ABSTRACT
Introduction 320 General PR and marketing PR 320 Reactive versus proactive MPR 322 Publicity and media relations 324 Lobbying 325 Word of mouth (WOM) and astro-turfing 326 Sponsorship 327 Ethics in PR and sponsorship 329 Measuring results 329 Summary 329 Review questions 330 Recommended reading 330 Case study 14.1: Stanley Tools 331 Notes 344
After studying this chapter, you will be able to:
• Understand the difference between general public relations and marketing public relations and their relative contribution to marketing campaigns
• Identify the difference between proactive and reactive public relations
• Analyse the role of lobbying, astro-turfing and word of mouth as a potential component of a marketing PR campaign
• Analyse the contribution of sponsorship activity to both short-and long-term marketing activity
• Discuss ethical issues that may arise in both public relations and sponsorship activity – understand the complexities of evaluating PR campaigns
Introduction
In its broadest sense, public relations (PR) is aimed at building positive relations between
a company and a wide range of publics or stakeholders who may be impacted by the
organization’s activity. Publics may include current or potential employees, trade unions,
shareholders and investment advisors, lobby groups and government agencies. There is
some debate about the scope of public relations, i.e. if PR is limited to immediate stake-
holders of an organization – or if it should target a much wider audience or publics.
