What Does the Public Relations Client REALLY Want, and Why?

What Does the Public Relations

Client REALLY Want, and Why?



It's not unusual for clients of service providers to insist that

their budget dollars be quickly applied to a variety of flashy

tactics. Yet, when pressed, many acknowledge that what they

REALLY want for their money is visible, end-game change.



This is especially true in public relations where clients often

second-guess careful plans for achieving that end-game

change by insisting on premature use of tactics like news

releases, talk-show appearances and sports sponsorships.



But obviously, flashy tactics alone will not satisfy those

clients once they start looking for a return on their public

relations investment. Because it is then that it becomes clear,

sometimes painfully, that their goal MUST be the

kind of change in the behaviors of key stakeholders that

lead directly to achieving their business objectives. Thus,

it is quality planning, and the degree of behavioral change

it produces, that eventually captures client attention,

not tactics.



These days, with public relations budgets always in mortal

danger, tactical chats between a client CEO and public

relations counsel probably sound like this: "Do something

about those activists chaining themselves to our plant gate

and yelling that our emissions go into the river. It's costing

us big money each day that plant is shut down."



Or, "How are we going to calm down those Garden Club

members down in the lobby waving around those

cockamamie newspaper reports and talking to the TV

cameras about the additives we use? Where'd that reporter

get those numbers, anyway? It's costing us sales!"



Or, "Please people, what are you doing to encourage a

favorable Town Council vote on our petition for that new

highway off-ramp?"



What's common to each of those rants? The CEO is asking

his public relations people to modify somebody's behavior.

He doesn't want to talk tactics, or even strategies. He wants

those activists off his property, he wants those print and

broadcast reporters to do a fairer job of reporting on his

production methods (hopefully getting the Garden Clubbers

off his back), and he wants a real effort made to

move public opinion in a way that encourages local officials

to approve that badly needed vehicle ramp.



Modify somebody's behavior, that's his goal, and

that's the job of the public relations agency and its

client's corporate professionals. Fortunately, the

key to a successful effort is the fact that people

really DO act on their perception of the facts. In

so doing, and in a cumulative way, they form the

very public opinion that those practitioners must

now inform.



So, what is their strategy? In short, to reach those

perceptions with the facts as they know them.

Hopefully, the messages they use will be clear and

persuasive, and will change negative or inaccurate

perceptions, then alter behaviors in the client

company's direction.



Using the three examples above, when the activists

become satisfied with explanations of the company's

new, public commitment to correct their emission

problems, the protesters can be expected to leave the plant

gates.



Editorial board meetings with local newspapers and

television stations will begin to bear fruit with more

balanced reportage of the company's efforts to meet

emission standards which, in turn, will reduce negative

public opinion.



And, while the agency's briefing sessions with town

council staff will do little to hasten a formal vote, a targeted

communications effort is likely to lead to a community

opinion poll showing positive movement in public, then

official sentiment about the new highway off-ramp.



In the end, a sound public relations strategy combined

with effective tactics leads directly to the bottom line –

perceptions altered; behaviors modified; client satisfied.



end



Bob Kelly counsels, writes and speaks to business, non-profit and

association managers about using the fundamental premise of public

relations to achieve their operating objectives. He has been DPR,

Pepsi-Cola Co.; AGM-PR, Texaco Inc.; VP-PR, Olin Corp.; VP-PR,

Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co.; director of communi- cations, U.S. Department of the Interior, and deputy assistant press

secretary, The White House. He holds a bachelor of science degree

from Columbia University, major in public relations.

mailto:bobkelly@TNI.net Visit:http://www.prcommentary.com