By Jason Young, MBA
The classic text in the field of public relations is “Cutlip and Center’s Effective Public Relations,” first published nearly four decades ago (1985) and now in its 11th edition. I’m quoting from the 10th edition… public relations is:
“the management function that emphasizes, builds, and maintains relationships and their publics.”
Key publics could mean a wide array of stakeholders:
+ The community a hospital is in
+ The patients who rely on a medical device
+ The suppliers that are part of our supply chain, or
+ The lawmakers and regulators who oversee highly regulated industries, like financial services, energy production or healthcare.
Just like companies manage all other assets, liabilities, risks, infrastructure and so on, it must also manage its key relationships.
Every major company — especially those focused on consumer goods or selling regulated products — has a PR executive within the broader executive team; often the PR exec has a direct line to the CEO. Those are signs that businesses think PR is worth investing in. But the title may vary:
+ SVP of Public Relations
+ VP of External Affairs, or
+ Chief Communications Officer, to name a few.
PR v. Marketing
Cutlip and Center also do a good job of distinguishing public relations from marketing — two fields that are often confused with one another. They write that marketing is:
“the management function that identifies human needs and wants, offers products and services to satisfy those demands, and causes transactions that deliver products and services in exchange for something of value to the provider.”
I share this distinction between PR and marketing because many people believe the two fields are converging — a convergence driven by social media, where digital story telling, engagement and product marketing may all happen within the same channel.
USC Annenberg’s 2017 Global Communications Report made the point about convergence emphatically: they report that a recent large survey of PR practitioners revealed that:
“In a surprising turn, only 8% of PR professionals believe that PR will be a distinct and separate function…”
from marketing over the next five years.
But I believe that, for many stakeholder relationships, the digital component is only one piece — and depending on the stakeholder, it could be a large or a small piece.
There is also a real risk in infusing relationships with the language of sales, exchange, products and transactions. For example, the individuals who make up the community that a hospital is in surely want to be thought of as people first — as civic leaders and as neighbors. To treat them as prospective customers or to intermix talk of products or services with them could send the relationship off course.
Consider these specifics. In any given day, that hospital may experience a safety issue, the need for a zoning change, or an emergent environmental hazard on its campus.
From my vantage point, it would be better for a skilled public relations executive to manage the relationships, interactions and information flow that will meet the needs of all stakeholders involved, from government agencies to social welfare groups to community associations.
That’s no time for marketing, but instead for mutual goals, issues and concerns to be addressed with between the organization and its key publics. Social media may be a helpful tool in achieving those ends, but it’s only one tool, and it would be a suboptimal tool if it is in the way of the important job at hand.