Marketing Communications

326 CHAPTER 10 PUBLIC RELATIONS

Public affairs

Public affairs is a management function directed towards the societal and political relations of

the company. It is aimed at continuously studying trends and issues related to government

decision-making and opinions and attitudes of the general public. Good contacts with the

general public and the local community are a part of the public aff airs activity. Th e handling

of the sinking of the Brent Spar oil platform and the Exxon Valdez disaster are examples of

events that required consistent PR activity to restore faith and goodwill among the general

public or local communities. Th e support of good causes by a company is aimed at restoring

or maintaining goodwill with the general public. Public aff airs also encompasses the relations

with local, regional, national and international governments and regulatory bodies, as well as

pressure groups of all kinds, such as ecological, ethnic, linguistic and consumer interest groups.

It attempts to infl uence the decision-making of important stakeholders, or to respond to trends

and changes in opinions and attitudes in such a way that the long-term goodwill of the company

benefi ts from it. For instance, the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) is an international

lobbying group that tries to infl uence government regulations on promotional activity,

and tries to monitor and/or counter the infl uence of pressure groups on behalf of the world

advertising community.

Financial public relations

Financial audiences are those groups that are potential shareholders, investors or (potential)

advisers to shareholders and investors, such as fi nancial consultants and banks. Th ey are vital

for the establishment of the long-term money-raising potential of a company. A crucial

objective of these audiences is to build and maintain the confi dence that is necessary to

give the company an image of an interesting investment. Th e preparation and presentation of

a sound fi nancial report, the stock exchange introduction of a company, fi nancial com-

munications accompanying mergers and acquisitions are all examples of fi nancial PR. Th e

European cinema group Kinepolis, for instance, was able to attract massive numbers of new

shareholders as a result of a successful introduction of the company’s shares on the stock

exchange.

Media public relations

Since the media are the most important intermediate public, developing and maintaining

good contacts with radio, TV and the (trade) press are oft en extremely important. All the

objectives to be met by end-publics are also important in media PR : to inform, build favour-

able attitudes, create a positive image and a reservoir of goodwill, and to ensure coverage of

marketing-related news ( Photo 10.1 ). Indirectly, media PR is aimed at generating favourable

publicity about the company, its products and brands and, more generally, all events and

projects that support the image of the company and its marketing objectives.

Good media PR can result in positive comments during the introduction of a product,

can create goodwill for the company’s activities and can generate publicity for a range of

organisational events, activities and sponsorship programmes. In the aft ermath of the A

Class moose test problems when a Mercedes A Class model overturned while undertaking

a traditional moose test, Mercedes was able to neutralise the bad publicity quickly by means

of careful PR campaigns directed at the specialised press. Obtaining media attention for

sponsorship projects can generate publicity that is, in terms of media exposure, worth much

more than the initial investment in the event. In times of crisis, the media are a crucial audience

in order to avoid or neutralise negative ‘fallout’ from the event that caused the crisis. Bad

handling of media relations caused the Perrier problem (benzene in Perrier mineral water) to

evolve into a major wave of bad publicity that resulted in enormous image and commercial

damage to the brand and the company.

M10_PELS3221_05_SE_C10.indd 326M10_PELS3221_05_SE_C10.indd 326 6/5/13 3:26 PM6/5/13 3:26 PM