Public Relations

1
Public Relations

• Business 9318, Fall 2001
• Dr. Katherine Gallagher

2
Objectives

• To provide an overview of public relations
• To explore corporate communications
• To examine crisis communications
• To understand marketing public relations

3
Advantages and Disadvantages

• Advantages
• credibility
• cost
• avoidance of clutter
• lead generation
• ability to reach specific groups
• image building

4
Advantages and Disadvantages

• Disadvantages
• potential for not completing the communications
  process
• potential for lack of communication with rest of
  IMC program
• timing not completely controllable
• inaccuracies, omissions, etc.

5
Overview of Public Relations

• Public relations
• important in relationship marketing
• credibility builder
• can be focused on corporate brand or product
  brand
• Types of public relations
• corporate relations
• crisis management
• marketing public relations
• media relations
• employee relations
• financial or investor relations

6
PR Strategy and Planning

• 1. Determine and evaluate public attitudes
• provides input to the planning process
• serves as an early-warning system
• secures internal support
• increases effectiveness

7
PR Strategy and Planning

• 2. Establish a PR plan
• define PR problems
• determine relevant PR audiences
• internal audiences
• external audiences
• define messages (worthy of public interest)
• choose PR tools
• press release
• press conference
• interviews
• community involvement
• internet

8
PR Strategy and Planning

• 3. Implement the plan
• avoid turf battles between PR and marketing
• coordinate with rest of IMC plan
• 4. Evaluate
• measures of actual PR activities undertaken
• measures of audience reception and understanding
• measures of perceptual and behavioral changes

9
Corporate Relations

• Corporate advertising
• corporate identity advertising
• advocacy advertising
• social issue advertising
• cause-related advertising
• event sponsorships
• controversial
• Corporate mission and vision
• Corporate image and reputation
• image is created
• reputation is earned

10
Crisis Management

• Crises we can learn from
• Tylenol (1982)
• Exxon Valdez (1989)
• Perrier (1990)
• Bridgestone/Firestone (2000)
• NYC 9/11 (2001)

11
Crisis Management

• Advice from the experts
• Be realistic. Crises happen. Plan for them.
• Only designated executives should talk to the
  media
• Explain what happened as you understand it
• Tell what the company is doing to minimize the
  damage
• Express sympathy and concern for injured parties
  and their families
• Do not admit liability without knowing all the
  facts (which can take weeks or months to gather)

12
Marketing Public Relations

• Involves an organizations interactions with
  consumers
• Proactive MPR
• Reactive MPR

13
Proactive MPR

• MPR adds value to IMC by
• building excitement before media advertising
  breaks
• creating advertising news when there is no
  product news
• introducing a product with little or no
  advertising
• providing value-added customer service
• building brand-to-customer bonds
• influencing opinion leaders
• defending products at risk and giving consumers a
  reason to buy

14
Reactive MPR

• Negative product publicity
• product defects and failures
• product tampering
• rumors
• conspiracy rumors
• contamination rumors

15
Rumors and Rumor Control

• Persistent rumors (all false)
• Procter Gamble
• McDonalds/Wendys
• Pop Rocks
• Kentucky Fried Chicken
• Corona
• Tommy Hilfiger
• Pepsi

16
Rumors and Rumor Control

• Dealing with rumors Dont overreact
• Alert procedure
• note location and wording of allegation and
  target
• at 10 incidents, send queries to front line
  people to specify regional boundaries and
  participating population
• check with competitors (company vs industry
  problem?)
• Evaluation
• assessment of threat or potential threat to
  profit
• image as inept, impotent, passive victim?
• effect on company or brand image
• effect on sales
• effect on morale

17
Rumors and Rumor Control

• Dealing with rumors Dont overreact (continued)
• Decide whether to go public -- judgement call
• Media campaign (if necessary)
• expect internal resistance to going public
• decide on geographic, demographic targets
• select message(s) and media
• decide what points to refute (do not deny more
  than alleged)
• highlight that allegations are untrue and unjust
• imply that business is not suffering
• line up disinterested expert spokespeople to
  speak on the companys behalf

18
Event Sponsorship

• objectives
• criteria
• consistency with brand image
• access to target audience
• low risk of sponsor misidentification
• low clutter
• fit with other sponsorships, marcoms
• economically viable
• ambush marketing
• evaluation

19
Cause-Related Marketing

• Donation to a cause in return for customers
  engaging in revenue-producing exchanges with the
  firm
• Objectives
• increase brand awareness
• enhance brand or corporate image
• reach new audiences
• incremental sales
• Evaluation