Public Relations Matters

In a world dominated by perception, relating to the public is paramount.

In a world dominated by public perception, PR (mis)management can make or break a company. George Tchetvertakov spoke with InsideOut PR Director Nicole Reaney, about the role of PR in Business.

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In a world dominated by perception, relating to the public is paramount.

Whether you’re a multinational, a lowly start-up, or even a charity -- getting your intended message out to your audience (and quickly) is now just as important as the underlying business operations themselves. The larger a company becomes, and the larger its market footprint, and the higher the need for dedicated public relations (PR).

“For large blue-chip companies, public relations is essential,” says Nicole Reaney from InsideOutPR, a Sydney-based PR firm.

“Regardless of a business’ size, it’s crucial for firms to consider their reputation as if it was a bank account. Reputations can appreciate via careful saving and safeguarding your purse strings, but by the same token, they can depreciate on the back of avoidable blunders.

The unfortunate reality is that it only takes a momentary lapse of judgment, for years of solid reputational work to be undone,” says Reaney.

Nicole has worked across a number of successful PR and experiential campaigns for some of Australia’s most prominent brands including Colgate-Palmolive, Nestle, Coke, Dyson and King Furniture.  Her career was fast-tracked when she became Colgate-Palmolive’s Corporate Affairs Manager and Media Spokesperson for the South Pacific at just 23 years old. 

Having founded her PR firm InsideOutPR in 2005, she now serves as the company’s Director. One of its latest innovations is a dedicated service aimed at Social Influencers and brands looking to benefit from the new entrants to the PR market.

The influence of the Fifth Estate

In today’s online-centric world, the challenge of building and maintaining a solid reputation has become a lot more difficult compared to the past. For one, company news and rumours can spread like wildfire online — with the company often powerless to influence the context.

In modern business, sophisticated methods of managing public image and perception are gradually claiming their share of the overall PR pie. One technique that’s especially popular is employing ‘digital influencers’.

Over the past decade, blogging has transformed from hobby to commercial pursuit. Some bloggers can attract audiences rivalling those of national TV channels and major newspapers, but at a fraction of the cost from an advertiser’s perspective.

“Successful public relations [PR] is about creating dialogue amongst business stakeholders. This can mean customers, vendors, investors, third party partners or regulators; the goal is to foster engaging communication and build long-lasting relationships through building trust and confidence”.

Potential audiences in the billions

The insatiable growth of the Internet has driven parabolic growth rates in sales, revenues, customer reach and global coverage, for businesses in all market sectors. However, alongside this growth in Internet participation, connection speeds and the many different forms of interaction, there have also developed a slew of challenges and opportunities.

The fact that the world of Online offers businesses potential audiences of billions, is a huge opportunity to generate more business and sales revenues.

“The key factors are authenticity and trust, between the firm and its stakeholders,” says Reaney. 

“Digital influencers carry remarkable authenticity and are considered far more trustworthy than traditional ads, by their respective audiences. At InsideOutPR, we’re responding to this dramatic shift in market preferences, and integrating digital influencers into our broader PR activity for our clients.”

However, alongside this greater potential, there is also greater risk. If a company loses control over its public image, the results can be catastrophic for both the firm’s value and its public reputation.

Recent examples of poorly executed PR-campaigns include Coopers Beers partnership with the Bible Society using the slogan “Keeping it Light” when referencing its new brand of beer. (Cue marriage equality-themed boycotts from pubs and bars across Sydney and Melbourne.)

And who can forget United Airlines’ decision to forcibly remove a paying customer from its plane, because it was overbooked?

A slip of the tongue = ‘doing a Ratner’

 The Ratner Group was a stock-market darling in the 1980s, having come from nowhere as a tiny start-up and growing into a publicly-listed company with over 900 high-street stores in the UK and 1,000 more in the US. In 1991, the firm was on a crest of a wave, having just announced £120 million in annual profit.

Over a decades’ work in building the Ratner image was unceremoniously sullied by a speech given by its then-Chairman & CEO Gerald Ratner at the Institute of Directors Annual Convention in 1991.

Here are his remarks in full, proclaimed to over 100 key stakeholders, investors and the public eye in the next day’s newspapers:

We also do cut-glass sherry decanters complete with six glasses on a silver-plated tray that your butler can serve you drinks on, all for £4.95. People say, “How can you sell this for such a low price?”, I say, “because it’s total crap”.

As if the foot-in-mouth incident couldn't get any worse, later in the speech, the over-confident Gerald Ratner said: “our jewellery is cheaper than a Marks & Spencer’s prawn sandwich, but probably, wouldn’t last as long”.

The catalogue of verbal self-immolation led to £500 million being wiped off the value of the Ratner Group, paved the company’s sale to a bitter rival, and was left with no choice but to change its once-proud family name.

Over 20 years since Mr Ratner’s infamous speech, the act of committing a spectacular public relations gaffe is colloquially known as "doing a Ratner". Taking this story full circle: several years down the track, the ex-director penned a book giving his personal take on his PR howler.

In the book, Ratner delves into other aspects of his career (aside from his now-infamous speech) and how he managed to steer a small jewellery business from a 2% market share to over 35%, in under a decade -- an achievement few other CEOs have accomplished.

Ratner’s gaffe took place more than 25 years ago before the Internet had turbocharged the PR-cycle. Today there’s now a lot more to play for and a lot more to lose.

Endless public scrutiny, the 24-hour news cycle, social media influence, spin and breakneck response rates mean that public relations have never mattered more; nor have the impacts of PR gaffes been so great. 

PR has never mattered more.

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Written by George Tchetvertakov

Published by Finfeed