Analysis of Public Relation Strategies and Recommendations

This essay delves into the realm of public relations, examining the current landscape of business promotion and marketing strategies. It highlights the critical role of public relations in building brand identity and fostering goodwill, while also acknowledging the potential pitfalls of ineffective strategies. The essay scrutinizes existing approaches, such as social media marketing, and identifies shortcomings like the use of push marketing tactics and the misuse of content. It emphasizes the importance of leadership involvement and effective communication in public relations. Furthermore, the essay recommends strategies such as incorporating customer feedback and embracing corporate social responsibility to enhance public perception and achieve better customer relationship management. The analysis provides valuable insights into the effective implementation of public relation strategies, providing recommendations for businesses to improve their market presence.

Running head: PUBLIC RELATION
Public relation
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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Introduction
The current business state of affairs demands distinctive and effective promotional and
marketing approaches for the business organizations. This is due to the reason that intensity of
the competition is much higher in the current time and traditional promotional approach of the
business organizations will not help in gaining competitiveness in the market. In addition,
goodwill and brand identity plays an important role in gaining competiveness for the
organizations1. The more favorable will be the goodwill around the particular brand, the more
will be their probability to gain the maximum output from the market. In this case, public
relation is a major tool being used by the contemporary business organizations to get connects
with their external stakeholders. This refers to the process of the maintaining the relationship
between the organization and their customers in most effective manner. Public relation also helps
the business organizations in creating favorable public image and enjoys better customer recall
value2.
However, on the other hand, it should also be noted that ineffective management of
public relation strategy will have negative impacts on the business organizations. This is due to
the reason that ineffective approach of public relation strategy will lead to negative word of
mouth in the market and will affect their business potentiality3. Thus, it is important for the
business organizations to follow certain steps in having their public relation strategy in most
effective and ethical manner. This essay will discuss about the shortcomings of the current
approach of the public relation strategy and what can be improved. In addition, this essay will
1 Urbancova, Hana. "Competitive advantage achievement through innovation and knowledge." Journal of
Competitiveness 5.1 (2013).
2 Hennig-Thurau, Thorsten, and Ursula Hansen, eds. Relationship marketing: Gaining competitive advantage
through customer satisfaction and customer retention. Springer Science & Business Media, 2013.
3 Grunig, Larissa A., and James E. Grunig. "The relationship between public relations and marketing in excellent
organizations: evidence from the IABC study." Public Relations and Communication Management. Routledge,
2013. 93-118.

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identify the major issues with the current approach of the public relation strategy and will
recommend a few steps for further enhancements.
Current approaches of public relation strategy
Public relation strategy is having number of elements that can be used in different manner
by the business organizations. One of the major and most popular ways of initiating public
relation strategy is using of social media marketing4. This is due to the fact that social media is
having huge market penetration in the current time and it provides the platform for the business
organizations to get connected with the customers in more personalized manner. However, using
of social media should be taken care of properly or it will be adverse impact on the business.
According to Paek and Hye-Jin et al., (2013), social media is mainly being used by the current
business organizations for campaign promotions and not for enhancing their relationship with the
customers. This is due to the reason that with the help of the social media, business organizations
are mainly targeting the huge active subscribers for pushing the sales of their products and not
for creating connections with them.
Thus, it can be concluded that majority of the business organizations are initiating push
marketing strategy with their public relation approach. According to the theory of push
marketing strategy, new products are introduced in the market and promoted to the customers for
their sales. In this case, the requirement of the customers is not given the major focus rather the
products are pushed in the market. Thus, according to the author, even though the organizations
are using social media as an element of their public relation strategy, but it is not creating the
brand recall for them. For instance, the introduction of the yellow lenses of Snapchat caused
4 Ferguson, Mary Ann. "Building theory in public relations: Interorganizational relationships as a public relations
paradigm." Journal of Public Relations Research (2018): 1-15.

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huge public outcry in the market5. This can be considered as one of the major failures of public
relation strategy due to the reason the prior to the introduction of the yellow lenses; Snapchat did
not bother to take the feedback of the customers. According to the reports, this caused adverse
impact on the business of Snapchat and negative perception among the customers.
Another major shortcoming for the current business organizations in initiating their
public relation strategy is the using of wrong content in wrong place. There are number of
instances where it is seen that using of wrong medium and wrong content lead to failure of the
entire process. As per Pearson (2017), ineffective approach of public relation strategy is causing
the contemporary business organizations failure and negative impact. According to the authors,
majority of the business organizations perceive public relation strategy as a collective tool that
can be used in different alternative ways in generating the positive outcome. In accordance to
this concept, business organizations are using their public relation strategy in different
approaches and thus they are having more risk of facing negative consequences.
One of the most prominent examples of public relation strategy failure due to the wrong
content and medium and situation is promotional newsletter of Adidas during the Boston
marathon 2017. It is reported that they issued newsletters for the people complete the full
marathon by saying “congrats, you survived the Boston marathon”. This was being done in
contrast to the bombing in Boston marathon in 2013. Even though the idea was unique and but it
was presented in wrong time and with wrong content and caused negative impression among the
customers6. Thus, as per the author, it is important for the business organizations to select the
5 bbc.com. "Anger Over 'Racist' Snapchat Filter." BBC News. N.p., 2018. Web. 14 Oct. 2018 .
<https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-37042475>.
6 Boult, Adam. "Adidas Apologises For 'You Survived Boston Marathon' Email." The Telegraph. N.p., 2018. Web.
14 Oct. 2018 . <https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/04/19/adidas-apologises-survived-boston-marathon-email/
>.

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right elements of public relation strategy to have the positive outcome. It can also be concluded
that the main issue with the contemporary business organizations is their eagerness of utilizing
every potential mediums for public relation. This also shows the lack of planning process prior to
the initiation of public relation strategy. However, from this incident of Adidas, it is also
identified that response of them in dealing with the outcome was proper by accepting the wrong
and apologizing to the public.
Leadership also plays an important in having effective process of public relation strategy.
This is due to the reason that leaders are the one who will create the vision of the public relation
strategy of the organization7. In addition, in the current time of connected generation, it is also
important for the leaders to represent their brand to the market. However, there are number of
cases where the organizations try to maintain separate entity between their internal management
and their public relation strategy. According to Klettner, Clarke and Boersma (2014), leadership
and public relation strategy are having direct relationship but majority of the organizations skip
this element. It is also stated by the authors that public relation strategy is planned by the
marketing department of the organizations and it is perceived that only the external stakeholders
are involved. However, involvement of the upper level management is as important in public
relation strategy and in this case; business organizations face the failure in their approach.
This theory of the authors is further proofed by different real world incidents where the
business organizations had suffered due to the mismanagement of the upper level management.
The prime example for this is the incident of Uber involving their CEO, Travis Kalanick. It is
reported that in 2017, CEO of Uber got in to controversy when a recorded video surfaced about
7 Men, Linjuan Rita, and Don W. Stacks. "The impact of leadership style and employee empowerment on perceived
organizational reputation." Journal of Communication Management 17.2 (2013): 171-192.

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the fighting of him with an Uber driver over their business practices8. This caused adverse
impact on their brand value and they faced a huge dip in new subscriptions. This incident proves
that in the current time, customers are much more connected than before and they are well aware
about the leadership of the organizations. In addition, different actions of the leadership
influence the approach of the customers. Thus, it is also important for the contemporary business
organizations in covering the activities of the upper level management also as part of their public
relation strategy.
8 Wong, Julia. "Uber CEO Travis Kalanick Caught On Video Arguing With Driver About Fares." the Guardian.
N.p., 2018. Web. 14 Oct. 2018 . <https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/feb/28/uber-ceo-travis-kalanick-
driver-argument-video-fare-prices>.

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Effective ways of initiating public relation strategy
From the above section, it is identified that almost of the contemporary business
organizations are having different approaches of public relation strategy. However, there are
different factors identified, which are causing challenges for the organizations in achieving the
best result from the process. Grunig (2013) stated that communication is the core and key area in
the process of public relation strategy. This is due to the reason that with the help of public
relation strategy, organizations communicate their vision to the customers. The authors have also
stated that the effective will be the communication process; the more will be the utility of the
public relation strategy. Effective communication process will also help the business
organizations in aware the customers regarding the right content and in right way.
On the basis of this concept, Dozier, Grunig and Grunig (2013) stated that
communication process should have two ways approach in order to have the provision for the
customers to share their views and feedback. According to the authors, in the current time, social
media marketing is extensively being used by the cotemporary business organizations but they
are only be used for promoting the products. The authors stated that public relation should be
viewed as a primary tool for enhancing the relationship with the customers and not only for
pushing the sales of the products. Thus, the more provisions will be offered to the customers for
their views and opinions, the more will be the probability of creating favorable relationship with
them. Thus it can be concluded that public relation should be viewed as a tool for customer
relationship management over basic marketing tool.
Corporate social responsibility is another important element in the process of public
relation strategy due to the reason that effective process of social responsibilities will help to

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create favorable impression among the customers9. According to Austin and Pinkleton (2015),
socially responsible companies are having more probability of higher returns from their public
relation strategy over others. This is due to the fact that initiation of the social activities helps the
organizations in creating positive image in the market and these can be further communicated
with the help of public relation process. Hence, more market can be covered and chance of
gaining of more favorable image will also be more. Therefore, it can be concluded that public
relation can be viewed as a communication tool with the customers.
Recommended steps
In the above sections, there are number of issues and shortcomings for the contemporary
business organizations being identified. Hence, it is important for the organizations to have some
effective and ideal steps to overcome these limitations. Ashley and Tuten (2015) stated that
feedbacks and opinions of the customers gathered from the social media should be used in
designing the future approach of public relation strategy. This is due to the fact that in different
cases it is seen that feedback from the customers are being gained but they are not utilized
properly. However, it is recommended by the authors that feedback of the customers should be
utilized and evaluation of these feedbacks will help to determine taste and preference pattern of
the customers and accordingly public relation strategy should be initiated. This will help in better
connection with the customers along with considering their respective choices.
It is also recommended that business organizations should initiate culture based public
relation strategy due to the difference in social and cultural backgrounds of the customer
segments. Currently, social media strategy is more universal in nature and it should be made
9 Servaes, Henri, and Ane Tamayo. "The impact of corporate social responsibility on firm value: The role of
customer awareness." Management science 59.5 (2013): 1045-1061.

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more adaptive with the target market. According to Scott (2015), personalized way of promoting
social media content will help the business organizations in catering to the target market
effectively. This is due to the reason that different regions are having different social approach
such as conservative approach in the Middle Eastern regions and liberalized approach in the
western countries. Thus, according to the authors, initiating public relation strategy with
liberalized approach in the Middle Eastern countries will attract negative outcome and will affect
the business potentiality. The author has also stated that it is important for the business
organizations to determine the target market properly and identify the social and cultural
dimensions. Accordingly, the approach of the public relation strategy through social media
should be initiated. In this case, it is also important for the business organization to initiate the
public relation strategy in more professional and ethical manner. This is due to the reason that
ethical issues get emerged in determining the cultural factors of the target market. Thus, proper
determination of the cultural dimensions will help in having ethical and professional approach.
Bacile et al. (2014) stated that the objective of the public relation strategy for the business
organizations should to pull the customers towards their offerings and not pushing the products
to the customers. As per the authors, if the prime objective of the public relation strategy is to
only increase the sales of the products, then the outcome will not be favorable due to the fact that
relationship and connections are not being created between the organizations and their
customers. Thus, it is recommended that business organizations should design their public
relation strategy in such a way that it will help in initiating pull marketing strategy. Cabile,
Meltem and Tahir Albayrak (2016) further stated that business organizations will also get
benefited from the pull marketing approach of public relation process. This due to the reason that

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pull marketing approach can help in creating higher level of brand recall among the customers
and in the long term this will help in retaining the customers.
Selection of the mediums of public relation strategy is as important as selection of
promotional and advertisement mediums. This is due to the reason that right medium is required
for conveying the right content to the right set of customer segments. In the above section, it is
discussed about how wrong selection of medium caused issues with Adidas. Hence, Grunig
(2013) stated that public relation strategy is also a part of strategic management and mediums for
it should be chosen in right way. In addition, it is also being stated by the author that
contemporary approach of public relation strategy calls for extensive process and thus it is
recommended that more and diverse mediums should be chosen by the business organizations in
order to cover the maximum customer segments through their public relation strategy. This will
also amplify the potentiality of the public relation strategy for the organizations.
Conclusion
This essay concludes that current approach of public relation strategy is having different
shortcomings and business organizations perceive the concept in wrong way. Some of the major
shortcomings of them are critically analyzed in this essay along with some real world evidences.
In addition, this essay also discussed about the effective ways of initiating public relation
strategy and how it can be improved in the long term. Number of ways is discussed in this essay
with the help of the views of the authors. A few recommended steps are discussed in this essay in
accordance to the identified issues. These recommended steps are also stated based on the views
and opinions of the authors and their respective approaches. It can be concluded that effective

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implementation of these recommended steps will further help the contemporary business
organizations to enhance their process of public relation strategy in the long term.

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Reference
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study of branded social content and consumer engagement." Psychology & Marketing 32.1
(2015): 15-27.
Austin, Erica Weintraub, and Bruce E. Pinkleton. Strategic public relations management:
Planning and managing effective communication campaigns. Routledge, 2015.
Bacile, Todd J., Christine Ye, and Esther Swilley. "From firm-controlled to consumer-
contributed: Consumer co-production of personal media marketing communication." Journal of
Interactive Marketing 28.2 (2014): 117-133.
bbc.com. "Anger Over 'Racist' Snapchat Filter." BBC News. N.p., 2018. Web. 14 Oct. 2018 .
<https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-37042475>.
Boult, Adam. "Adidas Apologises For 'You Survived Boston Marathon' Email." The Telegraph.
N.p., 2018. Web. 14 Oct. 2018 . <https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/04/19/adidas-
apologises-survived-boston-marathon-email/>.
Caber, Meltem, and Tahir Albayrak. "Push or pull? Identifying rock climbing tourists'
motivations." Tourism Management 55 (2016): 74-84.
Dozier, David M., Larissa A. Grunig, and James E. Grunig. Manager's guide to excellence in
public relations and communication management. Routledge, 2013.
Ferguson, Mary Ann. "Building theory in public relations: Interorganizational relationships as a
public relations paradigm." Journal of Public Relations Research (2018): 1-15.