11 The Public Relations Plan

Public relations activity includes the following areas:

Product/service publicity

Charity

Customer perceptions

Internal marketing

Community relations

Let’s examine each of them briefly.

Product/Service Publicity

A publicity story about a company is worth how many ads? No one knows for sure, but it has to be more than one. And the price is right. In addition, the press is constantly looking for material to fill their pages on time. Approximately one-third of the articles in print publications originate outside of the press room. Therefore, someone in your business, preferably with writing skills, should be constantly looking for a publicity angle that will appeal to the press. If you are selling an iPhone or Windows 7, it may be relatively easy, but Bloomingdale’s managed to obtain a half-page publicity article in the New York Times on the revamp of their cosmetic department.¹

Here’s a story that illustrates how powerful public relations can be: I was an account executive for an advertising agency charged with planning the introduction of Fresca into the New York City market. We were running TV commercials that showed teenagers shooting pool or doing other activities and when they started drinking Fresca, it would start to snow. The more they drank, the harder it would snow and at the end of the commercial it was a raging blizzard. The tag line was, “The frosty, freezing taste of Fresca, it’s a blizzard.” We scheduled an evening press party to commemorate the introduction and when I looked out my office window about two in the afternoon, I noticed it was snowing. By the time the press party started, it was like a blizzard outside.

After the press party was over, we called the New York Times and said we wanted to reserve space for a full-page back of section ad in the morning edition. We had to call three times because they thought we were all drunk, but on the third call they said they would reserve the space and the ad had to be there by midnight. If not, we would still have to pay for the space. We went out in the blizzard and took a picture of our CEO holding a bottle of Fresca. When New Yorkers shoveled their way to their morning newspapers and turned to our ad, they saw the picture of our CEO holding the bottle of Fresca in the raging blizzard and the headline (and only copy) said, “We Apologize.”

We received free publicity on this ad in every major newspaper, from coast to coast. Although there’s no doubt we got lucky on this one, it goes to show that with a little ingenuity, you can receive a lot of free advertising.

Let’s see how good you are in formatting a news release. Following are the facts gathered by a reporter. See how you would organize it into a news story. Study these random facts and put a check next to the very important pieces of information and an X next to those that aren’t very important and could easily be placed at the bottom of this story. Lastly put a circle next to those facts that fall between the two extremes.

_____ John Williams was promoted at Johnson College in Aberdeen, South Dakota, yesterday.

_____ The promotion was announced by college president William Smathers.

_____ Williams has been on the faculty since 1974.

_____ His new assignment is chairman of the political science department.

_____ He was formerly lieutenant governor of South Dakota for one term.

_____ He has been a professor of political science at the college since 1976, after starting as an associate professor.

_____ He and his wife, Carolyn, live in Aberdeen.

_____ They have two sons.

_____ At thirty-eight, he is the youngest department head in the school’s history.

_____ The political science department has a faculty of twenty.

_____ Williams plans to make the department known throughout the country as a leading center of thought on state and local government.

_____ He was a state assemblyman for two terms prior to his election as lieutenant governor in 1970. He also taught at the University of South Dakota before running for office.

_____ He has a M.A. in political science from Yale University.

_____ He was born in Twin Brooks, South Dakota.

_____ He is the author of Passing through the State House: A Lieutenant Governor’s Diary and The Care and Feeding of New Laws.

_____ Johnson College has 650 political science majors.

_____ In making the announcement, Smathers said, “John’s promotion is an indication of our interest in the study of state and local government. His experience in local politics and his books and articles on the subject make him the ideal person to head our expansion in this area.”

_____ Smathers estimated that the school will have over two thousand political science majors and at least a tripling of the number of course offerings in the subject within ten years.

_____ Williams will head a massive recruiting drive for students and faculty over the next several years.

_____ Williams left active participation in politics in 1974 after he and ex-Governor Patrick Terming were defeated in their bid for reelection.

OK. Let’s see how you did. The ensuing news story in the next day’s local newspaper would be along the following lines:

The appointment of John Williams, former lieutenant governor of South Dakota, as head of Johnson College’s department of political science was announced yesterday by William Smathers, president of the Aberdeen-based school.

Williams, at 38 the youngest department head in the school’s 51-year history, will spearhead a drive to make Johnson a leading center for the study of state and local government.

“John’s experience in local politics and his books and articles on the subject make him the ideal person to head our expansion in this area,” said Smathers.

He added that Williams plans to concentrate on recruiting new faculty and students over the next several years.

A professor of political science at the school since 1976, Williams was lieutenant governor of the state from 1971 to 1975.

He and running mate Governor Patrick Terming were narrowly defeated by Grover Kington and Alexander Narovansky in 1974, and he joined the Johnson faculty as an associate professor shortly after leaving office.

In his new assignment, Williams will head a faculty of 20 and oversee the political science course program for a student body of 6,000.

According to President Smathers, the department’s expansion plans call for a tripling of the number of political science course offerings and an increase in the number of students majoring in the subject from 650 to more than 2,000 within the next 10 years.

A native of Twin Brooks, S.D., Williams is the author of Passing through the State House: A Lieutenant Governor’s Diary, The Care and Feeding of New Laws, and numerous articles for academic journals.

He also served two terms as a state assemblyman and was an assistant professor of political science at the University of South Dakota before running for office.

He has a M.A. in political science from Yale University.

Williams and his wife, Carolyn, reside in Aberdeen. They have two sons.

Charity

Participating in charity drives can be an effective promotional tool for improving customer perception. You see it all the time with Wal-Mart, McDonald’s, even the NFL with their pink football shoes. This strategy works both ways—it helps your company’s image and it helps the charity.

Take as an example the January 2010 campaign for the Girl Scouts. As posted by Dale Buss on brandchannel.com, “The theme of the Girl Scouts most recent campaign is ‘Every Cookie Has a Mission: To Help Girls Do Great Things.’”²

The campaign and accompanying viral YouTube video focuses on the underappreciated accomplishments—which are many—of the cookie-sales program. The video, however, eschews traditional images of Girl Scouts per se and instead delivers its message through compelling copy and graphic icons. It illustrates how cookie sales help people around the world.

Consumers, in fact, do help society by purchasing cookies from local Girl Scouts encamped around card tables outside of supermarkets and at high-school sporting events. As cookie lovers salivate over the stacked boxes of Tagalongs, Thin Mints, and Samoas, they can feel good about everything their cookie purchases help the scouts accomplish.

Girl Scouts USA, the parent organization of the thousands of local Girl Scout groups around the country, wants Americans to understand how the cookie proceeds are used to support worthy causes such as victims of floods, residents of homeless shelters, and U.S. soldiers overseas. What begins as a box of cookies sold by a young woman goes to help human beings of all ages in the most dire of circumstances.

The juxtaposition between the innocent, all-American Girl Scouts and the ugly reality of human suffering may seem like a difficult connection to make, but it is there. Big time. The cookie-focused campaign is also a precursor to an overall rebranding plan by the Girl Scouts. The rebranding campaign focuses on how scouting builds confidence and leadership skills in participating girls. Just as importantly, selling cookies allows the girls to develop business skills and financial discipline.

And you just wanted a thin mint.

Customer Perception

This actually is what public relations is all about. Keep asking what you could do to improve customer loyalty. Wal-Mart is creating friends with their stance on medical insurance. A local plumber answers his phone with the phrase, “How can I make your day?” He also sends out gift certificates for free ice cream. And there was the army general, who while talking to his troops on the front lines, asked if they needed anything. One soldier said he could really use a Snickers bar. When the general got back to his headquarters, he ordered Snickers for every soldier in the field, and had them delivered to the front lines. Afterwards, one soldier said, “I would follow that general anywhere.”

Internal Marketing

Delta used to be my favorite airline. The employees were very friendly and helpful. They seemed to work together well. So it did not come as a complete surprise when I heard the employees of Delta Airlines gave their CEO a present. It was a new Boeing 757. The reason the employees gave was just that he was a nice guy. They paid the $30 million price tag by having weekly deductions taken out of their paychecks. Today, I doubt that they would buy their CEO a cigar.

The question to you is would your employees buy your CEO a cigar? If not, the work is cut out for you. Do you have an internal house organ written by the employees? Do you have goals for each employee and give rewards when they achieve them? Does management talk to each employee? Do you have gatherings where a line employee can slap a management employee on the back and ask, “How ya’ doin’?”

Always remember, effective internal marketing makes external marketing so much easier.

Community Relations

A good community relations program may help you obtain favorable financing for expansion, gain favorable treatment in the form of taxes and ordinances, and attract highly qualified employees. You should give thought to corporate sponsorship of various activities such as scholarship programs, performing arts programs, local athletic teams, and environmental programs.

Two examples of extensive community relations are Kmart and Sears. Kmart has donated $70 million to charity and Sears is helping renovate the homes of low-income families. Sears also saves jobs of employees who serve in the military so when they finish deployment they return to their jobs.

Objectives and Strategies

Following is your worksheet with some suggested topics. You can photocopy this page, or print out a copy from your downloaded Worksheets folder.

Worksheet 11–1 Public relations plan: Objectives and strategies

Notes

1. Ariel Kaminer, “The Makeup Floor at Bloomingdale’s Puts On a New Face,” New York Times, October 25, 2009, page 27; http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/25/nyregion/25critic.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=The%20Makeup%20Floor%20at%20Bloomingdale%E2%80%99s%20Puts%20On%20a%20New%20Face&st=Search.

2. http://www.brandchannel.com/home/post/2010/01/29/Girl-Scouts-USA-Begins-Viral-Leveraging-Of-Iconic-Cookie-Sales.aspx.