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Homework answers / question archive / What is PR and Corporate Communications 'Public relations is the strategic management that can manage the relations between business and the public, building a positive brand reputation' (Dragilev, 2020)

What is PR and Corporate Communications 'Public relations is the strategic management that can manage the relations between business and the public, building a positive brand reputation' (Dragilev, 2020)

Business

What is PR and Corporate Communications 'Public relations is the strategic management that can manage the relations between business and the public, building a positive brand reputation' (Dragilev, 2020). Although PR has the same features as corporate communications, 'corporate communications is more focused on internal communications, including communication with employees and shareholders and response for a wide range of communication activities' (Stobierski, 2019). From the business perspective, PR is an essential department as it could help a business build a brand image in a certain industry, which can also help the company overcome many complex barriers by measuring input and output indicators. In addition, 'online reputation management (ORM) service mainly is to help the company dealing with the customers' negative comments through social media and quietly supporting PR campaigns behind the scenes' (Reputation X,2021). Both PR and ORM's goal is to help the company promote the brand values and manage the company's reputation, and ORM is part of digital PR. Compared to traditional PR and Digital PR, the traditional PR usually uses a non-integrated way and direct approach to the public and aims to give the best possible image, which is more focused on the short term. By contrast, online reputation management is more likely to use an integrated way and aims to deliver an image and brand promise, creating a long-term business strategy. However, both traditional PR and digital PR share the same goal is to increase brand awareness. Why PR is important in business of fashion sector ‘Word of mouth advertising is one of the most effective ways to develop positive brand images. Therefore, PR plays an essential role for businesses as it could create a valuable source and offers positive coverage without advertising’ (Insight new, 2011). Especially in the fashion industry, everything is changing rapidly. Designers’ new collection needs a big exposure rate in the market, even the top brands or luxury brands also face new competitors and need to maintaining brand awareness every day. Hence, PR can be a perfect tool that could bring competitive advantages to the fashion business, attract potential customers and keep the business moving forward in the industry. ‘A good public relations agency could help a brand circumventing negative news and able to managing the brand crisis’ (IKF, 2020). ‘Public relation is a powerful tool to drive business to grow and help the company reach the goal sooner in the industry’ (Solis and Breakenridge, 2009). There is no doubt that PR also plays a significant role in the fashion industry, as social media is the primary channel for fashion brands to reach their audiences. Brands are usually creating a meaningful or exciting story to publish through media relations. Cassidy has stated that public relations are the main department for communicating the idea with editors and delivering the story to the public. Besides, it is a challenge for the brand to establish a strong brand image among the fashion district. The fashion event has to reflect the brand image, as it can damaging the brand credibility if the brand’s message does not match the brand. ‘Brand image affects consumer buying behaviour because consumers do not only choose a product or service but also care about what brand it is’ (Thimothy, 2016). For example, many luxury brand images included the character of quality, craftsmanship, exclusivity and elegance. Similarly, this is also the reason why some consumers choose to buy luxury goods. Because the brand image can reflect the self-identity of the customers, brands should consolidate brand image. ‘A positive PR campaign can build positive brand images to the public and let the potential customers trust the brand, which could also help the company achieve its aims sooner’ (Hallahan, 2009). PR can build a brand with a positive coverage without advertising, ‘when business connects with a good public relation such as CSR activities, it can automatically attract the potential customers’(WHITEWATERPR, 2015). Otherwise, through PR as the brand building strategy can help the business boots brand credibility and enhance customer relationships, ‘developed a public relations campaign can increase the business growth and keep the business on the right channel’ (Mitchell, 2019). The most important thing is that public relation can help a business break a crisis event or preparing to prevent the crisis before it happens. If planned PR can positively lead a business, then when the unplanned reactive crisis, PR also got the weaknesses. PR included proactive public relations and reactive public relations. However, 'reactive public relations is the crisis management that only works after the organisation is involved in a negative event and helps the organisation minimise the reputation damages and respond to incidents' (Agility, 2021). However, if the brand crisis happens too suddenly, 'reactive PR face many limitations as the company cannot prepare for emergencies in advance' (Kokemuller, 2019). For example, In the past couple of years, many fashion companies fall into the brand crisis. H&M's discriminatory 'coolest monkey in the jungle' hoodie case has damaged the brands' reputation in 2018. In another case, in 2018, Dolce & Gabbana' The Great Fashion Show' video has racial discrimination and made the brand fall into disaster; D&G have to close all the e-commerce shops until now in China. Furthermore, in 2019, Gucci' blackface' sweater caused controversy. Even though Gucci has removed the product from all the store, negative reviews still exist. Although all these brands have apologised to the public, the negative comments can damage the company's reputation for many years and become PR nightmares. Similar cases always appear in the fashion industry. However, the business could through quickly and appropriate response to avoid the brand crisis. Compared to reactive PR, 'proactive PR act more offensively to constantly build the positive brand image to the public and prepared to respond to the bad event that may happen' (Holroyd, 2021). A proactive PR strategy could strengthen the organisation's image in the news or during the events, such as giving free product samples or sending magazines to connect the brand with customers and maintain publicity. Kokemuller (2021) stated that PR could react less passively by using the proactive PR strategy when facing adverse events. Difference between proactive PR and proactive MARCOMS Both proactive PR and proactive marketing communications build the customers base and prevent future situations. However, one of the most significant differences between the two is that 'proactive communications are contacting the client about new ideas and predicting the customers' needs in advance, building consumers' trust and loyalty and preventing future issues' (Nauck et al., 2006). For instance, by sharing the news or project updates to the customers to help them understand the company and gain trust, or if the products found problems, the company report to the client directly to let the client know the company are sincerely solving the problem. Whereas proactive PR focuses on maintaining a positive brand reputation and promoting the company as a whole, it also predicts the potential crisis before it happens. For example, if a company decided to use a proactive PR strategy through social media, the company should first find the target audience. Also, be careful with the messages that the brand wants to launch to the market is appropriate or not. The next step is to find opportunities to apply the messages to influence the target public and achieve the company’s objectives. Furthermore, the business should plan early and giving enough time to the PR department to consider the potential impact that the event may cause and preparing to handle the crisis. ‘Being proactive could help the business control the situation instead of the business lack of control by the negative comments’ (MacDonald, 2021). Using a proactive PR strategy to generate word of mouth marketing could help the organization raise the brand reputation with free media costs. Cases example An unforgettable PR campaigns can successfully build the brand images and get support from the target audience. The report has illustrated two recently best PR campaigns cases in the fashion industry below. The first one is Zara ‘shot from home’ campaign 2020. ‘Zara is the largest global fast-fashion company with more than 2,250 stores in the world’ (Hanbury, 2019). During the Covid-19 pandemic, customers’ buying behaviour has changed from buying useful products rather than buying wanted products in the fashion industry. At such a moment, Zara’ PR has developed a successful campaign that sends out the new collection products to their models and the other influencers and lets them self-shoot at home. Although the models don’t wear delicate makeup or fashionable backgrounds, Zara uses a different way to maintain creativity and reach the target audience through the media. ‘Zara encourages the social distance and using a unique way to promote the new collection online has inspired the public and grows the loyal customers’ (Lan, 2021). Model for ASOS (2019) case is a successful reactive PR case. In 2019, Thea Chippendale got mocked on Tinder. She received a man's message and described her dress as a 'charity shop job' suit and 'shop somewhere decent'. After that, Thea has posted the conversation on Twitter and lead to a heated discussion and got more than 98,000 likes and 7,000 retweets. ASOS responded to Thea's tweet and requested Thea as their model and use that Tinder picture for the lace midi dress on the official website. Besides, the CEO of ASOS invited Thea to have a tour and explain how the department works on ASOS. The company's reaction perfectly builds the relationships with their customers and lets the investors trust the brand's motives. How fake news affect PR PR usually promote the company or products through social media to develop the brand reputation and gain customers' trust. However, 'people prefer to trust the information from the other media than the brand itself cause the customers to think third party's view is more reliable' (Wilson, 2021). But people's trust keeps declining because of the raising of fake news on social media. According to Edelman's trust barometer global report (2021), the percentage of the UK people who trust social media was 56% in 2021, which decreased from 61% in 2019. PR is facing unpredictable trust crisis challenges in today's society, especially the 'Fake News' is the main factor challenging and changing PR's practice in this digital era. There are few reasons why fake news is popular now. First of all, there are no entry barriers to creating fake or misleading information in social media and attracting people's attention. Secondly, social media have a huge amount of users and can spread the message quickly. Gottfried (2016) has stated that around 62% of adults reading news from social media, and the other 18% do it often. Thirdly, people are more likely to trust what they believed already without reviewing because of the confirmation bias. 'BuzzFeed News found that the fake news is more popular than real news, which the top 20 fake news have 8.7 million interplays, but real news' interplay only got 7.3 million' (Miller, 2017). PR is the strategy that can build brand awareness and generate potential customers through the media. However, as people increasingly distrust social media, the effectiveness of PR also get affected. Although PR cannot let people stop spreading fake news, PR could prevent the company from falling into an unnecessary brand crisis. Especially in the fashion industry, some luxury brands easily influenced by fake news because of the unique brand positioning, and their target customers convey the status through the brand. 'The brand equity can help brands minimize the reputation damage caused by fake news' (Bankole and Reyneke, 2020). Hence, the brands are particularly focused on maintaining brand equity and monitoring social media to buffering the impact of fake news for the brand. Conclusion and Recommendation Everyone is connecting with the internet in today’s society, and positive PR can help the business build a powerful presence on social media and support business behind the scenes. A memorable PR campaign will help the organization increase positive brand images and build customer loyalty for a long time. Particularly in the fashion industry, fashion trends change constantly, designers’ collection needs innovation campaign and high exposure rate in the market. Hence, word of mouth marketing is one of the most effective PR strategies, as it could spread the message quickly and with low budgets. Whether high-stress fashion brands or luxury fashion brands all need a PR department to prevent or solve the brand crisis, both proactive PR and reactive PR could help the business manage the brand crisis and minimize the damage. Moreover, the right PR strategy also can accurately deliver the right products to the target audience effectively. However, an effective PR campaign cannot plan in one day. It needs to set the goals, identify the target group, measure the result, and think about the potential impact before launching the event. The company can build solid public relations in many ways. For example, getting the media’s attention, the company could be developing a creative PR campaign to attract the target customers, but the campaign should avoid discrimination and religious factors. Besides, the company can involve employees and tell the company’s story from their perspectives to build public trust. And the most important thing for improving the public relations strategy is that the messaging should always act positive and establish brand awareness in people’s minds.

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