Reading Notes Chapter 15: Challenges and Opportunities in PR

In PR there are many challenges and opportunities. This chapter of the text goes deeper into what these challenges and opportunities present to PR practitioners.

 

• An organization’s reputation is the sum of how its various stakeholders view it.
• A significant challenge for those who run corporate or organizational communication functions is to manage the ways the organization engages its key 3 stakeholders

Reasons the communication function gets marginalized:

• Being cast as an implementor
• Being cast as a tactician
• Being cast as part of a functional area

Ways to overcome this marginalization:

• have standing to advise on how the organization should communicate
• the communicator must have a worldview that includes knowledge of issues that affect the company, its industry, the marketplace in general, and emerging social trends.
• the communicator must possess the art of giving advice and of building trust, everything from thinking problems through from the perspective of senior executives to offering insights that would not otherwise occur to a senior management team.

Bernays described public relations as “the vocation of the social scientist who advises clients on social attitudes and on the actions to take to win support of the public upon whom the viability of the client depends.”

Public relations will be among the 10 fastest growing professions in the U.S. through 2016

Clausewitz on Strategy:

• Ends and Means
• Action and Reaction
• Building in Flexibility

 

 

 

 

Reading Notes Chapter 14: PR Consulting

Who are PR Consultants?

• PR Consultants work in firms and offer advice and services for a fee

The key to success is a truly collaborative culture.

• this means that the culture puts the firm first and really exercises teamwork

Building and maintaining positive partnerships with clients may be the most important skill a consultant possesses

Tom Harris discovered that “Chemistry” was the highest-ranked element in defining a satisfied client

An ex-newspaperman named Ivy Lee created one of the first consulting firms in 1904. Lee is also credited with inventing the press release.

“Deming’s theory of management:

1. People are most effectively motivated and inspired by a mix of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. Intrinsic motivation comes from the sheer joy of performing an act, and releases human energy that can be focused into improvement and innovation of a system.

2. Manage using both a process and results orientation, not only a results orientation. Management’s job is to improve and innovate the processes that create results, not just to demand results

3. Management’s function is to optimize the entire system so that everyone wins, not to maximize only his or her component of the system. Managers must understand that individuals, organizations, and systems of organizations are interdependent.

4. Cooperation works better than competition. In a cooperative environment, everybody wins. Customers win products and services they can brag about. The firm wins returns for investors and secure jobs for employees. Suppliers win long-term customers for their products. The community wins an excellent corporate citizen.” (Reputation Management)

 

 

 

Reading Notes Chapter 13: Corporate Responsibilty

Corporate Responsibility: meeting expectations of stakeholders and going beyond to insure that the code of ethics and the mission of the company are being executed

Corporate responsibility communications will fail if the company ignores corporate critics or talks of responsibility without putting forth any action to back up the statements.

Ways to exercise Corporate Responsibility:

• always demonstrate responsibility- not just with words but with action
• be honest and truthful
• stay true to your code of ethics

Reading Notes Chapter 12 Crisis Communication

Crisis- a non-routine event that risks undesired visibility that threatens significant reputational damage

Companies need to be prepared for a crisis by:

• understanding what makes something a crisis
• developing an early warning system

Rumors can be the cause of a crisis

• when dealing with rumors you need to eliminate them as quickly as possible

Always be in control and don’t let rumors or the crisis itself control the situation.

Reading Notes Chapter 11 Issue Management Comm 4363

Issue Management: A corporate process that helps organizations identify challenges in the business environment—both internal and external—before they become crises

How to Prioritize Issues:

•Likelihood

–How likely is it that this issue will play out to the company’s disadvantage

•Magnitude

–If it does play out to our disadvantage, how significant could the harm be?

The starting point of an issues management plan is an analysis that identifies both the problem to be solved and the organization’s ability to provide meaningful impact on the issue

Reading Notes Chapter 10 Intergrated Communication COMM4363

Integrated Communication : A dynamic communication practice aimed at advancing not just the marketing plan, but the overall operating or business plan of the firm and in so doing aligning brand with reputation

Communication must be:

• two-way
• interdependent on creating dialogue and collaboration

The expanded role of measurement

• Outputs
• Outtakes
• Outcomes

 

Reading Notes Chapter 9 COMM 4363: Global Relations

Global Relations: The planned, long-term, strategically designed way of managing relationships with publics of other nations

Some skills needed:

–Communication

–Global economics & politics

–Mediation

–Cultural anthropology

Global Model recognizes the similarities among audiences while necessarily adapting to regional differences

Multinational Model is marked by distinctive programs in multiple markets, with each program tailored to meet the often acute distinctions of the individual market.

Documents should be translated in the countries where they will be used.

Reading Notes Chapter 8 COMM 4363:Investor Relations

Investor Relations: A subset of public relations and corporate communication that deals with a company’s relationship with the investment community

Audience:

• Current investors
• potential investors

Investor Relations is the most heavily regulated of communication disciplines

Some methods of Investor Relations:

• Press Releases

• Internet
• Mass Release for Material News

Reading Notes Chapter 7 COMM 4363: Community Relations

Community Relations: The strategic development of mutually beneficial relationships with targeted communities toward the long-term objective of building reputation and trust

Hardy came up with some relationship-building practises. They are as follows:

1.Be involved. Be committed.

2.Building reputation, one relationship at a time, is good business.

3.Choose the right projects. Be strategic.

4.Keep moving ahead.

5.Embrace diversity.

6.When things go wrong, make them right as fast as you can.

Some Good Practises of Community Relations:

• Strengthen local partnerships
• remember that it is always about the customer
• Set aside a percentage of the funds for communication
• Recognize and involve employees and retirees

Reading Notes Chapter 6 COMM 4363 Government Releases

What is Government Relations?

• term that includes all forms of lobbying and non-lobbying activities that have the ultimate goal of influencing public policy
• sometimes known as – Government affairs –Public affairs

Companies must decide how and whether to participate in the political contribution process

There are also state government relations. It is outlined as follows.

•A presence in the state capital of a company’s headquarters

•Relationships developed with state officials can also pay dividends when an official decides to run for federal office

•Coordination between the state and federal teams is really important.

Lobbyists should follow the Code of Ethics of the American League of Lobbyists

Some Good Practises of Government Releases:

• straight shoot
• be consistant
• listen
• offer solutions
• be adaptive