Public Relations (PR)- a practice of managing the spread of information between an individual or an organisation and the public-is not directly connected with sales. The conversion of good public relations (PR) to money is a tricky and contemporary issue as any conversion as such cannot be measured so easily – I prefer to call PR as another form of enterprise branding.

The PR function attracts a multi-level audience by publishing news/views and in return it promotes the brand and the company value.  A good brand may not necessarily make profit every year but it can be sustainable in the long run.

In the changing global circumstances, where any local product hardly survives, reaching out to target users is very important. Often it is difficult to highlight or underline the correlation between PR deliverable and revenue. Personally I feel any case study on this subject demands a bigger frame. Otherwise it will end up giving a wrong projection.

Public Relations is unfortunately looked in the prism of advertisement value. If you appoint a good PR, you will get more public awareness. For example, we get PR news letters, varied reports from 5 star hotels, clubs, FMGC players among others.  It may contain news like new schemes, offers, and tariffs during festivals etc.  People will read this and they may avail it. The published matter directly helps the sales team. PR helps in creating the brand value. Higher the brand value, higher the sales. So, a part of advertisement budget should be used to promote PR as well and the quantum of the budget depends on many internal and external factors.

Actually when your product is visible with a market audience, you prefer to further strategise with sustainability; therein lies the importance of good Public Relationsor rather a holistic Public Relations. The function itself complements the lack of money invested in branding. If you compare branding and Public Relations budgets, you will understand yourself.

PR is not directly a revenue generation tool but it definitely helps the sales, marketing departments to strategise and generate revenues accordingly. PR builds brands which is directly related to the revenue generation of any organisation or individual. To increase revenue you have to increase your communication, and that’s fundamental.

Now most of the money is being diverted in digital domain & that is a major paradigm shift. And PR in digital economy will help companies to reap more profit, add value, going forward.