Public relations (PR) involves activities conducted by a company to promote and protect its image. PR departments monitor customer attitudes and perceptions and try to convince audiences to support the company. PR differs from advertising in that it involves earned media rather than paid media, making the messages more credible. Key PR tools include news, speeches, printed materials, events, and digital channels like websites and social media. Apple excels at PR through strategic storytelling, keeping messages simple, cultivating influencers, and prioritizing product reviews on YouTube and social media over traditional tech publications.

2. What is
public
relations?
 Public relations (PR) refer to the variety of activities
conducted by a company to promote and protect the
image of the company, its products and policies in the
eyes of the public.
 Public relation is an important element in the
promotion mix. Most of the multinational companies
have its public relation department that makes all
effort to monitor the attitude and perceptions of
customers.
 PR is the Persuasion Business. You are trying to
convince an audience, inside your building or town, and
outside your usual sphere of influence, to promote your
idea, purchase your product, support your position, or
recognize your accomplishments.

3. FUNCTIONS OF PUBLIC RELATIONS:
1. Saturation of Effort
• Organisations competing for a finite amount of media attention puts pressure on the public relations effort to be better
than that of competitors. There can be no guarantee that PR activity will have any impact on the targets at whom it is
aimed.
2. Can be Targeted:
• To a small specialised audience public relations activities can be targeted assuming if the right media vehicle is used.
3. Relatively Low Cost:
• It is much cheaper, in terms of cost per person reached, than any other type of promotion. Apart from nominal
production costs, much PR activity can be carried out at almost no cost, in marked contrast to the high cost of buying
space or time in the main media.
4. Relatively Uncontrollable:
• A company has only a little direct control over the proceedings of public relations activity. If successful, a press
release may be printed in full, although there can be no control over where or when it is printed. A press release can be
misinterpreted and result may be unfavourable news coverage. This is in contrast to advertising, where an advertiser
can exercise considerable control over the content placing, and timing of an advert.
5. Credibility:
• PR activity results in a high degree of credibility as compared to other promotional sources like advertising. As the
audience may regard such a message as joining from an apparently impartial and non-commercial source. Where
information is presented as news, readers or viewers may be less critical of it than if it is presented as an
advertisement, which they may presume to be biased.

4. HOW IS PUBLIC RELATIONS
DIFFERENT THAN ADVERTISING?
It’s Unpaid vs. Paid. Earned vs. Purchased. Credible vs.
sceptical. Public relations tastes great, advertising is less
filling.There’s an old saying: “Advertising is what you pay for,
publicity is what you pray for.”
Advertising is paid media, public relations is earned
media. This means you convince reporters or editors to write
a positive story about you or your client, your candidate,
brand or issue.

5. Another huge difference is price. PR firms charge monthly retainers or
can be hired for specific projects. Advertising can be very pricey.

6. PR TOOLS
• In order to promote sales, many functions are performed by Public Relations
Department. Different Public Relations tools are adopted as aids in this process.
1. News:
News is the main tool of
public relations. Public
Relations Department
spreads the news about the
products of the company.
Consumers are in a better
position to form an opinion
about the company with the
help of the news they listen
to or read in any publication.
2. Speech:
Speech is also an important
tool to propagate about the
product and the company.
The vital views concerning
the company and its
products being expressed by
top authorities and the
personnel of the company
are published in important
newspapers.
3. Printed Materials:
Printed materials also form
important tools of public
relations. Usually, all the
eminent companies have their
own newsletters, annual
reports and regularly
published magazines which
are distributed on regular
basis among the members of
the public.

7. 4. Special Events:
 Public Relations Department makes publicity about the company. If anything relating to company
transpires, the same is made public to consumers. For example, if a company is being awarded by the
government for its best performance in the field of production or export-earnings, Public Relations
Department takes special pains to publicise this event among people. Such information creates a better
image of the company among people and its goodwill gets a big boost.
5. Audio-Visual Materials:
 Public relations work is also undertaken through the medium of audio-visual materials. It includes TV ,
radio and films.
6. Public Services:
 Companies resort to public welfare activities so as to have better public relations. These public welfare
activities also boost the image of companies. Some of the examples of such activities are organizing health-
camps, free coolie service for aged people, women passengers at railway stations, etc.
7. Institution Identity:
 Some companies get their “Logos” printed to have their clear “Identity” among the masses of the country.
One immediately identifies a company after seeing “Logo” of the company. This is also an important tool of
public relations

8. 8. Website:
 This is the most modern tool of public relations. Companies use their websites to advertise their
products. General public can seek all the vital information about the company after looking at the
particular website of the company.
9.Social media
 The use and impact of social media marketing have drastically increased in recent years. Social
media has allowed PR to reach a much larger audience. Previously, PR was targeted at specific
individuals such as investors and business partners, but social media has caused this target group
to be expanded to include all persons vital to the success of a business. Ways to use social media
are through Instagram , Facebook , LinkedIn ,twitter.
 Hashtag campaigns on Facebook and Twitter, for example, are great ways that an organization can
use social media and PR for social impact. They can be used to raise awareness about a cause or
to garner contributions.

9. ADVANTAGES OF PUBLIC RELATIONS
 i. Credibility – If the public are made aware of the benefits to be gained from a
company’s products from an independent source, and that source is not being paid by
the company in question, then the credibility factor is that much greater.
 ii. Greater readership – When glancing through a newspaper it is seldom that a great
deal of attention is primarily paid to advertisements. Much more attention is given to
editorial or news sections. Similarly, people are more likely to divert attention from the
television to do other things while the advertisements are being shown.
 Iii. Speed – Public relation has an advantage of speed. Information on a major
development can often be issued and reported in a short space of time. Public relation
can also be flexible and reactive.

10. iv. Contain more information – Public relation is able to impart more
information to the public than advertisements can. A glance is all that is
usually given to an advertisement, whereas public relation, when
presented as news, is given more attention and is therefore able to contain
much more detailed information.
v. Cost benefits – No direct payments are made to the media for public
relation. There are obviously costs involved, but PR budgets are far less than
those for advertising.

11. DISADVANTAGES OF PUBLIC RELATIONS
• i. Message distortion – A company has no control over
what the media report about them. A press release, which
a company hopes is reported in full, may in fact not be
used at all, or may have only a small portion of it
reported.
• ii. Repetition – With advertisements a company can
ensure that there is frequency of the message. Public
Relation does not have this advantage and the message

13. COMPANY BACKGROUND
■ Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered
in Cupertino, California, that designs, develops, and sells consumer
electronics, computer software, and online services. It is considered one of the Big
Four technology companies, alongside Amazon, Google, and Microsoft.
NAME APPLE INC.
FOUNDED APRIL 1 ,1976
FOUNDERS STEVE JOBS , STEVE WOZNIAK ,
RONALD WAYNE
Current CEO TIM COOK
Headquarters Cupertino, California, United States

14. SOCIALMEDIA
 Apple is active on Instagram. However, they have a
very strategic approach to that platform as well. Apple
indirectly sells their product. While they don’t come out
and explicitly say “Buy the new iPhone X” they are
showing the pictures that come directly from an
iPhone. Realizing and understanding that Instagram is
a very visual platform, they positioned their strategy to
a spot where all of their content is user-generated and
shot from an iPhone itself..

15. If you check out @Apple on
Instagram, you’ll find that
they make their account
seem like a movement and
a community more than a
promotional attempt.

16. • Twitter:
• On Twitter too, Apple has several
accounts. Each one is dedicated to
something different like one for
iTunes , one for Apple Music, one for
support. Apple’s main official page
has over four million followers.
• Apple’s use of social media is very
different from most other brands. It
does not use social media for just
marketing or promotions or only
customer service MAINLY FOR
ENGAGING ITS USERS.
YOUTUBE :
Apple has its official YouTube channel with 11
million subscribers . It also has country
specific channels like Apple Canada , Apple
Australia , Apple Japan.

17. APPLE INC. MEDIA EVENTS
• Apple Special Event (March 25, 2019)
• Apple hosted a media event on March 25, 2019, with the tagline "It's show time." It
held at the Steve Jobs Theatre in the Apple Park campus. Apple News+, Apple
Card, Apple Arcade and Apple TV+ were announced at this event.

18.  Apple hosted a media event on
September 10, 2019, with the tagline
"By innovation only." It was held at
the Steve Jobs Theater in the Apple
Park campus. Apple
TV+ updates, Apple Watch Series
5, iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro and 11 Pro
Max, and the 7th generation iPad were
announced.
 The event was streamed live
on YouTube for the first time, in
addition to the usual streaming on
Apple's website and through an Apple
Apple Special Event (September 10, 2019)

19.  Apple’s Promotionals
 But it isn’t as though Apple never sells on social media — it’s just careful to demarcate its
promotional posts from its organic content. Apple has run several ad campaigns on Facebook,
but they’re promoted posts, and thus much closer to traditional ads. Last year, it had run a
campaign for its Apple Watch, asking users to choose it as a gift. Apple’s also a Facebook
campaign targeting people using high-end phones, in which it urges them to switch from their
phones to Apple.
 And while Apple doesn’t directly promote its products, its been using Twitter to promote its
launch events. Like last year, Apple’s been promoting a tweet that announces its upcoming
event. Retweeting the tweet lets Apple send you notifications about the event.

20. PR STRATEGIES
 Storytelling. Following a classic storytelling technique, Jobs would present a problem or villain and
then explain the solution, which was Apple’s latest product. The heroes of his stories were ordinary
people who were underserved by technology that was too complicated.
 Keep it simple. If you ran any Apple press release through a readability level test it would most
likely score a level easily understood by an average 4th grade student or lower. Any hint of jargon,
cliché, or techno mumbo-jumbo would be removed in the editing process. If a “mere mortal”
couldn’t understand our language, then we had failed. And failure was not an option. Steve Jobs
read and personally approved every press release.

21. • Culture marketing; Apple has a team that focuses on “integrating Apple’s products
into popular culture” or making sure high-profile people, businesses and
organizations use its products. Some brands call that culture marketing. In the past,
brands have pursued the strategy in a poorly organized way with endorsements and
product placements. The strategy will become more important in coming years as the
power of traditional media declines.
• The Golden Circle Strategy: Jobs told compelling stories by following the Golden
Circle strategy outlined by leadership management expert Simon Sinek, says
entrepreneur Cornelius McGrath on LinkedIn Pulse. The storytelling strategy calls
for defining:
Why — What’s our purpose? What’s your core belief? Why does your organization
exist? And why should anyone care?”
How — How your company fulfils its core belief.
What–What it does to fulfil its core belief.

22.  Product reviews
The importance of product reviews cannot be overstated. Apple pays
inordinate attention to them and is adept at understanding individual
reviewers and tailoring material to them and their audiences. Following
example, other PR teams might consider dedicated product reviews
managers.
 Prioritize media influencers.
Focus on cultivating close relationships with the top five-to-ten media
influencers who cover your field. Again, don’t over-pitch them. Give them
feedback on what you are hearing about their articles from colleagues and
partners in the industry. Comment and start discussions on their stories on
their Twitter and LinkedIn feeds. When you have an announcement coming
up, consider offering them an exclusive angle.

23. RECENT
EXAMPLES
Apple took an unusual and perhaps inspired PR strategy to promote
its iPhone X. In the standard promotional tactic, a small group of
hand-picked publications receive products before other publications.
As usual,Apple distributed new iPhones to select technology and
mainstream media outlets to allow them to publish reviews before the
phones went on sale.
In a new twist,Apple gave the iPhone X to a handful ofYouTube
video bloggers before established tech and media publishers.
The decision highlights the changing media landscape and growing
power of social media influencers.

24. No Tech Experts:
• Reviewers at tech publications may argue that they’re more qualified to analyze the
technical features of new iPhones. That’s exactly what Apple doesn’t want. It wants
reviewers to focus on the fun features of the device, writes technology expert Matt
Alexander . It doesn’t want reports on product specs and technical capabilities. Sending
the phones to YouTube influencers met that goal, as they praised the device and
displayed its features. It also assured that the new iPhone features would be shown in
video, making them more exciting and more easily understood.
• Privacy has always been a big part of Apple’s marketing pitch, and the company is
bringing that point home once again in its latest iPhone ad. If privacy matters in your
life, it should matter to the phone your life is on,” says the commercial.

25. SWOT
ANALYSIS

26. REFERENCES
https://notesmatic.com/2018/09/apple-social-media-
marketing-strategy/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Apple_Inc._media_
events#Apple_Special_Event_(September_10,_2019)