Includes idea of lobbying | Private meetings; briefings; publications | |
| Investor Relations | Communicating with financial organisations/individuals/shareholders | Private meetings; briefing; publications; following the financial calendar e.g. AGM, regular financial updates | |
| Corporate responsibility/community relations | Communicating with local community but also wider corporate and consumer audiences | Meetings; briefings; events; face to face; publications | |
| New influencers/community relations | Communicating with a range of online communities that impact on the organisation that may or may not be the same as traditional community audiences e.g. bloggers and online commentators | Briefings; events; face to face | |
| Issues Management | Monitoring political, economic, social, legal, technological trends that can impact on the organisation | Monitoring using research and insight tools; tracking ideas | |
| Crisis Management | Communicating clear messages in fast changing situation or emergency | Scenario and continuity planning; handling crisis response via media and employees | |
| Brand Management | Communicating facilitated by using clear brand guidelines | Branding includes: visual identity; cultural identity; symbols such as logo | |
| Consumer PR Communicating with individuals who buy the organisation’s products and services Close links to marketing communications | Publicity and promotion | Communicating with customers to encourage them to purchase products/services and tell others about them | Media relations (see below); social media (see below); exhibitions and events; stunts; brochures; publications; posters; flyers; sponsorships; celebrity/third party endorsement; creativity |
| Business to business Communicating with other organisations including other businesses who buy products and services, suppliers and distributors Close links to marketing communications | Publicity and promotion | Communicating with business customers to encourage them to purchase products/services and building relationships with suppliers and distributors to drive sales | Face to face; exhibitions; seminars, newsletters; media relations (see below); social media (see below); brochures; publications; posters; flyers; sponsorships; thought leadership |
| Public sector | Uses a range of the above but unlikely to have Investor Relations or Public Affairs in the traditional sense | Communicating on behalf of a publicly owned body e.g. local and central government, emergency services, NHS | Combines all aspects of the above with an emphasis on demonstrating accountability to taxpayers who fund these services. May also include changing attitudes and behaviours of targeted publics. |
| Not for profit or Third sector | Uses a range of the above but Investor Relations normally replaced with Fundraising or Donor Relations | Communicating on behalf of a charity or pressure group | Combines all aspects of the above with an emphasis on fundraising and changing attitudes and behaviours of targeted publics |
| Celebrity | Uses a range of the above but not Investor Relations and Public Affairs in the traditional sense | Communicating on behalf of a well-known personality to increase visibility and profile | Combines all aspects of the above with an emphasis on building the celebrity brand |
| Political communication | Uses a range of the above but not Investor Relations. Will have Donor Relations for those contributing to party funds | Communicating on behalf of a political party and the electorate. Most often focused at times of a general election | Combines all aspects of the above with an emphasis on media and social media relations and engagement |
| Part 2 – PR specialist areas | ||
| PR Specialist disciplines | Explanation | Tools/Techniques |
| Research and insight | Provides the knowledge and analysis on which all communication rests | Monitoring opinions, attitudes and trends; evaluating; researching; attitude surveys; media analysis; social media analysis |
| Media relations | Communicating with journalists; specialists and editors from local, national, international and trade media including newspapers, magazines, radio, TV, and web-based communication | Press releases; photocalls, news conferences; social media news releases; press events; one-to-one briefings; features; supplements |
| Digital communications | Using web-based communication (and other forms of technology) to communicate with a range of different publics Note: This is not the same as social media – true social media has the aim of using digital communications to engage in conversation and discussion with your audiences. Some digital tools deliver this others don’t and it often depends on the motives of the organisation using the channel. | Websites; blogs; Twitter; Facebook; Instagram; Pinterest; mobile and other forms of digital applications |
| Publications management (on and off line) including visual communication | Using print/media processes that can sometimes use digital as a delivery mechanism to communicate with publics | Newsletters; reports; flyers; posters; postcards; thought leadership papers; brochures; information guides; film and photography |
| Event management | Using a range of events to communicate with publics | Conferences; festivals; exhibitions; seminars; facility visits |
| Copy writing | Using writing skills to generate material suitable for a range of different publics. Can be delivered via a range of channels from traditional print to digital. Requires a high standard of literacy | Press releases; features; reports; websites and any form of written communication |
Source: Adapted from Oliver (2009: 9) and Fawkes (2012: 10)
evaluate current and future communication management skills of practitioners across Europe. Its May 2013 interim report draws on a range of PR competency and skills scholarship to produce a useful summary (see Table 1.6). It draws distinctions between practical skills, knowledge areas that support these and the type of personal traits necessary.
So what makes PR different from other communication disciplines? It certainly draws on expertise from many fields and the lines are not always clear and there is often overlap. As Fawkes (2012) suggests, this is one of PR’s great strengths in that it is able to respond to changes in communication quickly but it is not always helpful in terms of definitions and differentiators.
One of the reasons for this overlap and blurred boundaries is that PR operates at two levels. It operates as we have seen as a strategic, corporate level, helping to build reputation and relationships across the entire organisation. It also operates at a consumer level, helping to sell products and services. Once it is clear that PR has a dual role, the distinctions between the communication disciplines start to make sense, as do the areas for overlap.
An organisation is like an onion with layers of relationships surrounded by an outer skin that protects it. The relationship onion below illustrates this at its most basic with three broad categories of relationships surrounded by a protective skin called reputation.
At the centre is the organisation that requires a range of relationships to survive. This relates to systems theory on which Grunig and Hunt (1984) developed their four models and that will be explored again in the next chapter. Most important are employees on whose behaviours and commitment the organisation depends. It is PR in the form of internal communication and employee engagement that delivers this.
Many organisations, though not all, also need to sell products and services to customers to remain profitable. The function that does this is marketing. The Institute of Marketing defines marketing as: ‘The management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying consumer requirements profitably.’ Here there is a clear exchange of money for goods and services. As marketing guru Ted Levitt (1983) suggested, marketing is about getting and keeping customers. Marketing is often associated with the concept of the four Ps – product, price, place and promotion. See Table 1.7 for an outline.
It is the role of promotion that is often referred to as marketing communications, helping the organisation to connect with, build relationships with and sell products/services to customers. PR has a role to play here too in the form of consumer- or business-to-business PR using media relations, social media, sponsorships and hospitality. Sometimes this is called ‘marketing public relations’ (MPR) but it is not the only activity.
Table 1.6 ECOPSI Research Report (2013: 15–17)
| Skills | Knowledge | Personal characteristics |
| Writing/oral communication | Business knowledge/literacy | Handling pressure |
| Project planning and management | Current awareness | Leadership |
| Critical thinking | Theoretical knowledge | Integrity/honesty/ethical |
| Problem solving | Knowledge of PR history | Objectivity |
| Media Skills | Knowledge of other cultures | Listening |
| Persuasion | Knowledge of communication models | Confidence/ambition |
| Strategic thinking | Knowledge of how to apply PR theory | Team player |
| Mentoring and coaching | Energy/motivation | |
| Advanced communication skills | Discipline | |
| IT skills (including new media channels) | Intelligence | |
| Crisis management | Ability to get on with others/interpersonal skills | |
| Research | Wide interests | |
| Reading comprehension | Intellectual curiosity | |
| Community relations | Creativity | |
| Consumer relations | Flexibility | |
| Employee relations | Judgement and decision making | |
| Professional service skills | Time management | |
| Social responsibility | Respect for hierarchy | |
| PR ethics | Follows organisational rules | |
| Honesty | ||
| Adaptability | ||
| Integrity | ||
| Ambition | ||
| Reliable attendance | ||
| Willingness to accept assignments | ||
| Completes work on time | ||
Source: Tench et al. (2013a: 15–17)
Figure 1.2 The organisational relationship onion
Table 1.7 A summary of the 4 Ps
| Product (or Service) | Price |
What the organisation has to offer to customers Includes:
|
What the organisation considers is the market value of the product/service Includes:
|
| Place | Promotion |
The location in which the purchase takes place Includes:
|
Communication tools to make customers aware of the product/service Includes:
|
It is here that advertising often has a big role to play. The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) suggests that: ‘Advertising presents the most persuasive possible selling message to the right prospects for the product or service at the lowest possible cost.’ It involves paying for a medium (TV, radio, newspaper, magazine or online) for airtime, column inches or visual space to put across a promotional message. So advertising can be thought of as bought media. When an organisation buys the space it can control the message that goes in it.
This is different to PR that is trying to secure coverage in the medium through editorial, that is persuading the journalist, commentator or reporter that it is a good thing to write or talk about the product or service on the grounds that it is newsworthy and of interest to their readers, listeners or viewers. At this point, the journalist can choose to interpret and add different perspectives to the message so the organisation has less control. So in this sense, PR is about earned media. Table 1.8 provides an overview of some of the marketing communications techniques.
Moving away from the consumer, critically, the organisation also has to build relationship with a whole host of other corporate stakeholders such as investors, political audiences and others who can influence how it operates. This is delivered by PR in the form of functions such as investor relations and public affairs. For some organisations, these other relationships are of equal if not more importance than customers. Taken together, all these relationships contribute to a reputation that helps to protect the organisation.
So there are clear distinctions but in the real world there are often blurred boundaries as sometimes the use of the channels can be used for both PR and marketing purposes. Advertising is sometimes used to convey the ethos of an organisation rather than just its products; the concept of the brand operates at both an organ isational and product level, for example, for the company Unilever and the product Dove; and social media allows for uses with all stakeholder groups. It can be argued that the rise in social media and new technological developments with mobile applications, for example, has perhaps heightened the blurring of lines between the discipline areas, given the ubiquitous communication potential.
An interesting way to illustrate this is based on the work of Cornelissen (2011), who looks at marketing, marketing communications, advertising and public relations as four interconnecting areas.
The way an organisation is structured also plays to the confusion. As Kitchen (1997b: 28) argues: ‘Public Relations and marketing are two major management functions within the organisation, but how they are organised depends upon managerial perceptions, organisational culture, and historical precedent.’ What is clear is that the disciplines are separate but need to be managed together to ensure consistency.
Table 1.8 Tools of marketing communications
| Public relations | At a corporate level PR is about managing reputation and building relationships with non-consumer stakeholders. At a marketing communications level PR is about publicity helping to raise profile and build relationships with customers Main tools: news releases and media contact to secure editorial coverage; sponsorship; events; social media. Aims to be two-way relationship building but often one-way |
| Advertising | Uses paid space to promote a product or service Main tools: newspaper, magazine, TV and radio advertising including banner adverts, pop-ups and advertorial (this looks like editorial but has been paid for). Tends to be one-way |
| Sales promotion and incentives | A device that encourages the consumer to buy the product or service Main tools: competitions, special offers and discounts e.g. buy one get one free; coupons; money-off; vouchers; samples. Tends to be one-way |
| Direct marketing | A direct message sent to the consumer via a range of channels normally asking them to take action Main tools: email; post; telephone; links to other tools above often to communicate about a sales promotion. Tends to be one-way |
| Direct selling (face to face) | A direct message from one individual to another to encourage the sale of a product or service Main tools: Door to door; product demonstrations in store; trade shows; sales presentations to clients. Tends to be two-way |
| Licensing and merchandising | Use of intellectual property rights (e.g. trademarks; patents, designs, copyrights) to protect products and services from being copied, but also to extend product range into other areas Main tools: T-shirts and clothing ranges e.g. football kit; toys; games both traditional and online. Tends to be one-way |
| Brand managementa | A brand is a mark or identifying set of characteristics and personal qualities for the product and/or organisation. It helps to create images in the minds of consumers and others Main tools: visual cues (logo and other design aspects); verbal (key words and slogans); and emotional appeals (stories). Often one-way but tries to be two-way |
| Social mediaa | Generic term that often provides a platform for other activities to take place Main tools: Facebook; Instagram etc.; mobile apps; social networking sites. Can be both one and two-way depending on its use |
| Sponsorshipa | A relationship between two parties that both seek commercial benefit Main tools: partnerships can be formed with a host of organisations including arts, sport, charities, celebrity or educational institutions. Tries to be two-way but often one-way |
| Hospitality/Eventsa | An activity that can take both a social and business form encouraging networking and relationship building Main tools: seminars, conferences, social networking events e.g. entertainment at a sports event |
a Often delivered as part of PR and used for wider relationship building and not just as a consumer channel/platform
Figure 1.3 Marketing and public relations activities overlap diagram
Source: Cornelissen (2011: 20). Used by permission of Sage
Conclusion
On a practical level, PR is about helping an organisation build the relationships that it needs to survive. For PR practitioners this goes way beyond customers to include a range of other publics. Central is the concept of reputation and the importance of behaviours as well as communication. A PR practitioner spends as much time ensuring the organisation lives up to its own values as they do helping an organisation to communicate. It is a distinct discipline and is different to marketing and advertising but there are overlaps that sometimes cause confusion.
On a theoretical level, there are many ways to look at PR, some of which have been touched on in this chapter. There are those that see PR from a systems perspective (such as Grunig 1984 or Grunig and Dozier 2006) with the organisation central and the focus on information exchanges that may lead to organisational adjustments). Some see PR as a relationship function (such as Ledingham and Bruning 1998) with PR practitioners managing a complex web of internal and external relationships). There are those who view PR as a rhetorical discipline (such as Heath 2001c) with the concept of meaning creation central to its role using words, image and sound as tools of communication and persuasion. This will be explored more fully in the next chapter.
Looking more holistically at PR as a societal function there are those that take a political economy perspective (such as Moloney 2000), who feel PR is used by interest groups and elites to protect their own position in society. Here, more of a negative view of PR predominates. More recently there have been scholars falling into the critical theory tradition (such as L’Etang 2008 or L’Etang and Pieczka 2006a, 2006b) who want to expose the assumptions behind the way PR is traditionally viewed and to explore and challenge practice. Finally, building on the work of critical theorists there are those who see PR from a sociocultural perspective (such as Edwards 2009 or Hodges 2006) who look at alternative ways to understand PR, drawing on work from the fields of social and cultural theory. Again these ideas will be explored in the next chapter.
So, from both a theoretical and a practical viewpoint, understanding PR is not an easy task. That makes it an exciting and vibrant area to work in and to study.
Questions for Discussion
- 1 What makes PR so difficult to understand?
- 2 Explain the relationship between PR and reputation?
- 3 What would you say to somebody who said that all PR does is propaganda? Use the Grunig and Hunt models to help you.
- 4 Look at the PR job websites for the CIPR, PRCA and newspapers such as The Guardian. How many different types of PR jobs can you see advertised? What does that say about PR?
- 5 If you were working for a charity looking to increase its fundraising PR efforts, how would you go about choosing a PR agency to help you?
- 6 How would you explain the PR process to somebody? Use the example of launching a new shampoo for women over 50.
- 7 Can you think of any recent PR campaigns that you enjoyed? Why was this?
- 8 Try and explain the difference between corporate (or strategic) PR and consumer PR? What examples can you provide?
- 9 How would you explain the differences between PR, advertising and marketing?
- 10 Do you think that social media helps us to understand PR better or makes the dividing lines more confusing between the different occupations?
Further Reading
Cornelissen, J. (2011) Corporate Communication: A guide to theory and practice (3rd edn), London: Sage.
L’Etang, J. (2008) Public Relations: Concepts, practice and critique, London: Sage.
L’Etang, J. and Pieczka, M. (eds) (2006) Public Relations, Critical Debates and Contemporary Practice, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Tench, R. and Yeomans, L. (eds) (2013) Exploring Public Relations (3rd edn), Harlow: Pearson Education.