The Importance of Public Relations in Building Strong Image and Enhancing Market Position
Discuss about the Public Relations And Its Relevance.
The essay aims to look into the theoretical aspects of Public Relations (PR) and its relevance in the current market scenario. Public Relations(PR) is a powerful weapon in every organization since it helps in building a strong image and blurring the boundaries that demarcates one state from the others. Western countries especially have a powerful presence all over the world and assume a dominant position when it comes to their products and services (Valentini, Kruckeberg and Starck 2016). In organization since PR forms a critical aspect it is also known as the corporate communication department. PR and its presence in organization of various countries has resulted in an intellectual as well as ideological domination all over the world which has worked in an advantageous manner. In the western countries, PR acts as a tool for propaganda from which dominant ideas and cultural practices are dispersed precisely because of which practitioners are called as cultural intermediaries. Through PR and propaganda, western countries can attempt to establish power over the other countries through establishing cultural, political and ideological control. In developed countries PR would furthermore facilitate an integration of ideals of different sub-cultures and promoting mutual understanding and harmony amongst the members of these sub-cultures towards the product or service (Cronin 2018).
PR is critical an aspect in organizations of contemporary times because in a globalized world, a phenomenon appeared around 1990s PR is fundamental in influencing people and enhancing their awareness of any particular product or service(Baran and Baran 2014). Gaining public acceptance is one of the core functions of PR that would be attained by coping with communication barriers. The amalgamation different cultures and practices that can be achieved by incorporating ethnocentricity in PR that would consequent in enhanced participation and mass involvement in a pluralistic society, political scenario and markets. As per market analysts the current era of globalization has acted as a catalyst to make the public relation sector bloom and grow significantly that had helped them to established secured communication with people belonging from diverse background and culture. If any organization is failing to be a part of hierarchy of domination as within the framework of present society, PR is the best practice to embrace population spanning borders making the best use of technology. In the domain of PR ideology formulation should be given adequate importance that is achieved with the help of communication and consensus. Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) and lobbying are two fundamental parts of Public Relations and both are viewed as essential communication activity which is pursued for the purpose of educating and advocating according to clients’ best interests. These weapons are therefore responsible in creating new policies and practices of the individuals which acts in favor of the brand existing in a democratic society (Valentini, Kruckeberg and Starck 2016). CSR can influence policies because it establishes the business in relation to the society and various social factors. these two activities form the backbone of PR since they ensure in attaining the right image,, connection and helps in shaping public opinions in a pluralistic society. These activities along with creating influential discourse can help in giving rise to a political, socio-cultural and economic transformation and establish harmonious relationship to prevail one particular brand, idea or service over the others. PR practitioners can make adroit usage of social media with search engine optimization , where brands and services are largely adhering by bogs and tags in order to assemble a more organized public attention. The lobbyists in the sector of PR attempts to emphasize on facts, information and issues and appeals that function in the best possible manner on behalf of their clients (Ngai, Tao and Moon 2015). Lobbying, CSR and activism should therefore be conducted in such a manner as to elicit the best response from the consumers. Many academic scholars have written elaborate theories on the language of lobbying that would increase the value of product positioning and therefore result in framing better policies.
The Role of Western Countries in Spreading Dominant Ideas and Promoting Cultural Practices Through PR and Propaganda
Social media has immense effect on PR because of the swift interface that it has created generating a two-way conversation between consumers and producers, enhancing brand image and awareness. Today PR practitioners are strategically infusing strategies that invoke memories of traditional media within the people to reinforce brand image and popularity. Social media helps in building agendas, propagating ideologies and theories regarding a brand or service with the simplistic use of tag lines, graphic images, gif and videos that would be beneficial for the organnization. Social media also has a considerable impact on traditional media which has limited its proliferation in recent times since social media has massive access to every realm of an individual’s life, especially because of the visual aid that it results in. as per statics, newspaper, tabloids and magazine circulation has dropped severely because social media has tailored and personalized the entire process of news consumption an hitherto unimagined manner (Grunig 2017). Social media and PR practices are related in sustaining and thriving each other, accelerate community participation and influencing their opinions on things that matter Both the sectors depend on diversity of approaches that has changed the landscape of PR practices which can propagate ideas and images with the help of search engines and thereby eliminating the walls between people of varied backgrounds and boundaries.The PR practitioners are concentrating their emphasis on the creative side of branding the product since with the advent of social media many other brands have already set the niche in front of consumers. With the sprawling of social media usage one can observe the shifting locus of power from print media or posters to the web which achieves the responsibility of propagation and influencing and education those who are unaware of the brand (Pearson 2017). According to scholars social media can be used in public relations as a potential tool for building ideologies and creation of user-oriented content that would work in favor of the brand image of product and service. Pr practitioners are moving away from traditional usages of media to more revolutionized medium like content community based social media platforms like YouTube and Instagram to use public relation as a vehicle for strategic communication. To enhance organizational reputation and responding to changes in the external environment within which they are operating, a concrete understanding of theories is concrete to understand the discipline and large-scale invasion that is prevalent in the realm of public relations and practices especially from the sector of advertising agencies and marketing professionals. As public relation requires an organization and public adhere mutually with each other, and spread brand awareness to non-profit organizations, investors, patrons, employees and political spheres PR therefore must function in an ethical manner as a social system (Theaker 2017). In today’s era, PR practitioners today are under tremendous pressure to appeal the products and services both to the external and internal target groups as well as to devise new strategies. It is therefore theories are required to help the PR practitioners compete at a global level since theories align the organizations or products with economic, social, cultural elements under which they are functioning. In this way they would be effective in sharing organizational information and achieve goals and missions. Since PR and society are mutually exclusive to each other adhering to theories and concept while practicing it, for instance the prevalence of role theory that determines on the set of specific roles as needed to be adhered by PR to function in a social system. If the PR practitioners abide by specific rules and patterns they will be in at an advantageous position in the social system which will develop a positive perception of the organization by those who are in relation to it. It is inherent for PR practitioners to conceptualize the entire system of Public Relation since PR has the responsibility to comply with legal roles, social roles like adaptation to the environment within which they are operating, making the best usage of the available social and organizational resources that would be helpful in the creation of a positive image of the organization. Additionally in the realm of PR, the biggest challenge for the PR practitioners is to generate a positive response from the audiences, it is therefore that the birth of communication theories have a significant to instructing individuals, reinforcing positive ideas and images of the product/ service and impel the people to absorb and respond adequately to the messages that PR is creating in the minds. Vast amount of research has been conducted in the domain of operation of PR and the systematic process that helps in generating a positive image and awareness and has paved the way for a number of strategies and methods by which one can make effective usage of media and communication, therefore it can be safely asserted that PR will ultimately fail to procure any positive result if it is being done or experimented in a disorderly and unorganized manner (Theaker 2017).
Public relations should therefore be viewed as intimately associated with public sphere and therefore should be practiced strategically as it has immense power to exercise control over public. Without an organized and measures approach the question will always loom large weather PR is achieving its desired effect on the society. Strategies and theories should be dispersed as per requirements to achieve a long-lasting influence on the society symbiotic relationship between people and clients.
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