THE importance of public relations was defined for businesses at a lunch held at the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club (RBYC) yesterday.

Managing director of Troncossi Public Relations, Elizabeth Tee, gave the talk to members of the Organisation of Women in International Trade (OWIT).

"Public relations involve the acts of communicating what you are to your varied stakeholders," she said. "This is not to be confused with publicity ? which is just one of the methods used in communicating the image ? and the business of generating goodwill and mutual understanding toward an individual cause, company, or product.

"Public relations is part of the marketing mix and complements advertising, design and marketing research activities.

"One should be done in conjunction with the other in order to maximise a company or organisation's image in the marketplace.

"But what public relations can do for you that other disciplines can't, is to offer an in-depth analysis of a product or service as well as a third party endorsement. The aim of public relations is to raise a company's profile so that, ultimately, sales and profits will increase."

Ms Tee cited a number of organisations which had achieved their financial goals and attributed that success to public relations, among them, Virgin Direct, the financial arm of Sir Richard Branson's multi-national corporation, Jet Blue airlines and The Body Shop.

She said that similar results had been seen locally through the efforts of her own company, and cited CableVision's improved image as an example.

"Public relations is about reputation," Ms Tee said. "(It's) the result of what you do, what you say, and what others say about you. So how do we know we've got it right? While a focus group is an expensive way of getting the opinion of a statistically suspect group size, a well-designed survey is an inexpensive way of getting a more valid idea of what more people are thinking.

"If you know which audiences use which media, you can review those media to see how they carried your message. Once you have this basic benchmarking information, you can build a more effective communications plan, and you'll have something to test against.

"At Troncossi, we design campaigns that not only improve our clients' positioning but also build brands because we believe that great brands make great companies."