What is meant by Public Relations (PR) and why is it so important for the image of a brand?
Well, answering the former part of the question, public relations is helping a business cultivate a positive relationship with the public. It also includes creating a good image about every or any decision that a brand makes or a step that it takes. This is the main goal or aim of public relations.
What is the Job of PR People?
PR people, as they say, are storytellers. They try to (and always succeed at) creating a positive image of a brand, an organization or an individual. That is their sole job. Like literally.
PR people come up with ways and different activities in the form of mega-events to inform the people about the existence of a brand. And while doing so, they build a positive image about that brand or business.
However, you must keep in mind that the PR people can only make efforts, many times it’s the luck as well that counts. As they say: “Advertising is what you pay for and PR is what you pray for.”
Public relations aims at building a mutually beneficial relationship between an organization and its publics. The public relations people work with organizations to come up with stories that portray a positive image of that company or brand. Hence, making it a persuasion business.
Reasons Your Brand Needs PR
There are so many reasons PR is so important for a company’s brand image. Let us look at them one by one.
1. Establishing Your Brand Identity
To begin with, you will need the expertise of a PR firm or person to establish your brand’s identity. Your product, business or brand is nothing unless or until people know about it. And every brand has its own identity that differentiates it from others.
However, if the consumers do not know what makes you different or they do not know that you even exist, you cannot expect them to come to you. It is a common psyche. People will always go to places or resort to brands that they recognize or prominent ones.
Therefore, it becomes essential for you to get your name out there and tell the world (not literally) about your existence. More the recognition, more the clients.
2. Pique Human Interest
Not only do you need a PR company to give your brand recognition but it is also important for you to collaborate with them to pique customers’ interest in your brand. You might think that the two things are related when in reality they are not.
Giving your brand recognition is one thing but maintaining the customers’ interest in the brand after making it prominent is another. The latter is as important as the former. And the PR agencies possess the art of piquing the interest of potential customers in your brand. They do so by telling a story revolving around your products in a rather interesting way.
In other words, the PR agency is responsible for creating a brand buzz that will attract people to your brand. And will have the masses talking about it (in a good way).
3. Growing Consumer Trust
When consumers will be aware of your brand and have an interest in it, they will invest in it too. As a brand, it will be your responsibility to maintain the level of trust among your consumers.
You can do so by maintaining the quality of your products and delivering exactly what you promise the consumers.
However, you will also need the help of the PR agencies in this regard. They will help you in maintaining a very valuable relationship with your consumers.
For this purpose, you will have to resort to personalized PR. Because trust will come when you cater and address each consumer separately. The PR agencies achieve this, for example, by trying to mention the name of the brand in a positive story.
They also contact bloggers and influencers so that they tell people that they use your products. This further tells the people that your brand or company is trustworthy enough. Hence, strengthening the relationship between the brand and the consumers further.
4. Generate Investor Interest
PR agencies will not just work hard to drive more customers for your brand but also help you build an image that attracts investors towards you as well. Because let’s agree to the fact that companies are in dire need of investors to make it big at any given time.
It is a part of the routine of many angel investors and capital firms to look for good options in organic media coverage. This assures them that the mentioned brand or company is worth investing in and that they will get a high return on their investment.
The PR agencies work with industry journalists to achieve this. This helps the investors as the PR agencies provide them with a portfolio of company-specific details that are of the investors’ interest. This helps the investors to make an informed decision.
5. Drive Sales
In their struggle to improve the brand reputation and get a brand more publicity, PR firms help to drive more sales for a brand as well. This is a rather fruitful by-product of all the efforts that the agencies make.
6. Newsworthiness
You cannot always be sure if certain news related to your brand is worthy of you sharing it with the public or not. Because you are not an expert on the matter, it is better to trust a PR agency or person with that. You should know that all news is not newsworthy.
A public relation agency is more capable of distinguishing ideas that will help communicate a positive image regarding your brand than anyone else. They measure each news or event on the following criteria to decide whether to highlight it or not:
- Human interest
- Magnitude
- Timing
- Prominence
- Locality
A good PR company has the strength of studying a product or a brand from a different viewpoint. This adds to a brand’s benefit. Because they have the power to communicate every story in a way that will resonate with the concerned audience.
7. Media Specialists
PR agencies can also be dubbed as media specialists. One of the many strengths that these agencies have included the fact that they have an extensive amount of contacts and relationships with important personalities.
They also have very close links with the renowned journalists, publicists as well as editors. All of these people are essential for you to climb the ladder of prominence.
Where the journalists are a must for free publicity, the editors help in adding a new but acceptable twist to the news. This is very important for storytelling. PR agencies have a very close relationship with the journalists as they work with them.
PR firms indulge in researches with the journalists rather actively. The journalists request a basic kit from the PR firms about a given brand. The important information that they ask for includes:
- New releases
- Business history
- Director profiles
- Photographs
PR agencies not only write the story pitches to circulate them among the journalists but they also circulate news. Apart from that, a PR agency also gathers media people for special events that they host on behalf of the brand.
Because more the prominent figures gracing an event, more the publicity. If you come to think of it, you won’t be able to manage all this on your own. Thus, a need to hire a PR agency.
8. Crisis Management
Who better to resort to in times of crises than a PR agency? They are good at handling all types of crises when it comes to the image of a brand.
You cannot guarantee that your prominent name in the industry will save you from crises. It can hit any given company or brand at any given time. And when it does, it causes a great amount of harm to the image and repute.
But this is not a big deal for PR agencies. They are very efficient when it comes to handling any type of PR crisis that may occur. PR agencies are very quick to respond and take immediate action. All this, in their struggle to mitigate any damage that may occur to the image of the brand.
Conclusion
If you partner with a PR firm, it can prove to be very beneficial for your business and brand. Whether it be improving your brand’s reputation or developing an effective social media strategy to reach to the audience, the PR agency has your back. Your business will only thrive if you collaborate with PR agencies.
It is true because companies need PR for every product, bundle, deal or promotion that they launch. Not only is PR important for products. Industries like the ISPs or Cable TV providers also need it to promote their products like Spectrum double play.
