II. READING. Public relations concerns the efforts a company makes to influence public opinion, to create a favorable company image

 

Public relations concerns the efforts a company makes to influence public opinion, to create a favorable company image. Its purpose is NOT to make a sale or stimulate immediate business, but rather to convey to the public such positive qualities as the company's reliability, efficiency, or far-mindedness.

 

Public relations is big business, and large corporations spend millions of dollars a year on their public relations campaigns. When a major oil company sponsors a program on public television, that is public relations; when a large chemical company establishes a college scholarship fund, that is public relations, too.

 

The public relations specialist knows how to use all the mass media (television, radio, magazines, newspapers, and firms); she knows how to compose press releases and set up press conferences, prepare broadcast announcements, and arrange public receptions.

 

But public relations exists on a smaller scale as well. It is the local butcher's remembering a shopper's name, and it is the local hardware store buying T-shirts for the Little League. For basically, public relations is the attempt to establish and maintain GOODWILL.

 

Public relations letters, therefore, are those letters written for the purpose of strengthening goodwill. Some of these can be considered social business letters such as invitations, thank-you notes, and letters of congratulations. Others are acin to advertising, such as announcements of openings or changes in store facilities or policies. Still others are simply friendly gestures, such as a note welcoming a new charge customer or thanking a new customer for her first purchase.

 

 

A specific kind of public relations letters is designed to demonstrate a company's interest to its customers. The following letter is written inviting complaints; its purpose is to discover causes of customer dissatisfaction before they get out of hand. (Responses to such letters must always get a prompt follow-up assuring the customer that the reported problem will be looked into.)

 

Similarly, to forestall complaints (and of course encourage business), large companies frequently send informative letters that educate the public. A supplier of gas and electricity, for example, may include with the monthly bill an explanation of new higher rates. Or a telephone company will enclose a fact sheet on ways to save money on long distance calls.

 

Whatever the ostensible reason for a public relations letter - to establish, maintain, or even revive business - remember that all public relations letters must be friendly, for their overriding purpose is to create a friend for the company.