2. How PR Works

The International Committee of Public Relations Consultancies Associations describes public relations as ‘the managed process of communication between one group and another’. The aim of most PR programmes, however, is usually simply to improve the portrayal of a business or individual (the client) in the media.

This improvement can be in terms of the number of mentions or the way the client is mentioned. If a client is getting a lot of bad press, for example, the main task for PR may well be to put a lid on all coverage for a while. In most cases, however, the objective (and the basis for campaign measurement) is the increase in the number of positive mentions a client gets in the press. This usually involves a process along the following lines.

• The client retains or recruits a PR practitioner or team of practitioners. Large businesses tend to have an in-house PR team, while smaller companies and individuals may employ an agency or a freelance professional. It is also not unusual for in-house teams to employ the services of a PR agency, either to cope with work peaks or, more usually, to undertake specific projects.
• The client briefs the PR practitioner or team on their objectives. Beyond simply getting more mentions in the press, for example, they may be keen to promote a particular product or to raise sales in a specific area.
• The PR practitioner or team proposes measures that can meet the client’s objectives by improving the way they are portrayed in the media. There is a vast array of potential ways of garnering media coverage, ranging, for example, from sponsoring an industry awards event to taking journalists out to lunch to talk to them about the state of the widget market (or whatever).
• Those measures that are deemed most appropriate to the client’s brief and budget will go on to form the basis for one or several PR campaigns.
• The PR practitioner or team then sets about preparing the materials that will be used as the background for coverage. These can include press releases, information packs and so on.
• Once the materials have been approved they are distributed to the press, usually along with invitations to face-to-face or telephone briefings.
• The resulting coverage is collected and measured in terms of quantity and quality. Most PR programmes measure the number of times a particular take-out or ‘key message’ (such as ‘company X is the leading widget company in the country’) is mentioned.