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Public Relations

1 Introduction

Public Relations is an important and versatile marketing communications tool. It can be employed both within and outside the organisation. Many feel that public relations is an external marketing tool, with the firm attempting to communicate with a wide range of external ‘Publics’ in order to cast the organisation in a favourable light in peoples’ minds. This way of thinking is very limited, and fails to appreciate the great value of public relations as an internal marketing communications tool. Good internal marketing i.e. achieving the right internal organisational culture and getting everyone ‘pulling’ in the same direction in terms of marketing effort, is a vital prerequisite to effective external marketing, particularly those based on the concepts of long term ‘relationship’ marketing. Public relations has a vital role to play in the creation of an effective internal marketing culture within an organisation. In this sense it has seen a realisation of its importance as a strategic internal communication tool.

Public relations Is a very versatile communications tool and is today used by just about every type of organisation whether it be a charity, a political party or a commercial organisation. It is concerned with strategic management of information in such a way that certain publicity objectives are achieved. It is not always the case that positive publicity is the outcome of a managed public relations campaign, because it is often impossible to achieve a net positive outcome. For example public relations has a particularly important role to play in ‘crisis management’ scenarios. Where a catastrophe has occurred, especially where people have been injured or lost their lives, it is often a case of containing the situation, putting a fair and balanced account of events forward to the general public and mitigating the adverse effects of the disaster to the organisation concerned.

2 A Brief History Of Public Relations

Public relations (PR) is not new. Its modern day origins in the United States can be traced as far back as 1807 with President Jefferson’s address to congress, although evidence suggests that the ancient Greeks and Romans gave much attention to influencing public opinion. PR in the UK began as a Government information and propaganda machine during World war One and was then used more extensively in World war Two. Industry showed little interest in PR as a commercial communications tool until after 1945, but thereafter its use increased rapidly over the next 30 years in a sort of PR explosion. PR’s relatively poor image over these 30 years has been a result amateurish practitioners. In the 1970s the PR profession was referred to by derogatory terms such as the ‘gin and tonic brigade’. People who made up this ‘brigade’ often carried considerable social influence and were able to ‘open doors’ because they had the right connections. Their main function seemed to be the ‘wining and dining’ of important clients. The situation has changed a great deal in the late 1990s and now PR professionals are trained in the art of communications management. Unfortunately the profession still operates under its earlier shadow.

Public relations has now spread throughout industry and commerce. At first, full time PR appointments were less common than the use of the services of a PR consultant. Because of this slow internal adoption of professional PR practitioners by industry and commerce, external public relations firms quickly developed, many of them lacking skilled staff of sufficient expertise, but merely taking advantage of and exploiting the ‘boom’ in the PR profession. This phenomenon is common; it happened at the end of the 1980’s when ‘total quality management’ was the latest ‘fad’ and many became experts in the art of TQM virtually ‘overnight’. Consequently, because of the hasty expansion of PR firms, the poor reputation of PR among journalists, businessmen, politicians

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and the general public that persists today, can be traced back to this period of uncontrolled growth. In the last 20 years, however, many PR agencies have built reputations for highly marketing orientated practices. Many of these firms tend to specialise in consumer PR, trade relations, corporate PR, financial, industrial, service and technical PR. A number of firms are now offering PR services for ‘not for profit’ organisations such as charities and politics.

3 Recent Developments

From the mid 1970’s onwards a change has developed in the role and perceived value of PR, leading to a growth in this form of communication which has continued right up to the present day. Explanations for the upsurge in public relations activity are many and varied. Many in the industry identify the late 1970’s recession as a major turning point. Companies were keen to reduce costs in order to stay in business. As often happens in times of economic downturn, managers of many firms look to marketing budgets as a ‘first strike’ and regard marketing expenditure as a ‘luxury’ and a cost rather than a necessary investment. Many managers found that PR, with a much broader base and cost effectiveness, would be preferable to maintaining a conventional advertising budget.

The ‘cost saving’ aspect of public relations is certainly one of the major reasons for the growth of its popularity. Other factors include the increasing complexity of the business world that has produced a need for more complex communications to get the commercial or corporate message across. Another possible factor is the growth of fast-developing new business sectors such as information technology, financial services, travel and leisure which has lead to a ‘new breed’ of marketing manager who appreciates the value of PR as a communications tool. A further factor is a recognition that management, especially those working in business to business marketing, of the importance of creating and maintaining ‘relationships’ with a wide range of people and groups. There has been recognition for a number of years that in industrial and organisational marketing situations there are complex buyer-seller interactions involved in the marketing process. Some of these take place in the ‘official’ marketing channels of communications e.g. between the sales person and the official buyer or at least the purchasing team or committee within the buying organisation. However, interactions also take place on a less formal basis, amongst technical personnel from both the marketing and buying firms. It was recognised that these informal buyer seller interactions were just as important as the more formal contacts and that these too had to be managed and not left to chance. The recognition that organisational or business to business marketing involved an often complex web of formal and informal, but no less important, commercial interactions become known as the ‘interactive approach’, and was basically the precursor to what today is often referred to as the ‘relationship marketing approach’. Of course, throughout its development as a marketing communications ‘tool’ PR has always been first and foremost an instrument for establishing, crystallising, cementing and maintaining mutually beneficial relationships with various groups of people or ‘publics’. It is, therefore, no surprise that as the recognition of the importance of the interactive and relationship driven nature of modern marketing practice became accepted and practised by firms. The adoption of public relations as a key marketing communications tool also grew in stature and importance, particularly in the area of corporate communications. The role of public relations in achieving sound relationship marketing practices as well as its contribution to achieving good internal marketing is examined later.

The Role And Nature Of Public Relations

Defining Public RelationsThe task of defining the exact nature of PR is not easy. A plethora of definitions currently exists, each emphasising a slightly different approach and each attempting to arrive at a simple, brief and

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accurate form of words. The difficulty in developing a single acceptable definition reflects the complexity and diversity of the profession. For the purposes of this discussion two definitions are useful. The Institute of Public Relations (IPR) states:

‘Public Relations practice is the deliberate, planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain mutual understanding between an organisation and it’s public’.

The essential features of this definition is that PR practice should be deliberate, planned and sustained; not haphazard, and that mutual understanding is necessary in order to ensure that the communication between the organisation and its public’ is clear, i.e. the receiver perceives the same meaning as the sender intends.

An alternative definition is provided by Frank Jefkins who states:

Public Relations consists of all forms of planned communication,outward and inwards, between an organisation and it’s publicsfor the purpose of achieving specific objectives concerningmutual understanding’.

Jefkins is a modified version of the Institute of Public Relations definition and provides two new elements:

1) ‘Public’ becomes ‘Publics’, since PR addresses a number of audiences:

2) The inclusion of ‘specific objectives’, making PR a tangible activity.

Achieving a marketing orientation through PRIn marketing literature there is a lot about how it is important for an organisation to become ‘marketing orientated’, ‘customer focused’ and adopt the ‘marketing concept’. For a firm to be truly marketing oriented all the staff working for it have to be so. There is a saying adapted from Buddhist philosophy that states ‘for a forest to be green each tree has to be green’. This principle also applies to the marketing orientation of the firm for it comes from within the minds of the people making up the organisation. But how does senior management achieve this change in attitude and bring about the right customer focused ‘spirit’ within their organisation? Internal PR on its own cannot achieve this, but it can certainly make a significant contribution.

Communications and Public RelationsCommunications is central to PR. The purpose of PR is to establish a two-way communication to resolve conflicts of interest by seeking common ground or areas of mutual interest. If we accept that this is the primary function of PR, then we must also accept a further implication. PR ‘exists’, whether implicitly or explicitly, whether an organisation likes it or not. Simply by carrying out it’s day to day operations, an organisation necessarily communicates certain messages to those who, for whatever reason, interact with the company, who will then form an opinion about it and it’s activities. The need for PR is to orchestrate, as far as possible, the behaviour of the organisation and the messages that result form such behaviour in order to help develop a corporate identity or personality.

PR is not ‘paid for’, unlike advertising, although the marketing firm will have to pay fees if it employs a PR consultant or a salary if they have an internal specialist. Because PR is not perceived by various publics as a paid for type of communication, it tends to have greater ‘source credibility’.

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That is because the ‘write-ups’ in the press or business journal, television or radio programme etc. are seen as emanating from an independent third party rather than a commissioned advertising agency. It is often said that the mark of good public relations is that the receiver of the message does not realise public relations has been employed. If it is obvious that the message has been ‘cooked up’ by ‘spin doctors’ or ‘PR gurus’ then the message looses much of its intended effect. In a sense good PR is in some ways analogous to good security. If a firm, a film star or a politician are employing security personnel to look after them, one of the key criteria for success in this line of work is that no one knows or is suspicious that they are anything to do with security. They simply blend in to the background and are indistinguishable form other members of the public. It is this anonymity that makes them so effective.

Corporate Identity The concept of ‘corporate identity’ or ‘personality’ is inextricably linked to public relations. All PR activities must be carried out within the framework of an agreed and understood corporate personality. This personality must develop to reflect the style of the top management, since they control the organisation’s policy and activities. A corporate personality can become a tangible asset if it managed properly and consistently. However it cannot be assumed that all managers will consider the role of corporate personality when they make decisions. Therefore, the PR executive needs to be placed so that he or she is aware of all the issues, policies, attitudes and opinions that exist within the organisation that have a bearing on how it is perceived by outsiders.

The use of the term ‘personality’, rather than the more used ‘image’ term is deliberate. An image is a refection or an impression that may be a little too polished and perfect. True PR is more than ‘skin deep’. This is important because a ‘PR job’ implies that somehow the truth is being hidden behind a glossy and even false facade. But properly conducted PR emphasises the need for truth and full information. The PR executive, as a manager of corporate personality can only sustain an identity that is based on reality. Corporate public relations is concerned with image. This image is based on a long-term carefully planned programme designed to achieve maximum recognition and understanding for the company’s objectives and performance.

Public relation has always been a part of the market but it was practiced in a very informal or traditional way. It was in 1999, when the markets were not doing well followed by the dot com boom that the PR industry emerged as a separate entity. Before this they followed the method of bundling pr activity with any advertisement.

NEED FOR PR –

The increasing aspiration of various companies to grow and reach newer heights. Incapability of the organizations to achieve the desired image. Ineffectiveness of word of mouth strategy i.e. if the company is doing really well, word of

mouth will help it pass down only to few people may be in the multiples of eight whereas a larger medium will help the companies reach a larger market.

The companies have a three point target i.e. maintain its market share, build on the good value one is delivering & attract new customers. These three point target can be achieved by using public relations as it is more believable then the advertisements.

It is also necessary, as a single organization cannot approach all the customers of a particular market. For example if one is using nirma detergent then tide will have to work on pulling that customer to use tide.

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Thus, in order to cater to the above requirements, PR becomes the obvious choice as it is more believable and reliable.

What PR is not

Misunderstanding and ignorance as to the nature of PR has led to it being confused with other disciplines and activities. It is appropriate at this point to clarify certain distinctions:

(a) Public Relations is not ‘free’ advertising

1) Advertising emphasises ‘selling’ whereas public relations is ‘informative’, ‘educational’ and creates understanding through knowledge.

2) Public Relations is not ‘free’. It is time consuming and therefore costs in terms of management time and expertise.

3) Editorial space and broadcasting time are unbiased and therefore have more credibility than advertisements.

4) Every organisation necessarily has PR.

5) Public Relations involves communications with many groups and audiences, not just consumers.

(b) Public Relations is not propagandaPropaganda is designed to indoctrinate in order to attract followers. It does not necessarily call for an ethical content, so facts are often distorted or falsified for self-interest. PR on the other hand, seeks to persuade by securing the willing acceptance of attitudes and ideas.

(c) PR is not the same as publicityPublicity is a result of information being made known. The result may be uncontrollable and either good or bad. Public relations is concerned with the behaviour of the organisation, product or individual that leads to publicity. It will seek to control behaviour if this is possible, in such a way that publicity is good. Sometimes the actions or events that lead to adverse publicity are outside the control of the organisation. The role of public relations in such circumstances is to mitigate the effect of possible adverse publicity.

ETHICS – Public relation agencies follow the Chinese wall concept wherein they do not give out any kind of information of a particular client to another conflicting client of the agency.

They also subject an employee to suspension if any information given out is for the benefit of the opposing company.

They also ensure that their clients do not hire any other PR agency while they are working for them.The need for Public Relations

As PR is essentially a process of communication it is needed most when normal communications are strained and some people are left uninformed. In a modern economy commercial organisations have a need for sophisticated communications which can be accurately tailored and targeted at specific

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groups of people. In a very real sense, especially in areas such as political campaigning, communications itself has become a 20th century skill. With the development of communication there has been a parallel development in the sophistication of the audience. People are better educated and better able to make objective judgements about the messages they receive. The very word communications is a ‘buzz word’. Failure to communicate can be identified as the principal cause of many industrial, commercial and non-commercial organisational problems. PR is by no means a universal answer for every situation, but at least it is a formal system of communications and as such employs the concepts of analysis, action, review and control which can provide structure and a way forward in many situations. Changing social attitudes have forced a new responsiveness and sense of responsibility in official and commercial life; it is in this social climate that an appreciation of public relations as a management and advisory function is now recognised.

Publics

PR encompasses all attempts by a company to anticipate, track, review and possibly influence or control the type of publicity communicated to various sections of the public. In doing this, the organisation hopes to be able to cultivate and maintain a positive corporate image. In fact the strategic management of publicity through the employment of public relations is referred to as ‘corporate communications’. PR is concerned with communicating to a wide range of publics and not just to the organisation’s customers or clients.

The public relations practitioner has to conduct activities that concern every ‘public’ with which the organisation has contact. This is because in order to exist, succeed and survive, an organisation depends on many individuals and groups of people. Even in the distribution of products for example, a manufacturer must communicate with sales people, delivery staff, servicing staff, wholesalers, mail-order houses, agents, importers, exporters, overseas agents and many different kinds of retailer including chain stores, co-operatives, department stores supermarkets and smaller independently owned shops. There are many other people or groups that may affect the success or failure of a commercial enterprise. These include printers, package manufacturers, transport contractors, media owners and advertising agents. To these we can add others such as journalists who may write about our products or company, television producers of consumer affairs programmes and technical programmes. Business analysts, professional bodies, trade associations, government departments and other organisations are also important ‘publics’.

The publics of an organisation are those groups of people with whom it needs to communicate. The exact nature of these groups and individuals will vary in different organisations. These are now considered under various headings:

The CommunityGood community relations are important for every organisation. An organisation can and should act as if it were a member of the community and not abuse its power. It should behave as a responsible ‘citizen’. The situation is one of inter dependence; industry needs the support of the community and the community must understand industry. It is important for an organisation, through its public relations function, to establish a community relations programme that both deals with complaints and involves itself in community activities. This may include local press relations, special visits to the workplace, open days, sponsorship, community projects etc.

The general public tends to judge commercial organisations by the way they conduct themselves in the same way that individuals form a good or bad impression of the people that they come in contact with. Commercial projects such as the building of new plant, or the processing or storage of waste

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materials, may affect or interfere with local conditions and amenities. Care should be taken by the firm to anticipate such resentment and an attempt then made to mitigate this resentment and placate it as far as possible. An increasingly important aspect of community relations is the subject of pollution particularly with the rise of environmentalism and ‘green politics’. Increasingly firms are taking environmental management issues into account when planning their commercial operations. This thinking has had a big impact on the public relations industry.

EmployeesInternal or employee public relations is often a neglected area in the study of PR. Worker/management relations are still often ‘them’ and ‘us’ and potentially confrontational in nature. The solution can lie in involving employees in all areas of decision making, in setting organisational goals and establishing ‘mutual understanding’.

Appropriate objectives for management to set for public relations in the area of employee relations could include increasing awareness of company policy, improving safety standards and determining the cause of high staff turnover. This can be symptomatic of problems within the organisation and unhappiness amongst the work force. A discontented and disaffected work force can be unfortunate for an organisation. Marketing orientation within firms requires the co-operation of all staff and this cannot be done with a disaffected work force.

Internal PR embraces those matters that encourage employees to make their maximum contribution to the productivity and the prosperity of the organisation. It overlaps with personal welfare, industrial relations, education, staff development and marketing orientation. PR can contribute to the creation of an atmosphere in which people will work more effectively; it can initiate a suggestion scheme, a safety campaign; it can lessen waste, carelessness, absenteeism etc, and it can enable management to communicate more effectively with employees at all levels.

External PR is responsible for communication between the company and its various target audiences. The main goal is the delivery of strategic messages on behalf of the company. External PR integrates the efforts of several functional areas for the purpose of developing a comprehensive program. In external PR, one has to craft separate messages for each of the target audiences and choose tools accordingly. The messages need not to be the same for all the external audience. The communication needs are completely different. The Financial CommunityTake-overs and mergers illustrate very aptly the need for financial PR. There is a need for commercial organisations to communicate with a diverse range of interested parties like as investors and city institutions such as pension funds, share analysts, financial journalists etc. Effective financial relations will produce certain benefits to the firm. Those companies that have established reputations will have less difficulty in raising the additional capital that may be needed for future investments. Many companies rely for their very existence on the support of banks. Such organisations are highly ‘geared’ and much of their capital structure is made up of bank debt. The bank finance supporting this capital structure is often of a short term or medium term nature. Financing arrangements are continually under review. Short-term loans are repaid and further loans are often negotiated. Good relations with the bank is fundamental to an organisation’s financing strategy. Holding companies often hold shares in their own subsidiary companies. These shares are often offered as collateral in support of bank loans. Clearly, the holding company has an interest in keeping the price of such shares at an appropriate level otherwise the value of the collateral on which their loan finance is based falls in value. PR is used to communicate the commercial health of an organisation and the favourable future prospects that investors can expect. This information is

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intended as assistance to support market sentiment for the company and hence support the share price, and to assuage any doubts potential lenders may have about the commercial robustness of the firm.

7.5 DistributorsDistributors handle goods between producers and consumers. They include an array of businesses, wholesalers, retailers, dealerships, agencies and factors. It is essential that these marketing intermediaries are informed and educated about the company’s products, services and methods of carrying out their business. The more staff working for marketing intermediaries know about the manufacturing company and its products and services the greater will be the confidence and expertise they can afford to their customers. After all, marketing intermediaries are often independent businesses with their own distinct set of commercial needs and wants. The manufacturing or service firm who markets through a distribution network is relying on these marketing intermediaries to achieve their own commercial goals. There are many PR techniques that can be applied to create greater knowledge and understanding amongst the staff of marketing intermediaries including videos, talks, training courses and works visits.

A manufacturer can be affected by the behaviour and efficiency of marketing intermediaries. Assessing and influencing their attitudes is of paramount importance. There are many instances where the goodwill of the dealer or distributor can make the difference between success or failure for a manufacturer. Much activity on advertising, sales promotion, merchandising and packaging can be wasted if the wrong relationships exist at the point of sale. For many commercial enterprises the effective use of marketing intermediaries is a key factor in the success of their business. PR can play a key role in maintaining long term commercial relationships that are important to success.

7.6 ConsumersConsumer relations is thought by many people to be the only public which concerns public relations. As we have seen this is not the case. However, it is an area of considerable importance because although other groups of publics are important, customers are especially important. The whole purpose of the profit making firm is the generation of satisfactory returns by the satisfaction of customers’ needs and wants more effectively than competitors.

It is large retailers who have most dealings with customers, and this group of traders has done much in the way of public relations activity over the past 20 years aimed towards this important group. Stores are normally conveniently laid out, service is good and products are presented such that they represent fair value for money. Many retail groups distribute brochures to staff to show them how to improve the image of their store as well as creating better customer relations. They attempt to show that they are a ‘live organisation’ constantly listening and responding to customers views and opinions.A major aspect of customer relations is the subject of complaints and returns. This subject is particularly applicable to mail order firms. Where purchasing is carried out ‘at a distance’ and the organisation is not actually physically seen, in the sense that a customer can visit a shop, then it is essential that the subject of complaints and goods returned be treated by marketing firms particularly carefully. Operators of mail order catalogue businesses now pay particular attention to this aspect of business.

Opinion LeadersAs the name suggests, this is a person or group who may have a particularly special or strong influence on the opinions of others. Such people or groups are often held in high esteem by the wider public for a number of reasons. From an individual product point of view, consumer affairs

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programmes and consumer magazines are held in high esteem by the public who believe them to produce fair and unbiased views on various products, services and organisations and that they act in consumers’ best interests. Companies attempt to gain favourable reports from such programmes and publications as they know that positive messages will be more readily accepted and believed by the market than advertising. Other opinion leaders can include professional bodies, trade associations, pressure groups and government.

Media Used In Public Relations

Personal communication is the strongest and most persuasive means of putting across a message. The message is aided by the force of the personality of the communicator who can adapt both matter and manner to the reactions of his or her audience. A polished speaker can do much to enhance the image of the company, particularly at press conferences. The job of the public relations officer is not necessarily to appear personally on the ‘platform’, but to organise events so that an appropriate representative of the organisation can address the audience.

Printed Communication includes direct mail which is a very versatile medium and suitable for a variety of purposes including direct marketing, general advertising and public relations. Direct mail can be used to send copies of press releases to interested parties, and can be used to despatch house magazines to employees, customers, distributors, agents and others. This medium is also used to send invitations to sponsored events, exhibitions, conferences, demonstrations, film shows etc.

Literature is obviously related to direct mail as it is often used to target certain literature to the desired target audience. Literature for direct mail purposes consists of leaflets, folders, booklets, books and other media including wall charts, diaries, postcards and pictures. PR literature tends to be explanatory and educational, that provides information or tells a ‘story’, rather than trying to persuade or sell something. Literature can be usefully distributed to visitors, customers, dealers and members of the local community, while hand outs and press kits are used at conferences. PR efforts of this nature can inspire confidence and trust in an organisation.

The press release is probably regarded as the most important form of PR by practitioners. Two important factors are timing and distribution. Choosing the correct moment to release news and seeing that it reaches the right people. The aim of press relations is to gain maximum publication or broadcasting of public relations information through newspapers, magazines, radio and television, in order to achieve specific communication objectives with clearly defined target audiences. The common method of achieving this is a press release sent to appropriate journalists.

Visual Communications includes photography that can have an impact and appeal that is lacking in printed media. To see a photograph of some event that has happened lends further credence to the report as it provides ‘proof’ in the audience’s mind that what has been reported actually happened. Photographs are normally used in conjunction with a press release, the one form of public relations supporting and augmenting the other.

Films were once the province of larger organisation because they were expensive to make. The development of video technology has meant that a ‘film’ can be produced relatively cheaply and is suitable for many PR purposes.

Television is a medium of high visual impact. Not only can points be explained verbally on TV programmes but products can also be shown. Sometimes footage of a company’s participation in a sponsored event or some other organised public relations event is shown on television programmes.

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The increase in sponsored events by commercial firms both in sport and in the arts has increased dramatically over the past 20 years and it now features regularly when reporting events like motor racing football are screened. There is a growing demand for company personalities to appear on TV programmes and give interviews on radio. There has also been a dramatic increase in interest with anything to do with ‘business’. This offers opportunities for firms to capitalise on the public relations opportunities offered from this popular, and increasingly sophisticated medium.

There has always been a strong public relations dimension to exhibitions. They offer marketing communicators an opportunity to come in face to face contact with high status decision making unit (DMU) members. Many visitors to exhibitions go to view the market offering in its entirety in a short space of time and under one ‘roof’. Visitors treat the exhibition as a shop window and an opportunity to gather technical information. Often products are available for inspection along with working models and videos of the company and its products. There is often a strong ‘entertainment’ component to exhibitions with stands offering complementary drinks and food to serious potential clients. Networking can thus be achieved and quite often such exhibitions afford the opportunity for corporate hospitality through tours or tickets to local events such as the opera or a concert.

Sponsorship has a strong PR component to it and firms can use it in a variety of ways. Being associated with the arts can give a strong sense of supporting and being part of the fabric of society. Important clients and other key individuals form other important groups of ‘publics’ can be invited to artistic events such as concerts, plays or opera. Afterwards they can mix with artists and directional staff so in this way key individuals who have been targeted for such promotion can be contacted, entertained and long term relationships built and maintained.

The term ‘internal marketing’ is the process of applying the general principles of marketing to the staff and work force of the organisation. Marketing as a business philosophy is all about achieving the right internal company culture that will result in that company becoming marketing orientated. The process of internal marketing involves much more than simply the application of internal public relations inside firms. Internal marketing operates at the interface between marketing and human resource management and involves both of these management disciplines. The application of internal PR has a salient role to play in the overall process of achieving an internal marketing ‘culture’. The most common means of achieving internal PR objectives is through company communications. If these are to be effective, they must be more than paternalistic house journals and should provide a forum for open, two-way discussion on company issues. Whatever methods are employed, the important requirement is that they represent a genuine desire to communicate on behalf of both workers and management. This reinforces the point that PR can only reflect reality.

Summary

PR is an important and versatile marketing communications ‘tool’. It forms an intrinsic part of the integrated marketing communications mix. There is a PR application to most marketing communications variables whether this is personal selling, sponsorship, exhibitions, direct mail or telephone marketing.

PR can be applied both within and without the organisation. The process of achieving marketing orientation within organisations is a vital prerequisite to effective external marketing strategies, particularly those based on relationship marketing principles. PR has a vital role to play and contribution to make to the creation of an effective internal marketing culture within an organisation

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and to creating, fostering, nurturing and maintaining mutually beneficial long term relationships with customers and other key groups of people. In this respect PR has seen a dramatic increase in prominence as both a strategic internal and external marketing communications tool.

The role of PR is to help build an understanding a company has with its ‘publics’. This has the effect of augmenting and increasing the source credibility of marketing messages from other elements in the communications mix by improving the image and reputation of the company and its product and services. An organisation is judged by its behaviour. PR is about goodwill and reputation. At its best, public relations can be the discipline that really determines the content of the messages companies send to their customers and other target audiences.

PUBLIC RELATION IN DIFFERENT SECTORS

CATHAY PACIFIC

Cathay Pacific Airways is an international airline registered and based in Hong Kong, offering scheduled cargo and passenger services to over 90 destinations around the world. It vision is to make the airline the most admired in the world, ensuring safety comes first; providing service straight from the heart; encouraging product leadership; delivering superior financial returns and providing rewarding career opportunities.

Cathay Pacific has gone from strength to strength since its foundation in 1946.  In 1964 the airline carried its one-millionth passenger. Today it carries over a million passengers every month. By the year 2006, Cathay Pacific will have a fleet of more than 100 wide-bodied aircraft serving Hong Kong day and night Cathay Pacific is an International Airline Enterprise based in Hong Kong. Cathay Pacific aspired to expand on the Indian shores but was unable to do so due to Indian rules and regulations. Moreover, the enterprise was not very well known in India and was less than nominally publicized.

Steps followed by Concept PR Agency:

Concept PR held a meeting with the company representatives and observed one major issue that plagued the company was lack of publicity and inadequate propaganda.

Concept PR sought to make people more aware of the facilities and services that Cathay offered.

Hence, they sent a team of 20 aviation journalists to Hong Kong to explore and perceive the infrastructure, the offices and the environment around.

They were asked to write down their experiences and publicize such write ups in their respective newspapers.

Concept PR sought ways to propagate newer facilities launched by Cathay Pacific such as new business class seats, better business lounges etc.

Thus Concept PR took various steps to ensure better publicity and propaganda through customer experiences and marketing services.

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The current deficiencies of customs are the following:

• their interventionist nature;

• reliance on transaction-based controls;

• lack of transparency of procedures;

• issues of corruption and integrity;

• little or no redress for error;

• inadequate resources;

• low level of training;

• lack of cooperation; and

• outdated technology or even a total lack of automation.

Today, budget airlines are a dime a dozen. AirAsia, Tiger Airways, JetStar Asia and many others have burst onto the scene What most people do not know is that they are all modelled after the granddaddy of all budget airlines: Cathay Pacific Airlines. Cathay Pacific  Airlines, founded by Herb Kelleher, has been profitable in every single year except one. The company was incorporated in 1967 and the maiden flight was in 1971 It is a strong brand built on low price, thanks to an amazing infrastructure that has given it an unassailable structural cost advantage over every other American airline.

For starters,  Cathay Pacific Airlines only flies one type of aircraft, the Boeing 737, and that makes its fleet easy to maintain because it only has to service one type of aircraft day in, day out. Today, Cathay Pacific Airlines operates more than 500 Boeing 737 aircraft in 63 cities. Training its crew also becomes easier as both the trainers and trainees only have to worry about mastering one type of aircraft. This has resulted in reduced costs Cathay Pacific  also operates on a first-come-first-served basis. It has no assigned seating. That means it is able to do away with expensive ticketing systems. Most of its flights re less than two hours long It does not serve meals. It lands at small airports. It chooses to serve only 30 of the 50 states in the United States. Furthermore, Cathay Pacific  flies direct to destination, avoiding expensive hubs. All these things add up to impressive cost savings and they form part of the company’s structural cost advantage. This structural cost advantage has heIpe Cathay Pacific  Airlines remain the world’s No. 1 brand for budget air travel.

Cathay Pacific  Airlines beats the other budget airlines hands down but how does it stack up against the regular, full-service airlines? In 2006, Cathay Pacific had US$9. 1 billion (S$1 3.7 billion) in sales and US$499 million (S$748.5 million) — 5.5 per cent — in net profits.

Between 2004 and 2006, Continental Airlines had a total turnover of US$34.2 billion (S$51 .3 billion). It recorded losses of US$134 million (S$201 million).1 Although it managed to turn a net profit of US$343 million (S$514.5 million) on turnover of US$13.1 billion (S$19.7 billion) in 2006, its,net profit margin of 2.6 per cent was less than half of Cathay Pacific

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Between 2004 and 2006, United Airlines had a total turnover (from operations) of US$53.1 billion (S$79.7 billion) and a net operating loss of US$626 million (S$939 million).The situation at Delta Airlines is even scarier. The company suffered an accumulated net loss of US$1 5.2 billion (S$22.8 billion) from 2004 to 2006! Considering the state of other US airlines, we would say Cathay Pacific Airlines stacks up pretty well, thanks in large part to its unrivalled structural cost advantage.

BRAND: Ministry of Tourism, India & The Incredible India

Campaign Title: Incredible India’s Atithi Devo Bhavah Campaign

Strategic communications challenge?

Background:

The tourism industry is one of the most profitable industries in India and is also credited with contributing a substantial amount of foreign exchange. It is the largest service industry in India, with a contribution of 6.23% to the national GDP and 8.78% to the total employment in India. India witnesses approximately 3 million annual foreign tourist arrivals every year.

The tourism industry also helps growth in other sectors as diverse as horticulture, handicrafts, agriculture, construction and even poultry. Both directly and indirectly, increased tourism in India has and will create job opportunities in a variety of related sectors. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council, India will be the world’s leading tourism hotspot, having the highest 10-year growth potential. Some of the factors contributing to this growth are:

 Growing disposable income in India

 Growth in IT and outsourcing industry in India that is leading to a growing number of business trips by foreigners, who often add a weekend break or longer holiday to their trip. The upcoming Commonwealth Games (2010) in Delhi are further expected to add significantly to this growth.

However, in spite of an incredible wealth of Tourist spots, Cultural Attractions, Natural Wonders and Destinations for the soul, India’s is still not amongst the top 15 tourist destinations of the world. While India had 3.3 Mn international visitors last year, Singapore had 7 Mn, Thailand 9.6 Mn and Malaysia 11.5 Mn. (Source: Ministry of Tourism)

Two key factors contributing to this are:

 Security and safety of international tourists

 Defacement of the national heritage monuments and tourist spots

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And the prime reason for both these factors is the attitude of the Indian citizen at large—a low level of empathy for the tourists, and low or no sense of pride for our culture and heritage.

Challenge:The challenge was to change this perspective and ensure that the tourism industry in India realises its true growth potential.Objectives:The one line brief from the Ministry of Tourism to the agency was “We’ve lost touch with the hospitality that we were famous for. Now its time that we make an effort to make it part of us again.”

The key objective of the campaign, therefore, was awareness leading to a behavioural shift— sensitising people to the need to behave responsibly towards tourists, national monuments and our rich heritage and culture.

The campaign was designed to complement the Incredible India campaign. Its long term objective is to re-instil and re-enforce the confidence of foreign tourists towards India as a preferred holiday destination.

The big idea?Driving the audience to be part of a drive to make India tourist and tourism friendly by reconnecting  the TG with a prominent part of Indian Culture—Guest is God

How did they arrive at the big idea?

The arrived at the big idea by juxtaposing the core of the medium (internet) and our culture:

Interactivity and Hospitality. Given the objective of awareness and behavioural change, it was imperative that they ‘involve’ the consumer and not just ‘broadcast’ the message to him/her. Guest is God is a prominent part of the Indian culture. This was translated into the tag line of the brand campaign Atithi Devo Bhava (Guest is God).

As an agency, they believed it was the best route because

- Its part of the culture and therefore there is some amount of inherent acceptance

- Imbibing the concept would ensure higher empathy and a more responsible behaviour towards the tourists

- This would also prompt them to take care of their ‘home’ that the guest is visiting—their monuments and tourist destinations

Aamir Khan was roped in as the brand ambassador for the campaign. This added further impetus and mass appeal to the activity.

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Bringing the idea to life?After a detailed agency research, they managed to  figure that the key audience where the  need was to drive a behavioural change is the youth. This was because the incidence of graffiti on monuments, eve teasing, molestation etc. was highest in the age group of 18–30 years. Having zeroed down on this TG, They then looked at the activities that this audience is involved in the digital space.

In line with the audience media consumption, they looked at e-mails, social networks, blogs, entertainment sites, community websites, technology and travel genres for spreading our message. At the heart of the activity was an eye-catching yet simple microsite (http://atithi.org.in) that hosted an interactive forum, especially developed to empower the audience to contribute their ideas on how to tackle graffiti and tourist molestation. The brand ambassador, Aamir Khan, was the spokesperson on the website as well. The website also provided ideas and how to tips to the audience on how to be more responsible both, to the tourists as well as the tourism destinations.

To drive awareness about the campaign and traffic to this website, the agency conceptualised a Pan India campaign, comprising engaging interactive banners. The engaging banner ads asked viewers to write a love message for their beloved on India’s magnificent monuments (The Taj, Jantar Mantar, Sanchi Stupa, and Gateway of India). When the user tried to do so with a mouse, the monument dodged the pencil—this was followed by a message from Aamir telling the user to protect the monument.

The campaign ran on over 2,600 youth-centric websites including Orkut, YouTube, MusicIndiaOnline and Gmail. These sites were shortlisted, keeping in mind the above media consumption habits of the TG and were shortlisted on the basis of three key factors—reach of the website (measured in absolute numbers), audience skew (share of our target audience in the overall traffic on the website across audiences) and site stickiness (time spent by the audience on the website). Given the audience and their consumption of the internet medium, social media and search played a crucial role in the overall campaign. They extended the core creative idea into Emailers, Desktop Calendars, Google Text Ads and press releases, all of which struck a deep chord with the youth.

Results:The key objective of the campaign, as discussed, was awareness leading to a behavioural shift— sensitising people to the need to behave responsibly towards tourists, national monuments and our rich heritage and culture. As a long term objective, the campaign was to supplement the main campaign of the tourism ministry—Incredible India.

In terms of the first objective: awareness, They far exceeded their internal expectations. As highlighted earlier, at the heart of the Atithi Devo Bhavah activity was the microsite (http://atitihi.org.in). The campaign ran between February ’09–May ’09 and the various activities that we did around the campaign (social media, banners, mailers, PR etc.) led to a huge boost in the traffic on the website. According to Google Analytics (refer screen shot below), the website  garnered close to 5 Lakh visitors in the campaign period and 90.91% of these visits were new visits. This was much higher than the expected traffic of 3-3.5 Lakhs.

The Media Plan:

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The media plan generated 181 Mn (1,81,921,968) views (Source: Agency Ad Serving Software) The social media activity also contributed to high reach and awareness of the campaign. The team got close to 8.5 Lakh video views on You Tube alone (Totalnumber of video views in the campaign across the various video websites was 9,29,228. (Source: Agency Research)

The second objective of the campaign was to drive involvement so as to aid the behavioural shift. Close to 8.19 Lakh visitors clicked on our banners and mailers to visit the microsite and be part of the Atithi Devo Bhavah initiative. (Source: Agency Ad Serving Software).

Given that the long term objective of this campaign was to supplement the main campaign “Incredible India) and that 85% of the travellers research online before booking travel; we further used our social media activities to ensure that the Indian tourism website (www.incredibleindia,com) gained visibility through Google Search engine results as well. From a zero visibility, the website now ranked amongst top ten searches on highly searched keywords. E.g.:

5th on Google.co.in for “Goa India Travel”

 6th on Google.co.in for “ India Travel Information’

 Amongst top 10 on Google.co.in for keywords such as ‘India’, ‘Vacation India’ and ‘Plan India Tourism’ 

The Maggi Brand in IndiaBrand Extension and Repositioning

Nestle India Limited is the market leader in Indian Noodle Market with it’s Maggi Brand of Noodles which was pioneer brand launched in 1983 in the packaged food market of India. It took the challenge and established Maggi in Indian market considered to be conservative and typical about food consumption. It appropriate realization of target segment, effective positioning and effective promotion and sales made Maggi to Noodles in India as Xerox it to photocopier. NIL had introduced sauces, ketchups and soups under Maggi brand to reap benefit of brand popularity and image and contribute to financial gains by 1990.Maggi also became successful in sauces, ketchups and soups Market in India. Though NIL tried to extend to other ready to eat products like pickles, cooking aids and paste, It was unsuccessful so dumped those products. Maggi Brand of products sustained recession in 2000 and 2001 in India by introducing economy packets.

To fulfill novelty needs of customers and revitalize Maggi Noodles Brand NIL made different attempts by introducing new formulation to new taste but customers resisted change and Maggi had to reintroduce Maggi Noodles in same taste. Maggi Noodle had till 2005 five product line on noodles with four variant in Maggi 2 Minutes Noodle. In 2006 in compliance with NIL target to be “health and Wellness Company”Maggi repositioned it as health and taste food products. NIL has also introduced withtaste and product line in Sauces and Soup Market under Maggi to catch new segment,revitalize brand, compete with other producers and fulfill expectation of customers.

In 2005 Maggi brand worth was 3.7 billion from 1.7 billion market worth in 1.7 billion in 2003. Maggi Noodle is Market leader with around 80% market share in Noodles/Pasta and Maggi Sauce is market leader with almost 37% of market share in 2005 in 1.8 billion market of India. Knorr has taken over Maggi in Soup market recently.

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In 2005 Maggi was the highest spender in the Promotion and Sales in the IndianMarket in the Noodles Category.Maggi is competing with Heinz Sauces and Ketchup, Knoor Soups, Kissin Sauces andKetchup, Top Ramen, Sunfeast Pasta Wai Wai and 2 PM in corresponding categoriesof products and variants.Maggi’s challenge to protect it’s market leader position in situations wherethere is emergence of competitors like Hindustan Lever Limited, Indo Nissan,ITC, Dabur India, Heinz are competing with their corresponding brand on theproduct category.

STARS : Maggi Noodles is the market leader with 80 % market share in NoodlesMarket and Maggi Sauces and Ketchup is leader with 37 % market share. Theproducts are producing cash for the company consistently. The Market is growing by15 % in the Product Category of Noodles.

SWOT Analysis of Maggi as BrandStrengthsEstablished Family BrandStrong Global Corporate Brand ( NIL )Specialization in food processing category marketing and distribution in UrbanmarketPresence of other product segments of food category : Dairy Products,Chocolate, Infant foodsPioneer and Leader so 1st mover advantage in Noodles, Sauce, Ketchups andSoup market.Nestle symbolization of warm, family & shelter.Research and Development Division in IndiaNew Noodles Plant in Uttarnchal---------------WeaknessGeneric Brand to Noodles in IndiaLow rural market presence constraintsUniform Brand for all food categoryBrand Proliferation-----------------------OpportunitiesGrowing package and canned food market in India by 15% annually.High brand awareness of Indian consumerOther product category like Biscuits, Chips and Ready to Eat Market stillunexplored.Opportunity to be substitute to other snacks category of food products.-----------------------

ThreatsCompetitors with long history in product category Internationally like, HeinzSauce and ketchups of Heinz Indian, Top Ramen in Noodle andKnorr Soups.Single product focused competitors like Heinz sauce and Wai Wai Noodles.Less Entry Barriers in the Market segment for product categoryITC’s strong base in Indian Market.Substitute Product to Product Segment.

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Possible Alternatives

Strengthen and use the Distribution : NIL should focus on distribution channelsand use of the distribution channel to expand it’s market to Rural India with productstargeted to the market. It is the way it could increase it’s volume of sales.Increase the Usage of Maggi Brand Products: Since Maggi Noodles and MaggiSauce is market leader it has to adopt strategy to increase the usage of the productto protect it’s market share. As it cannot further grow sales drastically in the samesegment, only way is to increase product usage like Noodles for breakfast Ketchups inbiscuits.

Lunch Health Awareness Promotion Campaign : NIL should launch HealthAwareness campaign to educate consumers about the benefits of health food. It couldsponsors health camps, publish health information.

Enter into other product category like Biscuits, Chips and Snacks with NewBrand : To enlarge it’s domain, NIL should enlarge it’s product segment. It wouldspread economies of scale to customers in the form of price.

BEST COURSE OF ACTION

Introduce different new brand or acquire emerging brand in biscuits, chips andsnacks category. Maggi though has been able to differentiate itself from other Noodles, Maggibeing taken as generic to Noodles is hampering other extended product category.Competitors have high grounds to capture the market differentiating then from beingMaggi. It makes others possible product category vulnerable if lunched under Maggi.So to avoid proliferation of brand and introduce new products to capture opportunitiesin other snacks and ready to eat product category NIL has to introduce new brandingstrategy. As pasta of ITC has been seen as products capturing the market of noodles and Maggifailing to lunch pasta under Maggi brand also support the argument for new brandintroduction by NIL.As Indian Market is Brand conscious, other competitors are coming up with moreIndianized brand of products, and as Indian being more aware of their culture andlarge segment being typical and conservative about their culture, there care morechances that NIL would be successful if it create a brand close to Indian culture inwording to positioning. As India is growing, Old Indian Brands are also regainingmomentum worldwide, NIL could catch the trend of market.By doing so, NIL could avoid the draw backs associated with the Maggi brand. Itcould position new brand in competition with other competitor’s brand where there isno fit of product with the Maggi brand.

NIL other option is acquiring products manufacturers of different products likebiscuits, chips and snacks as it is very essential for it’s market leader position. Othercompanies have advantage of such products. ITC has biscuits to it, Hindustan Leverhas tea to it. India is huge market where distribution advantage plays major role andeconomies of scale pays back. So it’s is important for NIL to concentrate on otherready to eat category to benefit consumers from economies of scale reflect in price.

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Today India is the largest market for Maggi Noodles. But the brand has turned profitable just recently, so it has been a long haul for the company in the Indian market. After remaining a single variant (Miada one with variants) for close to two decades, the last couple of years has seen many new launches coming in. It all was triggered by the successful launch of Maggi Attaa Noodles...

Now we have the rice noodles in Maggi and the most of recent of all the cup variant. The journey and success of Maggi Noodles is some thing worth noticing for a marketer, as one can learn a lot , the oft ignored reality that brand building is a long term business.This case looks at the various phases in the product life cycle of Maggi noodles in India. It talks about the various measures taken by NIL to keep the Maggi brand fresh in the minds of Indian consumers. The case also talks about the various extensions of the Maggi brand and tries to analyze why only the sauces and ketchups category, among all the other product extensions, managed to succeed. 

It further discusses the measures taken by NIL to reposition Maggi as a 'health product'. The case ends with a discussion whether NIL would be successful in sustaining this new image for Maggi in the market.

NOKIA- MOBILE PHONES

Nokia a Multinational telecommunicationcompany is headquartered in Keilaniemi, Espoo and it

was founded in 1865. The company is well known for the manufacture

of telecommunicationproducts along with converging the communication industry and internet

industries. Nokia is proving excellence of its services 120 countries around the globe. Nokia

Corporation (Nokia) is a global manufacturer of mobile devices headquartered in Espoo, Finland.

Nokia operates through four business groups: Mobile Phones, Multimedia, Enterprise Solutions and

Networks. In Q3 2007, Nokia sold over 111.7 million units worldwide, marking a 26 per cent, year-

on-year growth. Nokia India had revenues of more than $3.5 billion in 2006…

Strengths

• The major and unbeatable strength of Nokia is that it is world’s largestcellular company.• The company has vat expansion in almost 50 countries as far as its sales are concerned.• The company has market share of 31% in global market.• The company owns the revenue of € 42 billion annually with €2 billion as its operating profit. • Almost 132,000 employees are serving the company around the globe.• The success of Nokia is very much associated with its on going Research and development sector, which is operating in different parts of the world.• The major market segments like, CDMA, GSM, and W-CDMA are being served by Nokia by preparing different protocols and devices.

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• Ovi platform introduced by Nokia offers services like games, applications, maps, music, media and messaging. This large variety is hardly being introduced by any other network.• Nokia owns a subsidiary of it known as Navteq which is used for digital mapping and navigation.• The company has an excellent team of skillful recruits in HRD department, which are striving for expansion of the company and its continued success of services.• Nokia cellular phones have a great price range and are available for any social class, this also adds to the popularity of the brand.• Resale price of Nokia phone is also high as compared to the companies, just because of its reliability.

Weaknesses

• The service centers of Nokia are more concentrated in developed countries as compared to developing countries.• Nokia is introducing fewer promotions regarding low price economical phones; rather the new inductions are mostly for high technology mobile phones.• Nokia has high prices as compared to other companies and lower class is unable to buy Nokia phones.• Nokia had introduced some products, which are not user friendly, so they couldn’t attain success for these products.• The country codes for high profile phones are difficult to uncode.

Opportunities

• Nokia has advantage over other cellular companies, and its competitors have to work a long way to compete it actually.• The company has the peak time to enter the emerging markets of India.• Nokia’s promotions are likely to increase its market share along with its sales.• By introducing low prices and a little innovation, the company can improve its market.• The good brand image of Nokia produced though advertisements increases the promotion of its products and its sales continue to grow. •    Nokia has recently made alliance with Microsoft for replacing windows 7 for mobile windows.

Threats

• The tough competitors like Motorola, Samsung and Sony Eriksson are introducing such strategies which will commendably increase their promotion.• Nokia prices remain stable for a long time, and other companies, while introducing new models lower the prices of the old models.• Cellular companies are striving hard for the emerging demand of Wireless Local Loop (WLL), and Nokia sales can likely be dropped as CDMA phones production is less.

Cafe Coffee Day – Brand Strategy in India

This case study covers the following issues:

Examine and analyze Cafe Coffee Day’s brand strategy in India, its success and future

challenges

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Introduction

“CCD today has become the largest youth aggregator, and from a marketing stand point, the

success has come by focusing on the 3As: Accessibility, Affordability and Acceptability.”- Bidisha

Nagaraj, the Marketing president of Cafe Coffee Day

“Although demographically, a typical consumer would be male or female between 15-29 years of

age, belonging to middle or upper middle class, we call our consumers young or young at heart. We

are about juke boxes, good and affordable coffee and food. The brand fit is with youth or the young

at heart. So we often look out for brands that are aspirational in nature.” – Sudipta Sen Gupta,

Marketing head, Café Coffee Day.

Cafe Coffee Day (CCD) has an established brand image in India and ranks No 2 in the Brand

Equity’s Most Trusted Brands 2008 survey – in the food services category. Rival Barista is at No

5. CCD has been able to make a connection with the Indian consumers, predominantly among the

youth. CCD is the market leader in India and was awarded the‘Exclusive Brand Retailer of the

Year’ by ICICI Bank in its Retail Excellence Awards 2005 for the organized retail sector.

CCD’s wide network – the anytime, anywhere cafe

CCD has been able to make its brand presence felt through the sheer number of stores. CCD has 620

cafes at present and it has ambitious plans to launch more than 900 cafes by the end of the current

financial year. This means launching one store every other day which is not surprising from a

company which launched a cafe (in 2005) in Vienna, the coffee capital of the world. CCD also has

three cafes in Vienna, and two in Karachi, Pakistan. Lagging behind CCD in the Indian market,

Barista has about 200 cafés, Java Green (around 75 cafés) and Mocha (around 25 cafés). The Indian

organized sector has potential for around 5,000 cafés but fewer than 1,000 cafés exist currently.

Cafe Coffee Day, CCD, Amalgamated Bean Coffee Trading Company Ltd., ABCTCL, V G Trusted

Brands 2008 survey, Bidisha Nagaraj – Marketing president, brand image, brand management,

Exclusive Brand Retailer of the Year, Barista, Java Green, Mocha, company owned stores, national

brand, south Indian retail chain, Chikmagalur, Co-branding, international brand consultant Landor,

Silent brew masters – special employee program, a feeling of togetherness, Coffee Day Exports,

Coffee Day Xpress, Coffee Day Take Away (coffee vending machines), Coffee Day Fresh ‘n

Ground (ground coffee retail outlets), Coffee Day FMCG (packaged filter coffee powder)

CCD’s vision: To be the only office for dialogue over a cup of coffee

CCD’s Expansion Strategy: Cafe Coffee Day has around 821 outlets in 115 cities in India.

CCD plans to take the total number of cafes to 1,000 by March 2010 and double it to 2,000 by

2014. In October 2009, CCD announced that it will increase its international presence from the

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current six outlets in Vienna and Pakistan to a total of 50 stores across Europe and Middle East in

two years time.

Highway Cafes: In 2004, CCD began cafes on highways. By 2009, the total number of Café

Coffee Day highway cafes rose to 30 owing to the overwhelming response it received from

travellers.

CCD’s new brand identity: In October 2009, CCD unveiled a new brand logo, a Dialogue

Box, to weave the concept of ‘Power of Dialogue’. In accordance with this new brand identity,

CCD planned to give all its existing outlets a new look by the end of 2009. Cafés would be

redesigned to suit different environments such as book, music garden and cyber cafes suitable for

corporate offices, university campus or neighborhood. The change plan included new smart

menu, furniture design, among others.

CCD’s International Expansion Strategy – In June, 2010 Cafe Coffee Day chain acquired

Emporio for Rs 15 crore. Emporio is a Czech Republic-based café chain present at 11 locations.

CCD plans to co-brand the chain as Café Coffee Day Emporio and later transition it to Café

Coffee Day. CCD is also present in Vienna. The company wants to expand in the East European

region, West Asia and the Asia-Pacific region.

Cafe Market in India – Coffee retailers cover only 170 cities out of 3,000 in India (early

2011 reports). In 2008, according to Technopak Advisors, the Indian food servcies market –

cafes, full-service restaurants, fast-food outlets/quick-service restaurants was estimated to be $6

billion (Rs 26,000 crore) with organized players taking 13% of the market. (By 2014 this number

is expected to increase up to 27%.). According to Technopak Advisors, the café market in India

is estimated at $150 million (Rs 678 crore) and growing at 40 per cent over the last five years.

CONCLUSION

For giving the participants a real life experience, a press meet session can be organised and the participants group may be asked to play the role of Public Relations Officer or the spokesperson of the organisation. Press reporters from leading journals or newspapers may be identified and invited for an interaction with the group and they expect to play the role of reporters & media persons. Some bureaucrats or senior government officers who normally face press reporters often like Secretaries to Government, Police commissioner's etc., may be invited as an observer. At the end of the press meet session, the observer as well as he press persons may be requested to provide feedback.

One of the most popular and traditional tools used by public relations professionals is a press kit,

also known as a media kit. A press kit is usually a folder that consists of promotional materials

that give information about an event, organization, business, or even a person. What are included

would be backgrounders or biographies, fact sheets, press releases (or media releases), media

alerts, brochures, newsletters,photographs with captions, copies of any media clips, and social

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mediums. With the way that the industry has changed, many organizations may have

a website with a link, "Press Room" which would have online versions of these documents.

The art of public relations is more than simply press kits and social media. 'PR' is synonymous in

many people's minds with "Press Release", but the tools of the PR industry are actually many and

varied as well as sophisticated and subtle. They include media relations kits containing video and

audio news releases, referred to in the industry as VNRs and ANRs, which are often carefully

produced to emulate the signature style of a particular network news or current affairs program.

These products are then delivered to networks and run as regular program content, with or without

source acknowledgment, thereby saving the network tens of thousands of dollars in production

costs and delivering for the client of the PR firm an extremely effective and subtle method of

managing public opinion. Crisis and issues management campaigns often utilize VNRs and ANRs

in their efforts to manage information pertaining to threats to client reputation or profit.

Astroturfing, or creating front groups designed to appear as genuine grass roots movements,

(hence astroturf or fake grass) has proven to be a very effective method of opinion management

because people are less suspicious and critical of "ordinary people voicing their concerns" than

they are of representatives of corporations or governments. Buzz generation, or buzz marketing is

another powerful and subversive form of PR in which people are paid to create a "buzz" amongst

their peers by exposing them to products or opinions in a manner that appears not to be deliberate

marketing or opinion management. Most PR campaigns use many or all of these "communication"

techniques and a great many more in creative ways that deliver practical results in marketing or

public opinion management.

BIBLIOGRAPHY & WEBOGRAPHY

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Making PR Work DPK Public Relations Founder Daniel Keeney

The New Rules of Marketing and PR.  David Meerman Scott

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Principles Of Public Relations- C. Rayendu & K.R. Balan ( Himalaya) 

Practical Public Relation- Sam Black-

WEBOGRAPHY

Pr Information www.wikipedia.com

PUBLIC RELATION SOCIETY OF INDIA http://www.prsi.co.in

Pr Case Studies http://www.iprn.com

Company product www.managementparadise.com

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