WHAT IS THIS PR THING?
By Terence Fane-SaundersChairman and Chief Executive
"So, tell me," said my neighbour at dinner last week, "what is this PR thing anyway?"
Of course, she thought she knew, and that's part of the problem. Most people think they know, and on the whole, they think it's not very nice. "Is that true, or is it just PR?", the radio interviewer will demand. "More Government PR Spin", the newspaper headlines scream.
Most people think PR is "spin", corporate whitewash, image manipulation, and most people are wrong. Part of the difficulty, though, is that all too many PR people themselves have a very limited or distorted view of public relations.
If you walk down the high street and see signs for a shoe shop, a newsagent and a greengrocer, you would have a pretty good idea of what to expect inside. But if you visit a dozen different PR firms, you may easily find a dozen different views of what we mean by public relations.
So, let me offer Chelgate's definition of public relations. We see it as the planned creation and management of positive and productive relationships between an organisation and its principal publics.
Of course, communications are a vital element in that process, but they are not the whole of the process, and more than media relations represent the whole of the communications process. Quite simply, we believe that corporate relationships are pretty much like other human relationships. You create them, shape them and nurture them in two ways: by communication, and, perhaps more important, by behaviour.
Communication alone really won't do the trick. If you are in an abusive relationship where you are treated with disrespect by your partner, at some point that relationship is going to break down. Of course, if they look beautiful and know how to sweet-talk their way out of trouble, the fateful day may be postponed. But sooner or later, the relationship will be on the rocks.
It's really no different for organisations. If they behave in a damaging way towards a key stakeholder group - employees, perhaps, or their local community, the people who buy their products and services, or the people who sell them, their shareholders perhaps, or even the governments and peoples of the countries where they operate, then there can be no hope of a lasting, positive, productive relationship. It's really no use the chief executive looking to his "PR" team to turn his image round. Pretty soon, the cracks grow too deep to be covered with whitewash.
So, an important part of our work at Chelgate is looking at the impact of corporate actions on key relationships. We may advise on steps to take, and actions to avoid, and working with our clients we devise patterns of corporate behaviour that serve to reinforce and sustain their relationships.
At the same time, of course, we focus on communications. That's two way communications. You will never be a good communicator if you don't know how to listen. So, we help our clients listen. We use a wide range of research and feedback techniques to help them monitor the attitudes, needs and aspirations of their key publics. We also recognise that "snap-shot" research has only limited value. The fact that 50% of the public hate you can achieve a very different complexion if you know that last month the figure was 10% or 90%. Attitude is a dynamic process, and we work with that dynamic.
But an organisation has to know how to communicate its message, too, and that is of course a central element in almost any public relations programme. But, although the media offer a powerful and effective conduit for your, you need to plan your media relations within the context of a whole host of other communications, whether they are brochures , newsletters or reports, for example, or forms of direct communication such as briefings, seminars, speeches and presentations. If these and all the other different elements of your communications processes, including your media relations, are not all part of an integrated strategy, then none of them will be fully successful, because each should be addin support and shaping context for the others.
Of course, there are the "silent" communications to consider, too. (What does your reception area say about you? See the article: "Where's the Point?" ). But this should all be part of your overall communications plan.
So, what did I do, when my dinner neighbour asked me about public relations? Well, first I filled her wine glass, on the well-established grounds that what I did probably mattered a lot more than what I said. And then I kept my answer as short as I could, because I knew that she'd find it all a lot less interesting than I do. And that, as an approach, isn't a bad template for most PR assignments.
