PR Studies

Corporate reputation management: Nestle

Here are some links for a case study we'll be exploring in class on Monday.

What is Nestle best known for? Confectionery (KitKat) and coffee (Nescafe) are the most recognisable of its many brands.

What about the company's strategic direction? Nestle says it is 'the world's leading nutrition, health and wellness company' and that it is committed to increasing the nutritional value of its products while improving the taste. The UK site is more explicit, claiming it's 'putting health and wellness at the heart of our business'.

As The Economist explores this week, this is a bold claim for a chocolate company ('The unrepentant chocolatier'). What are the risks and challenges arising from this focus?

We'll be analysing whether this corporate strategy is consistent with what we can know of the organisation's culture and values. How should this strategy influence corporate communications?

And then there's the long-running saga of the promotion of infant formula in the developing world. Nestle defends its actions as responsible and agrees in most cases that 'breast is best'. Yet the campaign isn't going away, and has become a defining issue for anti-globalisation activists. What can and should the company do about this? What effect could this have on its reputation, particularly in light of the focus on health and wellness?

Georgia on my mind

I spoke remotely to a class of students at Georgia Southern University yesterday. Despite some technical difficulties, we had an interesting discussion about trends in international public relations.

In follow up, one of the class - Sarah Wilson - has asked me four good questions which I'll attempt to answer here.

1. What do you do to keep current on PR trends?

I'm a member of our professional body (the CIPR); I read books on and around the subject; I blog about PR and read PR blogs; I talk to practitioners and students; I teach practitioners who are studying for a PR qualification; I attend conferences; I'm a member of PROpenMic.

If I had to pick just one of these, books are still be best way to gain a deeper understanding of a subject.

2. How has PR changed since you entered the industry?

The principles haven't changed in 20 years - but the practice has changed a lot (though it still has some way to go). Looking back, for many years I didn't do public relations - I simply did media relations (and most of that was press relations).

PR has changed as the media landscape has evolved, most notably with the emergence of social media.

But as Sir Martin Sorrell suggested, there are other factors too: the internationalisation of business, the importance of internal communications ('change management'); the agenda around legitimacy and corporate responsibility; the rise of activism.

In summary, looking back I'd say I provided an important tactical tool to my clients. Yet public relations advisers are today in a position to provide key strategic advice.

3. Do you believe that marketing and advertising are encroaching into public relations (eg through relationship marketing)? If yes, please give an example. 

This question is hugely significant to people who work in public relations and to public relations academics - since the future of the discipline is at stake. But I suspect it's of less interest to clients.

There is no question in my mind that certain promotional techniques have been losing effectiveness in our short-attention-span economy. Public relations - either through editorial endorsement or through other forms of third party recommendation - has been a beneficiary from the relative decline of advertising. Yet marketing is not standing still and relationship marketing, viral marketing, word of mouth marketing, social marketing, cause-related marketing etc are all ways in which marketing is seeking to colonise part of the space historically occupied by public relations.

I suggest you need to separate out the purpose for which PR is being used. If it's being used to promote sales, then this is a marketing function and PR needs to find its niche in the marketing mix (the traditional exclusive domain of marketing PR has been media relations, as discussed earlier).

If the purpose of PR is to ensure the organisation's social legitimacy (and thus its long-term survival and success), then I view this as the domain of public relations (or corporate communications), not of marketing. Your question asks about case studies - and clearly there's a need for these to demonstrate to others that public relations can play this more strategic role. Among academics, Charles Fombrun has done most to articulate the field of corporate reputation management and to provide tools for measuring corporate reputation.

The case study I would have talked to you about yesterday, had there been time, is a contradictory one. It's the award-winning PR campaign for Queensland Tourism ('The Best Job in the World'). It's contradictory because the winning team is a Australian advertising agency, CumminsNitro. PR may be a powerful tool, but there's nothing to stop others learning some lessons.

4. What three tips would you give to someone just starting in PR?

One. Start with your own public relations. Join networks and put energy into your chosen networks. Look to get known and take note of your Google search rankings.

Two. It's good to be open-minded and capable of learning - but you'll get hired for being passionate and expert. So look for a sector to specialise in. (As Weber Shandwick's Colin Byrne tells graduates, it's better to know everything about something than something about everything).

Three. Be curious and keep learning. Don't be afraid to ask!

PR and the media

I asked a group of students to list all available media channels for an imaginary local awareness campaign.

They began with mass media (print and broadcast) but quickly added social media. Soon they were thinking more creatively about the meaning of media ('means of communication') and were creating events and other opportunities to meet important groups of people.

Contrast this with the chapter I've just consulted in a very recent - and rather good - textbook on marketing communications. The chapter on media management is a straightforward (and very old-fashioned) account of media buying for a conventional advertising campaign. Social media and unmediated communication received no mention.

I recognise that I'm not comparing like with like. I also see that it's easier for students to think broadly since they've not been conditioned to focus on one channel (eg editorial coverage) - but I find the contrast highly encouraging.

The CIPR student representatives I met yesterday proposed many very good ideas for Behind the Spin magazine. Also very encouraging.

A good week for bad PR

I've been updating my lecture notes on 'PR as publicity'.

Traditionally, the academic world has not shown an interest in this field. Yet Jacquie L'Etang, the academics' academic, wrote this in her new textbook in a discussion of celebrity PR:

'Much of the PR role in celebrity circles is focused on promotion, publicity and media relations, and public relations has received some of its bad press from this association’. Yet ‘according to public relations scholarly conventions, publicity is a small part of public relations’.

Publicity is the most visible part of PR, and so it's open to criticism and discussion. There's criticism when PR stunts backfire, as happened to a mobile phone company in Latvia. There's much discussion when individuals create hoaxes as an attention-seeking ruse.

I'm not sure the public is any more or less gullible than in the past, but the speed with which rumours can circulate from blog to newsroom and on to social media sites makes it easier to set the hare running (and makes fact-checking online a difficult exercise).

I can defend PR-as-entertainment (in the style of 'Freddie Starr Ate My Hamster'). But a discussion of PR as publicity has to lead into a discussion of ethical principles. Good causes have to adhere to first principles, however much they may be tempted to use shock and exaggeration to further their aims.

Planning process: linear or lateral?

The planning process is taught in linear fashion: A leads to B, then to C and so on. This provides reassuring templates to help people (appear to) cope with complexity.

In an intriguing passing comment, Phillips and Young challenge this rational, linear approach in the new edition of Online Public Relations:

‘Put simply, we need to be able to plan for surprises in this fast-changing world… The idea that one can run a ‘PR campaign’ is now flawed. A ‘campaign’ once had time limits and could thus be dropped after the event, but this does not apply today.’

I suspect the variables have always existed that could blow a campaign off course. Online conversations do not change this, but they do exacerbate the effect.

CIPR Diploma candidates were working on a communications campaign around swine flu vaccination in the summer: a very real and substantial challenge. Most coped very well with the linear process, but few submissions that I saw had fully assessed the range of risks to the campaign. How to manage the rationing of the vaccine? How to address the concerns about safety and efficacy of the vaccine, even amongst health workers and at-risk groups?

For those still interested in the complexities of this case, Simon Garfield has investigated the role of pharmaceutical companies and the challenges facing government in the campaign against swine flu in the Observer magazine today: Catch it! Bin it! Profit from it!

Recognition, renown and rewards offered to student bloggers

The European Public Relations Research Association (Euprera) is to recgonise PR student bloggers with its new EuroBlog Social Media Awards 2010.

Three PR student bloggers will have an expenses-paid trip to the Euprera Spring Symposium in Ghent, Belgium from 25-27 February 2010. They will each also receive a cash prize of 250 euros.

All those submitting their blogs for the awards will be listed on the Euprera Social Media Awards site, which has details of how to enter and rules.

State of the blogosphere 2009

Technorati's annual report is available here. What's happening to blogging now the chatter's all on Twitter and the buzz is on social networks?

We tend to be eduated, male, middle aged and affluent. Then there's the rise of the professional blogger, though in the past year Steve Rubel has defected from blogging to 'lifestreaming'. As he explains:

'Lifestreaming to date has meant aggregating all of one's streams at a single point. This was the value of Friendfeed. However, it's evolving to mean using a hub as a launching point for your content, syndicating it out to your "spokes" (eg the social networks where one chooses to engage) and then conversing about it in both locations.'

...and statistics

Ofcom says that social media usage is surging (with 38% of UK internet users having a profile on a social networking site like Facebook).

Online and telephone bank First Direct goes further, claiming that over half of the UK population are actively creating content online. In response to this new 'age of openness' the bank has created a microsite to welcome twitter-length feedback.

I'm curious - but not convinced. People may be online, but most are lurkers not active participants. There are many places for expressing our opinions so why create a new one? I've heard today that First Direct does monitor the social web and is very quick to respond to feedback. My comment on the microsite is that I'm a contented long-time customer of First Direct, but that I've had a bruising experience with Equity Red Star car insurance bought through the bank that risks damaging the bank's reputation.

'Markets are conversations' revisited

Ten years ago, The Cluetrain Manifesto was published on the web, declaring that 'markets are conversations' and proclaiming 'the end of business as usual'. What happened next?

The dot com bubble burst in early 2000 (the book was the authors' attempt to prick this bubble, or specifically the millions being spent advertising risky startup businesses). Google, Amazon and eBay are notable survivors from this era.

Then so-called Web 2.0 emerged from the wreckage, and the optimism returned. The social media landscape seemed to prove the central thesis that 'markets are conversations' as blogging, social networks and Twitter emerged and gained critical mass.We the people appeared to take over the web and The Cluetrain Manifesto achieved iconic status.

In the tenth anniversary edition, the authors revisit their text in four new essays, supported by three contributions by some notable friends of Cluetrain. (We also get the explanation of the cluetrain word, which didn't make it into the first print edition).

The original authors are considered and humane in their reflections; they've grown wiser and some have moved on to other things, giving them a broader perspective. The most cogent critique we have of Cluetrain comes from the original authors themselves.

Rick Levine (who now makes chocolate truffles for a living) tackles the central concept. Markets may be conversations, but that's not all they are. 'Everything that happens in a market falls into just three categories', he writes: 'transaction, conversation and relationship.'

'In our First World business culture, transaction matters most, conversation less, and relationship least... By looking at markets through the prism of transaction, or even conversation, we miss the importance of relationship. We also don't see how relationship has a value all its own: one that transcends, even as it improves, the other two.'

So the next challenge is to study another thesis: markets are relationships.

Levine and Doc Searls, another of the authors, do this by reviewing the state of CRM - customer relationship management. Public relations - another industry with the relationships concept embedded in its name - doesn't feature, so there's more work to be done here (following David Phillips's lead).

Levine notes that they may have been too quick to dismiss advertising (thesis 74: 'We are immune to advertising. Just forget it.'). Ten years on, there's more advertising than ever (but it's spread across many more media channels).

'Trust me. It's still a bubble', he writes. 'So is the rest of the "attention economy" that includes promotion, public relations, direct marketing, and other ways of pushing messages through media.' Levine argues that this attention economy will still crash.

In his broad-ranging essay, David Weinberger asks whether we can still be optimistic about the internet. He divides us into three categories: utopians, dystopians and realists. 'Utopians and dystopians think the Web has uncanny power because they are closet McLuhanites who think media transform institutions and even consciousness. Realists feel the inertial weight of existing institutions and social structures, and thus tend to think any changes the Internet brings will be slow and minimal.'

With Shel Israel's Twitterville, we're onto more conventional business publishing territory. Based on the post-Cluetrain premise that we're no longer in the era of broadcasting but in the era of conversations, the book provides some fresh and well-written case studies of how businesses of all shapes and sizes are using Twitter to get closer to customers.

It's unchallenging stuff; only towards the end is the darker side of Twitter explored (scams, spam, trolls and identify theft).

The book will satisfy two groups: business executives needing examples of 'markets are conversations' and individuals needing some advice on getting started.

But it's light on analysis. Does Twitter work so well alongside other social media spaces (blogs, photo sharing etc) because it's a push channel? We're not told, though the author quotes one of his interviewees saying this in contrasting Twitter with blogging: 'One is very fast but constrained to shallow content. The other is longer and deeper but does not draw traffic as easily.'

There's a good section on institutions speaking with a human voice (a Cluetrain concept): 'Because messages must be so short, Twitter filters out adjectives and conditional phrases, leaving posts that are unusually succinct, candid and clear.' Yet it would be just as easy to show that Twitter exchanges are gnomic and exclusive.

Israel is a cheerleader for Twitter and this publishing genre doesn't allow for critique. He's keen to disown his past as a publicist, yet this book reads like a one-sided PR account.

What became of blogging, a previous Next Big Thing? Wasn't Israel's last book, Naked Conversations written with Robert Scoble, an equally optimistic account of how blogging was transforming the way businesses talk to customers? They even criticised Google and Apple for being less than encouraging of employee blogs: remind me, how have those two businesses done since 2006?

The problem with relentless optimism is that it requires you to have no memory. But then, in Weinberger's analysis I'm a realist - and always tried to be even when I worked in public relations.

If less is more...

If less is more, then logically least is most of all. This takes us into the debates around Chris Anderson's latest book, Free.

Today we learn that the London Evening Standard is to be given away free, despite the closure of The London Paper.

It's easy to envisage there being a large market for free in the digital world (websites, music, software), but it remains harder to see the commercial case for free in the world of atoms (eg newspapers).

Somewhere in between free and expensive, we can anticipate the emergence of niche markets for 'less'. Here's Mark Simmons introducing his latest venture, USE LESS - a for-profit business in the US that's more about the message than the product (encouraging a more sustainable model of consumption). Simmons is the co-author of Punk Marketing; to make a full disclosure, he's also my brother in law.

Public relations literature barely touches on these concepts, even though a free model has long been built into the publicity and media relations models. Yet, in defending the excellence theory, Grunig and White wrote in 1992: 

‘In short, excellent organizations realize that they can get more of what they want by giving publics some of what they want.' 

The inherent compromises built into public relations (whichever model is practised) suggest PR should be flexible enough to cope with different business models - even free.

Opportunties with Behind the Spin

It's the start of a new university year - and time to tell you what's happening with Behind the Spin, the CIPR-supported PR student magazine.

We always welcome news and articles of interest to our readers, and are particularly inviting contributions on the following themes:

• Placement year experiences
• Celebrities and public relations
• PR courses

Contact me (editor@behindthespin.com) as soon as possible if you're interested: articles on these themes will be published through October. Looking further ahead, there are some forward features listed on the About page.

Note the opportunity next year for a guest editor (or guest editorial team) to decide the content, commission articles and help with the editing process.

We're also looking for a news editor to manage the News page. I can tell you more about the role, but it's a good opportunity to learn more about how the PR business works and to network with practitioners and other universities.

I'll be discussing all this when I meet the new CIPR student reps in London on 4 November.

Land of the brand

Interbrand's annual league table of global brands shows continued dominance of US brands, though financial services businesses have been damaged by the recession. The UK only has four in the top 100: HSBC, BP, Smirnoff and Burberry. What does that say about our economy?

Suddenly I see

Having participated in a busy day at the CIPR academic conference in Stirling, here's what I think the real agenda was. Not the motivation for individual research projects nor the competition to be the most prominent hub of public relations education in the UK. The conference theme was the 'PR professional project' and the challenge to all academics and educators is to make the case that public relations is - or can be - practised for the public good.

Symmetry/excellence, a stakeholder/relationship management approach, the 'marketplace of ideas' in a free society, the use of public relations by activists as well as by corporations, concerns about diversity amongst practitioners, the ideas are there to make the case. The problem is, this thinking does not reach enough practitioners (though degrees and the CIPR Diploma qualification are making a difference) and public relations thought is often isolated from business and management education. An academic inferiority complex was another strong thread at the conference.

Philip Young's paper on the representation of PR in popular literature was a highlight of day one. It illustrated these themes surprisingly well, since the effective practitioners - usually male - were devious and manipulative while the ineffective practitioners were frequently female. We're damned if we do, and damned if we don't. Yet fifty years ago the PR role needed explaining in these novels; now there's at least there's some level of recognition.

UPDATE: I received several requests for the slides, so I'm making them public here on Slideshare. (In the event, the time I had to talk was shorter than expected and interrupted by a fire alarm.)

Build a network, not a company

In discussing the future of newspapers, Jeff Jarvis makes an articulate case for a new business model for the post-industrial economy:

"When you think of news instead as the province of an ecosystem that is distributed and owned at the edges by many players operating under many means, motives, and models, then the notion of contribution, ownership, and control changes. People own their own stakes but they benefit by joining together cooperatively. They create a tide upon which all their ships rise. That’s a network, not a company."

Among the comments, someone points out that this is idealistic. Yet Jarvis cites some thriving examples of the community model (Wikipedia, Craigslist) and idealism begins to look realistic once all other avenues have been explored.

Apart from the importance of news channels to public relations, there are wider implications here too. It's possible to see public relations in a community engagement role; its purpose being legitimacy and licence to operate over the longer term rather than short-term profits.

Brands, relationships and social capital

Today's Observer column by John Naughton contrasts the impatience of the market for immediate returns with the need for a long-term approach to social media engagement. He quotes blogger Michael Foley saying: 

"There are a lot of big brands dedicating resources to social media lately, because it is the new 'bright shiny thing'. I'm worried that these big brands may feel the need to shut down these social media business experiments if they don't see results - meaning big revenue - in time for the next quarterly earnings report.

"It takes time to build relationships and develop trust, especially if you've been neglecting your customers for a long time - and most brands have. They're already suspicious of you because you're selling something. Real relationships aren't built on the salesman's need to move product on deadline. They are built on a mutual exchange of value over time. Don't think of your social media presence as an experiment, but as an investment so that you can obtain social capital in the long term."