15 Important Characteristics of Public Relations (Explained)

Public Relations is deliberate, planned and sustained efforts to establish and maintain mutual understanding between an organization and its public. It is an important tool of the promotion mix of the firm which is used to establish and enhance a positive image of an organization and its products among its various public.

Characteristics of Public Relations
Characteristics of Public Relations

This concept is based on the fact that the right of an organization to operate is conferred by the public and this privilege may be withdrawn if an organization fails to serve the primary needs of its public.

It is clearly meant that Public relations is involved with more than just customer relationships, and it is often handled at the corporate level rather than at the functional level of Marketing Management.

An Organisation, through its Public Relations functions, Monitors the attitudes of its publics and distributes information and communications to build goodwill.

Characteristics of Public Relations

Some of the important characteristics of public relations are as follows:

  1. It is two-way communication between an organization and its public through which they both try to understand and corporate with each other and eliminate misunderstanding.
  2. Public Relations is not only a social philosophy, expressed in policy inactions of a firm, but it is also the communication of this philosophy to its concerned public. 12 Essential Tools of Public Relations (Explained with Example).
  3. It is a method of establishing a mutual understanding between an organization and its publics.
  4. It is an important promotion mix tool of a firm which involves a variety of programs designed to promote or protect a company’s image for its individual products.
  5. It helps in developing a favorable or positive image of an organization and its products among its various publics.
  6. It is not only an art but science also.
  7. It is the top management function of a firm that continuously monitors the attitudes of the organization public, distributes information and adopts positive programs to present negative publicity in the first place.
    functions of public relations
    functions of public relations
  8. Human relations, empathy, persuasion, and dialogue are the basic elements of public relations. uman relations emphasis on the fact that every person is a humanly. ‘Empathy‘ is feeling with the other person. It can be regarded as the primary prerequisite for a satisfying experience in any relationship where a certain degree of depth of understanding is expected. ‘Persuasion‘ focuses on the sense of human interest instead of compilation while dealing with another person. Dialogue is a reasonable exchange of Ideas bringing into a being a new form of knowledge, the use of dialogue is for influencing behavior. 18 Benefits and Objectives of Marketing Control (Explained).
  9. Four basic elements of public relations: 1. It is a social management philosophy. 2. It is an expression of this philosophy in policy decisions. 3. It is action resulting from these policies and, 4. It is two-way communication that contributes towards the creation of these policies and them explains, reveals, defends or promote them to the public so as to secure mutual understanding and Goodwill.
  10. Public Relations activities can be targeted to a small specialized audience if the right target media of vehicle used.
  11. Advertising, lobbying, press agency, and publicity are tools of the public relations fraction.
  12. It is the social responsibility of each business institution.
  13. Good Public Relations cannot be achieved by the delegation of action to a public relations manager and a staff of specialists but is achieved by every operating Department head as well as of line and staff executives. 37 Essential Qualities of a Successful Entrepreneur (Must Know).
  14. The function of the public relations department is to assist top management in executing policies and developing good relations with the various publics.
  15. Public relations is the overall discipline of understanding, and Justing to, and motivating group attitudes. It deals with many intangibles and by its, the very nature tends to be diverse. But it is not meant that:
  • It is a substitute for bad management or a clue all for poor policies, products, and services.
  • It is a device for deceiving the public.
  • It is a temporary defensive activity to compensate for management’s mistakes in dealing with the public.
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