WHERE IS PR WITHIN MEDIA NEUTRAL PLANNING?

Abstract

Media neutral planning attracts attention as a concept that emerges due to the increasing number of media and non-media communication activities and the difficulty in controlling the management of the increasing message crowd by the firm. Customer relationship management and integrated marketing communications are two areas that foster media neutral planning. The media should appeal to the consumer in an individualized manner, and the messages sent to the consumer should be compatible with each other and complement each other. In this study, the extent to which the agencies dominate the media neutral planning perspective in media relations is revealed through face-to-face interviews with 14 agency employees responsible for media relations. Media relations practices were closely examined by asking questions to the subjects on the strategic planning of agencies, customer relations management and integrated marketing communication. The study has revealed that companies still approach public relations agencies like an advertiser and that the opinion that the media coverage will be provided by the companies by broadcasting advertisements has been found to be dominant. As a result, the study reveals that although public relations practices have implemented media neutral planning in message design and content production, they cannot go a long way in terms of coordinated and monophonic coverage in the media and are far from providing the necessary coordination yet.