Transcript public relations and crisis communications

PUBLIC RELATIONS AND CRISIS
COMMUNICATIONS
PRESENTED BY:
1. Mohd Yatim Idris
2. Dallius Ubin
3. Borhan Siangau
4. Adelaide Cornelus
THE OBJECTIVE OF LEARNING
i. To explain the definition of communications
ii. To explain the definition of public relations; understand
the different roles public relations practitioners play
iii.To explain What is a clear and understandable definition
of corporate communication
iv.To know in details of the Functions of Corporate
Communication
v. To brief the keys to success in corporate communication
vi. To explain of Professional Communicator Responsibilities
Cont.
vii. To know what is corporate image
viii. To differentiate between corporate communication
and corporate image
ix. To explain the meaning of crisis communication
x. To explain of the crisis communications
characteristics
xi. To describe of the crisis communication strategy
Definition Of Communications
“an exchange of facts, ideas, opinions or emotions by two
or more persons.”
-Newman and Summer“Communication is the verbal interchange of thought or
idea.”
- Hoben -
Definition-Contd.
“Communication is the process, by which we understand
others and in turn endeavor to be understood by them.
It is dynamic, constantly changing and shifting in
response to the total situation.”
- Anderson -
What we know about Effective
Communication?
 The message must be conveyed clearly and
unambiguously
 The message would reached very little distortion
 The receiver must understand the message
Barriers to Effective Communication
 Physical Barriers - Its happened in large working
area are commonly at work place
 Language - Inability to converse in a language
that is known by both the sender and receiver
 Emotions - Engrossed in emotions for some
reasons.
Barriers to Effective Communication
- contd  Lack of Subject Knowledge - The sender must
understand the subject to avoid misentrepetation
by the receiver.
 Stress -Stress will cause a difficulty to understand
the message conveyed
Function and Purpose of
Communication
 To establish and disseminate the goals
 Helps to manage and utilizes
manpower and other resources
 To helps manager lead, direct and
motivate employees
Public relations :
The art and science of establishing
relationships between an organization
and its key audiences.
- Involved two-way communication
- Process of Listening, Analyzing and
Understanding
-
Public Relation:
 Is a proactive and planned
communication efforts to establish and
maintain mutually beneficial and
positive relationship, attitudes and
opinions between an organization and
the public on whom its success or
failure depends.
Public Relations:
 Is the management functions which evaluates
public attitudes, identifies the policies and
procedures of an individual or organization
with public interest and plans and executes a
program action to earn public understand and
patience.
 Scott M Cutlip, Allen H and Glen M Bloom
Public Relations:
 relations with the general public as through
publicity, specifically those functions of a
corporation, organization, etc, concerned
with attempting to create favorable public
opinion of itself.
 Webster New World Dictionary.
Where Public Relations are
important and applied:
 Agencies
 Corporate Sectors
 Government
 Nonprofit organizations and trade
associations
The Dynamic Model
Research
Planning
Evaluation
Communication
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2000
Public Relations – Process As A Never-ending Cycle
Research and
analysis
Policy formation
Programming
Communication
Program
assessment and
adjustment
In the
conceptualization of
public relations as a
cyclical process,
feedback- or audience
response- leads to
assessment of the
program, which
becomes an essential
element in the
development of
another public
relations project.
Feedback
16
Public Relation has multiple
components:
 Media relations
 Community relations
 Government relations
 Employee relations
 Counselling
 Research
 Public Affairs
 Multi Cultural Relation
Public Relation, Advertising and
Marketing
 Advertising and marketing tend to
focus exclusively upon consumers.
 Public relations focuses upon all public
important to success.
Fathers of Corporate Communication:
Paul Garrett
Corporate Communication
 Definition of corporate communication?
Corporate communication includes
advertising, marketing communications,
marketing, and public relations, but they all
function under a managed perspective.
Corporate communication is managing
an organization's internal and external
communications.
Defining Corporate Communication
Advertising
 Marketing Communication
(or marcom)
 Marketing
Public Relations
Functions of Corporate Communication
 managing communication or






fulfilling the communication
management function
dealing with controlled and
uncontrolled media
serving both internal and
external audiences
proactive communication
planning
advocating communication
strategies and tactics
dissemination of persuasion
and information
branding images and
reputation
 branding products and


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
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
services
monitoring the responses from
audiences and markets
counseling and advising senior
executives
managing issues and
responding to crisis situations
lobbying for favorable stances
for the organization
organizational image creation
and maintenance
organizational presence
building and monitoring
Scope of Corporate Communication
 Corporations
 Nonprofit Agencies
 Entertainment, Sports and Travel
 Government and Military
 Education
 International
Image
Definition: The perception people have
of your business when they hear your
company name. A business's image is
composed of an infinite variety of facts,
events, personal histories, advertising
and goals that work together to make
an impression on the public.
Corporate Image
Corporate image, or reputation,
describes the manner in which a
company, its activities, and its
products or services are perceived
by outsiders.
The Link Between Corporate
Communication and Corporate Image.
The link between CC and CI define in the
broadest possible sense, because companies
communicate identities in many different
ways. Communication can include almost
anything the company does, from the way
telephones are answered to the involvement
of company employees in community
affairs.
FEEDBACK.
Feedback is essential to the
management of corporate image.
Business owners and managers need
accurate information on how they and
their company are perceived if they are
to make sound decisions. Ideally,
feedback should be continuous.
FEEDBACK. (Cont.)
Where to get feedback?
• Salespeople
• Clients
• Employees, and
• Other local business owners.
FEEDBACK. (Cont.)
What do you do to the feedback?
 Modifications of the company's
communication methods or,
 A formal study of the corporate image may
be initiated.
 systematically utilizing internal sources
Introduction
CRISIS COMMUNICATIONS
Definition:
A crisis is “an extraordinary event or
series of events that adversely affects the
integrity of the products, the reputation
or financial stability of the organization;
or the health or well-being of employees,
the community, or the public at large”
Reported by Pacific Telesis.
Characteristics.
Crisis has four defining characteristics.
As Seeger, Sellnow and Ulmer
September 2009, explain that a crises
are "specific, unexpected, and nonroutine events or series of events that
create high levels of uncertainty and
threat or perceived threat to an
organization's high priority goals.
cont -
Thus the first three characteristics are
that the
event is :1. Unexpected (i.e., a surprise),
2. Creates uncertainty,
3. Is seen as a threat to important goals.
4. Defining quality is the need for change. If
change is not needed, the event could more
accurately be described as a failure.
They argues that "crisis is a process of
transformation where the old system can no
longer be maintained.”
cont -
If handled improperly, a crisis can
destroy a company’s reputation,
drain its financial strength, erode
morale and invite protracted
investigations, heavy fines and
negative publicity.
List of crises could happen in
organizations:
-a product recall
-a plane crush
-government investigation
-strike
-insider trading scandal
-protest
-hostile takeover
-death of top executive
-sexual harassment
-a hospital malpractice suit
-CEO get arrested for drunk driving
-computer system crash, causing to lose all data
-etc…
Example: Crisis Communication
When TWA Fligths 800 crashed, the
company’s management was caught off
guard. Having a crisis communication
plan in place means preparing for even
the worst kinds of disasters.
 TWA was criticized for not taking many of
these actions when Flight 800 crashed off the
coast of Long Island in July 1996, killing all
230 people on board. Critics accused TWA
of taking too long to release the names of
people on board and criticized the company
for being unresponsive to the media.
Furthermore, many felt that CEO, Jeffrey
Erikson waited too long before addressing
the public about the crash.
Do
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
Be prepared for trouble.
Identify potential problem.
Appoint and train a response team.
Prepare and test a crisis management plan.
Do get top management involved as soon as the
crisis hits.
f. Do set up a news centre for company representative
and the media, equipped with phones, computers
and other electronic tools for preparing news
releases.
g. Do tell the whole story openly, completely and
honesty. If you are at fault, apologize
h. Do demonstrate the company’s concern by your
statements and your actions.
Don’t
a. Don’t blame anyone for anything.
b. Don’t speculate in public.
c. Don’t refuse to answer question.
d. Don’t release information that will
violate anyone’s right to privacy.
e. Don’t play favorites with media
representative.
1. Be prepared. Have a plan of action.
Regardless of the crisis, there should be an overall
crisis communications plan that can be put into place
quickly.
2. Build a crisis management team.
A team of trained experts representing various
local, state and federal agencies should be created
that is aware that they could be called on at any
time for assistance.
3) Be prepared to handle media inquiries and
take action.
The news media’s first question was, “What
caused this?” The utility’s response was,
“We have been unable to find the cause of
the accident that resulted in the plane crash.
Example, We are going to hire an expert to
investigate the cause of plane crash related
deaths to know the truth.”
4. Convey a consistent message.
It was decided early on that the utility’s
message must be one of empathy for the
family of the victim. We also wanted to
show our desire to obtain answers. The
message was conveyed through one
spokesperson who kept the media from
venturing off course. A key ingredient in our
responses was honesty about our efforts.
5. Consult with qualified experts.
One necessary qualification for the expert,
aside from the obvious technical credibility,
was a background in dealing with the
media. The expert hired was through in his
explanations, yet able to speak in a language
that the media understood.
6. Keep your employees informed.
Before having a news briefing on the findings, the first item
of business was to inform utility employees as a group. The
utility director, as well as the consultant, spoke with the
staff. After all, your employees are your most important
asset. They are the people who must keep the company safe
and reliable in the future. This incident could have had a
huge impact on the morale of our employees, but it didn’t
because we let them know we were doing all we could to
discover the cause of the accident.
 What we hope other companies gain from this
experience is to realize that crises do occur and you
need to be prepared with an effective crisis plan, one
that is constructed to effectively deal with intense
public and media scrutiny.
 Don’t assume that it can never happen to your
company. This example is proof positive that it can
happen.