What Does the Public Relations Client REALLY Want and Why

Please feel free to publish this article and resource box
in your ezine, newsletter, offline publication or website.
Only requirement: you must use the Robert A. Kelly
byline and resource box. Word count is 720 including
guidelines and box. Robert A. Kelly © 2006.

What Does the Public Relations
Client REALLY Want, and Why?

It’s not unusual for clients of service providers to insist that
their budget dollars be quickly applied to a variety of flashy
tactics. Yet, when pressed, many acknowledge that what they
REALLY want for their money is visible, end-game change.

This is especially true in public relations where clients often
second-guess careful plans for achieving that end-game
change by insisting on premature use of tactics like news
releases, talk-show appearances and sports sponsorships.

But obviously, flashy tactics alone will not satisfy those
clients once they start looking for a return on their public
relations investment. Because it is then that it becomes clear,
sometimes painfully, that their goal MUST be the
kind of change in the behaviors of key stakeholders that
lead directly to achieving their business objectives. Thus,
it is quality planning, and the degree of behavioral change
it produces, that eventually captures client attention,
not tactics.

These days, with public relations budgets always in mortal
danger, tactical chats between a client CEO and public
relations counsel probably sound like this: “Do something
about those activists chaining themselves to our plant gate
and yelling that our emissions go into the river. It’s costing
us big money each day that plant is shut down.”

Or, “How are we going to calm down those Garden Club
members down in the lobby waving around those
cockamamie newspaper reports and talking to the TV
cameras about the additives we use? Where’d that reporter
get those numbers, anyway? It’s costing us sales!”

Or, “Please people, what are you doing to encourage a
favorable Town Council vote on our petition for that new
highway off-ramp?”

What’s common to each of those rants? The CEO is asking
his public relations people to modify somebody’s behavior.
He doesn’t want to talk tactics, or even strategies. He wants
those activists off his property, he wants those print and
broadcast reporters to do a fairer job of reporting on his
production methods (hopefully getting the Garden Clubbers
off his back), and he wants a real effort made to
move public opinion in a way that encourages local officials
to approve that badly needed vehicle ramp.

Modify somebody’s behavior, that’s his goal, and
that’s the job of the public relations agency and its
client’s corporate professionals. Fortunately, the
key to a successful effort is the fact that people
really DO act on their perception of the facts. In
so doing, and in a cumulative way, they form the
very public opinion that those practitioners must
now inform.

So, what is their strategy? In short, to reach those
perceptions with the facts as they know them.
Hopefully, the messages they use will be clear and
persuasive, and will change negative or inaccurate
perceptions, then alter behaviors in the client
company’s direction.

Using the three examples above, when the activists
become satisfied with explanations of the company’s
new, public commitment to correct their emission
problems, the protesters can be expected to leave the plant
gates.

Editorial board meetings with local newspapers and
television stations will begin to bear fruit with more
balanced reportage of the company’s efforts to meet
emission standards which, in turn, will reduce negative
public opinion.

And, while the agency’s briefing sessions with town
council staff will do little to hasten a formal vote, a targeted
communications effort is likely to lead to a community
opinion poll showing positive movement in public, then
official sentiment about the new highway off-ramp.

In the end, a sound public relations strategy combined
with effective tactics leads directly to the bottom line –
perceptions altered; behaviors modified; client satisfied.

end

Bob Kelly counsels, writes and speaks to business, non-profit and
association managers about using the fundamental premise of public
relations to achieve their operating objectives. He has authored 245
articles on the subject which are listed at EzineArticles.com, click
Expert Author, click Robert A. Kelly. He has been DPR, Pepsi-Cola
Co.; AGM-PR, Texaco Inc.; VP-PR, Olin Corp.; VP-PR, Newport
News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co.; director of communications,
U.S. Department of the Interior, and deputy assistant press secretary,
The White House. He holds a bachelor of science degree from
Columbia University, major in public relations.
mailto:bobkelly@TNI.net Visit:http://www.prcommentary.com








What Does the Public Relations Client REALLY Want and Why - To learn more about this author, visit Bob Kelly's Website.

Like this article? Share it with your friends

E-Mail | Print | More

Related Articles
What is Public Relations
	In the last decade, there has been much malignment of the field of public relations. Much of the criticism comes from the old stereotype of the circus barker who would say and promise anything so that the public wou...
What To Do When Public Relations Fails
	Sometimes "public relations" strategies fail to deliver the intended results. Whether it is "selling" a product, a policy or an organization, there are several common pitfalls which public relations strategies m...
Public Relations Is Not Just For PR Pros
	Good public relations involves the participation of everyone in an organization – from the guard downstairs to the CEO. Instilling a sense of public relations consciousness in employees’ should be a primary goal of...
Why use PR
	In simple terms, we think of PR as communications management. It creates awareness, educates and influences public opinion, promotes and protects reputations and encourages organisations to communicate.
Advertising and Public Relations
	So, you’ve got some extra money to put towards your company and you’re not sure whether to spend it on advertising or public relations. Many entrepreneurs are confused about the difference between the two and which ...

---

Related Forum Posts
	Public Relations!
	New Small Business Topic
	Re: 5 Skills for work at home people... (Article)
	Second Life hype near peak?
	Jobs you can do from home
	Find Me Customers and Get 25% of New Client's Bill
	Re: Specific Strategies To Raise PR Levels?
	Re: Library to Meet

---

Related Businesses - Evan Elite Authors

David Barr David Barr is the President of Venture Opportunities, Inc. David has been a professional business broker/intermediary since 1980 focusing on General Business Brokerage and Mergers and Acquisitions representing client transaction value from $400,000 to $20,000,000. Mr. Barr has handled the sale of over four hundred and fifty companies. David earned a university degree from the State University of New York majoring in economics and business. David holds the Mergers and Acquisition Master Intermediary and the Certified Business Intermediary designations from the International Business Brokers Association. He is also a Senior Business Analyst and a Texas licensed Real Estate Agent. For more information about David and Venture Opportunities, visit www.bizdealmaker.com. - Visit David Barr's Website

The Evan Elite Authors program is currently in beta phase. For details please contact us.