Smart Marketing -
Article Eight

Embedding PR into Management helps Customer-Focus

Regular readers may recall an article written in Jonathan Dodd’s June 27  “Inside Marketing” column about a new approach to public relations.  Auckland PR man Richard Carter claimed that PR is too often seen as a luxurious afterthought, an intangible adjunct to the more common forms of mainstream marketing.  Carter’s answer to this was to develop clearly defined PR offerings, presented as a “product” rather than a service.

Whilst Carter’s approach was aimed to make PR a more agreeable option for non-PR users, this approach fails to address the true potential to be gained from PR.  Many managers still consider PR to be a collection of press-releases, media management, sponsorships or publicity events.  For these marketers, it can be difficult to accept just how much more ingrained into a company’s operations PR should become.  One traditional model, for example, has marketing managers controlling above-the-line marketing, PR dealing with the media, and complaints managers or branch managers dealing with customers directly.

In contrast, adopting a Customer-Centric Intelligence philosophy means that the PR perspective has to flow freely throughout a company, and achieving that may even require a reassessment of ones’ PR agency if they are still stuck in their press-release ways.  Fortunately, this may not be as difficult as it seems once a Customer-Centric Intelligence approach is being considered - as with many new business movements, converts often find themselves clustering together as a result of their shared philosophies. Within the PR community, one such person is Gabrielle Tourelle of August.One Communications.

Tourelle writes to us citing two experiences she has had with airlines and long flight delays.  In one instance the airline essentially did nothing for its customers, revealing its process-oriented business approach, summarised perhaps as “flying planes and their cargo”.  In contrast, Tourelle recalls a flight delay she experienced on the London-Auckland route one Christmas Eve.  She writes “from the moment the airline knew they had a problem, they communicated and explained, lavished us with extra treats of ice-creams and drinks amongst regular updates and rolled out a Santa with champagne surprise and presents – a winning way to fly.   I believe I was saved by PR, as was the airline’s loyal customer base”.    Clearly this airline knew it was flying people, and had a Customer-Centric approach to its problem-management. 

The Customer-Centric philosophy is of course a key tenet of Customer-Centric Intelligence, and by employing public relations in a Customer-Centric Intelligence model, PR can be made more accountable for its role in helping drive business success.  For example, we have written in earlier Smart Marketing columns about the need to ensure that customer values are strongly reflected in all aspects of a brand’s image, products and activities.  “Dashboard KPIs” have been highlighted as an efficient way of keeping tabs on a brand-consumer fit, and clearly PR has a role to play in how a brand performs on these KPIs.

The Customer-Centric Intelligence approach to PR has two clear components.  Firstly, ensuring that the PR strategy is based upon a strong understanding of the hearts and minds of a business’s key audiences. This means that the same sources of information and research that are shaping the direction and decisions of the company also need to guide the development of the public relations strategy. 

Secondly, PR has to be included whenever key issues and problems facing a company are discussed.  If this seems a case of overkill, witness how Nike’s product supply decisions, essentially a “back room” supply-chain issue, became a PR nightmare once the Asian sweatshop scandal became big news.  If Nike’s PR was better integrated into it’s operations, guidance against the move would surely have been offered, and failing that, better management of the ensuring scandal would have minimised the problems faced.  Nike’s mismanagement of the scandal revealed a complete non-understanding of its customers’ values.  An arrogant out-of-touch company had its come-uppance.  In summary, embedding PR into management can help ensure that the Business Intelligence approach is better enacted – that the customer focus remains paramount.

The Customer-Centric Intelligence PR practitioner interacts and faces all parts of the business from senior management, to HR, marketing and every customer touch point to bring the views of the outside world to internal thinking whilst also taking messages to that external world.  This approach places public relations squarely in the centre of a business - it cannot be added on later, like a finishing coat of paint to cover up the rough edges.