Right PR Focus A Powerful Advantage

Please feel free to publish this article and resource box
in your ezine, newsletter, offline publication or website.
A copy would be appreciated at bobkelly@TNI.net.
Word count is 1170 including guidelines and resource box.
Robert A. Kelly © 2004.

Right PR Focus A Powerful Advantage

Powerful is a strong word. But it fits here. As a business,
non-profit or association manager, you create powerful
advantage for yourself when you do something positive
about the behaviors of those important outside audiences
of yours that MOST affect your department, division or
subsidiary.

That’s because you are using the fundamental premise
of public relations to deliver the kind of external stakeholder
behavior change that leads directly to achieving your
managerial objectives.

And perhaps most powerfully, you do so by persuading
many of those important outside folks to your way of
thinking, then by moving them to take actions that help your
unit succeed.

Yes, that’s powerful! Especially when it leads to advantages
like these: membership applications on the rise; customers
making repeat purchases; fresh proposals for strategic
alliances and joint ventures in the inbox; community leaders
seeking you out; welcome bounces in show room visits;
prospects starting to do business with you; capital givers or
specifying sources looking your way, and even politicians
and legislators beginning to view you as a key member of
the business, non-profit or association communities.

You need two lucky breaks here: first, a PR blueprint you can
rely on, say, like this one: 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.,

And second, PR team members who understand that blueprint
and commit themselves to its implementation, starting with
key audience perception monitoring. Let’s face it, your PR
people ARE in the perception and behavior business to begin
with, so they should be of real use for this initial opinion
monitoring project.

But remember that just because someone describes him/herself
as a public relations person doesn’t guarantee they’ve bought
the whole loaf. Make certain the public relations people
assigned to your unit really believe – deep down -- why it’s
SO important to know how your most important outside
audiences perceive your operations, products or services.
Make sure they accept the reality that perceptions almost
always lead to behaviors that can help or hurt your unit.

Discuss with them your plan for monitoring and gathering
perceptions by questioning members of your most important
outside audiences. Questions like these: how much do you
know about our chief executive? Have you had prior contact
with us and were you pleased with the interchange? How
much do you know about our services or products and
employees? Have you experienced problems with our people
or procedures?

While, as noted, your PR people are in the perception and
behavior business to begin with, professional survey firms
are always available, but they can be very expensive.
Nevertheless, whether it’s your people or a survey firm
asking the questions, the objective remains the same: identify
untruths, false assumptions, unfounded rumors, inaccuracies,
misconceptions and any other negative perception that might
translate into hurtful behaviors.

Your PR goal, of course, will be to do something about the
most serious distortions you discovered during your key audience
perception monitoring. Will it be to straighten out that dangerous
misconception? Correct that gross inaccuracy? Or, stop that
potentially fatal rumor dead in its tracks?

As it turns out, you won’t get there at all without the right strategy
to tell you how to proceed. But remember that there are just
three strategic options available when it comes to doing something
about perception and opinion. Change existing perception, create
perception where there may be none, or reinforce it. The wrong
strategy pick will taste like lemon sauce on your chocolate ice
cream. So please be certain the new strategy fits comfortably with
your new public relations goal. You wouldn’t want to select
“change” when the facts dictate a “reinforce” strategy.

At this juncture, you must put together a superbly moving message
and aim it at members of your target audience. Always a challenge
to put together action-forcing language that will help persuade any
audience to your way of thinking.

You need your first-string varsity writer for this one because
s/he must create some very special, corrective language. Words
that are not only compelling, persuasive and believable, but
clear and factual if they are to shift perception/opinion towards
your point of view and lead to the behaviors you have in mind.

After bouncing it off your PR colleagues for impact and
persuasiveness, it’s on to the next selection process -- the
communications tactics most likely to carry your message to the
attention of your target audience. You can pick from dozens that
are available. From speeches, facility tours, emails and brochures
to consumer briefings, media interviews, newsletters, personal
meetings and many others. Just be certain that the tactics you
pick are known to reach folks like your audience members,

Since the credibility of the message is always at stake, you may
wish to unveil it before smaller meetings and presentations
rather than using higher-profile news releases.

Calls for progress reports will soon appear, which signals to
you and your PR team to get busy on a second perception
monitoring session with members of your external audience.
You’ll want to use many of the same questions used in the
first benchmark session. Difference this time is that you will
be watching very carefully for signs that the bad news
perception is being altered in your direction.

I’ve always considered ourselves fortunate that such matters
usually can be accelerated simply by adding more communi-
cations tactics as well as increasing their frequencies.

What you want the new PR plan to accomplish is to persuade
your most important outside stakeholders to your way of
thinking, then move them to behave in a way that leads to the
success of your department, division or subsidiary.

Yes, powerful is a strong word but certainly not too strong
when the people you deal with do, in fact, behave suspiciously
like everyone else – they act upon their perceptions of
the facts they hear about you and your operation. Leaving you
little choice but to deal promptly and effectively with those
perceptions by doing what is necessary to reach and move
your key external audiences to actions you desire.

end