by G.A.
"Andy" Marken
Marken
Communications
Over
the years, hundreds of highly
respected professionals and
educators have developed
comprehensive and often
complicated descriptions of what
makes for effective corporate
communications. There have
been heated discussions regarding
the separation of public relations
from advertising, public relations
from marketing, and the very role
public relations should play
within the organization.
What has been most
counter-productive is the PR
division's desire to distance
itself from the distasteful task
of actually "selling"
the company, its propositions, its
products, its technologies and its
services. If PR doesn't help
perpetuate the company, just what
value does it serve?
I recently read one of the
clearest, most concise and
understandable definitions of
public relations. It stripped
away all of the rhetoric and all
of the lofty philosophy:
"Effective public relations
is simply applied common
sense."
Common sense says that a company
must achieve sales and must
produce profit if it is to
survive. Done properly,
public relations adds value to a
company by helping it better
employ people, provide a return to
shareholders, and deliver
product/service value to
customers.
Common sense says that for company
programs to be successful they
must be founded on business
objectives, not "PR"
objectives. They must focus on the
company's brand equity, not on
individual products. This branding
activity must extend beyond media
relations, charitable giving,
legislative relations and other
niches.
Accomplishing all of this is no
easy task. It means that the
firm's public relations activities
-- internal and external -- have
to understand and be involved in
building and promoting the
company's brand franchise. Some
people like to refer to this
process as integrated marketing
communications (IMC). I prefer not
to apply some self-limiting label,
but rather to think of it as doing
what is necessary to ensure the
company survives and prospers.
It requires the company to have a
public relations team that is
involved in building trust with
all of the firm's buyers and
sellers. Public relations
professionals can't simply go to
senior management, plead their
case and get a mandate to be
responsible for representing the
company's total activities. That
just won't happen.
They need to start slow and take
small steps. Public relations is a
service and support function, not
a policy direction activity. PR
people need to advise and assist
in branding activities online and
offline. They need to become
involved in assisting purchasing,
HR, sales activities, face-to-face
encounter training, trade show
activities, Web activities
including customer
service/customer support, and
other efforts that involve the
company's brand franchise and the
organization's bottom line
results.
Next page > Wasted
PR Efforts > Page 1,
2, 3
Prior
to forming Marken Communications
in mid-1977, Andy Marken was vice
president of Bozell & Jacobs
and its predecessor agencies.
Marken Communications is a
full-service agency that
concentrates on
business-to-business market
planning, positioning,
development, and communications.
For more information, visit www.markencom.com
or write Andy@markencom.com
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