E-Top Up is a privately owned Zimbabwe company with head offices in Harare.

E-top Ups core business is the distribution of electronic prepaid value vouchers and the means of distribution. The company also provides secure mobile, fixed telephone and banking products to business worldwide directly and through agents. Other products we offer include fixed telephone voicemail and auto-Attendant SMS/GPRS/internet banking, telephone and PABY/Exchange management systems, mobile and fixed prepaid recharge and telephone exchange monitoring mobile recharge voucher distribution and pay Phone service. COMPANY STRUCTURE: The companies organ gram constitutes of four departments which intertwine with each other for the purposes of achieving organizational goals. The departments include finance, sales and marketing, technical, and operations. Public Relations (PR) Involves a variety of programs designed to promote &/or protect a company's image or its individual products. Marketing managers & PR do not always talk the same language, bottomline oriented vs. preparing & disseminating communications. Many companies are turning to marketing public relations (MPR), playing a role in: Assisting I the launch of new products, assisting in repositioning a mature product, building interest in a product category, influencing specific target groups, defending products that have encountered public problems, & building e.g. corporate image in a way that projects favorably on its products. MPR is found to be effective in building awareness & brand knowledge for both new & established products.

Public relations make an organization more effective, therefore, when it identifies the most

strategic publics as part of strategic management processes and conducts communication programs to develop and maintain effective long-term relationships between management and those publics.

Major decisions in PR. In considering when an how to use MPR, management must:

Establish the marketing objectives: MPR can contribute to build awareness, build credibility, stimulate the sales force & dealers, & hold down promotion costs.

Chose the PR messages & vehicles: The mgr. must identify or develop interesting stories to tell about the product. Here the challenge is to create news rather than find news. Event creation is used by profit & non-profit organizations to develop a multitude of stories directed at different audiences.

Implementing the MPR: A great story is easy to place, but most stories are less than great & might not get past busy editors. Publicity requires extra care when it involves staging special events.

Evaluating the MPR results: It is difficult to measure because it is used along with other promotional tools. The 3 most commonly used measures of MPR effectiveness are number of exposures (all the media that carried news about the product & a summary statement), awareness/comprehension/attitude change (how many people recall hearing the news item? How many told others about it? How many changed their minds after hearing it?) & sales-&-profit contribution (the most satisfactory measure, if obtainable)

Establish appropriate mechanisms to obtain feedback about public relations activities and

public relations practitioners and scholars have come to believe that the fundamental goal of public relations is to build and then enhance on-going or long-term relationships with an organizations key constituencies. Manage the implementation of the public relations plan. Strategies and activities may relate to:

direct advertising gifts logos media materials, e.g. press releases, articles, reviews membership and loyalty programs planned activities, e.g. launches, openings, guest appearances, charitable support, cocktail parties

signage, banners Sponsorship.

Evaluating Public Relations Resulls Public relations results are difficult to measure because PR is used with other promotion tools and its impact is often indirect. If PR is used before other tools come into play, its contribution is easier to evaluate.

Feedback mechanisms may include:

consultation with colleagues direct questioning formal/written feedback measurements of level of support, e.g. attendance, sponsorship, patronage Media monitoring.