The function of marketing communications is also the integral part of any new product introduction process in a company as well. In fact, Toshiba America, known for their laptop computers, has the product launch and introduction managed as a project inside marketing communications to provide for greater coordination and synchronizing with other departments. Marketing communications acts in many companies as the activity hub for all strategies, as this department is often serving the sales force, product management, product marketing, service, finance, and very often the executive managers who are the spokespeople for strategies and products.
Societal functions of Public Relations
In a sense government agencies and their constituents, the citizens of a given region or nation, are "customers" of the services of the societal institutions and governments. The only difference is of course that to shop between governments is to have to move, while consumers can choose between organizations by going to a different website or taking a few steps down the isle in their local supermarket. Despite their captive audiences societal institutions have the duty to serve their constituents as best they can. For these societal institutions the stakeholders are even more pervasive and varied,...
The reason is that the laws surrounding products, services, foods, drugs and even transportation have been created to protect the consumer. In the context of public relations, the societal function that influences the most amounts of people is consumer relations.
From a societal context, consumer relations fulfills the role of both coordinator of information flow between manufacturers, the government, and the consumer, ultimately looking out for what's best for the consumer and their well-being. This is a critical step in many countries as the function can expose risks to consumers of unsafe products. During the 19th century for example, Upton Sinclair (2002) and his classic book, the Jungle, showed the many practices in the meat processing and packing industry that needed overhauling to
