PR and Effective Branding Machinery

Olaseeni Durojaiye
The concepts of branding and PR are closely related. The job of PR is to encourage the public to have a positive perception of a particular person, company, product or service. Branding on the other hand is the idea that a set of attributes will encourage the public to have positive thoughts about a company, product, service or an individual. PR is subtle but very essential.
In order to have a proper understanding of branding and what it does, it is important to explain PR and what it does. Many distinguished scholars of branding posit that PR is a vital part of, if not the most vital part of the branding process. PR practitioners are particularly suited to the branding concept since they are well versed in the techniques and practices of creating a (positive) public identity, image or perception which is at the core of branding.
Unlike advertising or marketing which are essential activities and indispensable to the creation of a brand, PR is not devoted to a tangible object, which in different scenarios might be advantageous or disadvantageous .
When properly conceived and executed, PR is next to invisible and borders largely on the emotional. The public is unaware that PR is at work, often because it is not tangible. It does not create a physical manifestation of its efforts. When it is done right, it does not leave the trace of a newspaper or magazine ad, a video tape or audiocassette that will win awards and that can sometimes overwhelm the message that is being delivered.
What PR does is to encourage third parties to deliver the message. This is so because third parties are news organizations, print journalists and television and radio news programmes, which by definition have more credibility to the general public than an advertisement or the words of a brand spokesperson.
In order words, PR is meant to generate positive news coverage. It does so through planned events and through true news items suggested to reporters and editors. When a newspaper writes an article on a product or a business, that is PR. But to the readers of the newspaper it appears like a news report professionally generated by the media. Disclaimer advertisements rarely run to discredit a PR suggested news article. In fact, editors and reporters sometimes resort to PR people for news stories.
Though PR works behind the scenes, its impact on branding is enormous. Because PR generates interests and it works off stage, it is as valuable as a part of the branding process as can be imagined. More so, it is often the least expensive part of a sophisticated branding mechanism.
PR is about apt messages and perfect delivery, but that is not all there is to it. In correlation with branding, PR’s prime objective must always be to create a positive feeling in the minds of the target audience for which the message is tailored.
In essence, if branding is about creating an identity for a product, company or an individual, PR’s contribution is to make that identity friendly and likeable to the public and specifically the section of the public that the person, product, or company is intended to serve or win over.
Certainly, the feeling most PR campaigns aspire to create is a positive one. But the intention is vastly more complex than that. Indeed, PR seeks to create and maintain a consistent feeling of familiarity, trust, reliability and confidence with the target audience.
While advertising is about getting the public’s attention, PR is about delivering the message once the attention has been commanded, and by extension solidifying the relationship. When a product commands positive comments from a target public, it means that PR has worked fine, though oftentimes with the aid or support of advertising and marketing.