Image and reputation in the age of digital communication

Image & Reputation in the Age of Digital CommunicationBob Pickard - July 22nd 2010

Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
A publicist pitching a journalist

Pre-modern analogue public relations
Based on relationships with face-to-face key
There was attention span & focused thinking
Analogue methods were used to propagate information
Primitive technology
Deliberate and slow
Text was King
Ample time for stories
We measured media

Sigmund Freud had
an American nephew

Bernays
has been called the
‘Father of Modern PR’

Public relations has ‘scientific’ roots
Bernays defined a PR professional as a “practicing social scientist” whose “competence is like that of the industrial engineer, the management engineer, or the investment counselor in their respective fields.”
He said that to assist clients, public relations counselors use and apply their understanding of behavioral sciences such as anthropology, history, social psychology, and sociology.

Modern digital public relations
PR becoming more a science
E-relationships
Digital methods
No attention span; distraction is a constant
People continuously online
Technology massively propagates pictures, videos and ephemera
‘Content’ is King
Scant time for stories
We measure impact

Image building demands storytelling
The story is the most important things a company needs to tell its target audiences...
so that
Those people will do and think...
...what we want them to do or think
know of the company
feel favourable towards its brand
recommend its products to others
invest in the stock
make positive comments online
want to work there

THE NEW PUBLIC MIND

Communication is all in the mind

Stories tap into the unconscious mind
It is unconscious thoughts, feelings, and desires that drive purchasing decisions we make each and every day of our lives
People tend to remember products when they are woven into the narrative of media content
They tend not to remember brands that don’t play an integral role in the story because people can see them as being ‘just ads’

PR pros know about storytelling
PR people spend their careers trying to convince executives that they should invest more in ‘earning’ editorial media coverage of their brands in news stories rather than ‘buying’ paid coverage through advertising.
Because people can readily identify ads when they see them – and we tend to think that ads are supposed to be present during times and places we expect them to be – they attach less credibility to their claims.
But if they see a product featured in a news narrative, people are less likely to be suspicious and more likely to trust brand messaging that isn’t visibly purchased.

The news is a story product
The news is a product which media companies sell, and people have attached a value to it with paid subscriptions a tangible measure.
News product has been produced by standards-based journalism that is supposed to be:
motivated by the pursuit of truth
resourceful in the use of research
informed by facts
governed by standards and edited with balance
News content is still big, but journalism getting smaller.

Decline of news story quality
The economic basis of the traditional news media business is crumbling, and so the quality of editorial product is declining fast.
As a result of lower quality, people trust media stories less than they did before:
there are fewer good reporters around, and not as many exacting editors
battles about editorial ethics versus just going with what a company hands you for content are less frequent
money is the only thing that seems to matter
now more than ever, speed trumps accuracy

Reduction of news story quantity
Media companies have tried to make the news more entertaining and opinionated (rise of spectacle and sensation), and the result of this debasing of ‘journalism’ is a further reduction of news’ credibility.
Therefore, there are fewer eyeballs reading a shrinking number of trusted news media stories.
Less signal, more noise: the supply of journalism-grade news is shrinking; aggregated raw content keeps expanding.

Where PR storytelling is shrinking
OK, so if a brand’s involvement in a story is still the best way for a product to get noticed...
...then what do PR people do if there are fewer trusted news sources producing a reduced number of stories that will be credible enough to have commercial impact even if we ‘earn’ coverage successfully?
Where can PR communicate narratives if the storytelling zone is shrinking?

Where PR storytelling is growing
Entertainment media, through embedding brand narratives into the ‘plot’
Social media, through creating brand-centric networks and creating ‘conversations’

The new reality
Reduced trust in institutions
Governments seen as out of touch and able to exercise less control
Decline of ‘fourth estate’ - newspaper readership
More demanding citizens and consumers
Want to make up their own minds
Expect to have a ‘relationship’ with organisations
Believe they have a voice, and more likely to use it
Wider range of influencers
NGOs, analysts, bloggers, etc
Spreading a wider range of news and views

Transparency

Accountability

Dialogue

Trust for those with no conflict of interest

Most trust in word-of-mouth in Asia

Chinese also trust others they DON’T know?
Source:
Millward Brown ACSR,
May 2009

THE NEW ART & SCIENCE OF PERSUASION

Persuasion 1.0
Going back to Dale Carnegie in 1936, we know that making people feel important is the precursor to persuasion
Once PR-driven interactions make people feel important (‘someone is listening to me’), then stories are sold as conversations
Much of this is designed with the objective of getting people to commit themselves in writing to a brand online (i.e. publicly, in front of others)
“Make the other person feel important and do it sincerely.”

Persuasion 2.0
According to Robert Cialdini’s research, we know that when people commit themselves in public to something, they have created a new ‘image template’ of themselves
e.g. ‘as the kind of cutting-edge person who uses this cool product’ – which they will advocate to others within their personal networks of trust – Trojan Horse-like – as a credible peer
People will do and say whatever is necessary to conform with their new public image (including aping a brand’s PR-devised story), and to evidence complete consistency with what they’ve said in ‘conversations’ online
This is what Cialdini calls “the principle of consistency”

Less signal, more noise
News content is still big, but journalism is getting smaller
Journalism as spectacle and entertainment further debases media credibility
Paying bloggers is not credible – you can’t buy trust
Opportunity for organisations to become media owners and communicate direct with their customers & stakeholders
Co-creation is key

Modern means to build an image
#1 – Listen & learn
#2 – Be authentic & transparent
#3 – Go peer-to-peer
#4 – Focus on the 1%
#5 – Be human
#6 – Build relationships
#7 – Commit for the long-term
#8 – Use storytelling

Listen & learn

Go peer-to-peer

Focus on the 1%

Be human

Build relationships

Use digital storytelling

Every company a media company?
IF a declining media business can no longer generate an ample supply of compelling story content...
IF, owing to its resource constraints, media is becoming an automated and uncritical B2C conveyor of pre-packaged marketing information passed to them by PR people...
THEN why can’t corporations fill the void themselves and communicate stories directly to the public.?

MINIMISING RISK & MANAGING REPUTATION

Everything that famously goes wrong is now called a ‘PR disaster’
the BP oil spill
the Toyota recall
the Tiger Woods spectacle

Corporate Achilles’ Heels
Not-so-new
Food safety
Product safety
Lay-offs/closures
Environment
Human rights
Nationalism
Terrorism
Pandemics
New, and growing
Customer service
Advertising claims
Greenwashing
Marketing conduct
Smart mobs

Professionalism of NGOs & activists

A crisis starts when it hits the front page?

PRotecting reputation
#1 – Corporate rhetoric must meet reality
#2 – Expect the unexpected
#3 – Prepare assiduously and rehearse disaster
#4 – Move fast – first mover advantage
#5 – Be responsive and look to listen
#6 – Admit mistakes and accept responsibility
#7 – Don’t get into fights where critics tend to win
#8 – Don’t be heavy-handed or arrogant

Be prepared to apologize – sincerely!

Thank you!
Bob Pickard
President & CEO, Asia-Pacific
Tel: +65 8126-2767
bob.pickard@bm.com
www.bobpickard.com
Talk to B-M online:
http://www.burson-marsteller.asia

Image and reputation in the age of digital communication

by Robert Pickard on Jul 22, 2010

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