2.2.9, 2.2.10 & 2.2.11 2026

​Public Relations and CSR

Unit 2 AOS 2 Business Management - Term 3 Week 6 Pre-learning

By Adele Wyers

This part of marketing focuses on how to improve the image of the business/person in the eyes of the general public or community (rather than just a specific market or own customers). It is NOT usually product specific.

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​What is Public Relations?

PR and PROMOTION may be sounding very similar at the moment. And PR can be a tool in PROMOTION.

But it isn't advertising. Ad placement is paid for. PR is not.

The message is communicated via traditional or social media avenues as 'news' or 'content'.

​Public Relations

Benefits of good PR:

- Promotes goodwill
- Improves business reputation
- Provides info about the business and its values
- Enhances credibility
- Gives a competitive edge
- Increases customer base
- Has some costs but is 'free' compared to advertising

​Public Relations

Multiple Choice

The primary purpose of PR is ...

• Promoting a positive image

• Selling products

• Destroying a businesses image

• None of the above

Multiple Choice

One difference between marketing and PR is ....

• PR sells products and marketing sells organizations

• Marketing builds reputations, PR promotes image

• Marketing gains publicity; PR targets customers

• PR focuses on whole business; marketing focuses on customers/product

Multiple Choice

How a business is perceived by the world and it's customers is called...

• Reputation

• Advertising

• Image

• Complex

Multiple Choice

What is the primary goal of public relations?

• To maintain a favorable image and build beneficial relationships

• To sell products directly to consumers

• To manage internal company communications

• To create paid advertisements

Good proactive PR is planned so that it meets business objectives such as:
- Increasing website traffic
- Being spoken about more (high in trends for sites)
- Improving sales
- Communicating CSR values

PR can also be reactive after a crisis that impacts reputation.

​Public Relations

Multiple Choice

Public relations can be...

• Planned

• Unplanned

• Focus on goodwill

• All of the above

A PR campaign plan may consider some of the following activities, based on their business objectives:

- Free publicity via the media reporting
- Write media/press releases that can be turned into news stories
- Public information sessions/free tours
- Distribute newsletters
- Use social media to demonstrate good business activities
- Sponsorship and donations to charity

​Planned PR

Multiple Choice

A series of public relations activities to achieve a specific objective is referred to as a

• PR campaign

• PR strategy

• PR plan

• PR activities

Multiple Choice

Before starting any PR campaign, one must

• Implement the campaign

• Identify the public

• Create PR campaign objectives

• Evaluate the results

Multiple Choice

What is the purpose of press releases in PR?

• To generate positive news coverage

• To create internal newsletters

• To manage employee relations

• To design product packaging

Multiple Choice

Which of the following is a PR technique to engage with the community?

• Hiring more employees

• Increasing advertising budget

• Creating a new product line

• Sponsoring a local charity event

A crisis is something that poses a threat to the reputation of the business and the goodwill of the community:

- Defective products/safety issues
- Workplace accidents
- Unacceptable/criminal behaviour from owners

Ideally, they need to be prevented.

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​PR CRISIS!!!

If not prevented, the crisis must be resolved QUICKLY and HONESTLY in a well coordinated manner.

The impact on reputation must be minimised.

Good, timely, responses may also help improve reputation overall. Late, defensive or angry reactions will worsen the damage.

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​PR CRISIS!!!

All businesses should have a Crisis Management Plan.

This outlines what steps to take if there is a certain crisis.

It increases effectiveness and timeliness of the response, while reducing the chances that employees will react on their own.

Here are CMP elements.

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​PR CRISIS!!!

Dropdown

Every business must have a Crisis ​

Select answer

Plan to implement when there is a PR crisis.

Multiple Choice

What role does PR play during a company crisis?

• Ignoring the situation

• Managing communications and minimizing damage to the public image

• Firing employees

• Increasing product prices

Corporate Social Responsibility is also important in marketing.

Remember, sometimes CSR is an important business value and sometimes its purpose is mostly for good PR/reputation.

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CSR in Marketing

Reasons for CSR:

- Increases reputation of business values and builds community goodwill/trust
- Creates positive brand image and raises awareness of brand
- Provides competitive advantage

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CSR in Marketing

CSR can be promoted through ethical advertising or PR:

- Green advertising to highlight activities to help the environment
- Recycled materials or potential pointed out on packaging
- Show CSR activities to the public
- Protect privacy of customers
- Avoid ads that lean into outdated stereotypes

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CSR in Marketing

Multiple Choice

Businesses do not need to consider being socially responsible when marketing products.

• Yes

• No

Multiple Choice

A business that falsely advertises a product as healthy is being socially responsible.

• True

• False

Multiple Choice

A business that projects stereotypical gender roles is being unethical.

• True

• False

Open Ended

This is now the end of 2.2.9 - 2.2.11 (Chapter 11.2-4). To avoid the forgetting curve, you need to do a brain dump of everything you have learnt so far.