Investor relations media mix: Media planning in the public relations sub-function

Abstract

Although research in the field of investor relations has been experiencing a surge in recent years, one aspect of investor relations still commands little attention – media planning. Indeed, the research on the media mix investor relations officers use and the reasons behind such usage doesn’t seem to exist. Yet, this may be an important topic to investigate for public relations scholars. In fact, anecdotal evidence suggests that investor relations would be quite different from other public relations specializations in its media usage. However, research on media planning is not well developed in the general field of public relations itself and pales in comparison with research in such fields as advertising and marketing. This study addresses this shortcoming by developing a new approach to measuring media usage in public relations. This approach is then tested through a survey of investor relations officers. The results indicate that the main tactic used in investor relations is one-on-one interpersonal communication.