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Managers: Paying for PR-Lite?
As a business, non-profit or association
manager, your public relations expenditure may give you names in the
newspaper or product plugs on radio. But what about key stakeholder
behavior change – the kind that leads directly to achieving your managerial
objectives?
Since that's public relations' strongest suit, shouldn't you
be getting that first, THEN incremental publicity exposure? Especially
when persuading those important outside folks to your way of thinking can
move many of them to take actions that help you achieve your department,
division or subsidiary objectives?
Bounce this notion off the public
relations team assigned to
your unit: people act on their own perception of
the facts before them, which leads to predictable behaviors about which
something can be done. When we create, change or reinforce
that opinion
by reaching, persuading and moving-to-desired-
action the very people whose
behaviors affect the organization
the most, the public relations mission is
accomplished.
If they buy into it, you'll have a simple blueprint that
gets everyone working towards the same external audience
behaviors
insuring that your public relations effort stays
on track.
Consider
the possible payoffs: customers starting to make
repeat purchases; community
leaders beginning to seek you
out; welcome bounces in show room visits;
membership
applications on the rise; prospects starting to do business
with you; fresh proposals for strategic alliances and joint
ventures;
higher employee retention rates, capital givers or
specifying sources
beginning to look your way, and even
politicians and legislators starting to
view you as a key
member of the business, non-profit or association
communities
But, like everything else, there's no free lunch in PR
either, and the work looks like this. You need to find out who among your
important outside audiences is behaving in ways that help or hinder the
achievement of your objectives. And then, list them according to how
severely their behaviors affect your organization.
Of course it's
unlikely that you have the facts and figures you
need to pull this off
because you aren't real certain just how
most members of that key outside
audience perceive your
organization.
There's also a good chance you
don't have the budget to
accommodate expensive professional survey work. So
you and
your PR colleagues (they should be quite familiar with
perception and behavior matters) must monitor those perceptions
yourself.
Meet with members of that outside audience and ask
questions like "Are you familiar with our services or products?" "Have
you ever had contact with anyone from our organization? Was it a
satisfactory experience?" Stay alert to negative statements,
especially
evasive or hesitant replies. Watch carefully for false
assumptions,
untruths, misconceptions, inaccuracies and
potentially damaging rumors. Any
of which will need to be
corrected, because experience shows they usually
lead to
negative behaviors.
So, because the obvious objective here is
to correct those
same untruths, inaccuracies, misconceptions and false
assumptions, you now select the specific perception to be
altered, and
that becomes your public relations goal.
But a PR goal without a strategy
to show you how to get
there, is like champagne without the peaches. That's
why
you must select one of three strategies especially designed
to
create perception or opinion where there may be none,
or change existing
perception, or reinforce it. The challenge
here (albeit small) is to insure
that the goal and its strategy
match each other. You wouldn't want to select
"change
existing perception" when current perception is just right
suggesting a "reinforce" strategy.
Your writers step forward here to
create a compelling message carefully designed to alter your key target
audience's perception, as called for by your public relations
goal.
Stay flexible as to message delivery because combining your
corrective message with another presentation or newsworthy
announcement
of a new product, service or employee may
lend more credibility by not
overemphasizing the need for
such a correction.
The new message must
be very clear about what perception
needs clarification or correction, and
why. Your facts must
be truthful and your position must be logically
explained and
believable if it is to hold the attention of members of that
target audience, and actually move perception in your direction.
It's
clear that your message must be compelling.
I call the communications
tactics you will use to move your
message to the attention of that key
external audience "beasts
of burden" because they must carry your persuasive
new
thoughts to the eyes and ears of those important outside
people.
You're in luck here because the list of tactics is a long one. It
includes letters-to-the-editor, brochures, press releases and
speeches.
Or, you might select radio and newspaper interviews,
personal contacts,
facility tours or customer briefings. There are
dozens in waiting and the
only selection requirement is that those tactics you choose have a record of
reaching people just like the members of your key target
audience.
Your associates will soon want to know if any progress is being
made. Of course you'll already be hard at work remonitoring
perceptions
among your target audience members. Using
questions similar to those used
during your earlier monitoring
session, you'll now be on the lookout for
indications that
audience perceptions are beginning to move the way you want
them to move.
Things can always be moved along at a faster clip by
adding
more communications tactics, AND by increasing their
frequencies.
The only way to be certain you are buying full-bodied
public
relations results and not the "Lite" version, is to undertake an
aggressive public relations plan that targets the kind of key
stakeholder behavior change that leads directly to achieving
your
department, division or subsidiary objectives.
end
Bob Kelly
counsels, writes and speaks to business, non-profit and association managers
about using the fundamental premise of public relations to achieve their
operating objectives. He has been DPR, Pepsi-Cola Co.; AGM-PR, Texaco Inc.;
VP-PR, Olin Corp.; VP-PR, Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co.;
director of communi-cations, U.S. Department of the Interior, and deputy
assistant press secretary, The White House. He holds a bachelor of science
degree from Columbia University, major in public relations.
mailto:bobkelly@TNI.net Visit:http://www.prcommentary.com
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