The Relation of Story Telling to Public Relations

This presentation explores the relationship between story telling and public relations. It discusses the concept of public relations and narrative/story telling, and how they are linked. The presentation also includes a case study of McDonald's and its use of story telling methods. It highlights the importance of story telling in building brand loyalty and connecting with target audiences.

THE RELATION OF
STORY TELLING TO
PUBLIC RELATIONS

What is public relations?
 Strategic communication technique incorporated by organizations.
 Helps in promoting brands by maintaining a brand image.
 Works through print media, news channels, websites, television
programmes and now through social media networks (Olasky, 2013).
 Involves receiving and responding to news via media.
 Builds partnership and prevents damage control of the companies
(Wilcox, Ault, & Agee, 2006).

What is Narrative/Story Telling?
 Story telling is the art of telling stories.
 Interactive process between narrator and listener.
 Usages of language, words, vocalization and gestures.
 Two kinds of story telling- Visual and Audio.
 Visual Story telling- story told with the help of visual media. Eg:
photographs, icons, illustrations, graphics, and logos.
 Audio story telling- story narrated with the help of poetry and
performances and radio (Kosara, Mackinlay, 2013).

How is story telling linked with Public
Relations
 Story telling- technique of interaction using words and actions
 The art of story telling is present in companies.
 Allows the companies to connect better with the target audience
 Stimulates audience’s feelings and helps them to achieve market
goals.
 Along with public relations it helps to increase brand loyalty and
connection between the customers and the companies.
 Attraction of the customers and the target audiences through story
telling in public relations (Gill, 2015).

ORGANIZATIONAL STORY
TELLING CASE STUDY OF
McDonald’s'

How McDonald’s deal with its story telling
methods?
 Incorporation of Ronald McDonald’s character as a story telling method,
in order to meet its target audience (Gerhardt, Hazen, & Lewis, 2014).
 One of the examples of how story telling has been incorporated by the
McDonald’s is its introduction of the concept of “The Happy Meal”.
 it was a combination of meal suitable for children including a free toy
which made the company to reach its target audience , that is the
children easily. The toy serves as a story teller, which narrates the
stories of each and every character that it represents
 Also in India, the launching of Chicken Maharaja Mac and Chicken
McNuggets had proved successful (Harrington, Ottenbacher, & Fauser,
2017)
 These include Indian flavours speak about the stories of ancient Indian
heritage. ‘Maharaja’ means the King, which tells the stories of the Royal
administration that India had been under.

Advertisement and public relations of
McDonald’s
McDonald’s logo transformation
Brand Character
Brand Tagline

Competing stories about
McDonald’s.

Why is the video shown?
 The video that is supposed to be shown, includes the story of a
person in India, who is fond of toys.
 His age is no barrier to his obsession with toys. He just goes to the
outlets of McDonald’s, and orders “The Happy Meal”, so that he can
win toys from that.
 The video speaks about the relation of narration of stories through
the toy characters, with the public, and the target audience

How is the video linked with story
telling in public relation?
 The toy that the happy meal provides, has a different level of
obsession not only with the children, but also with the adults.
 Public relations is the method through with an organization can reach
out to other individuals, or vice versa and a relationship or bonding is
created.
 Stories help and act as a catalyst to create this bonding. This has
been the greatest idea behind McDonald’s.
 The toy’s depict different characters such as “Batman”, “Spiderman”,
“Flash”, and others, which are quite fascinating.
 These stories help McDonald’s build a connection with its target
audience.

References
Shen, Q., & Xiao, P. (2014). McDonald's and KFC in China: Competitors or
Companions?. Marketing Science, 33(2), 287-307.
Kent, M. L. (2015). The power of storytelling in public relations: Introducing the 20 master
plots. Public Relations Review, 41(4), 480-489.
Gerhardt, S., Hazen, S., & Lewis, S. (2014). Small business marketing strategy based on
McDonald's. ASBBS Proceedings, 21(1), 271.
Harrington, R. J., Ottenbacher, M. C., & Fauser, S. (2017). QSR brand value: Marketing mix
dimensions among McDonald’s, KFC, Burger King, Subway and Starbucks. International
Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 29(1), 551-570.
Green, S. (2015). McDonald's. Bellwether Media.
Olasky, M. N. (2013). Corporate public relations: A new historical perspective. Routledge.
Kosara, R., & Mackinlay, J. (2013). Storytelling: The next step for
visualization. Computer, 46(5), 44-50.
Gill, R. (2015). Why the PR strategy of storytelling improves employee engagement and
adds value to CSR: An integrated literature review. Public Relations Review, 41(5), 662-
674.
www.corporate.mcdonalds.com. (2019). McDonald's - Official Global Corporate Website.
Retrieved from https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd.html
Wilcox, Ault, & Agee, 2006

THANK