Letter of Enquiry

URBAN EDGE CONSULTANT FIRM Suite 3-7-8 Level 10 Plaza Mont Kiara 54800 Kuala Lumpur Tel : 03-78666797 Faks : 03-78666799 YOUR REF. : PRE/16/07/08 OUR REF. : UECF/PR-256 DATE : 28 July 2008 Public Relations Student Mass Communication and Media Studies UiTM Section 17 Campus 40200 Shah Alam, Selangor Dear Sir/Madam, RE : LETTER OF ENQUIRY REGARDING PUBLIC RELATIONS Referring to your letter dated 16th July 2008 in regards to enquiry on public relations industry.

We would like to thanks for choosing our company to answer your enquiry regarding public relations for your term paper. In the letter you have list down enquiry on what is Public Relations ? , Why is there a negative connotation attached to PR profession ? , and How can PR help sustain the financial stability of a company ? Regarding your first question, as what we know, today Public Relations industry is very important to all organization. Public relations usually deal with issues rather than products or services, and are used to build goodwill with public or employees..

Public relations is a management function that requires two way communication and a conscious, deliberate effort to develop and maintain healthy relationships with an organization and its numerous public. Besides that, Public relations is about reputation – the result of what you do, what you say, and what others say about you. Public relations aims to earn understanding and support, and influence opinion and behavior. Large and small organizations have public relations function today, including automotive, manufacturing, healthcare, nonprofit, government, education, sports, entertainment, and many others.

Modern public relations uses a variety of techniques including opinion polling and focus groups to evaluate public opinion, combined with a variety of high-tech techniques for distributing information on behalf of their clients, including satellite feeds, the Internet, broadcast faxes, and database-driven phone banks to recruit supporters for a client’s cause. Although public relations professionals are stereotypically seen as corporate servants, the reality is that almost any organization that has a stake in how it is portrayed in the public arena employs at least one PR manager.

Large organizations may even have dedicated communications departments. Government agencies, trade associations, and other non-profit organizations commonly carry out PR activities. Regarding to your second question about the negative connotation attached to Public Relations profession, there are two main factors contribute to it as media and publics. There are many media sources containing negative connotations of public relations and its practitioners. These negative stereotypes affected the publics’ attitudes towards the industry.

We can see in our country for instance, most of the PR in the organization was not from public relation background. They could be has been promoted or transferred by the company to Public Relations department. Due to lack of experience and knowledge in Public Relations itself, most of them keen to contribute negative connotations of pubic relations industry. However, this issue seems to be resolved when most of the universities in Malaysia has offer Public Relations course in order to fulfill the demand in this industry.

Lately , most of organizations has set the qualification in order to fill the position in their Public Relations department. Besides that, publics seems to be misunderstood on what is going on in this industry and keep on thinking that public relations is stereotype. This is due to public relations are giving a lots of glitz and glam without a whole lot of substance. In other words, we’ll try to portray products and services like they’re the best thing since sliced bread – no matter what the truth is or what we think about them. Therefore,

Institute of Public Relations Malaysia known as IPRM has been setup as an umbrella body to all public relations practitioners in Malaysia. IPRM has set the ethics and codes to comply with public relations industry where all the members need follow with. Your last questions regarding on how can PR help sustain the financial stability of a company. As mentioned earlier, public relations carry variety type of career field. As Oscar Wilde said in the The Picture of Dorian Gray, the only thing worse than being talked about it not to be talked about at all.

Many celebrities seem to take this truism to heart, because when their popularity and income wane, they take on new projects that attract media attention. Considering that a celebrity’s celebrity is a brand unto itself, many celebrities are under constant pressure to “reinvent” themselves, as a prophylactic against obscurity. Many of techniques used by PR firms as well our firm are drawn from the institutions and practices of democracy itself. Persuasion, advocacy, and education are instruments through which individuals and organizations are entitled to express themselves in a free society.

Many public relations practitioners are engaged in practices that are widely considered as beneficial, such as publicizing research promoting charities, raising awareness of public health concerns and other issues in civil society. We believe as a consultant firm for public relations , we have to be more creative by applying a modern PR techniques when serving our clients. Therefore, by introducing a great services to our clients, it can help to build a trust and confident towards our firm.

The person who responsible in financial in a company is Investor Relations. . Many larger publicly-traded companies now have dedicated IR officers (IROs), who oversee most aspects of shareholder meetings, press conferences, private meetings with investors, (known as “one-on-one” briefings), investor relations sections of company websites, and company annual reports. The investor relations function also often includes the transmission of information relating to intangible values such as the company’s policy on corporate governance or corporate social responsibility.

The investor relations function must be aware of current and upcoming issues that an organization or issuer may face, particularly those that relate to fiduciary duty and organizational impact. In particular, it must be able to assess the various patterns of stock-trading that a public company may experience, often as the result of a public disclosure (or any research reports issued by financial analysts). The investor relations department must also work closely with the Corporate Secretary on legal and regulatory matters that affect shareholders.

Therefore, public relations as well as investor relations play a big roles in the company in order to maintain the financial. We hope from the answers and explanations given will give you a better understanding towards Public Relations issues. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any further enquiry. We’ll be glad to assist you. Thanks you, Yours faithfully, ……………………………… Mohd Salleh Hj Ab Hamid Senior Manager Public Relations Department