Business Implications of a Public Relations Campaign
In order to understand the business implications of a Public Relations Campaign, the relationship between advertising and Public Relations must be fully understood.
Many people view price as the major determining factor in successful sales. Business experience has shown that this is not true and the business that relies solely on offering a product at a better price will learn this fact the hard way. Also, advertising has been shown to be less effective in the absence of product recognition and positive product perception. This is where Public Relations and the Public Relations Campaign augment the advertising and sales departments of a business.
The consumer is a strange animal when it comes to perception. When a product or company gains a poor public image, it is very hard to offset it with increased advertising and lower prices. It becomes necessary to change the perception first. Advertising, which traditional is used to inform the public of product quality and value, yields to Public Relations which attempts to change the public perception of the product or the company that produces it.
If you look at advertising closely, you will see that much of it is actually the result of a Public Relations Campaign rather than an advertising campaign. When the advertisement tends to relate the product or Company to a positive image or a popular public figure and says very little about the product itself or the cost of it, the goal is creating a positive Public image rather than selling a particular product.
This Public Relations connection with advertising is an ongoing thing in business. When the President of the Wrigley Gum Company was advised that the public image of his company and the product recognition level had been measured to show that they had reached the desired goal, it was suggested that the PR budget could not be safely reduced. He responded by suggesting that this was not unlike getting a train up to full speed and then shutting down the locomotive.
This idea that Public Relations and the positive public image that it creates of a Company and its products is the driving force of its success is one of the major business implications of a Public Relations Campaign. It is a simple fact. Good Public Relations makes people feel good about a Company and people tend to buy from Companies they feel good about regardless, many times, of the actual comparative price.