Every corporation has a public relations method—it’s as necessary to a company as its name. The only question is whether the corporation wants to strategically direct this power or let it drift off on its own.
This sort of question gave rise to a noteworthy white paper in the 1980s titled "The Seven Deadly Sins of Public Relations." Today, however, they’re profoundly worse. In a YouTube-driven, anybody-can-write-a-blog atmosphere, these seven deadly sins not only remain in control, their magnitude has intensified to an almost unstoppable force. If they are left to themselves, these sins will destroy profit, reputation, company performance and earnings, particularly in an intensive 21st Century environment.The Faucet Philosophy of PR: The Faucet Philosophy is often better known as "When PR is needed, we’ll turn it on. When we don’t need it, we’ll turn it off." This immature belief has outright destroyed several companies, particularly in an Internet setting where confidential e-mails get leaked and obtain a life of their own. When senior executives embrace and employ tactical reputation management, the benefits show. When executives are caught off guard in a state of crisis, they pay for it dearly.
Functional Myopia:A shocking number of businessmen think that PR mostly involves retail grand openings or "getting something in the paper." Professional public relations may or may not involve the tactics of media relations or special events. PR is inevitably intertwined in strategic brand development, where the third-party independent support achieved by public relations creates and sustains a corporate name far more effectively than advertising alone. Advertising expert Al Ries declares: "Advertising is brand maintenance. PR is brand building." In an online setting, this is truer than ever before.Local Anesthesia: This horrific sin often appears when a negative story or comment appears in a local newspaper and the top corporate executives treat it as insignificant. Even small newspapers have Web sites, and those sites are available everywhere. Back to brand development, as Scott Bedbury puts it, "A brand is based on collective experience and perception." A company can make a public claim about its performance, but if they don’t live up to it, somebody’s going to realize, even in a small rural Indiana town. The negative results can become universal.The One-Shot Communications: Tic Discord erupts when senior management sends out a nonspecific blast e-mail to all employees or the media about a complicated situation and then becomes frustrated when people don’t understand or respond accordingly. Specific messaging strategies designed to communicate to particular vertical audiences are a necessity in this day and age.
Good News Neurasthenia: Executives want to spread good news about their company. The sin is committed when that’s all that they’re willing to communicate. If the Johnson & Johnson company had used this as a strategy back during the Tylenol crisis, they likely would have lost the essential consumer faith required for them to stay in business. Executing a professional PR program often requires audacious honesty, but the benefits more than make up for the sacrifice.
The Shadow Delusion: This deadly sin becomes evident when companies assume they can function under the radar. When approached for a public opinion or disclosure, the management response is to provide very limited information. The fact remains that nature abhors a vacuum, and that means in the absence of credible information, people will simply make it up. That made-up information quickly becomes word-of-mouth, which is almost irreversible, particularly in the short-term. Without existing key relationships and a credible reputation, an otherwise sound company can quickly fall prey to the consequences of this deadly sin.
The Hysteron Proteron Approach: Most people rely almost entirely on what marketers call "self-reference criteria," which is a way of saying "I believe it, therefore everybody else believes it." A "hysteron proteron" is formally defined as "a logical fallacy of assuming as a premise something that follows from what is to be proved." You overcome faulty information with good information, and good information comes from time and quality research. With reliable search engines like Google and ChaCha, there is no excuse for not doing your homework when trying to communicate with a target audience.
In 1985, in the pre-Internet age, PR professional Joseph Awad got it right with his first presentation of the Seven Deadly Sins of Public Relations. Today, they’re even more deadly. Left unchecked, these transgressions represent company-busters and brand-bruisers. Don’t allow your most valuable corporate assets – your brand and your reputation – to fall prey to these deadly sins. Repent now.
