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Public Relations
A COMPANY’S PUBLIC RELATIONS PROGRAMME
The company builds up a good reputation over a period of years; therefore a company must plan and
carry out a long term, continuous public relations programme in order to earn the respect and goodwill
of its publics. A company’s public relation programme could take the form of these six steps or parts:
- Conducting a formal public relations audit to determine the attitudes and opinions of each
important public in regard to the company. - Correcting any flaws in the company’s way of doing business, in the treatment of its publics
and in other areas that influence the company’s reputation. - Setting the public relations objectives.
- Formulating the public relations programme.
- Carrying out the programme.
- Determining the programmes effectiveness.
Good public relations can be achieved by using one or more of these promotional tools to communicate
with the target publics:
- Publicity
- Corporate Advertising
- Community activities
- Company contributions to the community
- House organs – e.g. company’s house magazine
- Company literature
- Plant or factor tours
HISTORY OF PUBLIC RELATIONS
The history of public relations could be traced to specific events and the efforts of some individuals in
the United States of America and Britain.
There is ample evidence to show in the records of the early Greek and Roman empires, that great care
and attention was given to the influence of public opinion up to 1914. The importance of public opinion
in those ancient times was demonstrated in their usual slogan which says: “the voice of the people is
the voice of God”. Recent history shows that American Revolution through a small group of men like
Thomas Paine, Benjamin Franklin and others, revolutionized public opinion through the use of voice
and written materials to create effective impact on public opinion. They circulated pamphlets, wrote in
the press, lectured and spread their ideas of revolt by word of mouth.