• What is public relations?
• Definition of public relations
• Functions and objectives of public relations
• Importance of public relations
• Public relations strategies
• Examples of recognized campaigns

We explain what public relations or PR is, its functions, objectives and strategies. Also, examples of successful campaigns.

Nike's PR strategy "Just do it." It was one of the most successful of the 90s.

What is public relations?

Public relations (often abbreviated as PR) is a certain type of corporate communications that, coordinated and sustained in the weather, seek to strengthen the strategic links between a business or organization, and its different public of interest.

In other words, it is a management of communications that seeks to maintain in the best possible state the relations between the organization and its external interlocutors. To do this, it provides them information, exchange opportunities and encourages the so-called loyalty (preferential clientelistic relationship).

Public relations constitute a set of strategies of different kinds. His objective is to promote, sell, promote or make the interests of the organization known to its clientele and the general public, in a planned way. Therefore, go to techniques and concepts of the marketing and the design, but also of the sociology, the psychology, the politics and the journalism.

Public relations is also a discipline and an autonomous field of study. The Austrian-American publicist and inventor Edward Barnays (1891-1995) invented them in the early 1900s. Its importance during the Great Depression that began in 1929 was significant, as a mechanism to claim business work and its contribution to the economic system.

Definition of public relations

According to some authors and scholars of the matter, we can define public relations as:

• “… A distinctive managerial role that helps establish and maintain lines of communication mutual understanding, acceptance and cooperation between an organization and its audiences; implies the management from problems o topics, helps managers stay informed and sensitive to public opinion; defines and emphasizes the responsibility of managers to serve the public interest; it helps managers stay ahead of changes and use them effectively, understanding them as a warning system to anticipate trends ”(Rex Harlow).
• “… The managerial function that establishes and maintains mutually beneficial relationships between an organization and the publics on which its success or failure depends” (Scott Cutlip and Allen Conter).
• “… The administrative function that evaluates public attitudes, identifies an organization's policies and procedures with the public interest, and executes a program of action and communication to generate public understanding and acceptance” (John Marston).

Functions and objectives of public relations

Public relations interests are very diverse and distinct, but we can roughly summarize them as follows:

• Manage the identity corporate or organizational. This means that PR ensures that the different departments of the company use the same language and project a unified image of it to the public. Which implies:
• • Management of external communications. In other words, of everything that leaves the organization and is consumed by the client or by the general public.
  • Management of internal communications. That is, the way in which the parts of the company communicate with each other.
  • Management of public opinion. As follow-up of the press, strategic consultations, management of Internet Y social networks, strategic marketing, etc.
• Corporate social responsibility. It is known as commitment of the organization with the community of which he is a part, not only as a way of projecting a positive image of his work and of his vision and mission, but also as a mechanism to return to the society part of the resources that the company obtains from it.
• Event organization. Often PR achieve their objectives through the production and organization of various types of events, fairs, invitations, celebrations, etc.

Importance of public relations

PR can spread ethical practices, such as buying Starbucks coffee.

Public relations are an inseparable part of business and organizational practice today. They can be a way of bringing companies closer to their public, or a mechanism to "humanize" some large corporations whose operation is more like that of a machine.

Of course, this can involve ethically questionable work, such as washing the face of companies whose economic activity is irresponsible or harmful. In other cases, it may be part of the communication strategies of a positive organization that would otherwise not be as well known and would not receive enough support and visibility.

Public relations strategies

The public relations strategy is known as the general plan and design of the PR of an organization or company, that is, the set of tools and strategies that it prefers or chooses to put into practice, facing a target audience and a social context and certain commercial.

According to Edward Bernays himself, founder of PR, such a project should take into account the following steps:

• Define business objectives for the public.
• Extract from them a set of goals achievable in the short, medium and long term.
• Research and understand the target audience as much as possible.
• Establish a strategy related to all of the above.
• Schedule the actions that make up the strategy over time.
• Run the schedule of activities based on schedule.

Examples of recognized campaigns

Wendy’s food chain is famous for its loyalty strategies.

Some successful and internationally recognized PR campaigns are:

• Starbucks. The famous chain of coffee shops has long been the spokesperson for a message from responsible consumption, which involves the purchase of coffee beans from local cultivators in Africa, Asia Y America, instead of large chains of raw material, as well as the reduction of non-biodegradable materials in its processes. This is explained to us as soon as we enter their premises and is even part of their decoration.
• Wendy’s. Focusing your link with users in the social networks, and especially on Twitter, this well-known hamburger and fast food transnational became known for its willingness to reward users for their loyalty and their collaboration with the content on this social network, even giving one-year vouchers for hamburgers if a message from its users reached a certain number of replies.
• Nike. Although now out of fashion, the communications and marketing campaign of the North American sports shoes company Nike was very famous at the time for its association with the world of basketball and its patronage of great stars such as Michael Jordan, under the slogan of Just do it ("Just do it"). This is, perhaps, one of the corporate image campaigns and advertising most successful in the West in the 1990s.