Public Relations Management and Marketing in the Hotel Industry - Essay Example

This study examines the public relations campaign used by Café Royal with a view to identifying how public relations is conducted in practice and how theory is adopted to this practice. This research can therefore explain and expound on theory and theory development in public relations and its coordination with marketing communications. The results of the study are discussed with reference to previous studies and public relations theory. Recommendations are made.
Public relations refers to communication techniques used by an organization to manage its image and relationship with the public. In this regard, the public includes government, the community, and the external environment generally (Hendrix & Hayes, 2010). Thus, public relations can be distinguished from marketing where the focus is narrowed to selling the organization and its products and services to consumers. Public relations is broader and contemplates the organization’s image and relationships with a number of different factions of the public. However, public relations can be incidental to or part of a marketing function, particularly in the hotel industry (Kandampully & Suhartanto, 2003). The hotel and hospitality industry, in general, encompasses “diverse” public factions that they need to communicate within any public relations program (Deuschl, 2006, p. 24). The public factions important to hotels are employees, the community in which they operate, the international community, and guests (Deuschl, 2006).
According to Hutton (1999), the dimensions, nature, and definition of public relations are not clearly defined in the literature as there is no real consensus of what it is and how it works in practice. Regardless, there are a number of important themes emerging in the literature that provides a clearer focus of what public relations involve. The common themes are trust-building, generating interests and attention, building relationships, “creating mutual understanding”, expressing and modifying interests, “influencing public opinion”, tempering tensions, and “creating consensus” (Nessmann, 1995, p. 154).
The definition and dimensions of public relations are particularly important to the hotel sector as research typically explores the link between hotel image and customer loyalty/customer satisfaction (Line & Runyan, 2012; Kandampully & Suhartanto, 2003). In this regard, public relations theory which focuses on the link between relationship management and the achievement of organizational goals provides a conceptual framework for understanding and identifying how public relations can be used to retain and recruit customers in any sector (Ledingham, 2006). Current examples of public relations in practice provide the best evidence of what public relations are and how they are conducted in practice (Hendrix & Hayes, 2010).
Therefore, in order to identify and provide an understanding of the link between public relations and consumer satisfaction through relationship building with the public and its many themes and possibilities, this research conducts a case study of Café Royal in London. Café Royal is selected as a case study because it specifically links public relations with marketing and coordinates both departments.