PR in Russia is a relatively new phenomenon, however, almost every self-respecting organization considers it necessary to have a PR manager on the staff. At the same time, not everyone understands what Public Relations is and why they are needed.
What is PR
The concept of PR itself appeared at the beginning of the 20th century, although, of course, the history of the phenomenon is much older. Even in the days of Ancient Rome, there were people whose duty was to convince citizens that the current state system was the best. So, Public Relations means the creation of a positive image of an object, phenomenon or person and the introduction of this image into the mass consciousness. One of the indirect PR tools is advertising, but there are many more PR technologies. To create a positive image of politicians, public figures, commercial companies, journalism, marketing, psychology, and sometimes even propaganda and aggressive manipulation are also used.
The emergence of a multitude of public relations agencies in the United States in the 1920s was a reaction to the active work of the "dirt rakes" - a branch of journalism that specialized in exposing famous people.
All these methods are used in order to create the desired attitude of the target audience to a particular object or phenomenon. Depending on the tasks set, PR can be designed both for large groups of people and for strictly defined personalities.
For example, for a road design company, the main target audience is government customers, not the general public, although a situation may well arise in which it will be necessary to obtain positive attitudes from ordinary people (for example, before holding public hearings on the construction of a road in a residential area).
Types and methods of PR
There are quite a few types of PR. Experts still argue about some of them, because they are not sure that they relate specifically to the science of public relations. Perhaps the very first type of PR is political. It concerns both pre-election campaigns and issues of forming and maintaining the image of an already established politician. Social PR is aimed at creating a positive perception of the activities of charitable foundations in society, for example, by holding socially significant events with maximum coverage in the press. PR managers of commercial organizations, as a rule, solve the problem of forming positive associations with the company's brand among the target audience.
In 2010, in Russia alone, more than one and a half billion dollars were spent on PR of commercial organizations.
In addition, they are also engaged in the so-called "internal PR", which increases the loyalty of the organization's employees. The popular expression "Black PR", which arose in the early 90s in Russia, means the use of "dirty" methods to fight competitors: the publication of compromising evidence, falsifications, provocative actions.
