Consumer Grievance
Mrs. Maggie sent a jacket to a Clear and Clean Dry cleaners pvt. ltd. (A well reputed brand Name) in January 2022. The jacket was purchased at a price of Rs. 45,000. She had previously sent the jacket for dry cleaning by Shine Dry Cleaners and the jacket was cleaned well. However, she noticed that her jacket had white discoloration marks when she collected the jacket this time. On informing the dry cleaner, Mrs. Maggie received a letter confirming that discolouration indeed appeared after the jacket was dry-cleaned. She contacted the dry cleaner and its Public Relation Manager multiple times and requested for compensation for discoloured jacket but to no avail. Upon Consumer court’s intervention, Shine Dry Cleaners agreed to compensate Rs. 25,000 to Mrs. Maggie for the discoloured jacket. Later, the Public relations department of the company issued a clarification regarding the above case.
Which of the following is not a part of role of Public Relations?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → Help in Identifying Needs
Option (1) Counselling — A role of public relations (Incorrect). The department advises management on public issues and on the position the company should take.
Option (2) Press Relations — A role of public relations (Incorrect). It gives the press correct news about the company, so that the facts are presented in a positive way.
Option (3) Product Publicity — A role of public relations (Incorrect). New products need special effort to make them known, and the department gets news about them into the media.
Option (4) Help in Identifying Needs — Not a role of public relations (Correct). Finding out what customers need is part of marketing research, the first step of marketing. Public relations starts after that, with the company’s image.
Note 1: The latest NCERT textbook (2026-27) names the five roles as publicity, press release, corporate communication, lobbying and counselling. The options use the names of the pre-rationalised NCERT: press relations, product publicity, corporate communication, lobbying and counselling. The answer is the same in both books. Note 2: The case study is taken from the chapter ‘Consumer Protection’, but this question is based on the chapter ‘Marketing’. However, since it is a case-study based question, all the questions on this case study are tagged to the chapter the case study is taken from. NCERT (2026-27 Edition): “Role of Public Relations The role of public relations can be discussed with respect to the functions which the department performs. Public relations itself is an important tool in the hands of the marketing department, which can be used to the advantage of the business. The public relations department performs five functions:” “1. Publicity: Publicity is similar to advertising, in the sense that it is a non-personal form of communication. …” “2. Press release: Information about the organisation needs to be presented in a positive manner in the press. …” “3. Corporate communication: The image of the organisation needs to be promoted through communicating with the public and the employees within the organisation. …” “4. Lobbying: The organisation has to deal with government officials and different ministers in charge of corporate affairs, industry, finance with respect to policies relating to business and the economy. …” “5. Counselling : The public relations department advises the management on general issues which affect the public and the position the company would like to the take on a particular issue. …” |