It's been a busy few months with endless deadlines, Christmas and numerous Grad Assessment Days and interviews, and one of the questions that I've been asked in a number of times in them has been what exactly I think public relations is. In my opinion is a notoriously difficult term to define; throughout its academic and practical history it has experienced several name changes and involves practices from a wide variety of disciplines. Drawing on expertise from politics, sociology, business, reputation management, marketing, economics, public affairs and advertising, a public relations executive can be seen as a jack-of-all-trades or a chameleon; adaptable and flexible depending on the particular task in hand and integrating a number of fields.
Having read a book on issues management, I enjoyed the authors' view that PR is 'the art of adjusting organizations to environments and environments to organizations.’ (Crable and Vibbert) Every environment differs depending on the time in history, the country and the culture of the specific society. Culture in particular is of utmost importance in PR; what publics buy, read, listen to and watch are integral to consider when thinking of how they interact with an organization and how successful that organization consequently is. It has been suggested that publics are reactive entities that arise in response to organizational actions,' and in many ways it is easy to see how this conclusion been reached. When a new product such as the iPad, SatNav or Windows 7 becomes available, consumers rush to buy it, regardless of whether they know how to use it of if they will even in fact like the product. I can't help feeling that this is because of our societies “keep up with the Jones’” mentality, where our very identities are shaped by what we wear, buy and own.
This attitude is something that has rapidly developed in today’s contemporary society. Consumer brands in particular are of utmost importance in our neoliberal, postmodern and capitalist culture, and before I address the significance of public relations in building these brands I shall briefly look at how this has come about. Jameson proposed that postmodernism is a ‘specific reaction against the established forms of high modernism’ and possibly even high culture. One can infer, then, that as a rebellion against academic literature, opera, classical music and art appreciation, today’s culture is focused on low culture or postmodern stimuli such as reality television, trashy magazines and rebellious rock or sexualized R&B types of music. Of course this is an overtly generalized and in many cases inaccurate view, however it cannot be denied that these indeed seem to dominate and influence our current consumer society.
Thompson et al (1990) proposed the notion of culture theory, which suggested that culture is an ‘ecosystem…[in which a] preferred pattern of social relations and cultural bias or set of shared values and beliefs about human society and the natural world…[are] reciprocal, interacting and reinforcing.’ This idea of interacting is also important in terms of two-way communication in public relations. An organization, and more specifically, a brand, is more successful if there is interaction and communication between both them and the publics. In order, then, to determine which products and brands will be successful in a particular society and how to build them, it is integral to discover how those publics will or already do react to certain products. Public relations is needed in order to build the brand a good reputation, convince publics to hold it in high regard and be loyal to it.
PR is also often discussed as a cultural intermediary in today’s promotional and pop culture, and people form their identity through their consumer purchases, with the role of public relations to helping determine, drive and respond to these trends. My belief is that brands flourish through the use of effective communications via conversational and textual mediums, rather than the use of visual aids. The general consensus today is that brands are built and sustained by effective advertising, marketing and PR as a combined sector, however it is important to differentiate between the three, especially given that PR actually plays an arguably more vital role in the success of brands than both advertising and marketing. Without the initial building of the brand and reputation, there would not be enough, if any, public interest for a product to even exist, let alone need to be advertised. Therefore, the main task for public relations in terms of building brands is to use words to convince the media and the publics that it is the company, organization or product is worth taking notice of and writing about. Language is the most fundamental tool in communications, yet advertising and marketing uses pictures that can be very effective, but not necessarily successful in portraying the exact message needed. The role of public relations in this culture to help build brands has been described as marketing public relations, i.e. promoting the products with clever use of PR by creating awareness of a product and establishing relationships between the brand and the media, as well as with the consumers.
It can be argued that our culture is centred around the non-stop barrage of visual stimuli that saturates our very existence and is effective in influencing our consumer decisions. With pictures and adverts jumping out from pages in our morning paper, flashing across our screens in commercial breaks as we watch the news, catching our eye as we drive past massive billboards on our way to work and blinking onto our computer screens as we surf the internet, we have no choice but to acknowledge and subconsciously process the images of brands and advertisements for them that flood our day-to-day lives. I believing though that that we, as consumers, make decisions based on recommendations, reviews, comparisons and word of mouth. We go to see plays or films based on good reviews as opposed to a billboard picture that we have seen on the underground, and are employed on the basis of personal and professional references rather than facebook profile pictures. If a paper or trade magazine offers good reviews or recommends a particular product, be it a Topshop dress or the new quadcore 27-inch Apple Mac, we are likely to trust this source over an advert. In fact, we as consumers are trusting advertising less and less when it comes to consumer brands, with adverts such as mascara brands digitally enhancing or adding fake eyelashes for almost every brand and models in hair adverts wearing hair extensions. Good public relations therefore works hard to create credibility and trust; consumers are bombarded with emails, spam and adverts on a daily basis that they have no time to sort through and take risks with. They will inevitably reject an unknown or distrusted brand for one that they can rely on and which delivers its promised quality.
This trust is related to the idea of transparency in public relations. Additionally, the development of the internet there has eliminated the chance of hiding from any brand faults or advertisement exaggerations; products are discussed on forums, discussion boards, blogs and social networking sites such as twitter and facebook, meaning that brands must be completely honest. The internet also increases the opportunity for the two-way communication which is useful in terms of feedback from stakeholders.
An example of a brand that makes use of this is two-way interaction (especially two-way symmetrical communication) and utilizes public relations as ‘communication and exchange of ideas to facilitate change’ (L’Etang, 2008) is Spotify. This brand offers free music and playlists with some advertising in between, and provides options for feedback to improving the service. These improvements are then made, advertised about and publics are then given further chances to suggest other enhancements and developments. This transmission of ideas helps forge relationships with the consumers, creating a symmetrical communication that is mutually beneficial. This public relations tactic has also recently been employed by Windows 7, and makes the customer truly believe that they are doing something to improve their favourite brand. The monitoring of stakeholder opinion to enhance a brand, integrating the knowledge received and informing the consumers of the success and implementation of these improvements is a successful way to conduct public relations.
Whilst advertising and marketing are palpable and based around selling a tangible product or service, public relations works in a much subtler way. Truly successful PR is predominantly unnoticeable and works behind the scenes, leaving no trace of its work and creates no physical manifesto of its efforts. Public relations influences the ‘middle man,’ i.e. the media through truthful persuasion to do something invaluable to any consumer brand; advertise for free. By writing about them or one of their products (in a favourable light), the consumer is convinced in a much more effective way to buy and trust the brand. Public Relations works with the media to portray messages to a number of different audiences and target consumers; globally, nationally, locally and in specialist mediums such as trade magazines or certain radio stations or television channels. As opposed to blindly spamming and attacking us in the way that much advertising does, public relations is successful in that it ensures the review of brands and articles are being written – publicity is more important than forgettable billboards and commercials we ignore while willing the second part of our favourite programme to return. A brand is a perception which PR shapes and shrewdly feeds us without our acknowledgement of their gentle persuasion.
So far in this somewhat long blog post I have mainly focussed on the importance of public relations in terms of media relations and liaisons, however it is important to note that whilst these are of utmost importance in terms of building consumer brands, PR also takes into account a number of other factors unlike advertising and marketing, which are consumer centred. External issues such as media rights, copyright, business relations and stakeholder management are of the utmost importance; without addressing them, consumer brands risk losing existing customers and alienating potential future ones too. When, as stated before, consumer brands such as L’Oreal use fake eyelash extensions in their adverts and try to pass them off as the merely as the effect of the mascara, the consumer feels betrayed when they find out they have been lied to and it breaks rules over misleading advertising. Public relations is different in that it views stakeholders as equals and practices ethically, rather than a body to make profit from. Indeed, PR uses concepts such as stakeholder theory and take into account not only marketing factors and resources, but also political and social factors too in terms of how stakeholders are affected by something. Advertising falls short in that it views stakeholders as merely customers, investors, suppliers and employees, whereas the stakeholder theory encourages public relations to consider additional shareholders such as future customers, the community or society the company (in this case, the consumer brand) is operating in and the government’s laws. In doing this, public relations helps build brands by considering everyone who may be affected by the organization and products and ensuring that the company is being ethical.
Although public relations considers all possible stakeholders and customers when building brands, the beauty of a consumer brand’s success often lies in public relations targeting its market audience, as opposed to everyone, which is often the case and downfall with advertising. Clever PR acknowledges that not every consumer brand appeals to everyone, so it focuses on a specific range of people that would be interested. Getting journalists to write about or review the product or brand in a specific publication that specializes in similar products is more effective than getting articles in many publications where the product is not relevant. An example would be Harley Davidson motorbikes: getting the Daily Mail or Cosmopolitan to review the newest model or write about the latest Hells Angels convention would be much less effective than Motorcycle Industry Magazine or featured on Top Gear for example. This way, the right consumers are targeted and the wrong ones are not forced to acknowledge the brand and consequently be irritated by constant reminders in print, on television and on the radio of brands and products that they would dislike.
Public relations is also concerned with building personal relationships; after all, people, not products create publicity. A spokesperson is important for any company, and a charismatic CEO is certainly indispensable in terms of a company’s reputation. People know, like and respect Bill Gates, founder and ex-CEO of Microsoft for many reasons, his extensive charity work being just one. Communication is fundamental and can be anything from simple interviews (interviewing an inanimate object is quite obviously impossible) to television appearances, public statements, blogging/tweeting or even column inches. This is the reason why many companies have celebrity models or spokespeople if their CEO is out of the media; personal branding is just as important as the consumer brand itself, and celebrity endorsement is an effective tool that is engineered by public relations to build a brand. Well known endorsements such as Kate Moss for Topshop or David Beckham for Emporio Armani and Gillette help a brand become more popular, as consumers attempt emulate their idol’s fashion or lifestyle. Public relations is about forging connections for brands (brand equity), and people make connections with people; it is almost impossible to ignore the global hysteria following Michael Jackson’s death or broken hearted teens when their favourite boy band split up. This reliance on another being for reputation can, however, have negative effects if the celebrity in question is involved in a scandal. Examples such as Kerry Katona’s drink and drugs battle and Grievous Body Harm arrest saw her dropped by Iceland, and Tiger Woods’ sponsors dropped like flies following his recent extra-marital deviations. Their public relations teams and spokespeople will in turn be working frantically on crisis and reputation management in order to prevent any further damaging stories leaking to the press and eventually try to rebuild their personal brand. This shows the importance of impression management not only on a personal level but on a consumer one too, as any tarnishing of the reputation can equally affect a company.
Thus far it has become apparent that, in agreement with authors of The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR, ‘the essence of PR is to verbalize the brand in a way that encourages the media to run stories about the product or service.’ Stakeholders willingly ingest information in the press by choice. Words are of the utmost importance when it comes to the building of a consumer brand, as they are the most fundamental form of solid communication. Whilst advertising focuses on visual stimuli, as previously suggested by Jameson, PR is more powerful in that it leaves no doubt, no room for misunderstanding, misleading and inference, as well as being more accessible, easy to understand and emotive. Generally, public relations sells to sellers and so focuses not just on business to consumer communication, but business to business communication too. These sellers are generally the media, which people inherently trust, despite it’s frequent bias (publication and channel dependent, of course). Specialist publications such as lifestyle and beauty magazines are about 70% adverts and 30% print, but the consumer does not purchase them for these advisements which are thrown at us, whether we want to see them or not. Consumers chose to learn about the brands that they use or may potentially use through its public relations. William Daddi, senior Vice President at New York PR consultancy Magnet Communications sums this up: ‘If a consumer chooses to access editorial, it is by definition relevant to them. Therefore, the brand message contained within that content will be relevant to them as well. It will also be viewed as having integrity because of the independent nature of the brand platform or promise.’ This consumer choice is vital, especially in a time when publics are finally becoming able to vet advertising though blocking internet pop-ups, becoming ex-directory to avoid telemarketing, using playlists on Spotify and Itunes instead of commercial radio and streaming live television or recording programs of Sky+ to avoid commercials.
Public relations builds brands, which is rapidly followed by the building of good reputation if done successfully. The difference between them is that a brand is an image or idea people hold, whereas reputation is the reality of the organization. Public relations must strive to be originial, exciting, innovative and linear to be reported on and continue to stay in the media for good reasons, and also keep any negative stories out of it too. Advertising can then work to reinforce pre-existing ideas and remind the public of the brand, but can be static.
As I draw to a close it is important now to consider the future of public relations in building brands, especially in this global recession. Richard Edelman, CEO of Edelman Worldwide, could not have been more right when he said: 'It’s the end of the era of advertising domination. Today, great brands are built with PR.’ If companies have any sense, they will cut advertising budgets and spend their money more wisely on PR, as it is not only cheaper but in my opinion central to the building and maintaining of brands; there appears to be little correlation between value and price. This commodification is impossible to map and rationalize, as the capitalism and consumerism is demand and time dependent. Just because an object or service is cheaper, it can still be invaluable; example of this can be seen with Dell. In 2001, it spent $430m on advertising and only $2m on public relations, yet it was built by PR after practitioners sent free computers to computer analysts working for trade magazines who raved about it in PC week. Whilst it can be argued that advertising and marketing are certainly important in terms of branding, all adverts have to be approved by public relations due to its link to reputation. Some of the most successful companies in the world have no advertising whatsoever such as Marlborough cigarettes, and in the words of afore-mentioned Bill Gates, ‘If I was down to my last dollar, I would spend it on PR.’
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