Public Relations in India: A Comprehensive Analysis of the Industry

This report provides a comprehensive overview of Public Relations (PR) in India, tracing its evolution from the early 1990s to the present day. It highlights the impact of globalization, deregulation, and the rise of digital media on the industry's growth. The report discusses the role of the Public Relation Society of India (PRSI) and the contributions of early adopters like Tata. It analyzes current trends, including the increasing importance of social media, niche PR agencies, and employer branding. The report also explores challenges such as the talent crisis and the need for PR professionals to develop hybrid communication and marketing skills. Furthermore, it examines the growth of the PR industry in various sectors, including healthcare and entertainment, and emphasizes the strategic shift towards integrated communication techniques. The report concludes by highlighting the importance of social engagement strategies and the use of various online tools for effective PR campaigns, while also looking at the potential of digital and social media in the future.

Running head: PUBLIC RELATION IN INDIA
PUBLIC RELATION IN INDIA
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Author Note

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Public Relation (PR) is the activity or process designed to make the people become aware
and informed about government operational activities and further informing back to the
government the views and desires of the public. The main aim is to disseminate the information
to the public about government work and policies to ascertain the public reactions regarding the
act and policies of the government (Coombs & Holladay, 2015). India as a nation has been
evolved from various upheavals after being invaded from different countries and races for
numerous years. Though Public relation is being practiced since a longtime back in other
countries but in India it started in the early 1990s. In India, the public relation system has been
partially borrowed from England (Jin, Liu & Austin, 2014). The globalization occurred during
1990 gave the much rightful place for public relation in India. As the deregulation of industries
took place in the same year it created opportunities for the growth of foreign direct investment.
During this period the market became competitive and it became crucial for the businesses to
build the organizational reputation so that more success is gained through access to new
consumers and new market. This further led to the growth of advertising agencies and public
relation in India. India opted mixed economy structure after independence. The Government of
India mostly implemented regulations and policies that were based on import substitution
industrialization (Kim et al., 2014). Public Relation is generally the development of equitable,
cordial and equal profitable relation with an organization or business and the public that it serves.
The Public Relation Society of India (PRSI) sets ethical standards for the profession and
by representing the public relations in India (Wright & Hinson, 2017). The organization
publishes PRSI news that helps the practitioners to have the knowledge about the recent
developments in the PR profession. The main mission of PRSI is to interpret and formulate the
potentialities and objectives of public relations as crucial function socially and further

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emphasizing the company’s values as the most integral part for the management. The
conferences are generally held annually and compared to the alternate two years. Tata Iron and
Steel Company (TISCO) was the very first organization in India that involved in public relation.
Besides building the town of Jamshedpur they also promoted economic and socio-cultural
development of the community. Tata has also been the pioneer in introducing the welfare
schemes for the employees.
In the current scenario, public relations have made great advances in India over the last
few years. Now various institutions and universities offer diplomas courses in public relation.
Communication of the programs of government and its achievement and hopes in developing
countries like India is very important (Valentini, 2015). What else is significant is the
communication through the economic sector like academic institutions, NGOs and public sector
to inform, make aware and mould the thought process and mind set of people and thereby
achieve the aims of the organizations. After Indian Independence, MNCs which were operating
here for many years realized the urgency of communicating with the natives in a better and more
meaningful way. In an effort to adjust the policies of the organization to the indigenous cultural
milieu, such organizations increasingly moved towards public relations. Among the various
Indian companies the Tata had in fact set up a Public Relations Department as early as 1943 in
Mumbai under the leadership of Shri Minoo Masani (Denhardt & Catlaw, 2014). The birth,
growth and development of Public Relations in India have been the direct contribution of the
public sector. The birth of Public Relations in its truest meaning started with companies like
HMT, Bhilai Steel Plant followed by NHPC, ONGC et cetera. The Professionalization of this
discipline of Public Relations has been the result of agencies notably SCOPE and Public Sector
Public Relations (Steyn & Niemann, 2014).

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At the topmost level we had the Public Relations Society of India (PRSI) which was
established in 1958. The aim of this body is to promote the discipline of Public Relations as an
indispensable function of management. It works at the national level to develop professionals in
the field of Public Relations. Currently it operates with 24 Regional Chapters all through the
country and has a membership close to 3000 (Men & Tsai, 2014). The Public Relations industry
in our country gets the opportunity to provide proper solutions as a result of the boom in media
sector. Indian clients turn towards the agencies not just for media relations but also for strategic
communications beneficial to its growth. Firms like Wipro demand of its Public Relations
agencies to assist them in teaching the best way to communicate and impart its messages and
show them a mode that is beneficial and helpful to the journalists, clients, investors and analysts.
While the Indian public relation industry is still evolving, digital and advertizing has
already started to blur. Social media is recently evolving fast than the traditional media and is
steadily becoming the integral part for various organization’s communications approach. The PR
professionals could create communications content and strategies to reach the overall audiences
moreover monitor and control the stakeholder’s sentiments (Duhé, 2015). The social media is
growing very rapidly and the fast moving consumer goods organization would generally prefer
the combination of both PR and advertizing. Moreover, the technology start-up in the community
would use targeted PR for the potential audiences. This would also be an important opportunity
for reposition in the social industry, from being a traditional PR deliverer to being a strategic
consultant in communications. Meenu Handa, the leading director of Microsoft Corporation in
communications firm believes that public relation would be recognized as the strategic tool of
the organization for two major reasons, firstly, the closure of both the social media and digital is
a two-way engagement process and the PR industry always operates in that environment.

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Secondly, the instant need for the businesses that include NGOs and government to become
more transparent in their communication process so that they can retain and build trust, which is
useful for the PR to carry the operational activities. The ‘umbrella’ public relations are more
likely to disappear but it is important for them to thrive in the current business environment
(Zerfass & Schramm, 2014). Service innovations play a vital role as the PR is more important as
the services, idea or the product itself. In the current scenario, Niche PR is practiced, which
involves creation of specialized and small teams in the separate entities or organizations. They
address the small segments and have unique services and offering like, the specialists in a
developing content or in Indian languages. The existing economic crisis in India can spur the
growth of niche PR agencies. This could facilitate in providing communication services to a
particular ethnic group in a single sector. Though such kinds of agencies are still rare or limited
in India but they are gaining huge popularity abroad. Niche PR offers better value than most of
the general-purpose agencies as the Niche PR are more targeted, which makes their public
relations campaign more affordable (Noordegraaf, 2015). PR professionals having such niche
experiences are regarded as the experts by making important connections in the particular field.
In the recent times, Social networks have become quiet relevant and the online techniques
are creating significant impact on the consumer’s behavior and businesses. In urban India, a
product is rarely purchased without being researched online and reviewed through social media.
As the internet usage has made the media borderless and the online media is increasingly become
more significant. This scenario makes the public relation more vital as the traditional advertizing
is reaching only few people. Moreover, the fair value of advertisement made online is still not
calculated. Moreover, the investments in digital skills and infrastructure now would provide the
benefits later in the future (Rahi, 2016). Social engagement strategy implementation is

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fundamental approach to the PR campaign. This social media campaigns helps in focusing
mostly on the connections of clients directly to the consumers or maintaining relationships with
the influencers. For instance several brands in India already use social engagement for achieving
desired goals and become successful. Like, the IPL cricket team Royal Challengers Bangalore
(RCB) used to make talent hunts for selecting their three fans to participate in an online show
with the team players. The major goal was to create or develop high engaged community along
with a regular content that is created by the experts, fans and players (Denhardt & Catlaw, 2014).
As a result, the RCB has managed to create more than 5 laces followers and fans across
channels. The variation of this PR model can be used in PR campaigns for various services and
goods and also from the FMCG to the global events. This can only be achieved from becoming
the element of the community of the consumers by joining in their conversation and learning
more about their basic needs. The various tools that the consumers are using recently involves
twitter, face book, blogs, YouTube, podcasting and other QR code technologies.
Recently, the public relation industry is facing major talent crisis. Motivating,
developing, rewarding, attracting and mobilizing the employees are top priorities in all
businesses. During the early 90’s ‘employer brand’ was first used to describe the organizational
reputation as an employer (Lee et al., 2014). From that time onwards it became the famous
buzzword among the organization managers globally. Employer brand is generally the created
image of the organization for being regarded as the ‘great place to work’ for the current
employees as well as the external market key stakeholders that includes the clients, customers
and candidates. Organizations nowadays are increasingly applying the market techniques for the
brand management and branding to attract, retain and engage talented candidates so that they can
further apply the marketing tools in retaining their customers. Employer branding is increasingly

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become crucial to the organizational strategy. PR firms being in unique positions take full
advantage for this opportunity (Graham, Avery & Park, 2015). This simply requires adapting the
techniques and expertise that is needed for offering services which includes employer branding
and employee’s engagement. The major scope for employers brand management can go beyond
the communications for incorporating it in each aspect including the people management
processes, which helps in shaping it in the perceptions for prospective and existing employees.
In spite of the economic troubles present globally, India is continuing to grow at a rate of
7 per cent (Davidson, 2015). The PR industry is not only continuing to increase, it is also
becoming critical for the established foreign firms and Indian companies to build their brands.
The industry is furthermore founding new verticals, like the healthcare. The organization dealing
in huge amount of money is rapidly rising at a rate of 15% and eventually the industry will deal
in billions by the year 2022. Furthermore, the advent the private parties, like, Fortis, Apollo and
Wockhardt are conscious of their brands and the demand for PR is the integrated strategic
communication techniques that are felt strongly. Entertainment and media is the other promising
industry that is expected to increase at 14% p.a. (Ciszek, 2015). Apart from the public sector, the
corporate social responsibility (CSR) and environment are the emerging growth areas.
In the recent times, PR is becoming much more strategic and broad in India. The recent
PR professionals need new hybrid set of communication and marketing skills that includes
various factors like management consulting, reputation management, business intelligence,
internet strategy and direct marketing. Currently, the PR is moving above the media relations to
image and advocacy management, continuous flow of information and digital communications.
Digital would be probably the biggest change in the organization as it is dynamic, quick, and
new and produces quick result. Moreover, digital communication would ultimately change the

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entire concept about the businesses. PR industry is rapidly embracing emerging trends, new
technologies and IT industries that foster true relationship building and honest communication
between both the clients and organization. PR is nowadays becoming more significant in the
entire marketing communication for the organization. This is getting more integrated and a
strongest way to ensure loyalty and commitment for the company from the different brand
stakeholders. The rapid increase in the various media forms has not only increased the
importance of PR in the marketing plans for the organization but also has increased the
responsibility area of the PR agency. In India, Public relations firms will thrive more if they
continually meet the challenges of the industry.

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