Corporate PR - Why it’s important for an Organisation?

Corporate PR - Why it’s important for an Organisation? 

Corporate PR, a form of public relations, is one of the most vital and key function in every corporate today. 

Corporate PR creates and provides a blend of resources to an organisation. In present day scenario, it is imperative for a big organisation to have their own PR dept., known as Corporate PR Dept., to communicate with their external as well as internal publics.  The organisation should appoint professionals from different fields i.e. research, advertising, event management, marketing communication, and PR in their Corporate PR dept. Each professional should be a qualified one and trained with excellent written and verbal communication skills. The Corporate PR dept.  should be prepared to work  in such a manner that it must provide the required information about the organisation to its target public and feedback to the organisation.

Role of Corporate public relations is to find target audience of the corporate, reach out to them and bring them into the corporate fold; e.g. finding people who can invest or place funds in organisation. Organisations want to increase public awareness about its products, services, present and future prospects. Corporate PR dept. does this activity for the organisation.  The dept. exhibit the organisation’s right spirit and build its reputation and image. It is important for every organisation to promote its name and create an identity in the marketplace. More the public awareness an organisation can generate the better chance it will have at increased market share and presence of the company.

“The larger the corporate, the bigger the Corporate PR dept. and its PR Team”. It is significant to create a PR campaign to generate public interest in the organisation. A PR campaign is similar to a marketing campaign. PR campaign must focus on generating awareness about the organisation, its services and or products and building upon its reputation. PR campaign needs to identify its target audience and accordingly create a campaign that focuses on them and have the entire requisite communication. The team should plan effective PR campaigns and execute them successfully to reach the target audience.

Creating a Corporate PR campaign is not an easy task. It requires a lot of research and related process to put it in place. The campaign must be understood as a team effort that needs input and advice of each and every employee of the organisation. Employees taken as a part of PR campaign should be creative and able to prioritize and strategize communication requirements of the corporate. The objective of Corporate PR is to publicize the corporate and grow awareness. Corporate PR campaigns sometime work well with marketing campaigns to create more awareness about specific product or service of the organisation.

One of the main roles of Corporate PR dept. is to decide who their target audience is and the best forms of media to reach out to them. While preparing the communication plan, it must decide how big it would like to focus its target on local, regional, national or international publics. Once it is decided that where it wish to target and how, the Corporate PR dept. should look for the desired media outlets and its contacts in media. The media contacts shall include journalists in newspapers, magazines, radio, television, internet and bloggers.

Since PR professionals are to manage, build, and maintain the image and reputation of the organisation, it is essential for them to attend social gatherings where they can network their organisation with others. Their aim should be to establish credibility of the organisation in the particular field and promote its image.

One of the finest examples of Corporate PR is organisations’ web site. Interested publics can log-on to the web site to find out the desired information about the organisation. Corporate web site needs to include information about the corporate structure including its promoters, directors, top executives, and strategic planners. Other information i.e. history of the organisation, how it began and grew, its vision and mission statements, information that will set the organisation apart from the competitors, and additional information that establishes organisation’s expertise in its field.

Corporate PR dept. can explore ways to build image of the organisation by writing editorials and features for newspapers and magazines. Even, writing letter to the editor helps in keeping the organisation in public view.  At times journalists, who keep the organisation in high esteem, shall even write a story on an issue of interest that may be generated by Corporate PR dept. and shall contact for expert quotes on the subject matter.

Corporate PR dept. should also plan and execute corporate events. Corporate Events are called MICE i.e. Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, Exhibitions. The dept. should often organize events like "Meet & Greet" where important guests are invited so the PR people could network with them. Meet & Greet is a very effective way to build a strong network of contacts and to increase the exposure of the organisation.

Thanks for reading J