The use of ‘Public Relations’
An article wrote by Simone van Riet.
PR, short for Public Relations, is an element of advertising and is defined as ‘a promotion intended to create goodwill for a person or institutions image’. (This is according to the internet site Wikipedia.)
PR is actually a very old tool to promote or advertise. It came into existence in the United States of America. There’s evidence that they already used PR, like lobbying and press relations, back in the 18th century. At that time the term ‘Public Relations’ didn’t exist yet.
Around 1890, while the United States expanded their railroads, many PR practices were developed. In ‘1897 Year Book of Railway Literature’ the term is used for the first time.
Trough the years PR became more and more popular. And now, roughly 250 years later, we can’t picture advertising without PR. In today’s industry corporations are using PR to announce information about their products or about the services they offer, to trigger potential customers. Corporations also use PR to expose themselves as open-minded, innovative, creative, environment friendly or whatever. Not only corporations, but also non-profit organizations are using Public Relations. These organizations make use of PR trying to get some notion and support for their programs or their goals. And when politicians make use of PR, they most of the time try to attract votes or to raise money. So although most seen as corporate servants, almost any organization has at least one PR manager.
The job of this PR-specialist is to form and improve the reputation of a person, company or a government. This specialist generates positive publicity by maintaining contacts with journalists, set up speaking appointments, writing speeches, etcetera. It’s very important that a PR-specialist is keeping the communication open between the groups involved by company’s product and/or policies. These are the consumers, shareholders and the employees of the business.
To be a PR manager takes a lot of studying, time and hard work to see through the audients and get the publics’ attention. A Public Relations specialist must keep up with popular and common developments to understand which stories will do. The work of a PR-specialist is continuously changing and every day is full of unforeseen difficulties and challenges to solve.
So almost every organization has a PR manager, but how can PR be useful to O’Neill?
PR is an useful tool to influence opinions and direct contact with the target group.
Because O’Neill has chosen a whole new target group for their new clothing line, they have to do a lot of advertising. PR can help the company to create goodwill and improve their image.
No company can be successful, without Public Relations!
