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Meaning And Definition of Public 
Relation 
BY 
SMART LEARNING WAY
Flow of Presentation 
Introduction 
Meaning of Public Relation 
Definition of Public Relation 
Conclusion 
Review of The Topic 
Bibliography
Introduction 
 What we see on TV as 
advertisements for eggs, milk and diamonds 
is not direct advertising as you hardly find 
any sponsor. Drink more milk, eat eggs every 
day are meant to create awareness among 
the public and hence can be called PR 
campaigns. Unfortunately, the task of PR is 
not appreciated by most of the persons and 
it tends to become a thankless one. In 
election campaigns ,
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after the candidate has finished and gone his 
secretary remains to answer the questions 
regarding how the speech should be interpreted 
for improving the candidate’s image. After the 
corporate Chairman has given an expose of the 
firm’s plans, its elaboration and explanation is 
done by the PR persons. Press releases are part 
of the PR job. In case of any catastrophe the 
PR has to explain how the firm is coping with 
It and
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the damage control measures it is going to 
take. The famous oil spill in the ocean had 
the oil company’s PR people on their toes. It 
may be added that in such crisis situations 
even the CEO takes the role of PR.
Meaning 
 Public relations involves the cultivation of 
favourable relations for organizations and 
products with its key publics through the use 
of a variety of communications channels and 
tools. Traditionally, this meant public relations 
professionals would work with members of 
the news media to build a favourable image 
by publicizing the organization or product 
through stories in print and broadcast media. 
But today the
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Role of public relations is much broader and 
includes: 
 Building awareness and a favourable image for 
a company or client within stories and articles 
found in relevant media outlets. 
 Closely monitoring numerous media channels 
for public comment about a company and its 
products. 
 Managing crises that threaten company or 
product image.
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 Building goodwill among an organization’s target 
market through community, philanthropic and 
special programmes and events. 
 In this chapter, most of our focus is on how 
public relations support marketing by building 
product and company image. Yet, it should be 
noted that are other stakeholder companies 
reached via the public relations function, such 
as employees and non-target
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market groups. Favourable media coverage 
about a company or product often reaches 
these audiences as well and may offer 
potential benefit to the marketer. 
 Finally, in most large companies, 
Investor Relations (IR) or financial public 
relations is a specialty in itself guided by 
specific disclosure regulations. However, 
coverage of this type of PR will not be 
provided here.
Definition 
1) Edward L. Bernays :- 
‘Public relation is the attempt by the 
information, persuasion and adjustment to 
engineer public support for an activity, cause, 
movement or institution. 
2) John W. Hill :- 
‘The management function which gives 
the same organised and careful attention to the 
asset of goodwill as is given to any other major 
asset of business.’
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3) Herbert M. Baus :- 
‘Public relation is a combination of 
philosophy, sociology, economics, language, 
psychology, journalism, communication and other 
knowledge into a system of human 
understanding.’ 
4) Charless Plackard:- 
‘Merely human decency which flows 
from a good heart.’
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5) The most widely accepted and popular definition 
of PR is from the institute of public relations (IPR), 
which defines public relations as, “The planned and 
sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill 
and mutual understanding between an organisation 
and its publics. 
6) ‘Public relations is a dynamic business 
communication tool which can transform the 
performance of any company, be it a one-man 
band or a multinational.’
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7) Public Relations can be defined as, “the 
process of understanding public attitudes on 
relevant issues, interpreting these attitudes 
for Management, and then working either 
to align the organizational polices and 
practices with those attitudes or to modify 
the attitudes themselves.”
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8) Public relations (PR) is a profession with varying 
definitions because of its many functions and the 
differentiating perceptions held by its practitioners 
and the public. 
9) “Public relation is good work properly publicizes 
and adequately acknowledged by the people.”
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10)Communication by a person or an organization 
with the purpose of creating a favorable public 
image; commonly referred to as PR. 
11)may consist of a variety of activities engaged in 
by organizations or celebrities that are intended 
to promote a positive relationship or image 
with their customers and prospective 
customers (members of the public).
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12)Communications often in the form of news distributed in 
a non-personal form which may include newspaper, 
magazine, radio, television, Internet or other form of 
media for which the sponsoring organization does not 
pay a fee. 
13)According to the Chartered Institute of Public Relations 
(CIPR), public relations is about reputation – the result of 
what you do, what you say and what others say about 
you.
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14)Any activities or events that help promote a favorable 
relationship between a company and its customers and 
prospects; activities used to influence the press to print 
stories that promote a favorable image of a company 
and its products or services. 
15)Public relations has been described as building goodwill 
with a company's various publics, including consumers, 
employees, government officials, stockholders, and 
suppliers.
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16)Public relations includes ongoing activities to 
ensure the overall company has a strong public 
image. Public relations activities include helping 
the public to understand the company and its 
products. Often, public relations are conducted 
through the media, that is, newspapers, 
television, magazines, etc. As noted above, 
public relations is often considered as one of 
the primary activities included in promotions.
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17)PUBLIC RELATIONS is a form of communication 
primarily directed toward gaining public 
understanding and acceptance. Public relations 
usually deals with issues rather than products 
or services, and is used to build goodwill with 
public or employeess. Examples of public 
relations are employee training, support of 
charitable events, or a news release about 
some positive community participation.
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18)Public relations (PR) is the practice of conveying 
messages to the public through the media on behalf 
of a client, with the intention of changing the 
public's actions by influencing their opinions. PR 
practitioners usually target only certain segments of 
the public ("audiences"), since similar opinions tend 
to be shared by a group of people rather than an 
entire society. However, by targeting different 
audiences with different messages to achieve an 
overall goal, PR practitioners can achieve 
widespread opinion and behavior change.
Conclusion 
Public Relation function deals with the public 
opinion and informs the firm about the 
same. It also tells the public about the 
results and plans and policies of the firm. It 
helps the firm in coordinating its activities to 
keep in tune with public likes and dislikes. It 
can help the firm in moulding public opinion 
in its favour. PR is used to help in selling 
the products as also in managing crisis 
situations.
Review of the Topic 
 Introduction 
 Meaning of Public Relation 
 Definition of Public Relation 
 Conclusion
Bibliography 
1) Advertising Frank jefkins Revised by Daniel 
yadin 
2) Salesmanship and publicity 
- Rustam davar 
- Sohrab R. davar 
- Nusli R. Davar
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3) Marketing management – cases and 
concepts 
- Nikhilesh dholakia 
- Ramesh Khurana 
- Lapdhi Bhandariya 
- Abhinandan K. Jain 
published by Rajiv dairy
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4) Principles of marketing 
-Philip kotler 
- Gary Armstrong 
prentice hall of India private limited, New Delhi. 
5) Marketing management 
-S.A . Sherlekar 
Publish by Himalaya publishing house
Meaning   and  definition  of  public  relation