Teaching Public Relations 101

When I was asked to join the Marketing Department of De La Salle University and teach Public Relations, I did not hesitate to accept it as I will be in the company of veteran advertising colleagues in the faculty.

I immediately looked at the existing syllabus made by no less than the PR guru of the university, Dr. Jimmy Ong, found it insightful, and took it as a sign of a right decision.

The challenge in teaching PR, really, is based on a corporate experience where marketing practitioners have this notion that PR is press release or purely publicity. I have to orient my students at the very start that PR is in itself a discipline that is unique in itself and that it is grounded by building strategic or long-term relationships.

In fact, PR begins at home. To be a good PR person, one must have that innate personality that can relate, first to his/her parents and siblings, then to the whole family, and in general, the public. As Dale Carnegie would put it, “winning friends and influencing people” is indicative of successful relationships.

As we went through the personal stage of the subject matter, I gradually injected IMC or integrated marketing communications. Here, the students began to appreciate the synergy of advertising, sales promotions, and public relations; most especially messaging that encompasses the whole activity of effective branding. Since most of my students major in marketing or advertising, I saw to it that IMC was very much applied to their course, and soon in their real world.

The starting point in PR is definitely research. Finding the right data or information helps one develop any task. Without research, one cannot possibly find the basis of a conclusion. However, one revelation I got among students is: most of them don’t read newspapers anymore.

I do a quick survey on the first day of class as to what papers they read, or TV programs they watch, or the latest book they’ve read. Based on the ‘quick’ I found “The Tipping Point” and “Blink” of Malcolm Gladwell as must reads. I had to motivate the students to read as I believe it is one big habit they can bring with them forever.

The whole point of all these is inculcating the four characteristics of a successful PR practitioner and these are: competence, being ethical, having the right attitude, and being healthy all the time.

Competence begins with PR 101 where one is taught the definitions, case studies and PR planning. If one is to be a CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) someday, then an all-around knowledge of how marketing works in an organization is a must. But equally important, if not the most important, is being ethical. In everything we do, to be a law-abiding citizen and to be morally upright will most likely lead to successful businesses or employment.

In addition to competence and ethical practice, I am betting on having the right attitude in everything a PR person would do. Lest students forget, there is wisdom in virtues like: patience, perseverance, self-discipline, responsibility, friendship, work, courage, honesty, loyalty, compassion, and faith. (To which I ask my students to memorize.)

The fourth characteristic is being healthy most of the time, if not all the time. Vice among students can have stressful effects, so the earlier one’s consciousness is attuned to health, the better.

To be able to distinguish the difference between advertising and PR is another basic lesson to be learned. Today’s advertorials can be passed off as PR initiatives given as ‘freebies’ or ad bonuses.  I think here lies the need to cultivate media relations with the editorial and with the advertising departments. I am a believer that advertising and PR really go together.

Finally, how to plan and strategize is learned by reviewing past winners of the Anvil Awards.  My students get to learn how programs and tools by notable Philippine corporations become benchmarks in PR practice. They should be able to identify who’s who in Philippine business especially those whose CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) programs are worthy of emulation. Because of this, they now know why PR is not just press release but “doing good and telling it well—and getting the credit, too!”

The author is a former President of the Public Relations Society of the Philippines (PRSP). He is President / CEO of JonesPR / J.T.Campos Corporation and taught PR and Marketing in De La Salle University from 2011-2012.