PR for Small & Medium Enterprises

The following are my answers to the questions posed by Ms Archana Ramesh while preparing a dissertation titled "Exploratory research on public relations for small medium enterprises", submitted by her in partial fulfilment of the programme, Master’s in Communication and Journalism to the Department of Communication and Journalism, University of Mumbai in June, 2010

Q1) For what purposes do SME’s hire public relations services?
Answer: More of marketing purpose and less of image building


Q2) What is the difference of conducting public relations activities for SME’s and large enterprise?
Answer: Small & Medium enterprises do this for product identity and Larger enterprises for product image


Q3) It is noticed that SME’s do not have knowledge on promotional tactics, what are your contributions towards educating them?
Answer: ‘Promotion’ is one of the several ‘P’s associated with marketing. SMEs generally adopt short term promotional tactics, keeping immediate Returns on Investment (ROI) principle in view. Larger enterprises, on the other hand, will plan both short term and long term market plans.


Q4) SME’s exist in two sectors manufacturing and service. Which sector goes in more for public relations and how it is different?
Answer: Both sectors will go in for PR, in their own way. To be specific, for establishing and maintaining sustained relations with Customers/Clients/Consumers/Commuters/ Beneficiaries etc


Q5) How are SME’s benefitted by hiring PR agency or doing any PR activities?
Answer: PR agency as an external service provider will cost lesser to the SMEs. Having a permanent employee internally may be a financial burden. PR agency is a better option for SMEs in terms of expertise, cost etc. PR activity mostly campaigns can be better handled by Agencies than internal PR man.