The majority of public relations staff is found in London or regional consultancies and within commercial companies. Others are to be found in local authorities, party political offices, central government, trade associations and professional organizations, trade unions and the media. Public relations for any of these operations are normally a year round effort. Many have their public relations function handled by an outside consultancy as well as by an internal public relations officer.
Those who work in consultancies are usually arranged in the following hierarchy, starting with the top person.
Managing director
Primary function is to get new business for his company, decide policy, see clients remain happy, and turn in good profits. Many Managing Directors are first class PR operators and may well execute client programs.
Directors and senior consultants
These are the most experienced operators, directing and managing one or more clients and their PR campaigns, and supervising teams of PR staff who carry out the various projects and activities of each campaign. These senior PR personnel attend many different kinds of meetings, write new business presentations, PR proposals and reports, and usually are seen in action during crisis PR situations and when major and important high points in a campaign are happening. They work over a wide range of campaigns and for many different kinds of clients.
Public relations executives
Here are the 'Indians' in the PR team for these are the people who carry out all the various activities of a client's PR program. They may specialize, for example, in press relations, consumer PR or financial PR, or public affairs. Client and media meetings happen almost daily in their work. They normally commission outside work like printing leaflets or posters.
Assistant public relations executives
These are the less experienced operators who help run PR programs under close supervision from more experienced operators.
Secretarial staff
Secretaries work for one or more executives and usually become very involved in the day to day PR work of the PR team in which they serve. It is hard work but the variety makes it stimulating and exciting. Many secretaries go on to become assistant PR executives.
In house public relations executive
In house public relations mean someone working as a direct employee for the company they serve; such people, often called a Publicity Manager, face the difficult task of pleasing many masters. In a manufacturing company, he or she may not only do public relations for the Board of Directors and the general information about the company as a whole, but may also have to satisfy a marketing department who demand the benefits of public relations for their products. They are usually called upon to advice management in situations where the company is exposed to adverse opinion. A good in house person makes a list of issues likely to stir up trouble in the media or public sector, and keeps it up to date.
Here is what Norman Burtt, for over 30 years the public relations manager at Lever Brothers, has to say about what you need to be a company PR manager:
- Total honesty with your employers, your staff, your 'public' and the media.
- Ability to be at ease with people in all walks of life.
- Ability to spot possible developments from what, at first glance, seems a situation of little potential danger.
- Ability to identify people and areas where a relationship needs to be established.
- Realization that there is no substitute for a face to face relationship (classic current example Reagan/Gorbachev).
- Have the courage to admit you and your Company have 'boobed' if that is the case.
- Be prepared to act as the diplomat within your Company.
- Have a sense of humor and use it.
Marketing, research, and especially financial or accounts, are departments which may be found inside a consultancy.
A marketing department is a relatively new feature for consultancies and usually only the large ones will have a department devoted exclusively to marketing. Smaller consultancies always have someone, whether the managing director or a senior executive, who is responsible for marketing the consultancy to potential clients. You may use a marketing department to assist in the preparation of presentations to prospective new clients. Most often the marketing department is kept busy chasing leads for getting new business. When one of these turns 'hot', the other members of staff join in the chase preparing reports, thinking who they know who may put them in touch with the potential new client.
If you use a marketing department for any reason, you will need to prepare a proper brief which includes what you want, when you need it by, the reasons for the request, and how much time you may think fitting for them to spend on your request.
These same guidelines serve when using your research department. The job of such a department is to obtain an endless number of facts, figures, services, reports, contacts and details.
Both the marketing and research functions are frequently involved in expert services of a technological nature. For example, setting up visual aids for presentations, laying on special effects, getting slides made, preparing reports, and putting together material from outside services. It is almost impossible now to service a major client without such internal specialists at your elbow to help. Again, if you are going to use a research department in your agency, you will want to put in your requests on a formal basis giving them time to fulfill the task.
Every business must have an accounts function where income and expenditure book keeping is done. It may be just a part time book keeper or it may be a large department with frequent visits from outside chartered accountants and auditors. The public relations business is no different from any other business in this respect. Make friends with your accounts department at the first opportunity. If you have a query about money, they usually have the answer.
