Chapter 9
Crisis Management
The institute of Crisis Management defines crisis as “a significant business disruption that stimulates extensive news media coverage. The resulting public scrutiny will affect the organizations normal operations and also could have political, legal, financial and governmental impact on it’s business.”
Despite the term crisis management, there is no way to “manage” external influences. What can and must be managed is the response. To do this effectively there must be an understanding of the public and political environment in which the crisis is occurring, the culture and inner workings of the organization facing the crisis, and human nature or how the persons and groups involved will most likely react.
Understanding human behavior in reaction to a crisis can be divided into five general categories of percentage. There will generally be 1% that are immediately favorable and unfavorable. 45% leaning favorable and unfavorable and 8% will be the opinion leaders who have great potential to influence the rest and who are willing to discuss the issue with an open mind. Too often, those dealing with a crisis will become focused on the zealots who compose the 1% favorable, not realizing that these people do more harm by illustrating their unreasonable support and will even turn off those who lean favorable. The wise choice is to focus on the 8% that make up opinion leaders. They are not necessarily politicians or people of education, they comprise members of every class and position but typically not those with any notoriety in the public.
This understanding along with significant preparation time attempting to anticipate as many likely crisis as possible will lend itself to better management of people in the crisis.
Example
A few months ago the radio station I work for decided that they were going to release the current morning show host and move me from the afternoon to the mornings. They wanted to turn the change into as much media generating action as possible so they decided to issue a “gag” order on all employees and play music for two days instead of talk. This would give the listeners the impression that the station might be switching formats. It was anticipated that the removal of the morning show host would create a crisis of some degree. And that by creating the perception of a larger crisis that all talk would be gone including myself, when the true changes were announced it would be a more desirable alternative in the minds of talk radio listening publics. Management selected one person who had the authority to make any statements to the press and none were made until the true changes were revealed on the following Monday. The statement clarified the stated reason for playing music was so that every audio could be retooled and the hardware could be installed for the new syndicated program. I believe for the goals of reducing potential crisis and maximizing exposure to the new line up, the crisis management plan was more success than failure.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Chapter 6 Consumer Relations
Chapter 6
Consumer Relations
It seems that the essence of consumer relations ebbs and flows with the years but the sentiment is ubiquitous among those who see themselves as consumers, “the customer is the most important.” Those businesses who truly know that the customer is what matters most will likely find success and those who fail to appreciate it will likely not have any business to worry about. Marketing to the customer became the cure all in the mid 1980s where non-traditional entities such as hospitals and churches began to put serious effort into marketing to those whom they perceived as their publics.
At this same time a debate began to develop about whether marketing and public relations were actually the same thing. Despite the lay confusion of the two’s similarities, marketing is ultimately product specific or service specific where public relations is a more holistic approach encompassing every public not just the customer or potential customer.
Marketing reforms began to change the nature of the function of marketing in the 1960’s and has brought us to a point in which the approach today is a rule : “People want to be served, not sold.” This is the driving concept behind most every successful strategy in consumer relations.
Example
I see this shift with Consumer Relations and serving verses selling in my first person experience with the Spohn Hospital system. In the early 80’s, I spent two weeks in Spohn Shoreline. The general attitude of most all the nurses and staff was negative and rude at best, abrasive and belligerent at it’s worst. The quality of food was awful. No one seemed to take the complaints of patients and their family with any concern or correction. You had the distinct feeling that you were bothering them just being there.
Some 3 years ago, I contracted MRSA and spent another two weeks in Spohn Hospital. The difference in treatment was night and day. I almost found them to be too nice and facilitating. Every single person that I came in contact with treated me with respect, introduced themselves to me and explained what they were going to do for me along with all the options for comfort that were available to me. This change caught my interest so I asked the CEO about what I had noticed and he admitted that in the late 1980’s they realized they had a problem with consumer relations. They began by changing the culture of the employees and how they dealt with patients as well as how they marketed themselves to their publics who have a choice as to which hospital they go to for care. They refocused on “servicing” instead of “selling.”
Consumer Relations
It seems that the essence of consumer relations ebbs and flows with the years but the sentiment is ubiquitous among those who see themselves as consumers, “the customer is the most important.” Those businesses who truly know that the customer is what matters most will likely find success and those who fail to appreciate it will likely not have any business to worry about. Marketing to the customer became the cure all in the mid 1980s where non-traditional entities such as hospitals and churches began to put serious effort into marketing to those whom they perceived as their publics.
At this same time a debate began to develop about whether marketing and public relations were actually the same thing. Despite the lay confusion of the two’s similarities, marketing is ultimately product specific or service specific where public relations is a more holistic approach encompassing every public not just the customer or potential customer.
Marketing reforms began to change the nature of the function of marketing in the 1960’s and has brought us to a point in which the approach today is a rule : “People want to be served, not sold.” This is the driving concept behind most every successful strategy in consumer relations.
Example
I see this shift with Consumer Relations and serving verses selling in my first person experience with the Spohn Hospital system. In the early 80’s, I spent two weeks in Spohn Shoreline. The general attitude of most all the nurses and staff was negative and rude at best, abrasive and belligerent at it’s worst. The quality of food was awful. No one seemed to take the complaints of patients and their family with any concern or correction. You had the distinct feeling that you were bothering them just being there.
Some 3 years ago, I contracted MRSA and spent another two weeks in Spohn Hospital. The difference in treatment was night and day. I almost found them to be too nice and facilitating. Every single person that I came in contact with treated me with respect, introduced themselves to me and explained what they were going to do for me along with all the options for comfort that were available to me. This change caught my interest so I asked the CEO about what I had noticed and he admitted that in the late 1980’s they realized they had a problem with consumer relations. They began by changing the culture of the employees and how they dealt with patients as well as how they marketed themselves to their publics who have a choice as to which hospital they go to for care. They refocused on “servicing” instead of “selling.”
Monday, April 19, 2010
Chapter 10
Chapter 10 Ethics & Values
As critically important as is the issue of public relations, it is challenging to summarize and only recently codified.
Public relations is, in it’s most basic form, social conduct and social conduct bears the ethics not of a business or corporate entity that lives only on paper but rather a reflection of the people who control or represent the entity in the execution of public relations.
Understanding that most people hold others to an ethical standard that they themselves do not consistently abide by, the only tangible standard is the law. And even the law is subject to interpretation. Because of the variance in ethical standards and the interpretation of law, public relations practitioners have set down a code of conduct that should be adhered to. Although this code is common and clear, many situations are dependent upon the nuances each individual situation.
There are clear ethical violations where gifts are given in exchange for favorable exposure or actions from an official in a position of public trust. There are laws and policies that govern many of these scenarios.
No matter the codes, law and ethics of a public relations practitioner, the summation of appropriate conduct can be summed up by the GOLDEN RULE. If we do unto others as we would have them do unto us, harmonious public relationships will result.
Example
The most original example of an unethical scenario would be one that I experienced first hand. A few years ago, the radio station I worked for decided to reduce my talk radio show from 4 hours to 3 so that they could profit from the sale of an additional hour sponsorship of a syndicated program that previously was only airing for one hour. The decision was supposed to be contingent upon my approval, which I did not give yet they moved forward with it anyway. The reduction was very unpopular with the listeners and the station asked that I announce the change was a result of my desire to reduce my workload. I refused this and many other requests, all of which painted the station in the best possible light without any regard for my reputation.
As critically important as is the issue of public relations, it is challenging to summarize and only recently codified.
Public relations is, in it’s most basic form, social conduct and social conduct bears the ethics not of a business or corporate entity that lives only on paper but rather a reflection of the people who control or represent the entity in the execution of public relations.
Understanding that most people hold others to an ethical standard that they themselves do not consistently abide by, the only tangible standard is the law. And even the law is subject to interpretation. Because of the variance in ethical standards and the interpretation of law, public relations practitioners have set down a code of conduct that should be adhered to. Although this code is common and clear, many situations are dependent upon the nuances each individual situation.
There are clear ethical violations where gifts are given in exchange for favorable exposure or actions from an official in a position of public trust. There are laws and policies that govern many of these scenarios.
No matter the codes, law and ethics of a public relations practitioner, the summation of appropriate conduct can be summed up by the GOLDEN RULE. If we do unto others as we would have them do unto us, harmonious public relationships will result.
Example
The most original example of an unethical scenario would be one that I experienced first hand. A few years ago, the radio station I worked for decided to reduce my talk radio show from 4 hours to 3 so that they could profit from the sale of an additional hour sponsorship of a syndicated program that previously was only airing for one hour. The decision was supposed to be contingent upon my approval, which I did not give yet they moved forward with it anyway. The reduction was very unpopular with the listeners and the station asked that I announce the change was a result of my desire to reduce my workload. I refused this and many other requests, all of which painted the station in the best possible light without any regard for my reputation.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Chapter 8
Public Issue Campaigns and Debates... have maintained a consistent foundation from it's founding with Jeffersonian Democracy with some significant changes.
An intelligent, well-informed pubic and electorate is the cornerstone of our constitutional republic and issues debated in the court of public opinion are the mortar which binds the structure together. Public relations practitioners act as lawyers in the public, hoping to make arguments strong enough to sway the public as the jury. More specifically, sway the key demographics that vote. Even more importantly is the recognition that a majority of publics do not vote so the concept of "majority rules" is not accurate. A small minority of the eligible voters can be placed into 3 categories of typical involvement: those interested in an issue for the full ramifications of the topic, Special interests which are concerned only about certain elements of the topic and Hot button issues which are those aroused only by emotionally debated elements.
Knowing as much information as possible about the key players and publics, what issues they are likely to respond to and how they are likely to respond is critical for any public relations practitioner. This information is invaluable in not only responding to unforeseen crises but those which can be anticipated as well.
One change that has occurred over the recent decade is the highly fractionalized and vocal zeal with which some political issues are dealt. This makes finding common ground for compromise nearly impossible and violence more likely.
One example that seems to illustrate all the elements discussed in this chapter is the recent passage of President Obama's health care bill. A clear majority of the general public was opposed to it, 41 states have taken action to stop or opt out of it and yet the minority opinion controlls a majority of seats in the Senate and House as well as the White House. The original debate started as a means to make health care insurance more affordable and slowly morphed into government subsidized health care and government run health care, taking on enormous debt during an economic recession or dishonestly shifting the debt to individual states like Texas and Louisiana. The President crafted an argument based on an image of millions of people not getting medical treatment and dying because they didn't have health insurance. The media gave very little challenge to this perspective, yet protests of angry voters gathered all across the country. When it seemed their so-called representatives were ignoring the publics opposition in order to follow an extreme left-wing ideological fantasy of socialized medicine, the groups became angry and threatening.
An intelligent, well-informed pubic and electorate is the cornerstone of our constitutional republic and issues debated in the court of public opinion are the mortar which binds the structure together. Public relations practitioners act as lawyers in the public, hoping to make arguments strong enough to sway the public as the jury. More specifically, sway the key demographics that vote. Even more importantly is the recognition that a majority of publics do not vote so the concept of "majority rules" is not accurate. A small minority of the eligible voters can be placed into 3 categories of typical involvement: those interested in an issue for the full ramifications of the topic, Special interests which are concerned only about certain elements of the topic and Hot button issues which are those aroused only by emotionally debated elements.
Knowing as much information as possible about the key players and publics, what issues they are likely to respond to and how they are likely to respond is critical for any public relations practitioner. This information is invaluable in not only responding to unforeseen crises but those which can be anticipated as well.
One change that has occurred over the recent decade is the highly fractionalized and vocal zeal with which some political issues are dealt. This makes finding common ground for compromise nearly impossible and violence more likely.
One example that seems to illustrate all the elements discussed in this chapter is the recent passage of President Obama's health care bill. A clear majority of the general public was opposed to it, 41 states have taken action to stop or opt out of it and yet the minority opinion controlls a majority of seats in the Senate and House as well as the White House. The original debate started as a means to make health care insurance more affordable and slowly morphed into government subsidized health care and government run health care, taking on enormous debt during an economic recession or dishonestly shifting the debt to individual states like Texas and Louisiana. The President crafted an argument based on an image of millions of people not getting medical treatment and dying because they didn't have health insurance. The media gave very little challenge to this perspective, yet protests of angry voters gathered all across the country. When it seemed their so-called representatives were ignoring the publics opposition in order to follow an extreme left-wing ideological fantasy of socialized medicine, the groups became angry and threatening.
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