In the first post of this two-part series, we saw how the function of public relations is used to perform two key roles for any public entity – marketing and advocacy. The role of marketing comes into fore whenever PR is directed at an entity’s customers. Also, recall that from a marketing perspective, customers include buyers of a firm’s products and services, its employees and also investors and lenders – virtually any stakeholder who derives an obvious and articulable value from an organization’s operations.
The goal of PR, as with any marketing communications, is two-fold, make customers aware of an organization’s (public entity’s) value proposition as embedded in its products and services (this includes the organization’s value as an employer), and persuade them to choose its products or services over those of competitors, or even close substitutes. These two categories of goals synchronize perfectly to the standard brand building process, and now let us examine these in detail. Continue reading