Defining Public Relations

Introduction

The following paper is about defining public relations. My personal definition and three other definitions of public relations will be compared and contrasted. There are many different definitions of public relations and the reason will be addressed in the following as well. Public relation is important in the marketing world and important for a company to be successful in providing positive public relations.

Personal Definition

My personal definition of public relations is that while marketing a company a process has to be implemented to get people's attention to buy the products or services that the company is offering. The public needs to know about a company and has to be interested in the products or services if the company wants to be successful. This is where public relations specialists may come in to help a company gain acknowledgement by the public and gain business. By communicating what kind of company is being marketed and how well your products and services are, then the company will gain customers. Being a successful company is important and successfully reaching out to the public will help in the process of making the company successful.

Other Definitions

In the textbook, The Practice of Public Relations, public relation is defined as, "The management function which evaluates public attitudes, identifies the policies and procedures of an individual or an organization with the public interest, and plans and executes a program of action to earn public understanding and acceptance." (Seitel, 2004) Some approaches that echo this definition are R-A-C-E, R-O-S-I-E, and R-P-I-E. These approaches were developed by the late Denny Griswold, founder of Public Relations News.

Marston's R-A-C-E approach is a four-step model and was created by a communications professor, John Marston. The model is a public relations process to influence public opinion. (Seitel, 2004) The following is the four-step model:

1. Research- Research attitudes about the issue at hand.

2. Action- Identify action of the client in the public interest.

3. Communication- Communicated that action to gain understanding, acceptance and support.

4. Evaluation- To evaluate the communication to see if opinion has been influenced.

(Seitel, 2004)

"R-O-S-I-E prescribes sandwiching the functions of objectives, strategies and implementation between research and evaluation." (Seitel, 2004) This approach was created by public relations professor Sheila Clough Crifasi. Others use a process called R-P-I-E which is for research, planning, implementation, and evaluation. This approach focuses on the element of planning as a necessary step following the activation of a communications initiative. (Seitel, 2004)

Another definition for public relations is, "The art and science of building relationships between an organization and its key publics." (Wikipedia, 2006) Some examples are how corporations use marketing public relations to deliver information about the products they manufacture or services they provide to potential customers to support their direct sales efforts. Corporations also use public relations to describe themselves as enlightened employers to support human resources recruiting programs. Nonprofit organizations use public relations to support awareness programs fund-raising programs, staff recruiting, and to increase patronage of their services. Public relation is also used by politicians to attract votes and raise money.

The last definition of public relations that will be discussed is "The acts of communicating what you are to the public." (Jaycees, 2006) As discussed earlier a business needs to be known to be successful. Reaching out to the public and gaining their business is important for a business. Every business needs to implement some kind of public relations process to gain customers and increase profits.

Comparing