Chapter 3: Public Relations

• Crisis management

o Anticipating and planning for disasters from a media perspective and with stakeholders. o Consider these now-famous public relations crises: The Tylenol poisonings (1982) The Toyota recall (2010) The BP Deepwater Horizon oil disaster (2010) o Effective crisis plans can help both avoid crises and ease the damage if one occurs.

• Consumer relations

o Building relationships with people who buy things in the United States and elsewhere around the globe. o Core objectives: building sales and building the brand. o Key activities: attracting/keeping customers, marketing new products or services, handling customer communication, educating customers.

• Public affairs

o Communication with government and the public on issues related to government and regulation. o Lobbying to get legislators to support a bill. o Issue management : monitoring, communicating to and with public.

• Financial relations

o Communications aimed at the financial community. o These could include: o Press releases to business publications o Meetings with investors o Annual reports

• Corporate reputation management

o Corporate relations focuses on an organization's image and reputation. o The overriding goal of reputation management is to strengthen stakeholder trust. o Corporate social responsibility describes good works done in the community and environment.

• Community relations

o Encompasses communities in broader society, both geographic and ethnic. o Includes consideration of diverse communities: the underrepresented and underserved. o Companies can build community relations through cause marketing.

• Media relations

o Focuses on developing media contacts. o One must know who in the media might be interested in the organization's story. o Relationships must be built on honesty, accuracy, and professionalism.

• Public communication campaigns

o Intended to change public opinion and discourage harmful behaviors.

• Employee relations

o Programs that communicate information to employees. o A related program is called internal marketing. o Communication efforts work to inform employees about marketing programs.

• Fund-raising

o The practice of raising money by collecting donations. o Used by nonprofits: museums, hospitals, Red Cross, and others; directed at potential donors. o This is sometimes called strategic philanthropy.

• Control

o With news stories, public relations strategists are at the mercy of the media gatekeeper. o There is no guarantee that your story will run. The story may be rewritten or reorganized. o In contrast, advertising runs exactly as the client who paid for it has approved, and as scheduled.

Public Opinion

o refers to what people think; their beliefs based on perceptions or evaluations of events, people, institutions, or products. • Public relations strategists want to know: o What publics are important to us now and in the future? o What do these publics think? • Opinion leaders: o important people who influence the opinions of others.

What is Public Relations

• A communication discipline covering a wide range of functions that help an organization connect with the people it touches. • A strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics. • Public relations focuses on all the relationships an organization has with various publics. • Publics are all groups with which an organization interacts: employees, members, local communities, shareholders, customers, other institutions. • Stakeholders: people who have a stake in a company or organization. • Public relations is practiced by a range of organizations. • Public relations is a dynamic, global profession. • To learn more, visit the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) at: www.prsa.org

Online Communication

• Intranets o connect people within an organization. • Extranets o connect people in one business with its business partners. • External communication o includes websites, email contact with reports, press releases distributed by email, or PR Newswire.

What's Trending in PR?

• Mobile communication will continue to grow as audiences increasingly use smartphones. • Visual storytelling will be increasingly important, and news releases will include more visual content. • Real-time marketing, messages based on current events, will present opportunities to define brand personality, especially with the adoption of social media. • Educational video content will become more important. • Attempts to go viral will continue to try to get a crowd involved to replicate the success of other efforts. • Digital security will be a continuing concern as hacking endangers information collected through digital channels. • Twitter users need to become more sophisticated to avoid creating blunders that require public relations fixes. • Brand owners will continue to integrate public relations, advertising, and marketing to create one consistent voice. • Social responsibility is paramount and will result in the increasing use of cause marketing. • Measuring the effectiveness of public relations efforts continues to evolve.

Media Relations

• News releases o Deliver public relations messages to external media. o Should answer the five "Ws and the H." • Video news releases (VNRs) o Contain video footage for a television newscast. • Pitch letters o An engaging letter about a feature story idea sent to editors who have to be "sold." o They usually stress a human interest angle.

What are Common PR Tools?

• Paid media: o the sponsoring organization pays for media and controls how and when the message is delivered. • Owned media: o channels owned and controlled by the sponsoring organization: websites, blogs, or sponsored events. • Earned media: o Consumers and mass media control mentions and comments about the brand; the most credible media option. • Advertising: o creates corporate visibility or strengthen relationships with various stakeholder audiences. o House ads: used in a company's own publication or programs for self-promotion. o Public service announcements run free on TV, radio, or print for a charities or civic organizations. o Corporate advertising: focused on the corporate image or viewpoint. o Corporate identity advertising: used to enhance or maintain reputation among specific audiences. o Advocacy advertising: intended to deliver various point-of-view messages.

Publicity

• Press conferences o Here, a spokesperson makes a media statement. o A media kit may be sent ahead of time. • Media tours o A "press conference on wheels." o A spokesperson makes speeches and announcements, holds press conferences, and offers interviews.

Reputation: Goodwill, Trust, and Integrity

• Public goodwill is a company's greatest asset. • Integrity involves more than just image; it's a result of a company's actual behavior. • Public relations is the conscience of the company, creating trust and maintaining its integrity.

How PR Contributes to Brand Perception

• Public relations contributes significantly to brand perceptions. • In integrated programs, advertising and public relations aim at selected targets with different but complementary messages. • Advertising and public relations specialists share a joint responsibility to promote a brand, and at times their efforts converge. • As opposed to advertising, public relations takes a longer, broader view of the importance of image and reputation as a corporate competitive asset. • Media use o Public relations seeks to persuade media gatekeepers to "cover" their companies. o Gatekeepers are writers, editors, producers, talk-show coordinators, and newscasters. o This aspect of public relations is called publicity.

Other Tools

• Videos, CDs, podcasts, and books o These are now major public relations tools. o Books can be published simply with electronic publishing. o Videos are expensive but are ideal for distributing in-depth information. • Speakers and photos o A speakers' bureau is a group of articulate people who will talk about topics at the public's request. • Displays and exhibits o Displays include booths, racks and holders for promotional literature, and signage. o Exhibits are larger than displays and may have moving parts, sound, or video. • Special events and tours o Special events celebrate company milestones: Open houses Birthday celebrations Corporate sponsorship of events o Tours and trips by delegates and representatives The "truth" youth smoking-prevention campaign tour reaches 500,000 teens annually with information about the harmful effects of smoking