Public Relations Agency Role

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Public Relations has over the years played and continues to contribute to the success / failure of Brands across the Globe. The industry has proliferated almost all aspects of life. Consider facts: The Competitive world of Sports, more precisely Cricket as far as India is concerned, almost all players have an agency on their pay rolls. Question and the answer is ready, maintain a consistency in the 4th estate and the big M for money through a host of endorsements (Whether the Team performs or not is irrelevant, the idea is to get millions of cubic feet of press and electronic coverage). This article is not about celebrity management, it is about the general state of the Public Relations industry in India.

It would be apt to say that the term 'Public Relations' has almost ceased to exist. More precisely the new mantra of the day is Target Audience Communications or perhaps Stake Holder Communications (either has an overlap - mean the same).

The most intriguing feature of the practitioners is that they consider the media to be the bread and butter of their survival. Hence some of the biggest mission critical deliveries take a bacj seat. My inputs may portray the so called PR Agencies in badlight, the intention is to showcase the two sides of the coin. Somehow in my relatively less experience I have noticed that most PR Agencies are operations intensive rather than being strategy intensive. Here is the place to score with the client as well as loose and become a member of the pack. Lets take a look at what a normal PR Agency may deliver:

Normal Servicelevel Agreements Media Relations Press Conferences Media Training Investor Relations Public Affairs

Alleged Competencies Crisis Management Internal Communications Corporate Lobbying Lobbying sans Frontiers