Public Relation as an Aid to Successful Government Business Administration

PUBLIC RELATION AS AN AID TO SUCCESSFUL GOVERNMENT BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (A CASE STUDY OF ENUGU STATE BROADCASTING SERVICES)

Though public relation was solely conceived initially as press generally, its practitioners have recognized that it should aim at informing the public attitudes towards business and that of positive steps should be taken to gain public understanding and good will.  A significant factor contributing to the development of public relation has been increase in population and resulting in expansion of all types of business, social and political organization.

Although public relation has engaged phenomenal growth in the past far reaching developments in the future promise to make public relation on even more vital force in the operation of large and small business social service government education institution and professional organizations.  There has been a remarkable   growth in management functions and public relation in playing an increasing important role as management tool for corporate image development profit and non-profit organization engaged in marketing which is concerned with identifying needs and want and satisfying them through exchange relationship.

Contributing in the role of public relations as a management tool for image development cornfield (1998) wrote public relation techniques are being used to build a good reputation for products and service in same way there have been used in share holders, community and employee relation in building a good reputation for the enterprise as a whole.

Public relation practitioners are learning about sales advertising and promotion problem and marketing executive that public relation can create acceptance.

 

Public relation executive are co-operating with management executives in planning and conducting attitudinal surveys of consumers and dealers in order to obtain opinion of products service and policies and appraise the effectiveness of marketing programmes contract with news media and experience in preparing and placing corporate publicity qualified a public relation staff to prepare news stories, picture, magazines, articles on new   products, product application and users.

Public relation is being called upon to produce audio and visual materials, films recording and displays, supplier and shareholders. By creating special events public relation is aiding reviewing old ones and carrying a product story to a new audience.

It is through public opinion survey that corporate image of an organization can be appraised, the image of the organization could now be determined if favourable or unfavourable.  Before a responsible organization takes pains to explains its actions and motives, it must be aware of a concerned public opinion and attitudes.  Unless a business organization is responsive to it publics, it will not be able to make itself understood.  In this regard, Osuji Chuks (1990) said that the public relation practitioners seeking to service the public interest is aware of the counsels and communication in the following ways.

  1. Service as two ways conducts between organization and its public
  2. Makes an effort to protect not only what the organization is but also what it has been and is becoming by interpreting it to the public in terms that people can understand and interpret it to the member of the organization in terms they can understood.
  3. Strive to anticipate and correct false impressions and respond appropriately to criticism of he organization
  4. Sees that meaningful relation are maintained with the government and that legislation and regulation affecting the organization are reported to the management and suggestions are made for dealing with them.
  5. Conducting research on public attitudes especially of audience that are important to the organization and informs management of the attitudes found.
  6. Tries to help the organization demonstrate a new sense of social responsibility along with profit responsibility.
  7. Assist member of the organization to speak clearly and support rightly in all public contacts when presenting facts and viewpoints.
  8. Help management road the signs of the time correctly apply them constantly and thinks in term of change

 

In general public relation practitioners use public opinions to determine if opinions about a company are favourable or unfavourable.  It is a beefiness hand cap to have a bad public image.

 

According to Sam Black (1989) there are two main objective of public relation in an industrial company.  The first is to establish contact with three important section of the public.  Its customers, its shareholders and its employees. Securing the rural understanding and co-operation of these three groups is essential to success.  The second is to promote the company’s product and service in a highly competitive world. Relation with customers depends very much on quality price and delivery times and also on the reputation of the company public relation can play a vital role in safe guarding a reputation or in building a new public image.  It can also improve methods of communication with existing and potential investors or share holder involves lasting the firms, they are made to know if the firm is growing profitable or not companies communicate their investors through annul report, house journals, videos and inviting them to open day factories.

Okeke and Udeagha (1993) in their work wrote that public relation is the totality of a company’s respect to the society in which it operates, the relationship a company has with its public relations and this may be good or bad.  It also strives to build a sense of unity between the company and the community.

 

  • DEVELOPMET OF PUBLIC RELATION PARCTICE IN NIGERIA

Public relation practice in Nigeria dates back to 1940’s then at the peek of the world war.  The British colonialist created an information office in Lagos to disseminate was information.  The office metamorphosed in 1994 to the public relation department in the corporate world it was established in 1949 by (UAC) united African company.

The late Sam Ekpelle as the public relation officer (PRO) of the Nigerian railway cooperation in 1963 initiated the public relation association of Nigeria (PRAN) essentially with the promotion of public relation education as the prime objectives.  He we gained in this pioneering move by Alex Nwokedi, Adoke Alakija, Kunle Ojora Theo Awoboju and late Dan Agboakoba and Wiltan Huge, an expatriate public manager with the Nigeria Tobacco company. together, they held monthly luncheon at Bristol Hotel Lagos to enlighten one another on issues and tends the public relation’s PRAN metamorphosed in 1972 into the Nigeria institute of public relation (NIPR).

 

The Nigeria civil war had grave relation implication for the development of the body relation.  Quality of members if into the body declaimed after the war.  Mr. Mike Okereke, past public relation adviser of UACN worker relentlessly for the president of NIPR to re-awaken the dreams of the founding fathers by wasting the intellectual basis of public relation. A major result of this effort was the promulgation in 1990 of the Nigeria institute of public relation.  Decree No 16 of 1990 to regularize public relation’s practice.  The decree empowers NIPR among other to determine and review from tome to time what standard of knowledge and skills are to be obtained by prospective public relation processionals.  Membership of the institute is divided into three categories namely associates, full member and fellow where as fellow and members are exempted from the possession of relation, an associate member must in addition do many other qualifications  poss a number of today’s public relation professional had formal training in mass communication or allied disciplines or moved over from the news media, supplementing it with seminars, work shops, conference in public relation at home and abroad .

Authoritative are hard to find. Sam Ekpelle’s essentials public relation public shed 1967 is regarded as the first of such books, Victoria Angela who has PHD in public relations leaches at the university of Ibadan, is the author of public relations and research.  In (1992) other includes Akin Salves understanding public relations.  NIPR public relation for local government in Nigeria 30 year of public relation in Nigeria and principles of public relation practice.

The Nigeria approach by Chuks Osuji

 

  • THE ROLE OF PUBLIC RELATION IN MARKETING MANAGEMENT

The role of public relation in marketing can be traced to the societal marketing concept, which is one of the tasks of marketing management philosophies.  It will therefore be more appropriate to explain what marketing management is.  For the purpose of this research work “marketing management is the analysis planning, implementation and control of programmes designed to create, build and maintain mutually beneficial exchanges and relationships with the target markets for the purpose of achieving organizational objectives.  It relies on a disciplined analysis, needs wants, perceptions and preferences of target and intermediate as the basis for effective product design, pricing communication and distribution.

Kotler. P (1998) said that marketing management can occur in an organization in connection with any of its markets (publics.)

On the other hand, “the social marketing concept is a marketing management task is to determine the need, wants and interest of target markets and to deliver the desired satisfaction more effectively and efficiently than its competitors in a way that preserves or enhances the customers and the society’s well being.

That encompasses the definition of public relation and all the necessary activities in public relation.  They include “maintain” beneficial mutual

  1. e) Deciding products or service that had encountered public problems in quality price, promotion and distribution. Building the corporate image in a way that projects its products or services favourable.

 

Public relation helps marketing to take the following major decisions.

  • Establishing marketing objective
  • Choosing the public relation massage and vehicles and evaluate the public relation results.
  • Marketing management also subdivides the market into segment, which is also the public relation public.

 

The reach these segment of its employees the public relation documentary, film house, journals, seminars, work shops, visits private demonstrations touring exhibitions and other aids.  It has to consider those influence opinions, the trade channel and all communication media that express idea and news.

Modern marketing goes beyond well development of a good product or service pricing it attractively and making it readily available to target consumers.  The firm must design and disseminate information about the product or service existence, feature and terms are as well as how these will benefit the target market

 

 

  • BUDGETING FOR PUBLIC RELATIONS

In view of Ebue (1995) public relation may be “cost free) but it is never free of cost” implying that the public relations department increase cost like other departments in the organization.  Budgeting for public relations department depends on whether the company is using internal public relation or the company is contracting the service of consultancy firms.  It they will use internal public relation internal public department; the following items constitute the public relation budget.

  1. a) LABOUR: This attracts salaries and wages to the management and non-management staff of the organization, the secretary dark, the accountants and frequencies.
  2. b) OFFICE OVER HEAD: These are variable cost such as rent, rates insurance electricity bills, telephone bill etc.
  3. c) MATERIAL: All stationeries, postage, print photography exhibitions films etc

Having established what will be involved in public relation budgeting, the outside consultancy is basically the same except that consultancy will seek for profit.   From the above alternative, an organization is left to choose between the alternative it is not easy to make decision concerning this because it is more or less a service with intangibility characteristics understanding which are what the public relation uses to carryout its tasks.  The organization objective refer to the PR’S public like employees public and share holder publics.

To satisfy organizational objective the organization must be able to pay its employee and make profits for its shareholders or investors.  The needs, want and interests of target market are PR’S public of consumers, which it tries to secure mutual understanding.  The society’s well being sort here is the relations with other public such as the press, community where it is operating, distributors, government, supplier and financial house like lenders, banks and future investors. An organization is said to have a bad public relation when it cannot communicate effectively and secure mutual understanding and goodwill of its publics.

Public relation is therefore concerned with human factors in marketing.  It is an aid to marketing effort of product, price, place and promotion. It creates the situation where by the potential prospects or publics are well disposed towards the organization products or service.  This mutual response depends on understanding, communication and good will.  This public relation as an aid to marketing can be the process of assessing consumers wants, establishing communication and fostering good will that the consumers want or needs can be profitably satisfied Jepins F. (1982)

Public relation and marketing are significance’s in the human relations aspects but marketing deals with other things it can take the result of PR communication and convert them to marketable produce or service. it was special techniques such as advantageous packaging, pricing, advertising and merchandising to speed up acceptance and ensure a economic level of production. Marketing management involves public relations, so many in the sales and service department the distribution net work and consuming public came into the marketing orbit marketing people now make more use of public relation techniques such as technical seminars documentary films, video tape and house journals can contribute handsomely to marketing strategies.

Public relations can asset-marketing effort by.

  1. Assisting in repositioning of nature product or service.
  2. Building up interest in a product and service category
  3. Assisting in the lunch of new products and services
  4. Influencing specific target groups simply put, public relation job is nebulous and complex.

 

In doing this, public relation office should decide on this objective and the desired audience intended to reach the massage and less should equally be considered, which this public relations officer can break own desired analysis and ascertain the options or actions to take.  The public relations officer must make sure that he justify the cost invested in the work otherwise it would be a wasteful venture.

 

  • THE TOOLS OF PUBLIC RELATION

These are the means through which public relation reach the various publics with affective communication, some of these means are as follows.

  1. Press relation: This issues to place note worthy information into new through press conference and press release so as to attract attention to a person,  product or service press relation also extend to helping journalist who got information on the company.
  2. The product publicity: The is the use of new media to publish specific product happening related produce.
  3. Corporate communication: This involves all the efforts of using both internal and external communication to attract the attention of the public and make them understand the institution.
  4. Counseling: It is the public relation to provide advice circumstance with the society and how the company can adjust to the situation by the use of improved communication.
  5. Films: Films are useful in impressing and influencing both theatrical evidence.

 

  • PROBLEMS OF PUBLIC RELATIONS

These are certain problems that militate against public relations activities

  1. Poor/inadequate communication tools.
  2. ii) Poor press relation issuing of un working

iii) Poor product publicity: The use of inadequate media constitute problem to public relation resulting in poor publicity of specific products.

  1. iv) Un qualifies or lack of qualified employees (manpower problem) this problem in turn results to poor counseling when necessary advice is not provided to the company on the situation by the use improved communication
  2. Lower moral standard and unethical conduct is in business have contribute to the failure of public relation, ie. Unfairly acts, untruthful and honorable acts with the public.
  3. vi) Decreasing emphasis on consumer service has caused many company seeking the god will and support of consumers to have less interest on public relation on marketing programmers.

vii) Unrealization by management that they have social responsibility to secure the public.  This in turn leads them to concentrate more on their own or owner affairs rather than the public.  Edoga and Ani (2001) believed that it is difficult do measure the contribution of public relation because the other promotional means were equally used along within it

 

  • PUBLIC RELATION IN ESBS

Enugu state broadcasting service (ESBS) as a media responsibility of inform education, entertaining the public and news

1) INFORMATION: In its information duties it relation to ensure people (public) irrespective of political affiliation, what are happening around their these including political, social and religions activates.

2)  EDUCATION: ESBS edifies the public not only on academic circle but on other area people would like to get such education.  The ESBS Uniair programme of IMT, educational programme and school quizzes and debates, diploma and radio links

3) ENTERTAINMENT:  The stations entertain the public on variety of event like sport, religions activities, songs and dance, children carton also included are plays and other video’s recorded activities that keep people relaxed and happy, another one is request card for friends and relations

4) NEWS: The ESBS has three communication vi2 the radio FM,FM2,TV,they all have long and short waves of communicating their listeners to butren their information net works and decimation

  1. ESBS stands as watching doing for the government and the people.
  2. On news it helping to know what is happening to other states and country

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