Public Relations: A Practitioner's Guide (part 6)

Management Process of Public Relations

 by

 Charles Lamson

Like other management processes, professional public relations work emanates from clear strategies and bottom line at objectives that flow into specific tactics, each with its own budget, timetable, and allocation of resources. Stated another way, public relations today is much more a planned, persuasive social managerial science than a knee-jerk, damage control reaction to sudden flare-ups.

Don't get me wrong, the public relations professionals who have the most organizational clout and get paid the most are those who demonstrate the ability to perform in a crisis. Thinking "on your feet" is very much a coveted ability in the practice of public relations. But so, too, is the ability to think strategically and plan methodically to help change attitudes, crystallized opinions, and accomplish the organization's overall goals. 

Managers insist on results, so the best public relations programs can be measured in terms of achieving results in building the key relationships on which the organization depends. The relevance of public relations people in the eyes of top management depends largely on the contribution they make to the management process of the organization.

With nearly a century under its belt, the practice of public relations has developed its own theoretical framework as a management system. According to communications professors James Grunig and Todd Hunt, public relations managers perform what organizational theorist call a boundary role: they function at the edge of an organization as a liaison between the organization and its external and internal Publics. In other words, public relations managers have one foot inside the organization and one outside. Often this unique position is not only lonely but also precarious.

As boundary managers, public relations people support their colleagues by helping them communicate across organizational lines both within and outside the organization. In this way, public relations professionals also become systems managers, knowledgeable about and able to deal with the complex relationships inherent in the organization.

Top managers are forced to think strategically about reaching their goals. So, too, should public relations professionals think in terms of the strategic process element of their own roles. Specifically, they must constantly ask, in relation to their departments, and assignments:

• What are we attempting to achieve, and where are we going in that pursuit?
• What is the nature of the environment in which we must operate?
•  Who are the key audiences we must convince in the process?
•  How will we get to where we want to be?

It is this procedural mindset directed at communicating key messages to realize desired objectives to priority publics that makes the public relations professional a key adviser to top management.

Reporting to Top Management

The public relations function, by definition, must report to top management.

If public relations is truly to be the interpreter for management philosophy, policy, and programs, then the public relations director should report to the CEO. In many organizations, this reporting relationship is not the case. Public relations is often subordinated to advertising, marketing, legal, or human resources. Whereas marketing and advertising promote the product, public relations promotes the entire organization. Therefore, if the public relations chief reports to the director of marketing or advertising, the job mistakenly becomes one of promoting specific products rather than promoting the entire organization.

For the public relations function to be valuable to management, it must remain independent, credible, and objective as an honest broker. This also mandates that public relations professionals have not only communication competence but also an intimate knowledge of the organization's business. Without the latter, according to research, public relations professionals are much less effective as top management advisers.

Public relations, rightfully, should be the corporate conscience. An organization's public relations professionals should enjoy enough autonomy to deal openly and honestly with management. If an idea doesn't make sense, if a product is flawed, if the general institutional wisdom is wrong, it is the duty of the public relations professional to challenge the consensus. As Warren Buffett, the legendary CEO of the Berkshire Hathaway company, put it, "We can afford to lose money---even a lot of money. But we cannot afford to lose reputation---even a shred of reputation." 

This is not to say that advertising, marketing, and all other disciplines should not enjoy a close partnership with public relations. Clearly, they must. All disciplines must work to maintain their own independence while building long-term mutually beneficial relationships for the good of the organization. However, public relations should never shirk its overriding responsibility to enhance the organization's credibility by ensuring that corporate actions are in the public interest.

To perform that function effectively, it needs to report directly to top management. 

Conceptualizing the Public Relations Plan

Strategic planning for public relations is an essential part of management. Planning is critical not only to know where a particular campaign is headed but also to win the support of top management. Indeed one of the most frequent complaints about public relations is that it is too much of a seat-of-the-pants activity, impossible to plan and difficult to measure. Management's perspective is, how do we know the public relations group will deliver and fully leverage the resources they're asking for? They must see a plan. with proper planning, public relations professionals can indeed defend and account for their actions. 

Before organizing for public relations work, practitioners must consider objectives and strategies, planning and budget, and research and evaluation. The broad environment in which the organization operates must dictate overall business objectives. These, in turn, dictate specific public relations objectives and strategies. Once these have been defined, the task of organizing for a public relations program should flow naturally. 

Setting up objectives, formulating strategies, and planning are essential if the public relations function is to be considered equal in stature to other management processes. Traditionally, the public relations management process involves four steps:

1. Defining the problem or opportunity. This requires researching current attitudes and opinions about the issue, product, candidate, or company in question and determining the essence of the problem.
2.  Programming. This is the formal planning stage, which addresses key constituent publics, strategies, tactics, and goals.
3.  Action. This is the communications phase, when the program is implemented.
4.  Evaluation. The final step in the process is the assessment of what worked, what didn't, and how to improve in the future.

Each of these four process steps is important. Most essential is starting with a firm base of research and a solid foundation of planning. 

All planning requires thinking. Planning a short-term public relations program to promote a new service may require less thought and time than planning a long-term campaign to win support for a public policy issue. However, in each case, the public relations plan must include clear-cut objectives to achieve organizational goals, targeted strategies to reach those objectives, specific tactics to implement the strategies, and measurement methods to determine whether the tactics worked.

Creating the Public Relations Plan

The public relations plan must be spelled out in writing. Its organization must answer management's concerns and questions about the campaign being recommended. Here is one way it might be organized and what it should answer.

1. Executive summary---an overview of the plan.
2.  Communication process---how it works, for understanding and training purposes.
3.  Background---mission statement, vision, values, events that led to the need for the plan.
4.  Situation analysis---major issues and related facts the plan will deal with.
5.  Message statement---the plans, major ideas, and emerging themes, all of which look to the expected outcome.
6.  Audiences---strategic constituencies related to the issues, listed in order of importance, with whom you wish to develop and maintain relationships. 
7. Key audience messages---one or two sentence messages that you want to be understood by each key audience.
   
   
8.  Implementation---issues, audiences, messages, media, timing, cost, expected outcomes, and method of evaluation all neatly spelled out. 
   
   
9. Budget---the plan's overall budget presented in the organization's accepted style.
   
   
10. Monitoring and evaluation---how the plan's results will be measured and evaluated against a previously set benchmark or desired outcome.

A simpler, hypothetical five-part public relations plan for the fictional Fribbert's Frosty Frappuccino might break down like this:

1. Situation.

Our world is moving faster than ever before. PDAs and cell phones have overtaken our every minute. Even leisure-time activities have morphed into intensity from power yoga to power lunch to the 20 minute workout. The coffee break has become old hat. In short, the world desperately needs to chill. And what better beverage to chill with than Fribbert's Frosty Frapp?

2. Business Objectives.
   
   

• To increase Fribbert's Frosty Frapp market share nationally by 20%.
•  To increase Fribbert's Frosty Frapp market share among young adults by 30%.
  
  
•  To increase product recall of Fribbert's among all cold beverages by 25%.
  
  

3. Public relations objectives.
   
   

• Tie coffee break time with the need to chill with Fribbert's Frosty frappe.
  
  
•  Generate Buzz among younger workers to chill not with coffee but with Fribbert's Frosty Frapp.
•  Instill the importance of chilling.

4. Strategies.

• Leverage a familiar concept---the coffee break---with a new approach---the Frapp chill.
•  Spread the word about the Frosty Frapp chill.
  
  
•  Commission original research to underscore the importance of chilling.
  
  
•  Recruit topic-specific experts to discuss chilling and Frosty Frapp.
  
  

5. Public relations program elements.

• Fribbert's commissions survey of human resources professionals on the importance of short breaks during the day and associated increases and productivity. The survey will determine how a selection of leading companies handle the need for chilling time among employees.
• Fribbert's launches national "Need to Chill" (NTC) program to introduce the ritual of "chillin' brakes" in workplaces across America. The NTC program will be led by a board composed of professionals in pertinent areas, such as a psychiatrist, a life coach, a relaxation expert, and a food expert.
•  Fribbert's launches a viral email campaign across the nation to encourage recipients to sign a petition to appeal to Congress to make the chilling break a federally-mandated activity,
•  Fribbert's announces a nationwide Chillin' Day, designating a moment in time when employees around the nation will be asked to stop and chill.
•  Advertising support is leveraged with Chillin' Day promotions, particularly on local radio.
•  A Chillin' Day spokesperson is appointed, representative of what it means to be cool and chillin'. Such cool personalities as LeBron James, Tiki Barber, Snoop Dogg, and Matthew McConaughey will be considered.
•  Local news hooks in key market areas are investigated to promote free Fribbert's and chillin'.

The beauty of creating a plan like this is that it clearly specifies tactics against which objectives can be measured and evaluated. In devising the public relations plans along these lines, an organization is ensured that its public relations programs will reinforce and compliment its overall business goals.

*SOURCE: THE PRACTICE OF PUBLIC RELATIONS, 10TH ED., 2007, FRASER P. SEITEL, PGS. 84-89* 

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