QUIZ 7: CHAPTER 11
Be able to mention a recent need for crisis control and what did not work in terms of PR - United Airways
-The United Airlines' first attempt to discuss the recent incident was half-hearted, delayed, and did not take full responsibility. -Companies should take full responsibility from their customers and be apologetic to be human -Usually, PR involves strategy, but this was a crisis
Know these 4 PR activities on pages 274 - 276 8th Ed. and Page 263 -264 9th Ed.: 1) Community Relations, 2) Lobbying/Public Affairs and Government Affairs, 3) Issue Management 4) Media relations.
1. Community Relations: This type of public affairs work focuses on the communities in which the organization exists 2. Lobbying/Public Affairs: The public affairs function includes interacting with officials and leaders of the various power centers with whom a client must deal 3. Government Affairs: This type of public affairs work focuses on government agencies 4. Issue Management: Issues management typically uses a large-scale public relations campaign designed to move or shape opinion on a specific issue 5. Media Relations: Public relations clients require help in understanding the various media, in preparing and organizing materials for them, and in placing those materials
Know at least 6 of the 14 PR activities of pages 274 - 276.
1. Community relations: This type of public affairs work focuses on the communities in which the organization exists 2. Counseling: Public relations professionals routinely offer advice to an organization's management concerning policies, relationships, and communication with its various publics. 3. Development/fund-raising: All organization work through the voluntary contributions in time and money of their members, friends, employees, supporters, and others 4. Employee/member relations: This form of public relations responds specifically to the concerns of an organization's employees or members and its retirees and their families 5. Financial relations: Financial PR is the enhancement of communication between investor-owned companied and their shareholders, the financial community, and the public 6. Government affairs: This type of public affairs work focuses on government agencies 7. Industry relations: Companies must interact with other companies in their lines of business, competitors, and suppliers 8. Issues management: Issues management typically uses a large-scale public relations campaign designed to move or shape opinion on a specific issue 9. Media relations: Public relations clients require help in understanding the various media, in preparing and organizing materials for them, and in placing those materials 10. Marketing communication: Advertising is controlled communication-advertisers pay for ads to appear in specific media exactly as they want 11. Minority/multicultural affairs: Public affairs activities are directed toward specific racial minorities in this type of work 12. Public affairs: The public affairs function includes interacting with officials and leaders of the various power centers with whom a client must deal
Who were Ivy Lee and Edward Bernays and what did each contribute to the field of PR? Know the Bernays' wife, Doris Fleischman and her influence in opening up the PR profession to women.
1. Ivy Lee: Deceitful image vs truthful information -Beset by accidents and strikes, the Pennsylvania Railroad usually responded by suppressing information. Lee recognized, however, that this was dangerous and counterproductive in a time when the public was already suspicious of big business, including the railroads. Lee escorted reporters to the scene of trouble, established press centers, distributed press releases, and assisted reporters in obtaining additional information and photographs. -Lee handled press relations and convinced Rockefeller to visit the scene to talk (and be photographed) with the strikers. The strike ended. -Lee issued his Declaration of Principles, arguing that public relations practitioners should be providers of information, not purveyors of publicity. 2. Edward Bernays: Early two-way communication stage - Public relations pioneer that emphasized the value of assessing the public's feelings toward an organization. He would then use this knowledge as the basis for the development of the public relations effort. Together with Creel's committee, Bernays's work was the beginning of two-way communication in public relations—that is, public relations talking to people and, in return, listening to them when they talked back. 3. Doris E. Fleischman was among the many women leading the PR industry, which was more encouraging of women. Fleischman experienced discrimination and threats of violence based on her gender. Edward Bernays's call for greater sensitivity to the wants and needs of the various publics and Ivy Lee's insistence that public relations be open and honest were the industry's fi rst steps away from its huckster roots. Th e post-World War II code of ethics and accreditation programs were a second and more important step. Yet Bernays himself was dissatisfied ed with the profession's progress.
How is public relations similar to and different from advertising?
A. Differences -PR tends to be less controlled (The PR firm cannot control how or when its press relase is used by the local paper) because PR uses "free space" in news oriented entites; uses press releases or video news releases. Advertising is controlled communication-advertisers pay for ads to appear in specific media exactly as they want -PR is more about third party/credibility/ endorsement -PR focuses on more than consumers (publics) -PR is more about company image and brand and less on specific products -Another way that advertising and public relations differ is that advertising people typically do not set policy for an organization. Advertising people implement policy after organization leaders set it. In contrast, public relations professionals usually are part of the policy decision process because they are the liaison between the organization and its publics B. Similarities -Both have paid communication professionals -They work together- integrated marketing communication or integrated brand promotion -Advertising becomes a public relations function when its goal is to build an image or to motivate action, as opposed to the usual function of selling products -Advertising and public relations obviously overlap even for manufacturers of consumer products. One result of the overlap of advertising and public relations is that advertising agencies increasingly own their own public relations departments or firms or associate closely with a PR company
What is a focus group?
Focus groups: small groups of a targeted public that are interviewed to provide the PR operation and its client with feedback The key to two-way public relations communication rests in research- assessing the needs of a client's various publics and the effectiveness of the efforts aimed at them. Polling, one-on-one interviews, and focus groups provide the PR with feedback
What were 2 of Bernay's cigarette campaigns about?
Lucky Strike Cigarettes were not selling well to women because they were green and was frowned upon. Edward Bernays: 1. He held a big green ball, in which he hired a Paris fashionmaker and invited the media to set a new trend for the color green. 2. He hired psychologists to talk about the benefits of the color green and that smoking was natural. 3. Wrote to department stores and women clubs about trendiness of green 4. Bernays hired women to march while smoking their "torches of freedom" in the Parade which was a significant moment for fighting social barriers for women smokers. 5. Hired psychologist AA Brill to talk about smoking being a natural desire
Why are journalists wary yet dependent on PR? Why do they refer to PR representatives as Flacks?
Originally, flacks were anti-aircraft firers that were a defense system. Journalists now use it as a derogatory term to describe Public Relations individuals because they see PR as a defense mechanism for the organization. PR individuals are not happy with the term because PR is more than defending.
What is a pseudo-event and what is its purpose?
Pseudo-event: an event staged specifically to attract public attention -ex. Boston Tea Party was one of the fi rst successful pseudo-events in the new land.
What is the Public Relations Society of America's definition of PR? Page 266.
Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually benefi cial relationships between organizations and their publics
Who are public relations publics? - page 272 - 273
Public relations professionals interact with seven categories of publics, and a public is any group of people with a stake in an organization, issue, or idea: -1. Employees: An organization's employees are its lifeblood, its family. -2. Stockholders: Stockholders own the organization (if it is a public corporation). They are "family" as well, and their goodwill is necessary for the business to operate. -3. Communities: An organization has neighbors where it operates. Courtesy, as well as good business sense, requires that an organization's neighbors be treated with friendship and support. -4. Media: Very little communication with an organization's various publics can occur without the trust and goodwill of professionals in the mass media. -5. Government: Government is "the voice of the people" and, as such, deserves the attention of any organization that deals with the public. From a practical perspective, governments have the power to tax, regulate, and zone. -6. Investment community: Corporations are under the constant scrutiny of those who invest their own money, invest the money of others, or make recommendations on investment. The value of a business and its ability to grow are functions of the investment community's respect for and trust in it. -7. Customers: Consumers pay the bills for companies through their purchase of products or services. Their goodwill is invaluable.
What is a VNR?
video news releases (VNRs): preproduced reports about a client or its products distributed free of charge to television station -VNRs are pre-packaged "news" segments and additional footage created by broadcast PR firms, or by publicists within corporations or government agencies. VNRs look and sound like independently-gathered reports, but are designed to promote the products, services, public image and/or point of view of the client(s) who funded them. Broadcast PR firms freely provide VNRs to television newsrooms, and often contact newsrooms to encourage them to include the segments in their programs. Critics of VNRs have called the practice deceptive or a propaganda technique, particularly when the segment is not identified to the viewers as a VNR. While print press releases are primarily a tool to attract the attention of journalists, VNRs are often used to replace journalists entirely.
