Public Relations, Sponsorship and Corporate Advertising

Business 6210, Winter 2008

Deanne Fisher

Objectives

• To provide an overview of public relations• To explore corporate communications• To examine crisis communications• To understand marketing public relations

Definition

• Traditional Definition of PR

The management function which evaluates public attitudes, identifies the policies and procedures of an organization with the public interest, and executes a program of action (and communication) to earn public understanding and acceptance.

( Definition by the Public Relation News)

Advantages and Disadvantages• Advantages

– Credibility – Cost – Avoidance of clutter– Ability to reach specific groups

• Disadvantages– Potential for not completing the communications

process– Potential for lack of communication with rest of IMC

program– Timing not completely controllable– Inaccuracies, omissions, etc.

Overview of Public Relations• Public relations

– Important in relationship marketing– Credibility builder– Can be focused on corporate brand or product

brand

• Types of public relations– Corporate relations – Crisis management – Marketing public relations – Media relations– Employee relations– Financial or investor relations

PR Strategy and Planning1. Situation Analysis:

• Determine and evaluate public attitudes

2. Establish a PR plan– Define PR problems (based on SA)– Determine relevant PR audiences

• Internal & External

– Define messages (worthy of public interest)– Choose PR tools *

3. Implement the plan

4. Evaluate– Measures of actual PR activities undertaken– Measures of audience reception and understanding– Measures of perceptual and behavioral changes

Corporate Relations• Corporate advertising = is designed to promote the

firm overall, by enhancing its image, assuming a position on a social issue or cause, or seeking direct involvement in something

• Types• Corporate identity advertising • Advocacy advertising • Social issue advertising • Cause-related advertising *• Event sponsorships

• Corporate mission and vision• Corporate image and reputation

– Image is created– Reputation is earned

Event Sponsorship• Objectives• Criteria

– Consistency with brand image– Access to target audience– Low risk of sponsor misidentification– Low clutter– Fit with other sponsorships, marcoms– Economically viable

• Ambush marketing• Evaluation

Crisis Management

• Crises we can learn from:– Tylenol (1982)– Exxon Valdez (1989)– NYC 9/11 (2001)

Crisis Management

• Advice from the experts– Be realistic. Crises happen. Plan for them.– Only designated executives should talk to the media– Explain what happened as you understand it– Tell what the company is doing to minimize the

damage– Express sympathy and concern for injured parties and

their families– Do not admit liability without knowing all the facts

(which can take weeks or months to gather)

Marketing Public Relations

• Involves an organization’s interactions with consumers

• Proactive MPR• Reactive MPR

Proactive MPR

• MPR adds value to IMC by:– Building excitement before media advertising breaks– Creating advertising news when there is no product

news– Introducing a product with little or no advertising– Providing value-added customer service– Building brand-to-customer bonds– Influencing opinion leaders– Defending products at risk and giving consumers a

reason to buy

Reactive MPR

• Negative product publicity– Product defects and failures– Product tampering– Rumors *

• Conspiracy rumors• Contamination rumors

– Persistent rumors (all false)• Procter & Gamble *• Kentucky Fried Chicken *• Corona *

Rumors and Rumor Control

• Dealing with rumors: Don’t overreact– Alert procedure– Evaluation– Decide whether to go public – judgment call– Media campaign (if necessary)

Corporate Hate Sites

• Get there first– Buy the URLs for the company name followed by

the word "sucks.com."

• Fix the problem• Tell your side of the story• Sue?

– Does not usually work

Summary• PR is highly credible, but not very controllable, and,

as its name indicates, is focused on building and maintaining relationships, an essential aspect of IMC

• Corporate advertising is controversial area –questionably effective – but corporate relations in general is very important in IMC

• A crisis management plan is important and can have huge effects on organizational reputation

• MPR can be both proactive and reactive, and is focused on the brand, rather than the organization