Communication Strategy

PR people and executives to whom they report often have only limited control over their communications. A release may say exactly what its originator wants it to say, but its interpretation is mostly out of the organization’s control once it leaves the office. Sometimes in interviews the right questions are never asked, or the executive being questioned may be ambiguous or misunderstood. Poor writing and clumsy talk promote misunderstanding. The act of communication is only half of a transaction; the reception or perception of what is communicated is the other half. Most PR people have seen with dismay how imperfect the perception often is.

This limited control puts a premium on quality in communications. Clarity and simplicity in language are keys to effective communications. Logic in the sequence of ideas is another key, as is the clean and evident organization of any written material. The best written communications do not leave the reader with unanswered questions or objections because of omission. Questions and objections should be anticipated in the planning of written materials answered in the writing.

Some of the most effective communications have been disseminated in the form of questions and answers. The Q-and-A technique is, of course, a special one that is not adaptable to all communications. It is selected as the most direct and hardest hitting approach to communicating a number of important but not closely related facts with brevity and impact.

Even the most affirmative things said in a PR program often have negative aspects that should be anticipated. An electric utility has good news: it is going to build a new generating station. Good news, indeed, but if the company tells its story this way, it will leave a lot of questions unanswered: environmental effects, location, community’s reaction, temporary construction noise and dirt, etc. Making a general announcement of this sort is only the beginning of a communication program that will take different forms and may go on for years. One of the company’s first considerations must be for the differing interests of its specific audiences. The purpose of tailoring communications for specific audiences is to serve the company’s interests, to earn appreciation and support, to win acceptance of its policies and activities, to moderate criticism or to abate anticipated attacks, to maintain its markets and so on.

Subdivision of Public Relations

Like the term “public relations”, the nomenclature for the many branches of the business can be confusing. Press relations, media relations, and publicity are sometimes used interchangeably and sometimes to make distinctions. Consumer and customer relations could be the same but are different. Public affairs are usually employed synonymously with governmental relations, but by some it is meant to encompass all public relations activities and concepts.

Some organizations now eschew the words “public relations” altogether, because of the frequent misuse of the term. They may call their function “corporate communication”, “corporate relations”, “corporate affairs”, or something else. But when they break the overall function down into natural components, the terminology usually reverts to generic use, such as “community relations”, “shareholders relations”, and the rest.

There is a tendency among some in public relations to add the word “relations” to any particular audience and thus seem to create specialties that do not, in fact exist. The real distinction between the general practice of public relations and a specialized practice of public relations and a specialized practice is not related so much to the audiences encompassed as it is to the different techniques used or of the special knowledge required. Public affairs (or governmental relations), for example, is a genuine specialty, principally because it requires an encyclopedic knowledge of the processes of government.

Most PR departments are smaller than their directors would like them to be, and only a relatively few are large enough to offer full-time specialists. Multi-plant manufacturing companies may have one “communicator” at each major plant location to handle both internal communications and community relations.

Double assignments on a PR staff are common, with the result that the great majority of PR people automatically gain experience in most of the field’s subdivisions. The professional assigned to cover an event for the employee newspaper in the morning may be planning the annual report at lunch and writing testimony on proposed legislation later in the day.

Where specialization reaches its occupational peak is in PR consulting firms. The nature of consulting is to confront, over and over again with many clients, the kind of problems any single client organization experiences only from time to time. From a practical standpoint then, most PR people have to identify the distinctions between the major specialties if they are to apply their skills and judgments intelligently, as their work assignments vary.