FACULTY OF COMMUNICATION AND MEDIA STUDIES

DIPLOMA IN COMMUNICATION AND MEDIA

PRO221:
PUBLIC RELATIONS

GROUP ASSIGNMENT:
THE ROLE OF PUBLIC RELATIONS IN BRANDING

CLASS:
MC1103D

PREPARED BY:

MOHAMAD IQMAL HAKIM BIN HISHAM 2019417332

MUHAMMAD HAFIZI BIN JASLAN 2019259172
NUR DAMIA AINA BINTI ZULRAIMI 2019260366
NUR NURIN SYUHADA BINTI MUSTAFA ALL BAKRY 2019269014
NURSYAHIRA BINTI SALLEHUDDIN 2019295962

PREPARED FOR:
DR. ABDUL RAUF BIN RIDZUAN

SUBMISSION DATE:
JANUARY 2021
ABSTRACT

Public relations is about communicating credibly to control business decisions, such as

media analysts, customers and shareholders. Elements that are directly involved in a
branding such as of the corporate brand, core messages and reputation, if thoroughly
leveraged by internal and external audiences, can help to boost performance and credibility.
All these elements play a very important role in ensuring that the image of a brand is always
highly regarded and that is subject to the credibility of a Public Relations. Strengthen brand
awareness and interaction by Public Relations is also an important part of any overall
approach aimed at maintaining and enhancing the performance and credibility of a brand.

INTRODUCTION

Public relations are generally associated with communication activities to craft and maintains

mutually beneficial relationships between organizations with its public. Recently, the role of

organizational Public relations has expanded as evidenced in the blurring of the once precise

boundaries between public relations, advertising, and marketing communication activities (Ron P.,

2011) . The convergence of these communication activities are in response to an evolving business

environment characterized by a “loss of shareholder value and declining customer confidence and

organizational support” which, in turn, had led many organizations to re-examine their core

communication processes and ways of doing things (Lenka M.& , Petra G., 2014) . This

communication convergence involving Public Relations has also been driven by corporate belt

tightening in response to the current economic recession. It is believed that Public Relations can

help to maximize shrinking advertising budgets in tight economic times.

Another factor has been the exponential growth in social media fuelled by consumer demand.

According to (Bush, 2009) , the integration of marketing and Public Relations activities is primarily

the result of the arrival and acceptance of social media and an increased social consciousness by

consumers. Clients nowadays are looking for integrated programs and consistent brand messaging

across every point of contact with their customers. There's an old saying: "Advertising is what you

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pay for, publicity is what you pray for." Thus, Public relations is important to bridge that trust-gap

between a business and its would-be clients or customers.

The brand and branding

A brand can be define by symbol, mark, logo, name, word, or sentence that companies use to

distinguish their product from others. It is designed to create aware-ness and identity, and to build the

reputation of product, service, person, place, or organization. The objective of branding strategy is to

create brands that are differentiated from the competition, thereby reducing the number of substitutes

in the marketplace (Tanya, 2015) . Branding strategies are built based on competitive brand

positioning, value chain development, and brand equity management. It requires the identification of a

distinct market space and a cognitive location as perceived by consumers. The brand affects consumer

attitude and perceptions toward the product and, especially applicable to Public relations, toward the

organization that produces the product (Ron P., 2011) . Hence, effective brand positioning can help

strategists to determine what the brand stands for and the value derived from the usage of the brand.

Fig. 1. Brand organizational context

Source: Clifton & Simons (2003)

A brand’s value can be judged by an organization’s performance and that depends on interconnections.

Recognizing and reinforcing a brand’s interconnections with and organization’s culture and

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performance through a communications campaign focused on employee alignment with business

results and reputation can have powerful effects (Lenka M.& , Petra G., 2014, p. 835).

LITERITURE REVIEW

The Role of Public Relations in Branding

 Public Relations allows to prioritize target markets and helps identify the most

resonating messages for that market.

By creating more products and services that satisfy the target audience, one company can

achieve to get into the target market. The Public Relations team finds out what their potential

customers really need not solely on products but also services then with information’s in hand,

other departments within the company will have a strong overview or guidelines to reach the

target markets (Kenton, 2020).

 Public Relations in branding can establish forward-thinking ideas

According to (Levine, 2003), many experts on branding espouse the opinion that Public

Relations is a vital part of the “branding” process. Public relations practitioners are

particularly well suited to the branding concept, since they are well versed in the techniques

and practices that create a public identity very close to the central idea of a brand. In addition,

using Public

Relations to establish some brands can reveal forward-thinking ideas in a way that could

catch like wildfire among their clients. There are many companies that have a staff composed

of both Public Relations and branding professionals who work in concert to promote a client’s

business or other offering. In turn, a good product public relations campaign is all about top-

of-mind awareness, or brand awareness, say experts.

 Public Relations helps to build and maintain positive public image of a brand

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 Public Relations (PR) is the method of keeping a positive reputation and creating a favourable

partnership between the organization and the media, the groups and the individuals it

represents. In addition, Public Relations aims to achieve a positive reputation by attracting

attention to the actions of its company and its clients who attract and attract attention.

According to (Lenka M. & , Petra G., 2014) , whatever the market, faith plays an important

role in deciding the performance of business. Without confidence, companies are leaving

sales opportunities on the table. A business may include someone in a group relationship in

order to close the trust gap between an entity and its potential customers or clients. These

experts aim to enhance their industry credibility and boost their overall image. This is also

achieved by thought leading, power partnerships, and networking techniques. Companies with

a lot of Public Relations typically have a press page where these things are displayed.

Consistent and accurate news releases show consumers that your business has a good image

on the market and offers you a strategic edge over other space firms.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

 Data Collection Strategy

For this research the researchers conducted semi-structured interviews, three major questions

had previously been developed by the researchers for gaining information; however, the

researchers are prepared to take additional information provided by the informants into

account (Adam, 2019). Researchers will be setting up to an interview session with Public

Relations practitioner. There will be five person that will be interviewed by the researcher to

gain better information about the role of Public Relations in Branding. For this research, the

interview are conducted approximately 45 minutes. The questions asked are based on their

expertise, perception, opinion, experience and thought.

 Unit of Analysis

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 The unit of analysis for this research is individual because the focus of the researchers is

mainly on Public Relations practitioner that will be interviewed via Google Meet due to

Movement Control Order (MCO). Unit of analysis is the entity that is being analysed in the

context of scientific research.

Stated below is the list of Public Relations practitioner interviewed by the researchers:

i. Mr. Kid Zaharuddin – (Public Relations Executive at Media Prima Berhad)

ii. Mr. Ahmad Zaki Nawawi – (Public Relations Officer at Habib Jewels Franchise)

iii. Ms. Sophiah – (Public Relations Assistant at Acorn Communications)

iv. Ms. Ruzanna – (Public Relations Executive at Astro)

v. Mr.Akil Mansïz – (National Press Officer at Sepang International Circuit)

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

RQ1: Why do you think Public Relations (PR) is an important aspect in any organizational

brand management?

1. To maintain an image of a brand

Based on Mr. Kid’s idea of how importance one public relations department is that public

relations team is in charge of the overall brand or organization image, reputation and how

people perceive the company whether positively or negatively as it all depends on how active

the public relation team itself. How active they are can be measured when they create more

products and services that satisfy the target audience in order to get into the target market like

how we all know, public relations allow one company to prioritize target markets and help

identify the most resonating messages for that market.

For Mr. Ahmad Zaki, Public Relations is important to build the reputation of the brand by

sharing the right information to the right places and people. More specifically, Public

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 Relations agencies work with organisations and help them to build their image in a particular

industry. This undoubtedly shows that Public Relations helps to build and maintain positive

public image of a brand.

As stated by Ms. Sophiah, Public Relations plays an important role to manage the brand

reputation. Public Relations will confront appalling situations like advertising gone wrong or

unsatisfied customers hitting out on social media about how bad the company product is. This

shows that Public relation team must work together in order to establish forward thinking

ideas to avoid such situations from happening.

Next, according to Ms. Ruzanna, it is important for Public Relations to maintain an image of a

brand because without the presence of Public Relations in a company, it will lead to many

failures in overcoming all the problems that arise. According to her too, there are many

methods of keeping a positive reputation of a company, public relations can maintain positive

public image through all of these methods.

Lastly, for Mr. Akil, Public Relations is important for a brand as it is a key strategy to reach

the stakeholders and to establish a sustainable relationship with them.

2. To influence people

According to Mr. Kid, Public Relations has the ability to shape people’s mindset. In

simpler word, the ability to manipulate the perception of one company is in the hand of public

relations itself.

Conclusion Remarks

In conclusion, Public Relations plays an important role in maintaining the image of a brand

because they are generally associated with communication activities designed to craft and

preserve and organization's image and relationship with its public. This can help build brand

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 recognition, credibility and trusted consumer relationships, resulting in repeat sales and brand

equity.

RQ2: Usually, when it comes to any PR matters in related to branding strategy, what kind of

approach or method that your organization will go with? Why do you think it is more effective?

1. Campaign

According to Mr. Ahmad Zaki, the effective method to brand or spread awereness is by

using campaign. For instance, Jom Heboh or Anugerah Juara Lagu (ASK). From this, it

shows that public relations also helps one company to prioritize target markets and helps

identify the most resonating messages for that market. The audience here has their own desire

and demand that they are willingly going to put profit in return.

2. Press release

Based on Mr. Ahmad Zaki, press release is also one of the method to promote a brand. It

will notify the media of an event hoping that they will spread the word.

According to Mr. Akil, press release is a great method for sharing timely, relevant news such

as an event. Each press release publicizes important or useful information about an upcoming

event or one that has occurred. For instance, a press release might tell the public the

information about cancellation events, explain what happened and outline the steps being

taken to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

3. Provide the Standard Party Line (SPL)

For Ms. Ruzanna, it is important to provide the Standard Party Line (SPL), it is a guideline

that has been decided together with all parties to answer any questions from the media or

netizens. This SPL is very helpful because there will be no other statement that will arise

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 because any question answered is the same as what has been set by Public Relations and does

not create false news.

4. Media

“New media is the new mainstream”. According to Mr. Kid, he believes that nowadays,

more and more audience come from the new media like social media platforms; Twitter,

Facebook and Instagram to name a few. He stated that the company he currently working

with has good connection with social media influencers, bloggers, youtubers and such

connection create more audience which skyrockets the company’s exposure towards the mass.

Undoubtedly, this shows how public relations help one company to build and maintain their

positive image. Favourable partnerships between these individuals help the company by

lifting up the interests among people who follow them on social platforms thus creating more

engagements between the company and the public.

As for Ms. Sophiah, she mentioned that media connections can help the Public Relations to

repair the damage through a simple press release by acknowledge the problem itself first, then

admit the problem and lastly give a solution towards the problem that particular company is

facing.

Conclusion Remarks

In conclusion, Public relations describes the various methods a company uses to disseminate

messages about its products, services, or overall image to its customers, employees,

stockholders, suppliers, or other interested members of the community. Commonly used tools

of public relations include news releases, press conferences, speaking engagements, and

community service programs.

RQ3: What are the challenges to improve the brand image (either organization or product)?

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1. Public

Based on Mr. Kid’s answer, the challenge is when the public relations team has to gain the

trust back from viewers and the shareholders.

According to Mr. Ahmad Zaki, one of the challenges to improve the brand comes from the

people themselves.

2. Media

Based on Ms. Ruzanna, media is also one of the challenges to improve the brand

image. It is because if the media highlights a good story about the company to the

community, it will give an advantage to the company itself. So, it is important to

ensure that the media is always given good treatment.

3. Social stigma

Based on Ms. Sophiah, one of the challenges to improve the brand image comes

from social stigma. It will negatively affects the brand because of the society incite to

not buy the products because of the social stigma.

4. Language barriers

Based on Mr. Akil, one of the challenges to improve the brand image is language barriers.

Not using the words that other person understands makes the communication ineffective and

prevents message from being conveyed hence it can lead to poor communication and resulting

brand’s risk.

Conclusion remarks

In conclusion, the internet has made it easy to put out a message and at the same time, has

made it hard to be heard. Therefore, there are number of obstacle that a Public Relations need

to overcome.

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CONCLUSION

To conclude, Public relations gives “legs” and life to brand attitudes and the essential brand promise

by telling credible stories and providing support for the truth of a brand’s advertising images. This is

all the more important in an evolving media and business environment. Although public relations is

used for a wide variety of purposes in organizational communication, that of the representation of the

organization, its goals, and its self-understanding has been increasingly influential with publics. This

has become increasingly important given the marketplace transition to a consumer-driven,

conversation economy characterized by two-way conversations between consumers and between

consumer and organization (Ron P., 2011) . Accordingly, Public Relations play a key role in

establishing the trust and authenticity necessary for a successful branding.

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