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relations failures - including problems which may not even be in the marketing arena or even under the control of public relations. If there is a risk of this happening, then the marketing professionals have the right - indeed responsibility - to ensure that the most senior members of the company take the necessary action. Usually only the marketing personnel can foul up company marketing but almost anyone can make a mess of company public relations, from the chairman to a single lorry driver or salesman.
As an illustration, it was the incompetence of Excalibur's operational personnel- not its marketing - that forced the company to fold, despite having come through a successful period of trading. It was the crass ineptitude of the speech writers for Gerald Ratner which brought about the ultimate collapse of that company - not the marketing people; he famously quipped at an Institute of Directors' conference that some of his products would not last as long as a Marks & Spencers' prawn sandwich.
Case after horrifying case could be cited. Indeed, if the marketing people cannot convince the chief executive or the chairman to take personal responsibility for the ultimate control of corporate public relations, then the marketing people might consider putting the processes in place themselves. Whatever structure might be set up, one central factor will decide success or failure _ getting the public relations responsibility carried by a credible and competent professional.
A useful working definition of public relations is: those efforts used by management to identify and close any gap between how the organisation is seen by its key publics and how it would like to be seen.
Of course, there are many other factors that are essential to success, above all, marketing itself. The best public relations will not compensate for weaknesses in production, quality, service or personnel and many other important business areas. It is likely that an active public relations policy will expose rather rhan hide such weaknesses.
The official definition of the craft given by the Institute of Public Relations (1994) is: 'the planned and sustained effort to esrablish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organisarion and its publics'.
Some definitions of public relations only cover 'mutual understanding'. This is not satisfactory for such definitions focus on the public's knowledge but not necessarily on its opinions and attitudes. Clearly, information is only part of communications, in the same way that communications is only part of public relations. For what the company does is as important as what it says.
Marketing as the management process responsible for satisfying Customer requirements profitably implies the need to creare the bcsr husincss rnv irrm . merit wirhin which these products or services can be sold and supported. It is not unreasonable to extend rhis to the crearion of goodwill between the organisation offering the products and services and the purchascr-, of I hcsc, This is rhe normal situation within an informarion dcrnocrucy,