PR Final

What does copyright law give to the owners of the copyright?

the exclusive right to reproduce and authorize others to reproduce the work, prepare derivative works based on the copyrighted material, and perform and/or display the work publicly.

Defamation:

the umbrella term used to describe libel—a printed falsehood—and slander—an oral falsehood.

How the focus group works:

With the focus group technique, a well-drilled moderator leads a group through a discussion of opinions on a particular product, organization, or idea. Participants represent the socioeconomic level desired by the research sponsor—from college students to office workers to millionaires. Almost always, focus group participants are paid for their efforts. Sessions are frequently videotaped and then analyzed, often in preparation for more formal and specific research questionnaires.

What is corporate social responsibility?

corporate social responsibility is about how companies manage the business processes to produce an overall positive impact on society. This implies that any social institution, from the smallest family unit to the largest corporation, is responsible for the behavior of its members and may be held accountable for their misdeeds.

S-H-O-C

management should consider a four-step communications approach—built on communications that are strategic, honest, open, and consistent—to begin to rebuild employee trust.

What does the word "fixed" mean?

means that the work is sufficiently permanent to permit it to be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated.

What is trademark law?

refers to a word, symbol, or slogan, used alone or in combination, that identifies a product or its sponsor—for example, the Nike swoosh.

Applied research:

solves practical problems

What is the definition of "fair use"?

"the effect on the future market" of the copyrighted work in question or the "volume of quotation used" or even whether the "heart" of the material was ripped off are often considered

What is research conducted for?

(1) describe a process, situation, or phenomenon; (2) explain why something is happening, what its causes are, and what effect it will have; and (3) predict what probably will happen if we do or don't take action.

What are the three types of public relations research?

1) applied research 2) theoretical research 3) Pure or Secondary research

Focus groups should be organized with the following guidelines in mind:

1. Define your objectives and audience. The more tightly you define your goals and your target audience, the more likely you are to gather relevant information. In other words, don't conduct a focus group with friends and family members, hoping to get a quick and inexpensive read. Nothing of value will result. 2. Recruit your groups. Recruiting participants takes several weeks, depending on the difficulty of contacting the target audience. Contact is usually made by phone with a series of questions to weed out employees of competitors, members of the news media (to keep the focus group from becoming a news story), and those who don't fit target group specifications. 3. Choose the right moderator. Staff people who may be excellent conversationalists are not necessarily the best focus group moderators. The gift of gab is not enough. Professional moderators know how to establish rapport quickly, how and when to probe beyond the obvious, how to draw comments from reluctant participants, how to keep a group on task, and how to interpret results validly. 4. Conduct enough focus groups. One or two focus groups usually are not enough. Four to six are better to uncover the full range of relevant ideas and opinions. Regardless of the number of groups, however, you must resist the temptation to add up responses. That practice gives the focus group more analytical worth than it deserves. 5. Use a discussion guide. This is a basic outline of what you want to investigate. It will lead the moderator through the discussion and keep the group on track. 6. Choose proper facilities. The discussion room should be comfortable, with participants sitting around a table that gives them a good view of each other. Observers can use closed-circuit TV and one-way mirrors, but participants should always be told when they are being observed. 7. Keep a tight rein on observers. Observers should rarely be in the same room with participants; the two groups ordinarily should be separated. Observers should view the proceedings seriously; this is not "dinner and a show." 8. Consider using outside help. Setting up focus groups can be time-consuming and complicated. Often the best advice is to hire a professional firm to conduct the research.

Designing a good questionnaire:

1. Keep it short. Make a concerted attempt to limit questions. It's terrific if the questionnaire can be answered in five minutes. 2. Use structured rather than open-ended questions. People would rather check a box or circle a number than write an essay. But leave room at the bottom for general comments or "Other." Also, start with simple, nonthreatening questions before getting to the more difficult, sensitive ones. This approach will build respondent trust as well as commitment to finishing the questionnaire. 3. Measure intensity of feelings. Let respondents check "very satisfied," "satisfied," "dissatisfied," or "very dissatisfied" rather than "yes" or "no." One popular approach is the semantic differential technique shown in Figure 8-5. 4. Don't use fancy words or words that have more than one meaning. If you must use big words, make the context clear. 5. Don't ask loaded questions. "Is management doing all it can to communicate with you?" is a terrible question. The answer is always no. 6. Don't ask double-barreled questions. "Would you like management meetings once a month, or are bimonthly meetings enough?" is another terrible question. 7. Pretest. Send your questionnaire to a few colleagues and listen to their suggestions. 8. Attach a letter explaining how important the respondents' answers are, and let recipients know that they will remain anonymous. Respondents will feel better if they think the study is significant and their identities are protected. Also, specify how and where the data will be used. 9. When mailing, hand-stamp the envelopes, preferably with unique commemorative stamps. Metering an envelope indicates assembly-line research, and researchers have found that the more expensive the postage, the higher the response rate. People like to feel special. 10. Follow up your first mailing. Send a reminder postcard three days after the original questionnaire. Then wait a few weeks and send a second questionnaire, just in case recipients have lost the first. 11. Send out more questionnaires than you think necessary. The major weakness of most mail surveys is the immeasurable error introduced by nonres- ponders. You're shooting for a 50 percent response rate; anything less tends to be suspect. 12. Enclose a reward. (One reason to mail and not email.) There's nothing like a token gift of merchandise or, better yet, money to make a recipient feel guilty for not returning a questionnaire.

For defamation to be proved, a plaintiff must convince the court that certain requirements have been met, including:

1. The falsehood was communicated through print, broadcast, or other electronic means. 2. The person who is the subject of the falsehood was identified or easily identifiable. 3. The identified person has suffered injury—in the form of monetary losses, reputational loss, or mental suffering.

President John F. Kennedy, in fact, proposed that consumers have their own bill of rights, containing four basic principles:

1. The right to safety: to be protected against the marketing of goods hazardous to health or life. 2. The right to be informed: to be protected against fraudulent, deceitful, or grossly misleading information, advertising, labeling, or other practices and to be given the facts needed to make an informed choice. 3. The right to choose: to be assured access, whenever possible, to a variety of products and services at competitive prices. 4. The right to be heard: to be assured that consumer interests will receive full and sympathetic consideration in the formulation of government policy.

According to Milton Moskowitz, coauthor of the 100 Best Companies to Work For in America, six criteria, in particular, have stood the test of time:

1. Willingness to express dissent. Employees want to be able to "feed back" to management their opinions and even dissent. They want access to management. They want critical letters to appear in internal publications. They want management to pay attention. 2. Visibility and proximity of upper management. Enlightened companies try to level rank distinctions, eliminating such status reminders as executive cafeterias and executive gymnasiums. They act against hierarchical separation. Moskowitz. says that smart CEOs practice MBWA—"management by walking around." 3. Priority of internal to external communication. The worst thing to happen to any organization is for employees to learn critical information about the company on a renegade blog or the 10 o'clock news. Smart organizations always release pertinent information to employees first and consider internal communication primary. (That's why Barack Obama in the summer of 2008 "announced" his choice for vice president "first" to supporters via email.) 4. Attention to clarity. How many employees regularly read benefits booklets? The answer should be "many" because of the importance of benefit programs to the entire staff, but most employees never do so. Good companies write such booklets with an emphasis on clarity as opposed to legalities—to be readable for a general audience rather than for human resources specialists. (The "downside" to this can be seen in this chapter's PR Ethics Mini-Case.) 5. Friendly tone. The best companies "give a sense of family" in all that they communicate. One high-tech company makes everyone wear a name tag with the first name in big block letters. 6. Sense of humor. People are worried principally about keeping their jobs. Corporate life for many is grim. Moskowitz says this is disastrous. "It puts people in straitjackets, so they can't wait to get out at the end of the day."10 So employees seem to enjoy themselves more at companies like Southwest Airlines, which prides itself on keeping things in "perspective" and not taking itself too seriously (see Figure 10-2).

What is a code of conduct?

A code of conduct is a formal statement of the values and business practices of a corporation. A code may be a short mission statement, or it may be a sophisticated document that requires compliance with articulated standards and that has a complicated enforcement mechanism. Whatever its length and complexity, the corporate code of conduct dictates the behavioral expectations that an organization holds for its employees and agents.

Focus Group:

A traditional focus group consists of a 90- to 120-minute discussion among 8 to 10 individuals who have been selected based upon having predetermined common characteristics, such as buying behavior, age, income, family composition, and so on.

Actual Malice:

Actual malice in a public figure slander case means that statements have been published with the knowledge that they were false or with reckless disregard for whether the statements were false.

How is social responsibility treated like any other management discipline?

Analyze the issues, evaluate performance, set priorities, allocate resources to those priorities, and implement programs that deal with issues within the constraints of the organization's resources.

A partial list of social responsibility categories might include the following:

Product lines—dangerous products, product performance and standards, packaging, and environmental impact { Marketing practices—sales practices, consumer complaint policies, advertising content, and fair pricing { Corporate philanthropy—contribution performance, encouragement of employee participation in social projects, and community development activities { Environmental activities—pollution-control and climate change projects, adherence to federal standards, and evaluation procedures for new packages and products { External relations—support of minority enterprises, investment practices, and government relations { Employment diversity in retaining and promoting minorities and women—current hiring policies, advancement policies, specialized career counseling, and opportunities for special minorities such as the physically handicapped { Employee safety and health—work environment policies, accident safeguards, and food and medical facilities

What is copyright law?

Copyright law provides basic, automatic protection for writers, whether a manuscript is registered with the Copyright Office or even published.

S-H-OC Explained:

First, all communications must be strategic. What strategic communication essentially boils down to is this: Most employees want you to answer only two basic questions for them: 1. Where is this organization going? 2. What is my role in helping us get there? That's it. Once you level with the staff as to the organization's direction and goals and their role in the process, even the most ardent bellyachers will grudgingly acknowledge your attempt to "keep them in the loop." { Second, all communications must be honest. The sad fact is that while most executives may pay lip service to candor and honesty, in the end, too many turn out like the managements in 2008 at Bear Stearns, Washington Mutual, Lehman Brothers, Countrywide Financial, and all the other companies caught dissembling, obfuscating, pulling their punches, and eventually fading into oblivion. They seem to fear, as Jack Nicholson raged in A Few Good Men, that the staff "can't handle the truth." Such trepidation is foolish. For one thing, the staff already may discount anything management tells them. For another, you can't hope to build credibility through prevaricating or sugarcoating. { Third, all communications must be open. This is another way of saying that there must be feedback. The best communications are two-way communi- cations. That means that no matter how large the organization, employee views must be solicited, listened to, and most important, acted upon. That latter aspect is most important. Often, managers stage elaborate forums and feedback sessions, listen to employee gripes and suggestions, and yet do nothing. The key must be action. Fourth, all communications must be consistent. Once you've begun to communicate, you must keep it up. Maintain a regular, on-time, and predictable program of internal newsletters, employee forums, leadership meetings, and reward celebrations.

Ethics in Business

One 2007 survey by the Ethics Resource Center found rates of business misconduct increasing, management awareness declining, and momentum behind corporate ethics and compliance programs deteriorating. Another 2007 survey, conducted by Junior Achievement and Deloitte, found that 41 percent of teenagers believe one must act unethically in order to get ahead. In a similar survey two years earlier, only 22 percent expressed that view.9

An organization truly concerned about "getting through" to its employees in an era of downsizing, displacement, and dubious communications must reinforce five specific principles:

Respect. Employees must be respected for their worth as individuals and their value as workers. They must be treated with respect and not as interchangeable commodities. { Honest feedback. By talking to workers about their strengths and weaknesses, employers help employees know where they stand. Some managers incorrectly assume that avoiding negative feedback will be helpful. Wrong. Employees need to know where they stand at any given time. Candid communications will help them in this pursuit. { Recognition. Employees feel successful when management recognizes their contributions. It is the duty of the public relations professional to suggest mechanisms by which deserving employees will be honored. { Voice. In the era of blogs, talk radio, and cable talk shows, almost everyone wants their voice to be heard in decision making. This growing "activist communications" phenomenon must be considered by public relations professionals seeking to win internal goodwill for management. { Encouragement. Study after study reveals that money and benefits motivate employees up to a point, but that "something else" is generally necessary. That something else is encouragement. Workers need to be encouraged. Communications programs that provide encouragement generally produce results. What kinds of qualities distinguish the communication effort at a "better place to work"?

Legal advice for Public Relations?

The point is that legal advice and public relations advice may indeed be different. In an organization, a smart manager will carefully weigh both legal and public relations counsel before making a decision.

ombudsperson offices

The term ombudsman originally described a government official—in Sweden and New Zealand, for example—appointed to investigate complaints about abuses committed by public officials. Today, more often than not, the ombudsperson function is out-sourced to a central (often overseas) location that customers can call to seek redress of grievances.

Strong employee Relations = Solid organizations

These phenomena suggest that the value of "intellectual capital" has increased in importance. In the new information economy, business managers have realized that their most important assets are their employees. Employee communications, then, has become a key way to nurture and sustain that intellectual capital.

Secondary Research:

This relies on existing material—books, articles, Internet databases, and the like—to form the research backing for public relations recommendations and programs.

Formal codes of conduct can help accomplish a number of public relations purposes:

To increase public confidence. Scandals, credit crises, oil shocks, etc., have all shaken investor confidence and have led to a decline of public trust and confidence in business. Many firms have responded with written codes of ethics. { To stem the tide of regulation. As public confidence has declined, government regulation of business has increased. Some estimated the cost to society of compliance with regulations at $100 billion per year. Corporate codes of conduct, it was hoped, would help serve as a self-regulation mechanism. { To improve internal operations. As companies became larger and more decentralized, management needed consistent standards of conduct to ensure that employees were meeting the business objectives of the company in a legal and ethical manner. { To respond to transgressions. Frequently, when a company itself is caught in the web of unethical behavior, it responds with its own code of ethics.

How do you prove defamation?

To prove such a charge, a public figure must show that the media acted with actual malice in their reporting

Theoretical research:

aids understanding of a public relations process.

Copyright Act of 1976:

an "original work of authorship" has copyright protection from the moment the work is in the following fixed form: { literary works { musical works { dramatic works { pantomimes and choreographic works { pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works { motion pictures { sound recordings

corporate facts of life for every company executive:

formal ethical codes, addressing such topics as executive compensation, accounting procedures, confidentiality of corporate information, misappropriation of corporate assets, bribes and kickbacks, and political contributions

Building sales is the primary consumer relations objective. A satisfied customer may return; an unhappy customer may not. Here are some typical goals:

{ Keeping old customers. Most sales are made to established customers. Consumer relations efforts should be made to keep these customers happy. Pains should be taken to respond to customers' concerns, particularly in times of hardship—bereavement airline travel, for example, or phone calls to loved ones during natural disasters. { Attracting new customers. Every business must work constantly to develop new customers. In many industries, the prices and quality of competing prod- ucts are similar. In choosing among brands, customers may base decisions on how they have been treated. { Marketing new items or services. Customer relations techniques can influence the sale of new products. Thousands of new products flood the market each year, and the vast array of information about these products can confuse the consumer. When General Electric's research revealed that consumers want personalized service and more information on new products, it established the GE Answer Center, a national toll-free, 24-hour service that informs consumers about new GE products and services. Building such company and product loyalty lies at the heart of a solid consumer relations effort. { Expediting complaint handling. Few companies are free of complaints. Customers protest when appliances don't work, errors are made in billing, or deliveries aren't made on time. Many large firms have established response procedures, often outsourcing call centers to places like Lakeland, Florida; Johnson City, Tennessee; or Bangalore, India, where personnel are trained to answer questions and direct responses. Such call centers have replaced com- pany ombudspersons, who used to draw the assignment of handling customer complaints. { Reducing costs. For three decades, the Sym's clothing company used to advertise that "An educated customer is our best customer."Indeed, to most com- panies, an educated consumer is the best consumer. Uninformed buyers cost a company time and money—when goods are returned, service calls are made, and instructions are misunderstood. Many firms have adopted programs to educate customers about use of their products.