How Small Businesses Can Tap Into Current Trends in Public Relations

By Bolaji Okusaga

OutlineOutline PART ONE: Public Relations in PART ONE: Public Relations in

PracticePractice Corporate Objective and

Stakeholder Theory Stakeholder Relationships Public Relations Defined Public Relations in Practice Public Relations in Organisation

Stakeholder Dialogue Creating the Link PR, the Media and Messaging

PART TWO: The Route from PART TWO: The Route from “Mass”“Mass”

to “You” Mediato “You” Media The Meaning of “Message” The Old Focus of Messaging Characteristics of Old Media

Messaging The Changing Media Landscape From Mass Media to YOU Media The Death of One Message Fits

All. From Mass to Target Marketing

PART THREE: The Context and PART THREE: The Context and Content Content

ConvergenceConvergence

New Media Platforms and the stakeholder

The stakeholder as ‘Slave’ to Information

Life Without the Internet or the Mobile Phone

The Medium is the Message Mass Messaging and Mass

Production Mass Messaging and the Demands

of the New Age Is There Really a Gate-Keepers? The Real Gate-Keepers

PART FOUR: Market InsightsPART FOUR: Market Insights Ration of PR Budget to Gross

Revenue The Correlation Recommendations Conclusion

PART ONEPART ONE

Public Relations in Public Relations in PracticePractice

Corporate Objective and Corporate Objective and Stakeholder TheoryStakeholder Theory

Stakeholder theory begins with the hypothesis that shared values are essentially part of doing business

It address the Principle of Who or What Really Counts by establishing which groups are Stakeholders in a corporation

In traditional input-output models of the corporation, Organisations use the inputs of investors, employees, and suppliers and converts it to usable outputs

By this model, firms only address the needs and wishes of four parties: Investors, Employees, Suppliers and Customers

Contemporary Stakeholder theory however recognizes other parties

such as government, political groups, trade associations, trade unions, communities, associated corporations, etc as Stakeholders.

The theory recognizes that Stakeholders are constituencies that contribute, either voluntarily or involuntarily, to an Organisation’s wealth-creating capacity, and may be its beneficiaries and/or risk bearers

In fulfilling its Corporate Objective therefore, an Organisation must clearly identify its Stakeholders and strategically relate with them.

POTENTIALPOTENTIAL EMPLOYEESEMPLOYEES

EMPLOYEESEMPLOYEES

DISTRIBUTION / CHANNEL DISTRIBUTION / CHANNEL PARTNERSPARTNERS

MAJOR MAJOR CUSTOMERSCUSTOMERS

REGULATORSREGULATORS

FINANCIAL ANALYST / BUSINESS PRESSFINANCIAL ANALYST / BUSINESS PRESS

BUSINESS LEADERSBUSINESS LEADERS

COMMUNITIESCOMMUNITIES

PORTFOLIO MANAGERS / INVESTORSPORTFOLIO MANAGERS / INVESTORS

CUSTOMERSCUSTOMERS

PATH

OF R

EFEREN

CE

PATH

OF R

EFEREN

CE

PATH O

F IN

FLUENCE

PATH O

F IN

FLUENCE

Stakeholder Stakeholder RelationshipsRelationships

Source: Regis McKennaSource: Regis McKenna

Public Relations DefinedPublic Relations Defined Communication with various sectors of the public to

influence their attitudes and opinions in the interest of promoting a person, product or idea

– Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania

An activity meant to improve the project organization’s environment in order to improve project performance and reception

– McCombs School of Business, University of Texas

A deliberate, planned and sustained effort to institute and maintain mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics

– Institute of Public Relations, UK

Public Relations in PracticePublic Relations in Practice Generally, Public Relations function as the conduit of the

organisation to the world outside

Small Business owners must therefore, be abreast with their organisation’s / Client’s vision, mission, strategy, corporate concern and culture

They also need to understand their place in the place of PR in their company’s overall objective and to understand the market environment in which they operates

The Small Business Owner should read the competitive landscape and be able to predict the move of competition

He /She needs to be able to identify the organisation’s different stakeholders and the varying expectations that arise from operations and interaction with these stakeholders

Finally, the Small Business Owner must be able to relate his activities with the drive at achieving the organisation’s objectives.

Public Relations in Public Relations in Organisation Stakeholder Organisation Stakeholder DialogueDialogue

Public Relations is the art and science of building relationships between an organization and its key publics

Public Relations engenders purposeful communications between an Organisation and its publics, it is proactive and future orientated, and has the goal of building and maintaining a positive perception of an organisation in the mind of its publics.

In the dialogue between Organisations and their stakeholders, the following branches of Public Relations suffice:

Employee / Labour Relations

Customer Relations Investor Relations Media Relations Government

Relations Community Relations Reputation

Management Issues Management Crisis Management

Creating the LinkCreating the Link Small Business Owners need to measure their

activities against their goals

They must develop PR metrics which correlate with their objective

They must initiate programmes which cover the entire competitive landscape with a view to seizing the higher ground for their Organisations / Clients

In relating with the media, they must think of the media as a channel to the target Stakeholders

PR, The Media and MessagingPR, The Media and Messaging The information technology revolution has

created a new world order.

This is so because this revolution has called to question the efficacy of the traditional media in mass messaging and communication.

The proliferation of media platforms that has come in the wake of this revolution has also clustered the world of the receivers of media messages and is gradually clustering the world of the modern stakeholder.

In the drive at reaching its target, organisations are now having to redefine and redesign their communication routes.

PART TwoPART Two

The Route from “Mass” The Route from “Mass” to “You’ Mediato “You’ Media

The Meaning of “Message”The Meaning of “Message” Message basically implies the transfer of coded

signals from a sender through a channel to a receiver who has a facility to decode.

Message in its most general meaning is the object of communication. Depending on the context, the term may apply to both the information contents and the medium of its presentation.

It is the underlying theme or idea in any communication process.

When there is disruption or noise in the channel, there is a tendency for the meaning of the message sent to be corrupted on the side of the receiver.

The Old Messaging RouteThe Old Messaging RouteLaunch

Idea and Dump Mass Media

Message

Measure Acceptance

Launch Campaign

Monitor Impact /Revenue

Review Message and Adjust Pricing

RepackageIdea / Message

Launch Revised Idea withLaunch Revised Idea with Improved MessagingImproved Messaging

The Characteristics of The Characteristics of Traditional Media MessagingTraditional Media Messaging

Marketing communication message was designed to reach as many people as possible.

Mass marketing campaigns not only treated all customers as if they had the same needs and wants, it focused on the product, not on its potential buyer.

Mass marketing a product means stocking the same shelves across all stores with the same product and alerting potential customers in the same way.

The underlying assumption was that the availability and choice of products a company offered consumers was the principal determinant of market success.

The Changing Media Landscape The Changing Media Landscape The invention of the computer, internet and mobile telephone

has changed our world and the way we communicate.

Today, the changing media landscape offers an opportunity to change media selections and also offers an opportunity for the co-creation of value between businesses and their stakeholders.

Today the stakeholder desires to be part of the messaging and the communication process; what’s the point of reaching the stakeholder correctly to tell them something they don’t want to hear? If you don’t have the right message, they want to design one with you. They are not asking to take over your Research and Development arm but they desire to be a part of the process. The stakeholder now seeks to be allowed to join in the effort as experts on themselves who better understand their interests, lifestyles and the choices which derive from it.

New media is therefore more than just the right time, place or message. It involves the message and the people. It involves the people in the message. New media is a full experience as much as it is a fulfilling experience. At the centre of every experience is a person. New media is YOU media, regardless of who you are.

From Mass Media to YOU From Mass Media to YOU MediaMedia

With the coming of the the world-wide-web and with it the e-mail, blogs, pods and chats as well as mobile-telecommunications offering a platform for verbal exchange, music and picture downloads as well as multi-media and text messaging, the world has changed.

At the moment, Business Owners across the world are trying to answer a big question. Will the traditional mass media be eclipsed? Is Google the next CNN? Should I set up a blog to drive thought leadership and consequently crash into the consciousness of my target thereby building equity for my business as opposed to spending millions of naira on Newspapers, T.V and radio message? While everyone is working to find the next big idea, it is obvious the landscape has changed and the focus of the conversation has moved from mass thinking to a customised approach to messaging.

In this era of media fragmentation, the power of the stakeholder springs from his/her ablity to make a choice in terms of media selection as different from the old net-works which tended to box the stakeholder in.

To sway the stakeholder therefore, you must listen to the things that informs his/her choices and customise your communication platform and the content of your media messages to suit the demographics and psychograpics of the stakeholder.

The Death of One Message Fits The Death of One Message Fits AllAll

As the world evolves, so do the differences in demographics and psychographics become deeper.

In the earlier days of the mass media, messages flowed from the media gate-keepers to suit their editorial philosophy alone without noting the diversity which existed in their environment.

However, in this era of media fragmentation, the ordinary man on the street has not only found his/her voice but now leads the communication trends.

From You-Tube, to corporate blogs where media message receivers using web-cams and other multi-media devises now tell the brand story themselves as opposed to the traditional way of thinking for the reciever, the receiver is now an active player not only in the value creation process but also in the customisation of messages.

Diversity has now become the issue in mass messaging hence the death of the one-message-fits-all era.

From Mass to Target From Mass to Target MarketingMarketing

The old model of dumping messages started to wane with the advent of new media platforms as these platforms provided a more interactive basis.

Starting out with direct marketing a bridge was created between mass and target marketing in the sense that direct marketing afforded an opportunity to take direct responses and fine-tune messages.

Target marketing grew from a better understanding of the consumer. As consumers began purchasing and using products, information on consumer’s lifestyle and consumption patterns became more readily available.

Data analysts thus began associating products to the customers who were buying them. And it was through these analysis as well as rising competition that Organisations began to understand that customer data could be as valuable as the product data. Thus evolved the term “target marketing,” the practice of promoting a product or service to a subset of customers and prospects.

PART THREEPART THREE

The Context and Content The Context and Content ConvergenceConvergence

New Media Platforms and the New Media Platforms and the stakeholderstakeholder

With the rise of the New Media platforms came the empowerment of the media message receiver as he/she now had media and message options.

This arose as a result of the migration of Public Relations and marketing to the internet via virtual communities and e-commerce platforms such as e-bay, who-go-buy and a host of other professional, cultural, lifestyle and marketing centres which deployed the internet.

Unlike the old model where the consumer had to frantically search and pay for information, the internet availed a quick and free or affordable access to cultural, professional, lifestyle and marketing information.

The Receiver as ‘Slave’ to The Receiver as ‘Slave’ to InformationInformation

With the empowerment of the media message receiver came a slavery for information in the sense that the receiver’s lifestyle became tuned to these new platforms.

It started out as a work and leisure enhancer and gradually became addictive as the receiver suddenly became dependent on this new platforms for running his/her life.

From the pocket diary, the pager, the laptop, the ipod to the mobile phone with GPRS, Blackberry to other multi-media messaging platforms, the modern media message receiver is caught in an addictive position from which he/she cannot be easily extricated.

Life Without the Internet and the Life Without the Internet and the Mobile PhoneMobile Phone

What

would life

Be now without

the Internet Or the

Mobile phone?

11STST ““My connection at home has been down for a few days and my life has become very difficult to manage”.

“I'm an information junkie. I help myself to generous portions throughout the day”.

22ND ND “I forgot my mobile phone at home and it’s like I’m cut off from the rest of the world”.

“I remember before the mobile phone, I queue to use analogue pay phones and it was such an unsavoury experience as it did not offer me convenience and privacy. Now I’m a mobile phone addict, I want to talk, send text messages, download music and send pictures from anywhere and all the time”.

33RDRD “I’m on a long flight and I can’t connect to the internet or use my mobile phone”.

“ Long hours without the Internet or the mobile phone is annoying. The Internet and my mobile phone simply makes life easier”. Now information and vicarious experience are obtainable at the touch of a button”.

SCENARIOSCENARIO

The Medium is the MessageThe Medium is the Message “...it is the medium that shapes and controls the scale and form of human

association and action. The content or uses of such media are as diverse as they are ineffectual in shaping the form of human association. Indeed, it is only too typical that the content of any medium blinds us to the character of the medium”.- McLuhan's Understanding Media: The Extensions Of Man

Today’s media platforms such as blogs, chats, sms and e-mails affects messaging and mass communication.

It is widely held that that one medium translates the content of another medium. Briefly, "the content of a medium is always another medium."

This is because there is a distinct form to each medium which affects the content of that medium; for instance, there is a limit to the coverage of a picturesque event by the radio and there is a limit to the use of the written word on television. Whereas a movie extends the vision to a high degree and is thus "hot," a television image with less detail requires the viewer to fill in more details with their imagination and is therefore a "cool" medium.

Each new form of media shapes messages differently thereby requiring new filters to be engaged in the experience of viewing and listening to those messages.

Mass Messaging and Mass Mass Messaging and Mass ProductionProduction Mass messaging grew along sides mass production.

Mass production has evolved into mass customization; for example producers of products can now build the right products for specific targets and make each one cater specially to each one of the multiple personalities who consume their products.

The media, like production, has changed dramatically with technology. People have become the centre of both. If you want to sell a product to people today, you better know what they're thinking, or else you’re not selling anything.

Most products can provide a value to someone, somewhere. The task then becomes to find them, and then to find how many there are.

In the past advertisers and public relations practitioners flash their message on the airwaves and find their targets, now the target is scattered and harder to find.

Most are still using mass media, but their schedules have changed and there are more than the traditional channels.

To be effective in the new age therefore, the media, like mass customization, must be tailored to fit the individual.

Mass Messaging and the Mass Messaging and the Demands of Demands of the New Agethe New Age A lot of organisations are adapting to the demands of the new age, they

are cutting their advertising and PR spend on the traditional media , they are using less mass media and leveraging the new media for the articulation of their corporate goals and the extension of their market share. This type of thinking is becoming more frequently in the corporate world. Re-thinking! Traditional media is however still relevant, but it’s use is changing, mass media is now part of a larger evolving picture.

In this new media age, a T-shirt, a tie, a napkin or a coffee cup can be an advert. Producers now leverage every available platform because people aren't as receptive as they once were to traditional media. This because Millions of messages fight for their attention, while they walk by, while they drive, while they work and even while they relax with loud music blasting from their walk-man, iPods, or their mobile phones.

Now, even if message sneak into people’s personal space, it doesn’t mean they pay attention. People are smarter and busier, technology has created a see-through world.

Honesty, simplicity, and proximity are three factors that make for better media.

Proximity now refers to both physical closeness and mental.

Is There Really a Gate-Is There Really a Gate-keepers?keepers?

“And it is only on those terms, standing aside from any structure or medium, that its principles and lines of force can be discerned. For any medium has the power of imposing its own assumptions on the unwary”.

- McLuhan's Understanding Media: The Extensions Of Man

Who decides what’s worthy of your attention — a Web administrator, a newspaper columnist, a talk show host, a radio disc-jockey, an influential blogger, an administrator of an online community, the back-end operators of a telephone company?

In the perfect world, the answer would be that each person should be their own gatekeeper. The reality is that you do not own and therefore cannot manipulate these platforms.

So, the answer is: there is no gate. There are many waypoints, many street signs, and many ways to go, but no one is barring the gate, or deciding who is let in. This is confusing if we try to apply the old map to the new territory, but not if we try to perceive the new media universe as it is.

The Real Gate-keepersThe Real Gate-keepers Institutional authority - If you agree with the editorial

stance of a particular medium or company, then you allow them to decide what's important and your life is easy.

Individual authority - If you like what the communicator has to say about your area of interest, he becomes an authority.

Emergent authority - If you trust in the wisdom of a particular crowd, then you’ll agree with their collective decision about what is interesting and what is not.

Machine authority - Various software approaches to determining what is important, like Google mine the social gestures that people leave behind, like links and traffic, and pass it through an algorithmic blender, to yield a metadata-based approach to what is most important.

PART FOURPART FOUR

Market InsightsMarket Insights

*PR/GR Ratio calculated only using companies reporting gross revenues as well as budgets** Gross revenues/PR budgets *** Number of dollars spent on PR for each $1 million in revenue

Ratio of PR Budgets to Gross Revenues

Source: Council of PR Firms 2005

The Correlation

Strong correlation was establish between PR Spend and performance ranking of Fortune ranked companiesThe share of advertising within corporate PR spend is estimated at an average of 45% Senior Management support for PR impacts revenue growth as reputation is viewed by the C-level executive as a vital corporate value enhancing assetAgency share of PR Budget allocation by fortune ranked companies averaged 23% in 2006. With increasing C-level support for the engagement of agency for PR services, it is expected to rise furtherIn survey conducted on the engagement of PR Agencies, 65% of the fortune ranked institutions supported the use of Agency while 35% opposedWhile 65% support for the engagement of PR Agencies by Fortune ranked companies is high, 35% opposition is demonstration of the threatening presence of substitute, preference for the engagement of a PR professional as an employee etc

High Reputation Correlates to Financial Performance

27.1%

-26.8%

70.5%

S&P 500

Bottom 10

Top 10

Based on the 200 Fortune “Most Admired Companies” rankings

Total Return

Correlation of Spending and Reputation

$2.80

$6.00

Bottom 200Companies

Top 200Companies

Fortune Reputation Ranking

Based on 1999 Fortune “Most Admired Company” rankings and Council of Public Relations Firms’ spending survey of ranked

companies

Spending in Millions

Comparison by FunctionTop 200 Companies by ReputationMedia Relations $1,096Executive Outreach $ 227Investor Relations $ 635Annual & Qtr Reports$ 920Industry Relations $1,247Employee Communications$1,621Department Mgmt. $ 256Total $6,002

Agency Support $2,534Percent of total 42%

Bottom 200 Companies by Reputation

Media Relations $ 723Executive Outreach $ 165Investor Relations$ 367Annual & Qtr Reports $ 357Industry Relations $ 329Employee Communications$ 545Department Mgmt. $ 312Total $2,797

Agency Support $1,072Percent of total 38%

Council of Public Relations Firms’ spending survey

RecommendationsRecommendations There is a need to innovate along the various new media platforms

because the stakeholder is already on and infact hooked on the new media.

Small Business Owners must understand how communication context affect communication content and must be able to distinguish between hot and cold media especially as it relates to media selection.

The challenge is to observe, try-out and experience all that is occurring around us, in order to be able to track changing trends and proactively engage your target rather than merely reacting after a trend has become the norm.

Small Business Owners must carve out time to blog and explore various platforms for reaching their target such as telemarketing, text messaging, e-mails and online networking through their websites because these platforms are here to stay.

Finally Small Business Owners must understand the changing landscape and the stakeholders' perspectives so that they may drive innovation inside their companies that results in game-changing marketing and communication with their various targets.

ConclusionConclusion The dynamics of mass communication has

changed with the information technology revolution.

New platforms and the messaging system have emerged.

Today’s small business owners must understand the demands of this change on the content of messages and the media through which particular targets can be reached as well as the psychographic dimensions of these media and how it affects the customization of messages.

Thank you.Thank you.