..................... is the deliberate action of an organisation for promoting goodwill between itself and the society.

Public relations

The correct answer is option 3- Public relations.

Public relations is the deliberate action of an organisation for promoting goodwill between itself and the society.

Managing public opinion of an organisation is an important task which can be performed by the marketing department. The business needs to communicate effectively to customers, suppliers, and dealers, since they are instrumental in increasing the sales and profit. Besides those who come into direct contact with the organisation or its products, there are other members of the general public whose voice or opinion is equally important. This public may be interested in the company and its product and have an impact on the business ability to achieve its objectives. Thus, it becomes imperative to manage public opinion and the company’s relation with the public on a regular basis. Therefore, public relations involve a variety of programmes designed to promote or protect a company’s image and its individual products in the eyes of the public. The main task is to disseminate information and build goodwill about the business. Concrete steps are to be taken to monitor the attitude of the general public and generate positive publicity. They are especially useful when there is negative publicity about the company or its products. At that time, the situation has to be tackled like an emergency to improve public image. The public relations department then has to do something drastic so that damage to company’s images is controlled and minimised. They also advise top management to adopt certain programmes which will add to their public image and ensure that negative publicity does not take place at all.