If Your PR Can't Do This, Bag It!

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Robert A. Kelly © 2003.

If Your PR Can’t Do This, Bag It!

As a business, non-profit or association manager, why
continue a public relations effort that doesn’t deliver the
key external audience behaviors you need to achieve
your department, division or subsidiary objectives?

Time for a change. One that will base your PR effort on
a fundamental premise that makes sense. And one that
actually leads to outside audience behaviors like these:
new proposals for joint ventures or strategic alliances,
prospective buyers browsing your services or products,
specifying sources or major donors thinking about you,
more frequent repeat purchases or a substantial boost in
capital donations.

So, you need two things. One, a really personal
involvement with the public relations people assigned to
your department, division or subsidiary. And two, a new
foundation for your PR effort.

A foundation like this: 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.

It will give you a blueprint that will help you persuade
your key stakeholders to your way of thinking. In turn,
that should move them to take actions that lead to your
success as a business, non-profit or association manager.

First and foremost, you need to know how members of
your most important external audiences perceive you
because those perceptions usually lead to behaviors that
can hurt you or help you in achieving your objectives.

So, you and your PR team must list those outside audiences
whose behaviors affect your unit the most. Then put them
in priority order. We’ll use #1 on your list as our target
in this article.

Now, you can spend some real money on professional
survey counsel, or you and your PR team can do it
yourself by interacting with your target audience. Use
questions like these to identify opinion, perception
problems. “What do you know about our organization?
Have you had any kind of contact with us? Was it satis-
factory? Do you like our products or services?”

Listen carefully to the responses you receive. Stay alert
for evasive or hesitant answers, and be watchful for
negativity – especially inaccuracies, exaggerations,
misconceptions or rumor.

These answers are your red meat, the input you need to
create the public relations goal. For example, clear up
a misconception, kill that rumor once and for all, or fix
that inaccuracy. Each of which can lead to target audience
behaviors you won’t like one little bit.

Reaching that goal is another story. You need a strategy
to do it and you have just three choices as you deal with
your opinion/perception challenge: create perception
where there may be none, change existing opinion, or
reinforce it. But take care when you identify your strategy
that it compliments your goal.

The heavy lifting in your public relations problem solving
sequence will be done by the message you prepare designed
to correct the negative perception you identified during
your perception monitoring session. You must be very
clear about the offending perception, particularly why it
is untrue. Remember that you want to change what people
believe and, thus, their behaviors so that you can achieve
your unit’s objectives. Which is why the message must be
both believable and compelling.

Getting the message from your organization to the attention
of members of your target audience is your next challenge.
Luckily, there is a long list of communications tactics
standing ready to help you do just that. They range from
media interviews, personal meetings and speeches to press
releases, newsletters, facility tours and many more. But check
carefully that the tactics you employ have a proven record of
reaching people similar to those who make up your target
audience.

Inevitably, questions will be asked as to whether all this
smoke and flame is producing any results. A question that
can only be answered back out in the field interacting once
again with members of your key outside audience.

While you’ll be using the same questions used during
your first opinion monitoring drill, this time you’re
looking for indications that the hurtful perceptions are
actually changing, as will the inevitable follow on
behaviors.

Incidentally, you can always put the pedal to the metal
with additional communications tactics, as well as using
them more frequently.

What you have, finally, is the blueprint you need to help
persuade your most important stakeholders to take actions
that lead to your success as a business, a non-profit or an
association manager.

And your cost was “bagging” a PR effort that simply couldn’t
deliver the key external audience behaviors you need to
achieve your unit objectives.

end