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How PR Can be a Passport to Success

by Robert A Kelly

Any passport to public relations success will require that you move beyond tactics, and be free to use the right PR to alter the perceptions of your most important outside audiences, leading directly to achieving your managerial objectives.

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Robert A. Kelly © 2006.

How PR Can be a Passport to Success

Here's a quick description of such a passport: a high-
impact, public relations action plan which does
something meaningful about the behaviors of those
important audiences that most affect your business,
non-profit, government agency or association.

It does so by creating the kind of external stakeholder
behavior change that leads directly to achieving your
managerial objectives; then persuades those key
outside folks to your way of thinking by helping move
them to take actions that allow your department, group,
division or subsidiary to succeed.

When you need to move a message from here to there,
communications tactics can do the job. But that's pretty
much all they can do. Caution: a preoccupation with
tactics will certainly deny managers the best that public
relations has to offer by diverting their primary attention
from the very PR end-products discussed above.

The PR passport relies heavily on this underlying
premise: people act on their own perception of the facts
before them, which leads to predictable behaviors about
which something can be done. When we create, change
or reinforce that opinion by reaching, persuading and
moving-to-desired-action the very people whose
behaviors affect the organization the most, the public
relations mission is usually accomplished.

Actually, the premise promises that good public
relations planning really CAN alter individual
perception and result in changed behaviors among
key outside audiences. But the fact is, you'll only get
there when your PR demands more than news releases,
special events and broadcast plugs. Only then will you
receive the quality public relations results you deserve.

Let's take a closer look at the sort of PR end-products
you can expect. Capital givers or specifying sources
begin to look your way; new prospects actually start
to do business with you; politicians and legislators
begin looking at you as a key member of the business,
non-profit, government or association communities;
welcome bounces in show room visits occur; community
leaders begin to seek you out; new proposals for strategic
alliances and joint ventures start showing up; customers
begin to make repeat purchases; and membership
applications start to rise.

A good first step is to work closely with your public
relations professionals on your new opinion monitoring
project since they're already in the perception and
behavior business. However, insure that the PR staff
actually accepts why it's SO important to know how
your most important outside audiences perceive your
operations, products or services. Essentially, be certain
they believe that perceptions almost always result in
behaviors that can help or hurt your operation.

Reserve the time you need to review plans for
monitoring and gathering perceptions by questioning
members of your most important outside audiences.
Try out questions like these: how much do you know
about our organization? Have you had prior contact
with us and were you pleased with the interchange?
Are you familiar with our services or products and
employees? Have you experienced problems with
our people or procedures?

Be advised that the use of professional survey firms
for the opinion gathering chore, probably will be more
expensive than using your PR people in that
monitoring capacity. But whether it's your folks or
a survey firm asking the questions, the objective
remains the same: identify untruths, false
assumptions, unfounded rumors, inaccuracies,
misconceptions and any other negative perception
that might translate into hurtful behaviors.

Your number one responsibility now is to establish
a clearcut and realistic PR goal that calls for action
on the most serious problem areas you uncovered
during your key audience perception monitoring.
You may decide to stop that potentially painful
rumor cold. Or straighten out that dangerous
misconception? Or correct that gross inaccuracy?

Goal-setting, obviously, requires an equally
action-oriented strategy that shows you the path
to your new goal. Here, you have just three
strategic options available to you when it comes
to doing something about perception and opinion.
Change existing perception, create perception
where there may be none, or reinforce it. Needless
to say, the wrong strategy pick will taste like peach
Jello in your lentil soup. So be sure your new
strategy fits well with your new public relations
goal. You certainly don't want to select "change"
when the facts dictate a strategy of reinforcement.

Good writing, always at the core of any public
relations activity, requires that the best writer on
your team prepare a persuasive message that will
help move your key audience to your way of
thinking. It has to be a carefully-written message
targeted directly at your key external audience.
Your writer must develop really corrective
language that is not merely compelling, persuasive
and believable, but clear and factual if it is to
shift perception/opinion towards your point of
view and lead to the behaviors you have in mind.

Now you must identify the communications tactics
most likely to carry your message to the attention
of your target audience. There are many available.
From speeches, facility tours, emails and brochures
to consumer briefings, media interviews, newsletters,
personal meetings and many others. But be sure the
tactics you select are known to reach folks just like
your audience members.

Because the WAY in which you communicate makes
the credibility of your message suspect, you may wish
to unveil your corrective language through smaller
meeting presentations rather than using higher-profile
news releases.

To demonstrate results, you may elect to use periodic
progress reports. Which will alert you to begin a second
perception monitoring session with members of your
external audience. You can use many of the same
questions used in the benchmark session. But now,
you will be on strict alert for signs that the bad news
perception is being altered in your direction.

Because in any human activity, things can always slow
down, you can always increase momentum by adding
more communications tactics and/or increasing their
frequencies.

Thus, any passport to public relations success will require
that you move beyond tactics, and be free to use the
right PR to alter the perceptions of your most important
outside audiences, leading directly to achieving your
managerial objectives.

end

Bob Kelly counsels and writes for business, non-profit and
association managers about using the fundamental premise of public
relations to achieve their operating objectives. He has published over
200 articles on the subject which are listed at EzineArticles.com, click
Expert Author, click Robert A. Kelly. He has been DPR, Pepsi-Cola
Co.; AGM-PR, Texaco Inc.; VP-PR, Olin Corp.; VP-PR, Newport
News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co.; director of communications, U.S.
Department of the Interior, and deputy assistant press secretary, The
White House. He holds a bachelor of science degree from Columbia
University, major in public relations.
mailto:bobkelly@TNI.net Visit:www.PRCommentary.com

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