According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the phrase public relations is described as a plural noun to public relation that is the professional maintenance of a favourable public image by an organization or famous person.

In essence, public relations is the process of increasing positive communication between a company and their consumer.

How old is it?

Although there is some evidence of a variation of public relations being evident many centuries ago, in the form that it is known today, it is generally seen to be around 100 years old.

At the start of the 20th century, Ivy Lee and Edward Louis Bernays, the nephew of famed neurologist and psychologist Sigmund Freud, both began to attempt to change the publics view of various companies and products through a range of different methods and are now seen as the pioneers of modern day public relations.

What is involved?

Public relations refers to an extensive and vast array of different methods that have the same end result of positively increasing the presence of a company or product within their target consumer market.

From editorials in leading magazines to interviews on local television stations, PR is a process that is continually growing to incorporate new methods that become available to the industry.

How much does it cost?

As with a lot of service industries, PR cannot be given a set price tag as the cost varies considerably on the project that is being worked on and who exactly is working on it. For example, should a small and regional public relations company be hired to work on promoting a small business in a the local area, the cost will be much smaller than a global corporation hiring a public relations company to increase brand awareness all around the world.

Some notable successes of PR?

Of the many notable PR successes that are apparent each and every day, one of the most prominent is FBIs 10 Most Wanted list.

Starting in 1949, the International News Service requested the names and details of the most wanted people in the United States of America at the moment, for use in several news stories. Having more an effect than initially thought, the information was transformed into a regular list and began to expand with more Most Wanted people.

The success has been tremendous, with 429 of the 458 names that have been on the list over the last six decades being caught.

How about some disasters?

One of the more popular PR disasters in recent years is that of the soft drinks company Ribena. In 2007, Ribena were fined almost 200,000 dollars after being found guilty of misleading their consumers into thinking that the ready-to-drink cartons offered by Ribena had four times as much Vitamin C as orange juice drinks, approximately seven milligrams to every 100 millilitres of drink, when in fact there was no major traceable signs of Vitamin C.

If this was not a bad enough discovery in itself, it was made all the worse by the mass media attention it got, primarily due to the fact that the discovery was made by two young school girls.

The Spa Way Public Relations Company has created a number of well devised successful campaigns for a range of businesses to help them seek the right exposure in the market.