Chapter Ten

Culture and Social conduct are connected. There are different standards in each culture and co-culture. This is how I relate our chapter, standards, ethics and values.

There are five different types of regulators when it comes to social conduct, according to our book they are traditions as far as what has been done in the past, public opinion as far as what is accepted in that community, the law, morality, and ethical stands that are set by different types of professions, organizations, and as well as ourselves through our conscience. These factors keep society functioning. Its important to keep in mind that customs and changing times are involved in deciding what are the standards of ethics.

In general, what needs to be figure out is the companies, communities set standards and abide by them or motivate a change in accept.

EX: Everyone usually says its unethical for American companies to hire foreign people to make such things as clothes for cheaper prices. PR practitioners have to spread the awareness of either they do that but for what appropriate reasons or that they do not do it. Companies such as Abercrombie have clothing made all over the world but you don't hear anything about "sweat shops" because they promote themselves well.

Chapter Nine

The understanding of these three things triggers the way the response to a crisis is managed:

1. The public and political environment in which the crisis is occurring.

2. The culture and inner workings of the organization facing the crisis.

3. Human nature

There are types of crisis that categorized:

1. Acts of God (nature such as storms, earthquakes, etc)

2. Mechanical problems (ruptured pipes, metal fatigue, etc)

3. Human Error (miscommunication, something was opened when it wasn't suppose to be, etc)

4. Management decisions, actions or inaction (problem isn't serious, nobody will find out, etc)

The media has a strong effect on our lives. EX: Haiti and Katrina Disasters

There are guidelines to follow in cases of a crisis

1. Anticipate the unexpected

2. Institute and practice a crisis communications plan for those events that may happen to your organization

3. Train employees in what to do

4. Have one spokesperson communicating to the public and media during the crisis

Chapter Eight

Public Issue Campaigns and Debates

In the court of public opinion, public relations practitioners are the attorneys.

There are four categories that issues can be designated to:

1. Latent - Its something to keep track of because it can sooner or later become an issue.

2. Emerging - It has been written in journals, gathered supporters, groups possibly adopting the issue, the public has most likely become aware of it but there has yet to be an action plan.

3. Hot - An issue in current debate.

4. Fallout - leftover remains from the "hot" issue which can make it back onto the public's agenda because its already been visible.

The target audiences are usually employees, neighbors, stockholders, members, donors, and customers, who seem to have self-interest reasons to support the organization. The general public, who are usually characterized as the uncommitted, will usually not feel much of a stake or depth of conviction. So, practitioners must get people interested. Sometimes this is accomplished by groups coming forth and speak for the general public. You just have to be aware of what you're saying when you speak for a general public. Something such as religious fundamentalists claiming to remove books and magazines, the public rejected them.

Compromising in inevitable if a special interest group and another go head on. Its important to realize this because no one can always have it completely their way and a compromise is the baseline understanding of both organizations working together to create what they favor.

It is useful to focus on which stakeholders are known to be skittish about which potential decisions, then model how the three types of publics will fall out and what their response will likely be. These publics are the Long Haul (those interested in full ramification of the topic), Special Interest (those concerned only about certain elements of the topic), and Hot Button (those aroused only by emotionally debated elements).

EX: When Hilary Clinton came during the election, the rally had a huge turn out. Then Obama came and brought along more people interested in politics and voting. The reason students even heard about these is because groups in our university have been spreading awareness of what is happening and why we should find these events exciting. The information continues as they still rally and tell of community policies and university problems as well.

Chapter Seven

This chapter is mainly about the news media, mass media, and communications media and how we as PR practitioners should develop a positive relationship with them in order to have them be able to make the public aware of the organizations information and to give us a fair chance, or at least a balanced reportage, when we're on the "hot seat."

We should be aware of the guidelines that have "survived" such as having a spokesperson to answer inquires or a constant education given to the employees and spokespeople on how to handle and speak with news media.

EX:

A classmates presentation in the past regarding the head coach of the NFL football team the Dallas Cowboys. The spokesperson, the owner, had to be very clear on what he said about his head coach to the media because anything can be misconstrued by saying one wrong word. The media likes to show an organizations faults at times and thats why constant education about handling the media with their football players and anyone involved would be beneficial to the teams reputation.

Chapter Five

Investor Relations

The major measurments are dollar sales volume, profit, the increase or decrease in interest or dividends paid, and whether the price of the stock or bond has increased or decreased from the original purchase price. Other factors include the rank of the company among competitors in its field and what percentage of dividends is paid in comparison with the purchase price.

All practitioners need to to be familiar with the economic climate and its impact on the organizations they represent - corporate, governmental, or non-profit.

Companies take on the personalities by those who manage them (i.e. greedy, self-serving, competitive)

In order to get started, there must be capital or credit or a product or service that a market is perceived or waiting to be created. Survival comes first and then its growth, diversification, and expansion make up goals that fuel ambitions and drive all participants on the payroll. Profit makes everything else possible. (that is what ever is left once all bills are paid)

Laws were enacted allowing for the formation of corporations, business entities in which stakeholders risk only the amount of their investment, because the situation discouraged the formation of new business. Before this, the business owner had no "corporate shield" and if failed at the business had to pay all debt back, including personal bankruptcy.

The role of the corporate financial relations specialist or consultant tends to be that of interpreter and mediator between the prime audiences. He or she usually comes on as a moderate or neutral in economic and political philosophy. The position requires skill and objectivity in representing the average investor, the middle-class unsophisticated citizen, while representing private enterprise and conservative views publicly.

The financial public relations role can be summarized as:

• Communications strategy appropriate to management goals in investor relations
• Preparation of public literature, including reports required by law and establishing press contacts
• Managing relationships with the financial community, including analyst meetings, tours or visits, and so on

Example

Enron Scandel - They hid that they were in debt due to a lot of failed deals and managed to keep it under wraps until the end where they laid off thousands of employees and filed for bankruptcy and shut down. Investors lost a sum of money that was in the billions when the stock plumeted to under a dollar.

Chapter Six

The following notes reconstruct what I have found useful in this chapter.

Marketing and public relations share some fundamental concepts. These concepts include analyzing market opportunities (research), selecting target markets (publics), developing a marketing mix (communication/action plan), and managing the marketing effort (evaluation).

However, public relations as a strategy does four things marketing cannot do. (1) It is concerned about internal relations and publics, (2) It cares about non-customer external publics and the environment in which the organization operates, (3) It operates on the policies of human nature (what makes the individual tick), whereas marketing focuses on consumer behavior (purchasing and economics, often expressed in number-crunching research, and (4) It may work to stabilize or change public opinion in areas other than products.

Satisfying the needs of the customers is what needs to be achieved. Public relations must both help motivate purchases and create a hospitable environment for the organization to sell product and services.

Consumers make buying decisions based on how companies run their businesses, according to a 1995 survey by the PR firm Porter/Novelli. These influences on buying habits were:

1. Product quality
2. The company's method of handling consumer complaints
3. The way a company handles a crisis in which it is at fault
4. Challenges by a government agency about product safety
5. Accusation of illegal or unethical trading practices

The reputation of a company and its brands will play an even greater role in the word-of-mouth communication around products and services.

The role of public relations has originally been to make people:

1. Aware of the product or service in the first place
2. Knowledgeable about the benefits and advantages of the particular product or service
3. Constantly reminded and reinforced in favorable feelings toward the product or service

The changing conditions of the marketplace has also brought forth sevel new activities, such as:

1. Build customer loyalty by forming user groups or customer service departments
2. Adopting customer satisfaction programs where the entire organization is focused on delivering not just a product/service but the quality and personal interactions consumers expect when making a purchase
3. Concentrating the publicity and promotion activities on taking customers away from competitors
4. Protecting the rep of the product/service, and of the organization, in a period of consumer activism, government regulation, competitive predation, global marketing, and similar conditions that bring a continual bevy of public issues to bear on every organization/industry.

Elements in designing a customer delight program include the promise, customer expectations, delivery, and the aftermath/maintenance.

Example:

Toyota with their recalls have had a hard time dealing with the media; however, they have also launched new commercials with the main focus of "moving forward" and showing their appreciation towards their customers. Their responses to these recall and brake problems have been dealt with and although it has been a tough crisis, the Toyota company is doing what is possible to fix the problem.

Chapter Four

This chapters focus was on community relations and how public relations role can play in it. According to the book, "a community is a social organism made up of all the interactions among the residents and the organizations with which they identify." Such examples of what a community can take pride in could be its sports team, its scenery, and/or its reputation. Communities require positive interrelations among all members in order to function smoothly and efficiently such as an organization would.

The approach more taken by employers now is to apply what they have as an organization to the community where it operates. "Community relations (CR), as a public relations function, is an institution's planned, active, and continuing participation within a community to maintain and enhance its environment to the benefit of both the institution and the community." The needs of a community as a desirable place to live and work can be placed in categories such as desirable work, prospect of growth/new opportunities, and appropriate housing and public services.

Public relations is involved in 9 ways of a community's relationship to an organization:

1. Issuing news of interest to the community and providing top officials of the organization with information on the status of community relations
2. Representing the organization in all sorts of volunteer activities
3. Giving donations or raising funds
4. Allowing use of facilities and equipment to community groups
5. Function as the organization's intermediary with local governmental, civic, educational, and ad hoc groups concerned with reform, social problems, and celebrations
6. Planing and helping to implement special events
7. preparing ads or position papers aimed at residents or local government as needed
8. Preparing publications for resident groups
9. Planning/conducting open houses/tours

CR can be the core of public relations programming because it sets the tone of what an organization stands for through their actions (behavior). Organizations are driven by 2 factors:

1. Instant communication, encompassing rapid information networks that go far beyond news media data gathering. It has the capacity to capture and transmit home behavior far and wide.
2. Global competition and the "global village" have created interest in such information, at least by competitors, activist, government agencies, and others who have reason to broadcast it.

Organizations need three strategic levels to plan. They must be guarding against negative acts (defensive), be proactive by leading in positive acts that appeal to key publics, and find ways to retain relationships with publics not in their "key" publics but still be able to influence a company's reputation by forthright expression of their perceptions of it (maintenance).

There are two types of programing emerging.

• The first is standard. CR involves basic, arm's length, "good corporate citizen" activities that reach out such as talks to key groups on vital topics to the organization, invite in such as open houses and tours, create awareness such as having official reps to all important community groups, and let facilities be used such as programs around holidays.
• The second type of CR involves becoming part of the fabric of the community by placing people throughout its planning and decision-making networks by having an ambassador program, have regular opinion leader briefings/idea exchanging, setting up local CR advisory boards, employee volunteer programs, community research, projects that take the needs seen by the key publics, and have expertise availability.
• Another consideration is the involvement of spouse, family, and retiree participation. Organizations who involve them usually report expanded impact and widen networking. Feedback banks capture what is heard and observed from opinion leaders and community members in a formal way.

CR are planned, organized, and systematized through community programs. There should be 5 considerations in this.

1. Who is being targeted? (Groups, behaviors that need motivation, activities to achieve it, info that needs to be gathered)
2. Does your reputation follow well? (if improving is needed partner up with a "positive" projecting org to build yours up, or if established well then projects you can own offer more benefits and visibility without dilution)
3. Should a program be based within the organization or be outside? On-site or off-site?
4. How will the organization get credit? (Employees be able to do some volunteer work while on the clock?)
5. What design will reach opinion leaders?

Turning employees into ambassadors within the community is an effective way to be known, spread goodwill, and develop relationships. Employee ambassadors can be used to build solid CR programs in 4 ways:

1. Using speakers bureaus to get info out to local opinion leaders
2. Employee participation in volunteer or outreach programs
3. Direct opinion leader contacts, sharing news and gathering insight and feedback
4. Sponsored memberships (Employees are designated to belong to and attend a specific group's activities on behalf of the organization)

EXS:

1. This chapter reminds me of the movie Erin Brockovich where the company does not take responsibility of the health problems surrounding communities go under because of their undesirable actions. The company, or organization, developed programs to cover up the water incident and buy the housing surrounding the company. They were eventually caught and tried in the court. This is a case of bad community relations. They lied to their community when they trusted them.

2. Communities, especially small, usually identify themselves with sports. I know in my hometown they cherish our football. Walmart actually helps the community (and themselves) by selling the infamous "Mighty Tarpons" T-shirt. I see this as CR by implementing a key interest of the community into their store value.

3. The Surfrider Foundation is a non-profit environmental organization dedicated to the protection and enjoyment of the world's oceans, waves and beaches for all people, through conservation, activism, research and education. They are highly involved by the community through a diverse amount of professionals coming together through a common interest. Their programs are nation-wide and continue to grow. They work with local schools and have strong ties within the community to spread awareness and gain credibility. They have a successful relationship with their communities.