Amanda’s PR Blog

A good example of a PR crisis turned into good publicity is the MasterFoods Mars and Snickers case. This unfortunate event led eventually to a better brand name for the company.

MasterFoods, based in New South Wales, was forced to withdraw nearly 3 million Mars and Snickers candy bars from the shelves due to an extortion threat. The company lost a lot of money due to this removal of candy bars. However, the company used the media to their advantage, by getting all different types of media coverage and angles.

They first alerted the press that they candy bars were being removed from store shelves, and even invited them to the refuse dumps where they candy bars were being destroyed. Then, they announced the re-introduction of the product to stores. They got the different media outlets to even publicize where to go to get free samples of the candy. Every newsroom in New South Wales also received a large, complimentary box of extortion-proof Snickers and Mars bars.

By turning the spotlight on the efforts to correct the problems, MasterFoods was able to create good publicity for their company and its products. Although they lost a good amount of hard money due to removing the candy bars, they more than made up for it with the high amount of brand awareness gained from media attention. Sales of the candy bars were 250 percent higher than average the first week the candy was back.

As most of you know, Scott McClellan, White House press secretary, resigned this week.  Since serving as press secretary in June of 2003, McClellan has had to deal with some pretty tough situations, namely the war in Iraq.  And, according to McClellan, “three years is a long time in this position.”

According to an MSNBC article from April 20, McClellan told Bush: “I have given it my all sir and I have given you my all sir, and I will continue to do so as we transition to a new press secretary.” 

According to republican officials, there are several candidates that are being considered for the job….

“Tony Snow, a former White House speechwriter under the first President Bush, former Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke and Dan Senor, a former coalition spokesman after the invasion of Iraq.” 

The person chosen as McClellan’s successor will have to deal with the daily spotlight almost as much as the President does.  The successor will be not only responsible for communicating daily with the news media, but speaking with the ever-important “one clear voice” for the White House.

 

There were additional shake ups this week, as well.  Karl Rove has once again changed positions.  According to the article, “Rove is giving up oversight of policy development to focus more on politics with the approach of the fall midterm elections.”  Joel Kaplan, the deputy budget director, will be replacing Rove as the deputy chief of staff for policy.

It will be interesting to see how the White House responds to such important changes in staff.

Ethics in public relations is a very tricky topic.  Are public relations practitioners supposed to be loyal to the company that pays them, or do they have an obligation to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?  The PRSA has set forth a code of ethics, but it is not one that is strictly enforced.  Many companies develop their own code of ethics which they follow.

            Edelman Public Relations is one such firm that has developed its own set of ethical practices and “code of conduct.”  Here’s their mission as listed on the website:

“To provide public relations counsel and strategic communications services that enable our clients to build strong relationships and to influence attitudes and behaviors in a complex world.

• We undertake our mission through convergence by integrating specialist knowledge of practices and industries, local market understanding, proprietary methodology and breakthrough creativity.
• We are dedicated to building long-term, rewarding partnerships that add value to our clients and our people.
• Our clients are leaders in their fields who are initiating change and seeking new solutions.”

The company outlines 5 values which it strives to follow.  They are: quality (excellence in products and services), integrity (responsible and trustworthy partners), respect (positive relationships with clients, colleagues, and affected communities), entrepreneurial spirit (take charge and make a difference), and mutual benefits to firm and clients.

            Edelman also strives to follow several principles.  The principles are:

·             Edelman is committed to honesty.
·             Edelman is committed to transparency.
·             Edelman is committed to fair dealing.
·             Edelman will ensure activity aligns with the interests of its employees, clients and critical stakeholders.
·             Edelman will strive to model best practice in the marketplace.
·             Employees will not violate legal obligations or prohibitions where Edelman does business.
 

Although Edelman does not follow PRSA’s specifically outlined code of ethics, it has developed a code of ethics focused on the company.  This code fits around their business culture and procedures. Obviously, this code of ethics has been working well for the company.  After all, Edelman is one of the most successful PR firms. 

(P.S….this post was a little nerve-wracking to write seeing as how Richard Edelman might read this…)

Driving to Auburn on Highway 280 from Birmingham after a very relaxing Easter weekend, I caught a glimpse of a road sign for Camp ASCCA.  That sign, along with my previous visits to Camp ASCCA for various university retreats and Robert’s love for/talking about the camp each week, prompted me to write a blog post about Camp ASCCA and it’s website.

Camp ASCCA recently re-did it’s website, and now the new site is quite impressive.  It is a tool that can really be used by this non-profit organization to promote itself and communicate with its supporters.

Visually, the website is very “clean.” Lots of white space and simple font make the site reader-friendly.  The homepage has links to the various other pages of the site.  However, I do have one suggestion about the opening page.  I think it might be beneficial to condense some of the material or add another link so that readers don’t have to scroll very far to get to the bottom of the page.  As we’ve learned in our Style and Design class, if you have to scroll far, chances are you won’t read the entire page.

The Camp ASCCA website has several interesing pages.  There is Camp Journal, which is essentially a blog.  Many of the posts are written by my classmate and PR Campaigns group-mate, Erin Caldwell.  There are posts about camp events, as well as happenings in the surrounding communities and non-profit world.

There’s also a news room, photo galleries, calendar of events and online forums for alumni.  Camp ASCCA is definitely making use of new social media to promote itself.  The website is easy to navigate and information is readily available.

Hopefully, other non-profits will model their own website after Camp ASCCA.  Through organizations such as Operation Link Love, the web can be used to boost non-profits!

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if you liked Global PR Blog Week, then you should checkout HigherEd Blog Con.  HigherEd Blog Con will be held online from April 3, 2006 to April 28, 2006.  As stated on the site, Higher Ed Blog con is ” a fully web-based eventfocused on how new online communications technologies and social tools are changing Higher Education.”

“HigherEd BlogCon 2006 seeks to engage the Higher Education community in a conversation on the use of blogs, wikis, RSS, audio and video podcasts, social networks, and other digital tools in a range of areas in academe.”

Each week, a new topic is discussed on the site.  Last week it was teaching.  This week discussion is focused on library and info resources. Admissions, alumni relations, communications and marketing is April 17-21, and websites and web development in April 24-28.

There are dozens of articles all concerning the use of new social media.  Articles like “Blogging and podcasting in libraries” and “Curriculum development using a wiki.”  All of these articles and presentations are free of charge (except for live Speaker Series.)

HigherEd BlogCon is providing students and faculty with a way to incorporate new technology into the classroom! It’s a great site, so check it out!

So by now, everyone in PR knows about and is talking about the “woman.” Or man, is more like it.  A man who created a blog pretending to be a woman.  And the man/woman wrote posts that were demeaning to women.  So, in light of these events, our fabulous professor Robert French set up a Skype conference with Kami Huyes and Susan Getgood, two influential women and PR.  We were able to ask them a variety of questions concerning the role of women in PR.  Stereotypes like “PR bunnies,” the glass ceiling and men in management are some of the hardest aspects of the business.  For instance, why is PR as a profession populated by women, but controlled and managed by men?

And why are women stereotyped so much in this business?  I read an article on Marcomblog posted by Tara Smith.  She provided tips for overcoming the PR Bunny stereotype.  Here are a few pieces of the advice :

1. Join professional organizations.  It lets business-people know you are serious.

2. Dress professionally.

3. Come to work prepared.  Know what you are going to be talking about in meetings and presentations.

4. Toughen up.  Not muscle wise, but growing thick skin. Don’t take it all personally.

5. My favorite: Steer clear of the open bar.

You can read the rest of Tara’s post to find out all of her suggestions.

Basically, women will always combat stereotypes in the workplace.  People might always assume that a successful woman “slept her way to the top” and made-up blogs like Strumpie don’t really help. Young women in PR need to model themselves after professional and ethical women in the profession. Women can be just as successful as men; we might have to work double-time to prove it to those unwilling believers, but it can be done.

 

I’m sure you all remember several posts I’ve written about our PR Campaigns class project.  Our group has been assigned the Auburn Chamber of Commerce’s local shopping program, ShopAuburn.  Throughout the semester, we have been developing a strategic PR/Communication plan to help ShopAuburn provide local businesses with the tools necessary for them to better promote their busineeses.

We recently turned in our rough draft of our proposal.  In the draft, we included our situation analysis (including analyses of the PR situation, the organization and the target public), goals and objectives for the campaign, recommendations, research overview, schedule and budget.  While our teacher supported our campaign and complimented our ideas as creative, she told us that we needed to refocus our ideas to be more public-focused.

According to our textbook, Strategic Planning for Public Relations by Ronald Smith, public focused objectives are “linked firmly to a particular public and are based on the wants, interests and needs of that public.”  While our objectives had our public in mind, we forgot to remember the limitations of our public.  For instance, we have planned a lot activities surrounding a website.  What we failed to remember is that since many of our businesses are small businesses, their owners have very little time to constantly check their email or surf the web.   Now, we are beginning to think up new ways to make the website a more useful tool for the small businesses.

I’m confident that our campaign will help ShopAuburn be more successful!!

Operation Link Love is a new wiki designed to help non-profits discuss ways to increase the marketing/public relations ideas for their organizations through the use of social media. Robert French and Constantin Basturea got the idea from Tom Murphy’s blog post about charitable blogging.

Murphy asks, “So the question for charities out there is how can we help? I’m in the planning stages of a small project here in Ireland where I’ll be working with Enable Ireland to possibly put together a free blogging workshop for charitable organisations. But I’m sure there’s stuff we can do online, and I’m sure the ever growing PR blog community won’t be found wanting…”

 So, French and Basturea have created this new wiki to help out non-profits.  And what’s the easiest way for people to do that?…You got it! Links! They also provide several other suggestions to help on the site:

1. Link love. The PR blogging community can easily help these non-profits with a selfless gift. A link – in your blog. Plain and simple.
   • Links to these sites from established blogs will help them gain visibility. This is a simple gesture of support. Pick one, two – or all of them – and give a friendly link.
   • You do not have to link to them in support of their core issues, if you do not support their mission. Instead, discuss their efforts in further developing social media.
   • You will notice that there are few examples below, and the only ones with wide visibility online are those with either
     • agency support, or
     • large infrastructures of their own.
2. Second, the PR blogging community can visit these sites and:
   • Comment with praise and/or constructive criticism about their efforts.
   • Write posts in their own blogs with praise and/or constructive criticism pointing to these sites.
   • Write to the organizations and offer pro-bono services and support to these organizations.
3. Next, add links below to any non-profit blogging, and other social media, examples you can find online.
4. Any other ideas? Add them here.

They’ve also some resources for nonprofit blogs and links to current blogs by non-profit organizations.  It’s great to see that people can use their knowledge of technology to help nonprofit organizations receive more attention!

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Do you know what’s hard? Finding a job. I actually had a nervous breakdown about it this morning. Maybe some tears were shed.  Good thing I wasn’t in lab or Robert would have kicked me out.  Haha. ( He has a saying, “There’s no crying in lab.”)  Anyway, finding a job is tough.  Especially a job that you think you’d like, in a place you think you’d like.

I’m looking for a job in Birmingham.  Preferrably with a university because I’m going back to grad school next year for Higher Education.  I’ve found an Admissions Counselor job at a university in the Birmingham area that I think I like.  So now comes the hard part.  Applying for the job and making myself set apart from other candidates.

That’s where my PR skills can come in handy.  Throughout our PR curriculum, we’ve learned about “pitching.”  So, now instead of pitching a story idea, I’m pitching myself.   My cover letter has to highlight my interpersonal and organization skills.  It has to highlight my relevant experience that makes me a good candidate for this position.  I’ve also got to make that “pitch” professional, but friendly.  I’ll be using most of the writing skills I learned in PR Writing.  If I’m lucky enough to get an interview, then I’ll be putting to use the interpersonal communication skills I learned in supplementary PR classes. 

I’m hoping that the communication skills I learned in PR will help me stand out among the crowd when applying and interviewing for jobs.

So many of today’s corporate scandals turn into cases of “what we should have done.”  WorldCom and Enron’s reputations were ruined.  Richard Scrushy and Healthsouth have also had some tough circumstances.  But, I found a little-known case of crisis management done right, turning the worst of situations into one that became a positive boost for the company. 

A good example of a PR crisis turned into good publicity is the MasterFoods Mars and Snickers case. This unfortunate event led eventually to a better brand name for the company.

MasterFoods, based in New South Wales, was forced to withdraw nearly 3 million Mars and Snickers candy bars from the shelves due to an extortion threat. The company lost a lot of money due to this removal of candy bars. However, the company used the media to their advantage, by getting all different types of media coverage and angles.

They first alerted the press that they candy bars were being removed from store shelves, and even invited them to the refuse dumps where they candy bars were being destroyed. Then, they announced the re-introduction of the product to stores. They got the different media outlets to even publicize where to go to get free samples of the candy. Every newsroom in New South Wales also received a large, complimentary box of extortion-proof Snickers and Mars bars.

By turning the spotlight on the efforts to correct the problems, MasterFoods was able to create good publicity for their company and its products. Although they lost a good amount of hard money due to removing the candy bars, they more than made up for it with the high amount of brand awareness gained from media attention. Sales of the candy bars were 250 percent higher than average the first week the candy was back.