What are Public Relations? Explain any four points on the role and importance of Public Relations in Marketing Management.
Public Relations or PR mainly involves various practices for improving and building good relations between the advertiser and media, employees, middlemen, customers, suppliers, shareholders along with the general public on behalf of a business. The role and importance of PR is as follows :
(i) More credible: PR can enable customers to obtain credible information and messages about products/services which can be obtained from independent sources making them dependable and credible. These information and messages are not influenced by its producers.
(ii) Image building: PR creates a positive image of a particular brand in the minds of target customers through regular interaction, press release, newsletters, interviews, events, functions, hiring a celebrity as brand ambassador, etc.
(iii) Boosting sales: As it attempts to impress different groups of people in large-scale, PR can boost sales of products/services.
(iv) Economic medium: PR is relatively more economical marketing tool than advertising as PR indirectly encourages word-of-mouth marketing among people.