Understanding the P R PROCESS

PUBLIC RELATIONS PROCESS

Public Relations is a powerful tool and should not be underestimated. A carefully planned and well executed communication strategy can make a substantial difference to an organisation's success.  

P R Process is a plan which pre-determines activity to achieve a desired result. It links research data to an activity in order to attain desired goals and objectives. In short, it’s the roadmap to get you where you want to be.

P R Process comprises the following steps;
A. Fact Finding
B. Planning
C. Communication
D. Evaluation
E. Research

Lets’ understand the importance of each of the above steps in P R Process.

A. FACT FINDING

Fact finding exercise is an important element of communication plan of any organisation. One doesn’t carry out a fact finding exercise by just issuing a press release or by advertisement. The PROS has to find out the strengths and weaknesses of the organisation by doing SWOT analysis of the organisation she/ he work for. After joining an organisation as PR Officer or Manager, she / he must understand the corporate objectives of the organisation, know its various publics-their attitudes and define the PR objectives in specific terms. She/he should also study ongoing CRM / ERM activities of the organisation and do a research based fact finding exercise to convince the management that what PR does is basically a management function. 

B. PLANNING

Following are the reasons for planning a P R program;

1. To set targets for P R activities against which results can be assessed.

2. To estimate cost and man-hours involved.

3. To select priorities to control the number and timing of different P R activities

4. To decide the feasibility of carrying out the declared objectives according to availability of resources which are; sufficient man power of right caliber, adequate physical equipments, and sufficient budget.

A widely accepted six point P R Planning Model by PROS is as under;

1. Appreciation of the situation

2. Defining objectives to be achieved 

3. Defining the publics to be reached

4. Finalising the communication plan, deciding the media & the appropriate media mix

5. Budget (including man hours involved)

6. Assessment of results i.e. research technique(s) to evaluate the results 

C. COMMUNICATION

In PR every communication is purposeful. There is always some objective that is to be achieved through communication. Also every communication is meaningful too, because there is some intention behind every communication. An organisation communicates with different public with different objectives in mind. Some of the objectives are as under;

1. To disseminate information

2. To foster change

3. To facilitate suitable attitudes

4. To motivate people

5. To instruct or educate people

6. To prevent spreading of misinformation or rumors etc.

7. To negotiate or resolve conflicts

D. EVALUATION 

Evaluation of any P R program is based on the following;

1. To assess whether the MESSAGE has been carried out as planned.

2. How far the P R OBJECTIVES has been achieved.

3. What is the Cost Benefit and Cost Effectiveness of the P R Program.

4. How this P R Program helped us in improving our ability to design and implement future communication programs more effectively.

E. RESEARCH

Since P R is a deliberate, planned and sustained activity, research is the very essence of any successful P R program. In-depth study of past PR programs, if any, help us to get benefit of success or failure of past PR programs. Before doing any research comes fact finding i.e. statistical data which is necessary to employ the techniques of Motivation Research, Opinion Research and Market Research. 

Thank you for reading :)

#######

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Let’s Learn P R Planning the Jefkin's Way

Friends, Thank you very much for taking out time from your very busy schedule to read my blog(s). Sharing PR knowledge with you with finesse has become my passion now and I really feel encouraged after reading your feedback in the comments column.  Friends, presenting 71st blog -  “Let’s Learn P R Planning the Jefkins Way” "Public relation is synonymous with persuasion and my belief is that PR was applied as soon as people communicated," - Harold Burson, Burson-Marsteller Co-founder. Harold Burson appalls that so many who profess to be public relations or communication specialists are so far off the mark in their attempts to define public relations. Most people, even the scholarly and the sophisticated, fail to recognize the public relations element inherent in every human transaction and communication. The smile on our faces, the tone of our voices and the messages we write, how quickly we respond to emails and phone calls, the typefaces and colours in an adver...
Read more

Public Relations And Mahatma Gandhi

Public Relations And   Mahatma Gandhi Public Relations is a management function that evaluates public attitudes, identifies the policies and procedures of an Individual or an organization with public interest, plan and executes a program of action to earn public understanding and acceptance.  Public Relations practice is a deliberate, planned, and sustained effort to establish and maintain mutual understanding between an organisation and its public. It is the art and social science of analyzing trends, predicting their consequences, counseling organization leaders, and implementing planned programs of actions which will serve both, the organization and the public interest.    Public Relations consist of all forms of planned communication, outwards and inwards, between an organization and its publics for the purpose of achieving specific objectives concerning mutual understanding. The fundamental purpose of Public Relations is to establish a two way of ...
Read more

Do Journalists Also Need PR & Reputation Management?

Friends’ Thank you for landing on my BLOG PAGE. Sharing knowledge with you has become my passion now. I feel encouraged after reading your feedback in the comment’s column. Friends’ Everything, I do or say is PR. I’m delighted to share 144 th Blog titled ‘Do Journalists Also Need PR & Reputation Management? Friends’ I’m teaching PR since 2009. There is always a chapter on “Media Relations” in PGD in PR & Advtg. course curriculum and I always tell my students that PR, besides Public Relations, Professional Relations, Personal Relations, Press Release, Perception & Reputation, also stands for Press Relations or media relations and why it is very important for PROS to develop good and long-lasting relations with the journalists and how to develop such relations with them; but I never thought whether journalists also need PR.   Hence this blog. Friends’ a journalist is someone who gathers information and reports it to the public through various media outlets, such a...
Read more