The Value of Reputation Management

Leaders of corporations must manage many challenges. The most obvious ones include creating and executing a solid business plan; attracting, developing and motivating quality people, and maintaining investors' confidence. These are themes covered by business schools and a myriad of business books. But there's another priority critical to success: maintaining a good corporate reputation, and it can be the most difficult because of its importance.

Simply put, corporate reputation is a successful enterprise's single-biggest long-term asset and in today's 24/7 news environment, it can be destroyed in a minute.

A good reputation is earned through a results oriented management function that seeks to leverage reputation as an asset, enlisting important stake-holder groups to assist the organization in the achievement of management objectives.

To achieve positive outcomes, take a solid ground-up approach. Realize that stakeholders – consumers/customers, employees, media, non-governmental organizations and public officials – and their collective opinions and beliefs will influence your reputation. And when these opinions and beliefs don't match expectations, craft the messages and strategies that effect change.

And when PR strateges are implemented, measured and successful, a crisis won’t diminish or damage your reputation. Rather, through the prior credibility and equity that PR has built, it maintains as a stable and positive asset in the minds of the public who value your product. In today’s age of 365/24/7 media, this is invaluable to your financial success and long-term vision.

Why PR Instead of Advertising

When I tell people that public relations is a more effective way in building a brand than advertising, ears usually perk up... as do the doubting smirks from disbelievers. While advertising can help sustain the brand after it has been built, public relations is the best way to launch it for the following reasons:

1. Building a brand requires credibility... almost instantly.
Let's face it, if no one has heard of you or your product, do you really think an advertisement claiming the product is the best thing since sliced bread is believable? Probably not. You may as well as throw your money away.

Public relations builds a brand by generating results through unbiased endorsement from the media through its print and broadcast reports. People trust the media and assume the article is accurate through the background checks the editorial process takes. It's earned media in the minds of the public because it has been scrutinized by a third party. Since it comes from a credible source, it translates into instant credibility for your product or company. Ads can't do that.

2. Building a brand doesn't have to be expensive...
As many marketing VPs have found, it takes big bucks/dollars to build frequency around the country for branding purposes. Hundreds of thousands if not millions depending on the product. What's the rule, it takes six times before someone remembers your ad. Through PR, you can accomplish much more for much less.

Through PR's relationship building model coupled with insightful/creative ideas that are clear, concise and compelling, one major story by a credible source can instantly build a brand. People will cut the story out and remember it. And strategic PR campaign can be completed much more cost effectively. Through the same positioning process advertising agencies take, PR counselors can effectively pitch your strategic messages (benefits, attributes, benefits) geared towards news value for the intended audience via e-mail, fax and phone.

3. Building a brand requires flexibility...
When you advertise, you're essentially putting all of your eggs in one basket and hope that the medium works. Why do that? Didn't you read parts 1 and 2 above? Public relations can provide you with an integrated approach using several tools to build support at the mass and grassroots level. Using disciplines such as media relations, community relations, experiential marketing, philanthropic communications, alliance building, viral communications and new media, you can hit the public in many ways that they are receptive to. And all of it can be measured to check if the change you wanted is being recorded and, if warranted, quickly adapt if a program needs tinkered to better the outcome. Can you do that with advertising? Sure, but it will take you weeks if not months to get your ad created with a different message and placed. By then, your reputation may be shot... which then you have to go back to PR anyway for repair and damage control.

In closing, there are many reasons why public relations should be at the table when a brand is planned for launch. I've listed just three. I would like to read how you think PR is better suited to build a brand... or if you think I'm crazy because advertising is the "thing."

It's Outcome Measurement Not Output Measurement

As I talk with potential clients and with some public relations firms, I am amazed on what their perception of public relations is: generating lots of releases and obtaining media hits. Period. While this tactic is important, it is no where close to what the public relations discipline can do for a company.

In today's world of online and traditional media, the main power of public relations is really about generating positive outcomes... not generating lots of output. Let’s face it, anyone from a junior executive to a receptionist can send out a news release. That's why people who really don't know about the power of public relations say that is what PR really is.

But that is a simple answer to a hard problem. While hits may be recorded and ad equivalencies promoted during the length of a campaign, if no one changes their mind about the company, product or service, then the campaign was not a sound program.

Through an integrated PR program utilizing several strategies to start conversations with consumers, practitioners can begin down the path to change the mindset of that consumer towards positive outcomes.

Through an outcome-based measurement approach, you track your progress as the campaign evolves, making changes to messages and tactics along the way. Instead of just counting clips, you track to see if actual change is being done to meet your business goal by answering the hard questions with measurable results:

• is the needle is being moved towards your position
• is your message is resonating with the public
• is your reputation more credible today than at the beginning of the program
• what impact has it made on a specific goal

Output based campaigns can't do this... But outcome based ones can.

That’s the true power of public relations.

The Power of Public Relations

It's not what you say about yourself that gets results, it's what others say about you that builds positive awareness, changes perceptions from bad to good and build's instant credibility through endorsement. That is the value of public relations.

PR does something that advertising can never do; make a reader, viewer or listener believe that your product or service is credible and good. Why? More often than not, the key prospect (the consumer) has built a level of trust with the media and/or reporter they receive the story from. So when the reporter says this product is the best thing since sliced bread, the prospect will probably believe. If they read the same thing in an ad, they probably would not.

That's why public relations is earned media, not paid media. Positive public relations is harder to get since it depends on a third party to believe in your product before it gets to their audience. But when it does, it is more impactful than a typical advertisement. That's why every product wants to be on Oprah, The Today Show or Dr. Phil. Their endorsement, through positive press coverage, could mean the difference to an OK sales year or one where a small company bursts onto the national scene for decades to come.

So when thinking about ways to market your product, service or company, make sure that public relations is part of the marketing mix. It will be the single most important investment you can make to create the brand you always wanted.

In coming posts, we'll explore how to use PR for obtaining some of these results and provide some tips that anyone can use.