A ROLL OF NICKELS AND A PHONE BOOTH?
Public Relations Is More Than That Now
Recently, as a guest of Euro RSCG Worldwide Public relations, one of the brightest and most professional public relations firms I’ve come across in a long time, I heard a speech that summoned up the litany of memories and emotions I haven’t had or felt in decades. Let me say, at the outset, that the saving grace of the event for me was that I was sitting at the table with several of their executives and staff and specifically, the firm’s Senior Vice President Lisa Vanella and its CEO, Marian Salzman. Interesting. In my day at Ruder & Finn (1959 to the mid 60s) there were just a handful of women among us, including some extraordinary people, like Betty Cott (now Betty Ruder), who is still a very sharp and charming lady. The rest of us were eager and driven young men.
Now, at this meeting of the Fairfield County Public Relations Association, at least 80 or 90 percent of the attendees were women. Lisa Vanella told me that now public relations is a women’s profession. If Euro RSCG women are typical, public relations is better for it.
The startling thing, though, was a keynote speaker who summoned up memories of decades old complaints and misconceptions.
A former publishing director of a major public relations publication and now head of a prestigious society of public relations executives, she touched all the insecurities about being in public relations that have been talked about since public relations as we know it today first began. She also managed to misstate public relation’s role in marketing, and to mangle the relationship between marketing and public relations. Her speech dripped jargon.
For how many years have public relations practitioners, particularly in-house staffs, complained about not being understood or appreciated? How did the concept of silos, an interesting idea in the hands of the thoughtful professional services marketing consultant Suzanne Lowe, became a misunderstood cliché? Suzanne’s silos were marketing and practice development, and in her excellent book, The Integration Imperative, she advocated bringing the two together. Are people still talking about thought leadership without understanding that there’s really not much thought leadership in people who get a bright idea occasionally – or can talk in the right cliches? And since when is setting up straw men (or women) and knocking them down thought leadership?
I must say, parenthetically, that as uncomplicated as public relations really is, I’ve met few people who haven’t done it who speak knowingly about it, including many of the public relations journalists. I have known, over the years, several people who are considered thought leaders who have never made a placement nor designed a public relations strategy, nor have had to justify their fees or salaries based on a public relations campaign.
As many readers of these pages know, I did public relations for Air Force Intelligence during world War II. After the war, I did public relations for several companies and then with several agencies. I really learned skills and concepts (e.g. the difference between publicity and public relations). And if you’ve never gone head to head with an overworked editor, or produced an idea or plan to promote a client, don’t talk about thought leadership.
For as far back as I remember, there have always been public relations people who have felt that what they did was not as good as being, say, a lawyer or a doctor. A lot of inferiority there. Too bad. Bill Ruder, and my old mentor, Richard Weiner, and most of the people at the old R&F, were superior craftsmen, genuine thought leaders, and proud of their craft. Dick Weiner probably invented more public relations ideas that are now common practice than almost anybody in those early years. And by the way, public relations is a craft, although sometimes public relations is practiced more artfully and professionally than at other times. (When, some years later, I had my own investor relations firm, I interviewed a young man who told me his ambition was to counsel business CEOs . I suggested he get an MBA first.) One day, years ago, when I was a marketing director for a major accounting firm, I was chatting with Bill Ruder. I mentioned that I had just hired a public relations person who had a degree from a large university in public relations, and that he was remarkably well versed. To which Bill replied, “Ultimately, public relations is an art form, and if I never lose the art, I’ll have a successful career for a long time.” And he never did lose the art. After all these years, please, public relations people, lose the wannabe.
And then there’s this marketing thing. It’s what I do now, and I find it wryly amusing that so many public relations people don’t really understand that public relations, in its best sense, is not marketing, but is subsumed under marketing. It’s a marketing tool, one of many that includes intensive market research, advertising selling and so forth . I’ve done a great deal of marketing programs and plans, and rarely is it done without public relations as one of its many elements – starting with complex objectives and market assessments. (Unfortunately, much of marketing, like much of public relations, has a vast share of meaningless jargon. Like the words image or branding, which really means name recognition, perception, and reputation. They imply that if you don’t like the way you or your company are perceived, you can change that perception by manipulating symbols. No, you can’t.) And marketing, buy the way, is not a religion. It, too, is a craft. More complicated than public relations, but still a craft that must be practiced artfully. And again, public relations is just one of several tools we use in marketing.
It’s true that public relations is often used alone to promote a product, service or event. It’s usually, in this context, what we mean by the term publicity. In many instances it can even develop fads or produce sales. But in the context of marketing it’s part of the larger marketing strategy, not often a separate entity.
I enjoyed the lunch, and meeting the Euro RSCG Worldwide people. But I’m still – after all these years – troubled by public relations apologists. It’s an honorable craft, particularly as practiced by craftspeople who know what they’re doing.
Notice that in this article, I use the term public relations and not PR. That’s because I have too much respect for the people who practice it, and I don’t think it deserves to be diminished by abbreviating it.