TARGETING BOTTOM LINE IN PUBLIC RELATIONS The return on investment in public relations programming can be among the highest

in the corporation and can manifest itself in the following ways: enhanced cash flow improved share price and shareholders value greater productivity more sales and better market share less employee turnover higher earnings per share

Key concerns for an effective public relations campaign: gaining public trust and demonstrating social responsibility using trend analysis techniques to help leaders understand how decisions made today will impact tomorrows reality developing strategies to restore peoples confidence in existing institutions looking for innovative ways for effective two-way communication and targeting individuals, not publics communicating a company's message to consumers and preserving its brand image moving in the direction of total quality management building coalitions with governmental and volunteer organisations to address community problems understanding the perspective on the public affairs process for management of issues.

TECHNOLOGY IN THE 90s Today, technology is in a state of continuous flux and has resulted in: fast and furious growth of the electronics industry far reaching implications of new technology on business and individual lifestyles limiting consumers ability to absorb technology due to its rapid pace

Alternate media, interactive multimedia and information networking has rapidly influenced public relations ability to reach different publics. Tomorrow's successes Companies that are focused on turning information into knowledge by providing artificial intelligence, neuro-networking, knowledge ware and knowledge management software are likely to succeed in the 90s.

The companies that are going to prosper are those that are able to communicate how to use their technology and the benefits of that technology. HIGH-TECH PUBLIC RELATIONS Due to rapid technological changes, strategic communications capabilities and their implementation is becoming essential. Increasingly, businesses are looking at information dissemination and information management function as true organisation-wide strategic functions. Trends High-tech public relations, like the industry it serves is growing. High-tech is one of the most fertile and challenging specialties for public relations practitioners. Says Robert Strayton, APR, former executive vice president and director of advanced technology, Hill & Knowlton, Waltham, Massachusetts : "Communication is going to be the next really important discipline to assert itself in top management in high-tech companies. By the year 2000 AD, there will be a chief communications officer in virtually every important high-tech company -- and that person will have power comparable to the head of finance, MIS or operations."

Edited & Extracted from the Public Relations Journal in 1992