Public Relation Techniques for Marketing Air Transport Services in Nigeria
Chapter One
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
Most of people do not patronize government organizations like EALS as expected. This fact may be accounted by the level of public relations as practiced by the organizations given this the following objectives were set out.
- To find out whether the Airline services have been able to create awareness about services through the use of public relations.
- To determine the level of attention given to people by Airline services.
- To find out whether the organization has a good relationship with the press.
- To determine the impact of public relations on consumer patronage.
- To find out how effective public relation tools are in modifying consumers attitudes towards the Airline services.
- To know how public relation helped in improving communication between people and the organization.
- To recommend solution to problems of public relations identified.
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
INTRODUCTION
Our focus in this chapter is to critically examine relevant literature that would assist in explaining the research problem and furthermore recognize the efforts of scholars who had previously contributed immensely to similar research. The chapter intends to deepen the understanding of the study and close the perceived gaps.
Precisely, the chapter will be considered in three sub-headings:
- Conceptual Framework
- Theoretical Framework
- Empirical framework
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
Concept Of public relation
Various experts have tried to define Public Relations in diverse but convergent ways. For instance, Cutlip, Center and Broom (1985:1) defines public Relations as the Management function that identifies, establishes and maintains mutually beneficial relationships between an organization and the various public on whom its success or failure depends. The British Institute of Public Relations (IPR), sees it as “the deliberate, planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain mutual understanding between an organization and its publics”. While the International Public Relations Association (IPRA) says that “Public Relations is the art and social science of analyzing trends, predicting their consequences, counseling organization leaders and implementing planned programme of action which will benefit both the organization and Public interests. Meanwhile, as a management function, public relations is defined by Rex Harlow (1976:35) as “a distinctive management function, which helps to establish and maintain mutual lines of communication, acceptance and cooperation between an organization acceptance and cooperation between an organization and its publics, involves the management of problems or issues, helps management to keep informed on and responsive to public opinion, defines and emphasizes the responsibility of management to serve the public interest, helps management to keep abreast of and effectively utilize change, serving as an early warning system to help anticipate trends and uses research and sound ethical communication techniques as its principal tools”.In his own contribution, a veteran public relations expert in the United States, Edward Berneys (1936:5) defines public relations as “the attempt by information, persuasion or adjustment to engineer public consent for a course, idea, activity, programme or project”. Meanwhile, a lot of quacks have tried to bastardize the meaning of public relations, in what Nwosu (1996:2) conserved as the “non sensical” definitions of public relations. For instance, people who give bribes in Nigeria, call it “PR”. Mindful of these, Sam Black (1989:11) warned those who think that public relations could be used to cover up falsehoods that “every public relations programme must be based on truth and full information and cannot be used to support a weak case. Public relations can succeed only when the basic policy is ethical and the means used are right. In public relations, the end cannot justify the use of false, harmful or questionable means”. Organizations therefore, should not employ public relations for blanketing evils or falsehood, for it will not work. This is why another veteran public relations expert from Nigeria, Sam Epele (1978:5) warned that “Public Relations cannot be used to whitewash poor management practices and it is therefore essential to make the organization‟s rules, aims and efforts construction and positive”. For those who think that Public Relations entails bribing people, Tony Nnaemeka (1993:3) warned that “enlisting the support and of key persons in the society through material inducements, is definitely not what public relations is shout. A public relation aims at persuading or influencing others on the reasonableness of one‟s views or perspectives of life, through information, dialogue and exchange of ideas”.All these could be summarized with the fact that public relations has as its primary objective, the function of helping individuals, organizations, institutions, governments, etc, to achieve their goals and objectives in a most cordial, peaceful and friendly atmosphere, by cultivating the goodwill, understanding, cooperation and support of their various publics, so far as such goals/objectives are ethical, socially harmless and not at variance with societal goals, norms, values and interests (Odigbo, 2000:36). Oil companies in Nigeria, should therefore adhere to the principles of equity, fairness, good judgment, strategic planning and sound two-way communication mechanism in dealing with their host communities.
Role of public relations executives in commercial out fit
Today’s world is a world of communication and in every second, millions of information units are exchanged in the world. Since development of human life improves, thus increase need to information and communication every day increased and nowadays having accurate and up to date information for people is the important and people with more information will be more successful. Public relations in organizations in term of work quality means assist to organization management in achieving organizational goals, believe to the transparency affairs and accountability, respect citizens’ rights, identify duties and responsibilities of government, the right control of people to the work and the right people in criticize and evaluate programs and practices of the organization and having specific strategies and programs are divided into three categories: 1- justifier public relations 2-explainer public relations 3- analyzer public relations.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
INTRODUCTION
In this chapter, we described the research procedure for this study. A research methodology is a research process adopted or employed to systematically and scientifically present the results of a study to the research audience viz. a vis, the study beneficiaries.
RESEARCH DESIGN
Research designs are perceived to be an overall strategy adopted by the researcher whereby different components of the study are integrated in a logical manner to effectively address a research problem. In this study, the researcher employed the survey research design. This is due to the nature of the study whereby the opinion and views of people are sampled. According to Singleton & Straits, (2009), Survey research can use quantitative research strategies (e.g., using questionnaires with numerically rated items), qualitative research strategies (e.g., using open-ended questions), or both strategies (i.e., mixed methods). As it is often used to describe and explore human behaviour, surveys are therefore frequently used in social and psychological research.
POPULATION OF THE STUDY
According to Udoyen (2019), a study population is a group of elements or individuals as the case may be, who share similar characteristics. These similar features can include location, gender, age, sex or specific interest. The emphasis on study population is that it constitute of individuals or elements that are homogeneous in description.
This study was carried out examine public relation techniques for marketing air transport services in Nigeria using executive Air line service, Enugu State as case study. Staff of executive Air line form the population of the study. And, this information was gotten from staff that were present as at the day and time of this research.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
INTRODUCTION
This chapter presents the analysis of data derived through the questionnaire and key informant interview administered on the respondents in the study area. The analysis and interpretation were derived from the findings of the study. The data analysis depicts the simple frequency and percentage of the respondents as well as interpretation of the information gathered. A total of one hundred and forty-seven (147) questionnaires were administered to respondents of which only one hundred and forty-one (141) were returned and validated. This was due to irregular, incomplete and inappropriate responses to some questionnaire. For this study a total of 141 was validated for the analysis.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
SUMMARY
In this study, our focus was to examine public relation techniques for marketing air transport services in Nigeria using executive Air line service, Enugu metropolis as a case study. The study specifically was aimed to find out whether the Airline services have been able to create awareness about services through the use of public relations, find out the level of attention given to people by Airline services, find out whether the organization have good relationship with the press, determine the impact of public relations on consumer patronage, find out how effective public relation tools are in modifying consumers attitudes towards the Airline services, know how public relation helped in improving communication between people and the organization and recommend solution to problems of public relations identified. A total of 141 responses were validated from the enrolled participants where all respondent are drawn from staff of executive airline.
CONCLUSION
Based on the finding of this study, the following conclusions were made:
- Most of the people in Enugu State are aware of the product and services of Airline.
- The relationship between the organization and the public is not poor.
- Public relation activities of leads Airline services to increase customers patronage.
- Consumers are satisfied with the public relations activities of Airline services.
RECOMMENDATION
Based on the responses obtained, the researcher proffers the following recommendations:
- Effort should be geared towards fashioning out grassroots oriented public relations practices that are tailored to the socio-cultural lives, needs and perceptions of the customers of executive airline.
- Adequate Public relations research should be employed to clearly appreciate the needs, feelings and perceptions of host communities before dispensing social responsibility goodies to them.
- Adequate two-way communication mechanisms should be instituted between the airline companys and their customers.
- The right public relations communication media/techniques which are amenable and suited to the socio-cultural and traditional realities of the Nigerian customers should be employed in communicating to/with them.
REFERENCES
- Adirika, E.O., Ebue, B.C. and Nnolim, D. (1996): Principles and Practice of Marketing II; Enugu: Jamoe Enterprises (Nigeira).
- Ajala, V. (1993): Public Relations in Search of Professional Excellence; Ibadan:Afrika Link Publishers.
- Ajala, V. (2000): “Managing Community Relations in the Oil Industry” NIPRPublic Relations Journal, vol.2, No 1., April.
- Anyaefiena I. B. (1976): “A Study of the Public Relations Department of the Nigeria Airways Limited”, An unpublished project work submitted in
- Armour ،L.(2006). “Public Relation Autonomy” retrieved Februar.
- Berger, B. K., & Reber, B. H. (2013). Power and influence in public relations. In K.
- Berneys, E. (1936): Engineering of Consent, New York: Ballatine Books Inc.
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