Understanding the Role of Public Relations in the Academic and Organisational Milieu

This paper ascertains the place of public relations in the academic and organisational milieu. It also extends to clarify the concept of image making in public relations. The study found that although public relations elements are found in marketing, however, public relations has gone beyond such notion and has taken its place as a section or department in an organisation. This has prompted a lot of scholars to attribute public relations under the department of communication instead of the department of marketing. Nevertheless, no matter the categorisation of public relations, its complementary role in achieving marketing objectives can never be overemphasised. Thus, public relations and marketing are not adversaries within an organisation, but rather corporate allies. As such, this study established that the image of an organisation has an impact on its marketing, and this image is developed, sustained, and communicated through various corporate public relations tools. Likewise, the firm’s brands, products, services, pricing, distribution, and promotional techniques have an impact on the corporate image. Additionally, this study established that image is what people think about an organisation based on the impact of its messages. It is a more general and short-term evaluation of an organisation's messages.

Keywords: Public relations, marketing, image making, organisation, communication.