Public Relation and Its Functions - Essay Example

One of the basic underlying concepts of public relation is that maintaining a better relation always help the company achieve sustainable competitive advantage and the relation can be converted to customer loyalty as well. It is because the public is any group that has an actual as well as potential interest in the company and is able to impact the company’s ability to achieve its objectives (Kotler and Keller, p. 593).

Public Relation Functions

            Normally, there is public relations department or management who is responsible to take the necessary steps to manage successful relations with the main public groups. The public relation department is to monitor the attitudes of the public it targets and thus distribute brand and other relevant messages and communication with a view to holding a competitive edge in brand loyalty as well. The major public relations functions are detailed below:

1- Press Relation or Press Agency: The Public relation department is expected to create and place all the newsworthy information, news, events, etc in the news media. This helps the company maintain the long-term reputability of the company among its public. Some of the companies pass most of the information regarding their special events, programs, and other activities to the press, for instance, and consumers and other publics get updated when they see the news. For instance, a press release of CSR and other news of Apple Inc, Nokia inc and so on.

2- Product Publicity:  The public relation management will be engaged in publicizing the information regarding the product or service the markets to its customers. The main public group being targeted for this is customers.

3- Public Affairs: The public relations officer or the manager is also responsible for maintaining national as well as community relations that are beneficial for the company.

4-  Investor Relations: Shareholders are the most important public groups and maintaining a better relationship with them is critical to the company’s financial strength. The Public relation department is to maintain a relationship with the shareholders and for this purpose, they will always be updated with company information through mails, websites, and other forms of communication.

5- Lobbying: It is related to building and maintaining relationships with government officials and legislators so that they can be influenced for the overall benefits of the company.

6-  Development: The Public relations department is to maintain relations with donors or members of the not-for-profit organizations so that company can gain volunteer support (Armstrong and Kotler, p. 429).

These are the major functions of public relations that a company will be bake to promote its products, people, places, ideas, and activities to prospected customers and other publics.