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What new challenges emerge when public relations strategies take on a global perspective?

12 The Public Relations Department Given the importance of the general public to business and the potential for business to significantly benefit or harm the public, firms often create public relations departments, appoint public relations officers, and develop public affairs strategies to manage their rela- tionship with the public. Bill Nielsen, former corporate vice president of public affairs at Johnson & Johnson, clearly articulated the importance of an effective public relations approach for businesses: In today's increasingly global world of business, there is a clear and, I believe, pressing agenda for public relations. ... The agenda is all about the critical compo- nents of reputation that have to do with values and trust-trustworthiness being the ultimate condition of public approval that we seek for our companies, our clients, and our profession-on a global scale and wherever in the world we operate. The role of the public relations department is to manage the firm's public image and. more generally, its relationship with the public. This department may also be called media relations, since much of its work involves interacting with the media. It does so through direct communications with the public (for example, through its website) and indirect communications with them through various media outlets. Most public relations officers have close links with top managers. According to a study by the Foundation for Public Affairs, nearly half of the public affairs executives surveyed report directly to the CEO. chairman of the board of directors, or company president, and another nearly 30 percent report to the company's general counsel. According to the report, because of this access. public affairs executives have been able to persuade CEOs to become increasingly involved in corporate public affairs activities. The specific major activities carried out by public relations managers include: Advertising: Preparation, purchase, and placement of purposefully planned and exe- cuted messages in selected media to further the interest of an organization or person. Corporate sponsorship: Providing support to an event or a cause by devoting corpo rate resources in exchange for an opportunity to enhance goodwill, product image. and sales. External communications: Controlled and uncontrolled messages disseminated in the mass media as well as other communications media, including pamphlets, brochures. Internal communications: Planned messages disseminated to employees through a vari- ety of communications channels, including newsletters, bulletin boards, payroll stuffers, . . posters, and so on. media to further the interest of an organization or person without specific payment Publicity: Dissemination of purposefully planned and executed messages to selected to media, Chapter 19 The Corporate Reputation 23 Using Technology-Enhanced Channels for Public Relations Historically, public relations officers worked mostly through contact with traditional media outlets. An organization worked to enhance its public image by seeking positive coverage in news reports and feature stories, or by paid advertisements via television, radio, maga zines, newspapers, or billboards. Public relations may still utilize these interactions, but as new technologies have emerged, the variety of available channels of communication has grown dramatically. More and more people are finding their news, marketing, or other pub- lic relations information through Internet-related vehicles, such as blogs, e-mails, social networking, podcasts, cell phones, and other technology-based communication sources Many firms, from chocolate makers to pharmaceuticals, are using social networking to connect with their past or potential customers, prospective employees, and others in the communities where they operate as shown in these examples Hershey's, the chocolate manufacturer, launched its Simple Pleasures line to provide a product without compromise: good taste and less fat. To share its newest creation with consumers, Hershey's launched a campaign with traditional media outreach to bloggers newspapers, wires, and magazines a custom Facebook tab where visitors could declare their Sweet Independence and receive a coupon; a road tour to 10 cities, where con sumers could try the candy and declare "Sweet Independence through a custom iPad app: a 70-blog tour through The Motherhood with a Twitter party that resulted in #hysimplepleasures becoming the No. 1 trending topic on Twitter, and employee awareness by setting up stations for Hershey's staff to stop by and play games, listen to music, and declare Sweet Independence and enjoy chocolates. The campaign bad upwards of 217 media hits, more than 25,000 likes on Facebook, and distribution of 13.500 samples. The initial sales of Simple Pleasures exceeded forecasts. Bristol-Myers Squibb wanted to bring attention to the important social issue of men contracting melanoma, a type of skin cancer. To hit its target market, this campaigt. identified NFL spokespeople to raise awareness: set up an interactive website with educational video and details on local screenings, attracted gamers through a football-themed game called Football Avenue: operated a mobile exam room at highly attended NFL events; and leveraged the NFL's digital reach through Facebook and Twitter. After attending events, 81 percent of respondents said they were more knowl- edgeable about melanoma: 42 million people were reached through NFL digital enti- tles: and 176 million media impressions. Public relations strategies increasingly assume a global focus, since business interac- tions with the public through media channels frequently transcend national boundaries. Therefore, many businesses have extended their public relations strategies globally, as shown in the following example. P&G (formerly Procter & Gamble), based in Cincinnati, Ohio, is the largest con- sumer packaged goods company in the world. P&G created a comprehensive, yet unified network of public affairs departments to address the flow of information from the company to and from its stakeholders around the world. At P&G, public affairs is broken down into functions (corporate communications, global marketing and consumer and marketing knowledge, corporate digital communications, and global business services), product lines (male grooming, female beauty and groom- ing, cosmetics, fine fragrances, oral care, feminine care, baby care, general health care, pet care and snacks), and geographical regions (North America contacts, 16 Ohio government relations, multicultural marketing public relations). Each contact point has its own set of contact information directing you to a person, location, office telephone number, mobile telephone number, and e-mail address. When public relations strategies take on a global perspective, new challenges emerge. For example, public relations managers must be sensitive to cultural disparities, as well as similarities, in crafting press releases and interactions with the media. The impact of the organization's public relations program could vary country to country given the cul- ture, social mores, political system, or history. A public relations manager must be able to communicate with local media and other stakeholder groups in their native language and avoid embarrassing or misleading communication due to poor translations. All of the basic public relations tasks are more complex in an international business environment." Some businesses decentralize their global public relations programs and establish offi- cers in each of the locations where they have operations. This helps to ensure that the local public relations strategy is in tune with local customs and emerging issues. "Forward thinking companies will become more decentralized in their ... communications. They will increasingly put tools out there to arm influencers, peers, enthusiasts, customers, and prospects, as well as employees and then get out of the way and let the magic happen." explained Bob Geller, senior vice president at Fusion Public Relations