Task 4. Compose a summary of the text in 80 words

PUBLIC RELATIONS

Public relations (PR) is usually referred to as communication designed to correct wrong impressions, maintain the goodwill of the orga­nisation’s publicity and explain the organisation’s goals and purpo­ses. Advertising is considered to be one of the essential parts of PR. Ads are constantly aimed at creating or enhancing a positive image of the orga­nisation. Therefore, we should concentrate our attention upon two other approaches to conducting public relations: direct contact and publicity.

Direct contact with public includes letters, visits by public relations personnel, plant tours and company-sponsored events. Employers who recruit on college campuses may write personal letters to professors explaining their management philosophy and required qualifications for the student interviewees. Plant tours are scheduled by enterprises producing beverages, for example. Visits by PR personnel comprise speakers at civil and service club meetings focused on explaining their firms’ goals and objectives that might be of interest to the local community. Company– sponsored events represent craft fairs, youth athletic programs, running races etc. Hospitals often sponsor blood pressure screening clinics as part of their PR effort. This type of direct contact PR helps in generating publicity for hospitals.

Publicity is news presented in mass media about an organi­sation – its products, policies, personnel or actions – at no charge to the organisation for media time and space. However, the marketer should be ready to bear the costs of preparing news releases and inducing media editors to print or broadcast them.

Publicity offers several advantages as a promotional tool. First of all, it may appeal to those people who do not pay much attention to advertising, sales promotions and sales-people. Secondly, it has greater credibility than advertising. Thirdly, it is relatively inexpensive.

Nevertheless, marketers have to recognise publicity’s limita­tions. Marketers cannot totally control the actions by editors dealing with publicity materials that marketers prepare. Media people disre­gard materials they do not consider to be newsworthy – subject matter must be interesting, ultimate and accurate to be taken into account.

Marketers try to influence the media by providing publicity materials to submit, however media personnel reject a considerable amount of the information. Sometimes the materials are disregarded because they are poorly prepared. Great care is needed while preparing publicity materials to help to ensure that they will be used by the media.

A news release contains information that organisation wants disseminated, along with the name, address and phone number of the person whom media personnel should contact for further information. Feature articles are longer (more than one printed page) and are prepared for specific publications. Media representatives are invited to press conferences to listen about a major event a marketer hopes to be newsworthy and to receive written materials concerning the event. Letters to the editor are sent to newspapers and magazines in response to articles that appeared in those media. Radio and TV stations are provided with tapes and films for broadcasting.

UNIT 7

Task 1. Read the text “Jamie Bonini at Chrysler” and translate it.

Task 2. Find answers to the following questions in the text and write them down:

1. What did The Wall Street journal write about Jamie Bonini and management at Chrysler?

2. What is Chrysler teaching its foremen?

3. What were the challenges for J. Bonini when he was appointed to Windsor plant of Chrysler?

4. How did J. Bonin feel when he came to work to Windsor plant? Did he give up?

5. Why did J. Bonin leave his position at the Windsor plant?