Pinpointing Political and Commercial PR Similarities and Differences

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Pinpointing Political and Commercial PR
Similarities and Differences
Dr. Paul Baines, Director MSc in Strategic
Marketing, Cranfield School of
Management paul.baines_at_cranfield.ac.uk
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The Generic Public Relations Transfer Process
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Drivers for the Interlinking of
Political/Commercial PR

• The development of quasi-markets worldwide
  privatisation of energy, telecoms, and public
  services etc.
• The trend towards greater citizen research, e.g.
  public consultation, citizen juries
• The increasing importance of stakeholder
  engagement, e.g. CSR
• The development of multinational companies as
  proto-states, not only Western companies.

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Public Opinion A Shared Characteristic of Both

• Opinions held with little conviction, play-back
  of latest news reports (cognitive)
• Attitudes-held with some conviction and often
  lead to behaviour (affective)
• Values deepest convictions, underlie our
  motivations and behaviour (conative)

• Outside the rather narrow range of our own
  possible attention, social control depends upon
  devising standards of living and methods of audit
  by which the acts of public officials and
  industrial directors are measured. We cannot
  ourselves inspire or guide all these acts, as the
  mystical democrat has always imagined. But we can
  steadily increase our real control over these
  acts by insisting that all of them shall be
  plainly recorded, and their results objectively
  measured. (Lippmann 1922)

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The C21st Multi-National Corporation
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The 2007 Forbes Global Top 10
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The 2007 Forbes Global 2000 Africas Largest
Companies
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Historical Development of Political Campaigning

• The era of mass propaganda
• The introduction of media campaigning
• The advent of political marketing

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Saatchi and Saatchi Poster During the Winter of
Discontent
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Conservative Campaign Poster 1997 General Election
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Mandelsons Five Communications Aims, 1988

• To encapsulate the partys message in memorable
  phrases (soundbites).
• Campaign materials and statements need to be
  despatched quickly and efficiently.
• Press and broadcasting contacts need to be
  extended beyond lobby journalism.
• The party has to target priority seats for
  maximum, national impact and,
• The party leadership needs to be projected as
  united and able.

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Media Influences on Voters in the UK 2001 and 2005
Q Which of these items, if any, have influenced
the way you intended to vote?
Source MORI Base 2,058 GB residents aged 18,
5-10 May 2005
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Voting Intention in Britain
Source Ipsos MORI
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What Business Has Learnt from Politics

• Message discipline is important
• But, substance is more important than style.
• Should be much more than just a marketing tool.
• The general public will become increasingly
  important as a companys operations increase in
  scale.

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Conducting PR in Political Context

• A specialist public affairs consultant can be
  engaged, either permanently or as the need
  arises.
• Some of the larger public relations consultancies
  offer political services, often having MPs or
  others with a high degree of political influence
  as director and/or advisers.
• A Member of Parliament may be paid a fee to give
  political advice on matters of importance to an
  organization (although there may be restrictions
  on this).
• The in-house public relations manager may handle
  political lobbying directly.
• An association may lobby on behalf of members.
• A Member of Parliament may be invited to joint
  the board of directors of the company to help the
  company lobby the government directly (there may
  be restrictions on this).

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Five Stage Classification System for Political
Market Strategy
Source Viney and Baines (2007)
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The Exchange in Political PR
Society
Government
Business
Communications
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Conclusion The Future

• Even greater interoperability witness the US
  corporate public diplomacy programme.
• Political and commercial PR grow up with changes
  in technology. The internet allows more precise
  measurement of audience interactivity than old
  media (i.e. press, TV, radio).
• Online social networks will in time change both
  voting and consumer behaviours.