Originally posted on CompleteCampaigns.com and written by Bill Patterson
The Newest in Public Relations
Success does not happen overnight but failure often does. Critical moments for business and other organizations will never go away, thus the effort to control negative situations continues to become more sophisticated. “Reputation management” is the newest buzz phrase in the public relations field and for those of us long involved in crisis management, this new phrase seems likely to stick.
In fact, among those who maintain a practice in crisis management, it appears that what we have been doing all along is really reputation management. The reason for this new and more intensive focus is simple: A good image is a terrible thing to lose! It has been said that 30 years of hard work can be destroyed in just 30 seconds. And while that might seem melodramatic, don’t try soft-selling its meaning to Enron, Andersen or Exxon, just to name a few.
While at first glance campaigns and corporations don’t have much in common, you will find that the analog of corporate reputation management is surprisingly apt.
Is it possible that in the next year or so reputation management will be the dominant force in public relations? A strong case can be made for that eventuality. Crisis management is evolving into reputation management for a number of reasons.
First, this new phase should attract more attention from top management. Presidents and CEOs don’t often want to think about potential crisis situations. For many executives, a crisis is something that happens to someone else. It is a distant thought that can quickly be relegated to the back of the mind, replaced by concern for profit and productivity. So, the phrase “crisis management” may not sell well at the top. But every executive must be concerned about the reputation of the company or organization. Reputation management will become a major focus of public relations because it speaks more clearly to the higher echelon.
Second, more and more organizations are facing situations that have real potential for harming their reputations. We need only think about Enron, Andersen and the Catholic Church. Crisis management first became hot after the Exxon oil spill, dozens of product tamperings and a plethora of corporate embarrassments at the executive level. Today, we have a “crisis” almost every day. And they have become much more bizarre and unexpected than the 80s oil spills, drug tamperings or management disputes. Your reputation can be on the line through no fault of your own. How would you handle your end of a crisis such as 9/11 if your organization were directly affected?
What happens when “60 Minutes” calls following your anthrax or security scare? Or your employees walkout because you won’t fire a Muslim employee? What happens when your company turns up with an AIDS-infected employee in the cafeteria and most employees refuse to come to work? Or when your company is bought by a Japanese firm and you hold a ceremony to announce it on December 7th? Or, perhaps you operate a Catholic hospital which is opposed to abortion and one of your young doctors performs one anyway. These are all cases I have dealt with during my 40-years in communication. And in each case, the organization’s reputation was at stake. Crisis management is a plan of action to be implemented quickly once a negative situation occurs. Reputation management is a strategy that is used all year long, utilizing a proactive approach and not concentrating only on crisis.
Finally, and probably most importantly, the media (especially at the local level, where you can be harmed the most) are concentrating more on these types of stories. Most medium and large-market TV news departments now have special teams to dig into consumer complaints and expose business foul-ups. They salivate when stories like Enron, Andersen and the Catholic mess show up. Just listen to the 10 second news “teasers” that run before the evening news and you will get a feel for the new media focus on business scandal.
Perception is truth. And even though most executives do not like it, the media establishes the perception of your organization. So, in this new public relations discipline of reputation management – dealing with the media in an organized, aggressive and timely fashion is mandatory. All of my research indicates that reputation management is a trend – and not a fad – in the public relations arena. The reasons have been set out above but the philosophy is rather simple: Your image was not built in a day but it can be destroyed in one.
Every CEO, company president, corporate public relations executive and campaign manager should begin each day in a very basic way: Look in the mirror and repeat the Boy Scout motto.
