On some issues of heavy consequence in the public relations profession, it sometimes helps to take a step back and watch the dialogue unfold before formulating an opinion.  I had been doing just that on the Susan G. Komen / Planned Parenthood controversy – until today.  Now, it all seems crystal-clear.

Like everyone else, I saw the maelstrom unfold last week throughout the media.  The manner in which the story broke and how the Komen organization reacted with a policy about-face – followed by tough criticism (“they caved!”) – provides a public relations case study that will live in textbooks throughout the next decade. 

An interesting part about it to me, though, is that different public relations professionals are drawing diverse conclusions about who’s right, who’s wrong, and what the real lessons are relative to brand, reputation and effective organizational decision-making. 

One of my PRSA colleagues, Michael Cherenson, APR, Fellow PRSA, posted an entry on the Public Relations Society of America‘s national blog, “Who Really Owns the Komen Brand?”  In it, Mike makes some spot-on observations about the nature of brand advocacy.  He also poses a critical question in his title.  

I disagree, however, with the direction of his conclusion, in which he seems to indicate that Komen simply made a bad decision to no longer support Planned Parenthood, leaving a majority of former Komen supporters feeling betrayed and turning on the brand.  

To me, the answer of who owns the Komen brand – or at least who seized ownership of it last week – is quite simple:  Planned Parenthood.  

It’s Planned Parenthood’s own brand advocates, in my view, who mounted nothing short of a hostile takeover of the Komen brand in order to railroad their message – and their way – with absolute political genius . . . the notion of tying the breast cancer prevention issue intrinsically with women’s reproductive rights vis-à-vis Komen’s prior financial support of Planned Parenthood, with a deep inference that the two cannot be separated.  

In the face of Komen rescinding its funding, Planned Parenthood made an exceptionally swift, underlying case that Komen was turning its back on women.   And the media ate it up with a spoon, as Planned Parenthood well-knew they would.  The Komen folks didn’t know what hit them, with almost total deer-in-the-headlights confusion as to the messaging subterfuge overtaking their reputation. 

I have to ask the question, was it really Komen donors who were posting all those “Never will I give again!” messages on Facebook, or was it the Planned Parenthood Army?  We’ll see what the coming days of analysis into the Internet record bears out. 

Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal posted an editorial late last night that gives a far better reality-based assessment of Komen’s rationale for its original decision:

“Planned Parenthood has been and is under congressional and criminal investigation (by attorneys general, local prosecutors and various regulatory agencies in Arizona, Indiana, Alabama, Kansas and Texas) for allegations including failure to report criminal child sex abuse, misuse of health-care and family-planning funds, and failure to comply with parental-involvement laws regarding abortions. . . . It is easy to see why Komen might not wish to be associated with Planned Parenthood. Fighting breast cancer is something all Americans can and do agree on; promoting and performing abortions is something that divides us bitterly.” 

In short, there are two sides to this issue, and Komen’s side got completely hijacked. 

Another colleague of mine posted an essay yesterday that, to me, spoke with a great deal of clarity about the real issue at hand for Komen: lack of conviction. 

With characteristic aplomb, Susan Hart, APR, wrote, “Last week’s nightmare of ‘they fund us, they fund us not’ isn’t about funding at all. It’s about who the Susan G. Komen Foundation is. It’s about the organization’s values, priorities and purpose. It’s the up close and personal part of branding that decidedly determines who you are and what you stand for regardless of public sentiment.  And therein lies the multi-level problem for this pink-until-you-puke group.”

Love it. 

And she’s absolutely right. 

It’s not without a bit of odd coincidence that our company’s scheduled blog posts for the month of February are set to take on the theme “Demonstrating Value: Transparency and Accountability in Client Services”. . . when one of the biggest executive compensation flaps in recent Knoxville history is unfolding right now. 

At almost this very time two years ago (January 2010), I wrote a blog post, “The Reputational Fallout of Compensation Run Amok,” prompted at the time by a Barron’s article on the topic of out-of-control executive compensation on Wall Street and Washington’s reaction to it.

Whether an organization is public or private-sector, for-profit or non-profit, executive compensation disclosures can take a real toll on relationships with stakeholders, if compensation levels as well as policies aren’t within some reasonable range of public expectations, particularly given the scale of the organization and the context of its work performance.

Of course, you can’t please everyone on this topic.  Some folks misguidedly think anyone working in the non-profit sector shouldn’t make more than $50K a year.  Non-profits that seek to operate with the performance-driven approach of highly competitive companies generally have to pay quite well to attract commensurate talent in keeping with expectations.

As with practically everything else that can impact public attitudes and opinions, balance is the name of the game. 

Board decisions should be made with an underlying expectation that all information is subject to public disclosure and scrutiny and should let that knowledge serve as some form of guidance on executive compensation parameters.

With great delight this past New Year’s weekend, I opened my Wall Street Journal (yes, the one made of actual paper) to find Scott Adams’ essay, “A Year Without Fear.” 

First of all, I marvel at anyone who not only can draw (Dilbert) but also can write.  My husband’s cousin, cartoonist Marshall Ramsey, is another rare example; but I digress.

Adams describes in hilarious detail his efforts to overcome a natural penchant for taking the safe route, spurred in early life by an encounter on his bike with a woodchuck (you just gotta read it).      

What I loved about this piece, apart from the fits of laughter it prompted, was its metaphor for what I strongly believe life is largely about: consciously rejecting the easy route when it means achieving a life lived. 

We continue to face times of great uncertainty, change and instability.  In the thick of it, it’s so important to chart your own course, even when – and perhaps particularly when – doing so means facing down some pretty big fears. 

So here’s a virtual toast to 2012 and to you . . . make this year count.

Some of the best insights we’ve integrated into our clients’ communications strategies have come from input gathered in focus groups.

Several of our client projects of late – including those in the sciences, healthcare, education and professional services – have involved conducting focus groups as a basis of research for communications campaigns.

Generally, focus groups involve gathering a manageable grouping of people together – usually 8-12 – to have an interactive conversation about a certain company, industry, issue and/or other topic, all for the purpose of gaining valuable insights that can’t be answered thoroughly with a closed-ended survey question. 

The real value of focus groups includes:

• Hearing verbatim feedback straight from the source – It means a lot to hear directly from individual customers, prospective customers, employees, referral sources or other key audiences exactly what they think . . . and in their own words. 
• Digging deep with exploratory questions that get to the heart of big issues – Probing into the “how’s” and “why’s” of complicated challenges helps clients understand the real experiential motivators behind why stakeholders think and behave as they do. 
• Getting the big-picture snapshot of topics that can then be researched quantitatively – Prior to any major survey research project, we generally recommend focus group work on the front end to make sure a survey truly evaluates quantitatively the most relevant and germane issues (not just what the client thinks may be the issues). 

If a research budget is fairly conservative – and not enough to fund a quantitative survey – then focus group research can provide a great alternative for data to make sure a campaign gets started on exactly the right track, particularly with good recruitment methodologies.  

Keep focus groups in mind as you’re thinking through the best way to “crack the nut” on insights you need to plan your next big campaign. 

This past month, our team has talked about some common misperceptions about public relations. 

I’ll wrap up that theme by poking holes into three long-held myths that most public relations professionals encounter with some regularity, regardless of where they work.

 MYTH:  Relationships aren’t measurable. 

 REALITY:  There are few excuses companies use more not to invest in public relations, and it’s flat-out wrong.  If measurement is what you want – and, logically, most organizations do – the profession is burgeoning with tools to gauge audience awareness, attitudes, opinions and behaviors that result directly from public relations initiatives and take a company from Point A to Point B.

The key is to invest in the tools that actually provide the measurement components, and that’s where so many companies and organizations fall short.  Yes, they want it, but they don’t want to pay for it — a common conundrum.  Getting to the real value proposition of what measurement offers — not only as a way of knowing what works but also understanding how to improve — is what can sell it best.

Another point: public relations efforts are more marathon than sprint.  Genuine trust-building and reputation development don’t simply happen in a six-week blitz campaign.  Whether short-term or multi-phased, however, public relations programs worth their salt integrate some level of results tracking.

MYTH:  The message is all that matters.

REALITY:  Behavior and intent matter more.  “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!” doesn’t cut it anymore in our uber-transparent society, where every veil is so easily lifted by the power of social media.  And in truth, I’ve long advocated that any company lacking the guts to have the true intent of its decision-making laid bare to public scrutiny wasn’t a company I wanted to work with – and I still feel that way.  It helps me sleep at night.

Messages are indeed critical, and in public relations, we are certainly in the business of advocating for our clients with clear, effective messages that resonate with audiences.  However, if those messages aren’t firmly rooted in truth and good-faith intent, then your company’s problems are only just beginning. 

MYTH:  Control equals success.

REALITY:  It’s an intoxicating idea – the whole notion of interacting with any group of people where all the powers of persuasion and its rewards rest with you.  But come on. 

I once saw a t-shirt worn by John McVie of Fleetwood Mac, “Rock and Roll Ain’t Pretty, Baby,” and in a similar vein as someone who knows a particular line of work quite well, I can say that public relations efforts never unfold in a neat, tidy, 100-percent controlled fashion.  That’s simply not the reality of working symbiotically with other people – and often myriad groups of people who hold their own ideas, opinions, biases, experiences and desires. 

Where many companies make their mistake here is to hold their hand too close to the vest – “if I can’t completely control all the processes and all the outcomes, then I just won’t play in that sandbox at all.”  And it’s those companies sitting on the sidelines right now, saying nothing, not interacting – and of course, not getting noticed or advancing their brands in what is a very loud and competitive space.   They also have little basis upon which to understand how they can improve and stay relevant.

Absolute control is an illusion, and it dooms companies to failure in a marketplace where brands can only thrive if they’re down in the mosh pit of knowing, understanding and responding to their customers. 

Among the societal curve-balls being thrown nowadays courtesy of our national and global economy is the question of education. 

Yes, in the chaos of today’s headlines, education has actually become a question. 

NBC Nightly News posed it a few weeks ago: “Is a college degree even worth it anymore?”

The issues:

• 250,000 recent college graduates are jobless.
• College tuition has increased 600% more than rising inflation since 1980.
• College loan debt has hit $1 trillion, and for the first time, there is now more student loan debt than credit card debt.
• Two-thirds of college graduates have student loans, with an average debt of $24,000 upon graduation.

Ouch, ouch and double-ouch. 

Despite the pain of it all, the very idea of throwing our hands up and questioning whether education is even worth it creates a tremendous disservice.

The fact is, education – at least the right kind of education – is more essential than ever, but you can’t be stuck in auto-pilot throughout the process of receiving it.  What’s more, institutions of higher learning can’t be auto-piloting the process of providing it. 

Here are some core observations, as I see them:

First, degree programs from “designer” institutions – those that charge tens of thousands in tuition per year at least somewhat predicated on their brand-name – must be aggressive about earning their keep with their students and alumni.

In the good old days, hefty private-institution degrees not only opened entry-level job doors in the most elite organizations, but they also practically paved the commute to work in greenbacks for freshly minted 23-year-olds. 

Now . . . not so much.  More and more stories are emerging of graduates with $100K+ in student loan debt from fairly prestigious schools (a veritable life sentence when melded with car, home and life expenses long-term), scrounging out low-paying whatever-they-can-get and living with Mom.

Secondly, students of whatever means – from affluent to financially challenged – need to take ownership of their learning with a purposeful sense of, “what must I get out of my educational experience, and what do I need to do MYSELF to make sure that happens?”  Take ownership.

This approach requires a fundamental shift away from a passive, osmosis-like assumption that a college campus automatically confers a certain standard of knowledge, to an uber-engaged reality-check:  Quality education is all about knowing what you don’t know and assuming a sizable level of responsibility yourself to fix it. 

Classes, teachers/professors, texts, learning tools and all of those things are merely tools in the process that students themselves need to apply with gusto to take them where they want to go. 

That last part about knowing where you’re going is pretty important, too, particularly in context of the skills that tomorrow’s economy demands and the level of job competition that exists globally.

Translated: that poetry degree might have worked for you 30 years ago to get some job other than teaching, publishing or writing poetry (which is fine if that’s in fact what you want to do), but today, the limitations of non-work-skill-based degrees are overwhelming.  College freshmen:  choose a major wisely.

And as a side note to that point, people who go to school (particularly graduate school) for no compelling reason other than as a job-market avoidance strategy pay for their mistakes – big. 

Finally, high-quality community and technical colleges are becoming the community superstars for thousands of people – young and not young – to hitch their wagons to.  That’s certainly the case in East Tennessee.  These institutions have become dynamic and nimble in creating educational programs that fit the needs of their local job markets, and they are ever-evolving to change as the market changes so that new students and returning students can be prepared. 

Students and the parents who guide them need to be getting good advice.  Education is an investment, rife with risks if decision-making is poor.  The economy has created a situation where customers need to be astute before navigating the educational marketplace. 

As the nation closes in on the 9/11 decade-mark remembrance this weekend, I’m trying to prepare for the emotion that undoubtedly will be part of the next two days.

My Sept. 11, 2001, experience mostly played out behind the wheel of a Chevy Blazer throughout Roane and Morgan counties, visiting rural bank branches that were part of the Union Planters Bank / East Tennessee Division, where I served in regional marketing at that time. 

The branch visits were part of a project that had been scheduled for several weeks, and as I listened in shock to all the events unfolding over the Knoxville-based radio stations in my vehicle, the entirety of that day took on a twilight-zone quality.

Looking back, it seems odd that I even attempted to continue through my scheduled visits with branch managers and staff, given what was transpiring.  Truthfully, I didn’t know what else to do, and I don’t think my co-workers did, either. 

Obviously, instead of focusing the meetings on branch promotions and customer service strategies, as had been planned, the conversations suddenly turned to more urgent matters of what was happening in our own backyard.  As I walked into one branch, someone was speculating that a plane might be headed to the near-by Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Y-12 National Security Complex.  More close to our business at hand, bank customers were already starting to filter into the branches, pondering whether to withdraw large sums of money, presumably to keep in “safer” places. 

In the moment, no one really knew what was going to happen next or what the implications would be.  By mid-afternoon, I was back in my downtown Knoxville office, receiving and redistributing communications from UP’s Memphis-based corporate office to help guide branch managers and customer service staff in advising customers as to the security of their deposits. 

Throughout the day, I only saw through my computer still photos that were being posted on some of the national news sites of what had taken place that morning.  It wasn’t until I arrived home that night at about 6:30 that I saw the actual video footage of the WTC airline impacts, which only deepened my state of shock in how our society would be forever-changed.

All the while that day, my husband Charles — a Chevrolet dealer — was trying to manage our family’s own extension of the crisis.  His parents were actually inside the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., on the morning of 9/11, on an automotive industry legislative trip.  They saw for themselves the vast column of smoke rising from the direction of the Pentagon as they were evacuated in a veritable panic-like atmosphere to the streets outside the Capitol (the directive from Capitol security staff to everyone exiting the building was “Do Not Walk . . . RUN!”). 

With the shut-down of air travel that day and the fact that every rental car within a vast radius of the Beltway was immediately spoken for, Charles made haste over the phone – not knowing minute-to-minute what else might befall our nation’s capital with his parents stranded there – to purchase a vehicle off the lot from a D.C.-area dealer friend so that his folks could drive themselves home.

As we later learned, the presumed target of United Airlines Flight 93 that crashed in Pennsylvania was the U.S. Capitol Building, where my parents-in-law had been that morning.  The enormity of that knowledge has never escaped me, along with overwhelming gratitude to the men and women on that flight who sacrificed themselves to avert an even greater disaster. 

While my family experienced a personal near-miss that day, the thousands of individuals who experienced one or more direct losses remains staggering. 

I won’t forget conversations in the days that followed with my dear friend and long-time mentor, David Bicofsky, who served then as the school-community relations director for the Teaneck, NJ, public school system, located about 10 miles outside of Manhattan – and his relating the school system’s efforts to arrange grief counseling for students and staff whose parents, spouses or other family members were lost at Ground Zero.  Dave’s description of those days as “surreal” echoed mine, only about 20-fold given his proximity, particularly as he walked from his office to the parking lot one night that week with what seemed like legions of U.S. fighter jets streaking across the Jersey sky at low altitudes, patrolling Manhanttan’s airspace. 

The experiences of those days, weeks, months and the years that have followed will never leave this country’s citizens.  As a nation, we find ourselves in a place politically right now that’s tough, full of a level of internal vitriol that seemed unthinkable during our time of greatest immediate crisis 10 years ago.  I hope the next few days will serve to reconnect our leaders to some unified sense of purpose and reality.  We need it.

The East Coast may have been earthquaking, Libya may have been liberating and the stock market may have been doing whatever it always seems to do these days . . . but the only story yesterday for Tennessee natives and UT alumni worldwide was the health announcement by University of Tennessee Women’s Basketball Coach Pat Summitt.

For those whose home is outside the Volunteer State, there is something that should be known about Coach Summitt: there arguably may be no individual in the state of Tennessee – man or woman; sports, political, business or entertainment figure – who has earned the same universal and unwavering public admiration and respect as this person.

 The most winning NCAA coach in basketball history – men’s or women’s – Coach Summitt is unique.  A complete original.  Pure Tennessee spirit at its most ideal.  And her brand of leadership was on full display yesterday in the face of the most difficult announcement of her career.  The last four sentences of her written statement said it all:

“I love being your coach and the privilege to go to work every day with our outstanding Lady Vol basketball student-athletes. I appreciate the complete support of UT Chancellor Dr. Jimmy Cheek and UT Athletics Director Joan Cronan to continue coaching at the University of Tennessee as long as the good Lord is willing.  I’ve been honest and shared my health concerns with you and now we’ll move forward to the business at hand…coaching a great group of Lady Vols. For the time being, I hope you will respect my privacy regarding this matter.”

The simplicity and clarity of the message was vintage Summitt, loosely translated as, “Yes, I have some issues, but I am moving forward and hope everyone else will choose to do so as well.  Next!”

While Coach Summitt must be acutely aware of the new layer of scrutiny that will now be applied going forward to her job performance, she has this little fact working in her favor: the work product she delivers on her worst day is multiple times better than that of many, many coaches on their best. 

Upon the announcement, Facebook lit up like a Christmas tree with the full gamut of emotional outpourings, some way too post-mortem-ish for my taste (or hers).  Coach Summitt would probably thank them for caring but also advise them to remember themselves: she’s still here.

In an economy and in a world where instability is the order of the day, it’s Coach Pat Summitt who is teaching by example the ultimate playbook in keeping on keeping on, and with not one iota of distraction from the task at hand of rising to every occasion, come what may.  Let us learn.  

By Mary Beth West, APR

Having just returned from a 10-day trip out of the office with my family (pretty unprecedented for me), it occurs to me that the summer months pose an interesting time for many businesses. 

I don’t know how many meetings I’ve attended over the past several months where a flurry of activity was planned in May, with the knowledge that summer vacation schedules beginning in June would present timeline and deadline challenges to get certain projects accomplished.

In the South, school breaks generally extend from Mid-May to the beginning of August (Maryville City Schools in our local community are back in the classroom August 1), whereas in the Northeast and many other parts of the country, mid-June through the Labor Day Weekend is the summer down-time.

As a business owner, summer is the season for me to pay attention to:

• Quality of life for all the team – Summer generally doesn’t provide much of a slow-down at our office, as we stay busy consistently.  However, there comes a time mid-year when folks – me included – need to take a breather.  As a team, we make sure to keep all the bases covered so that each of us gets down-time, not only for extended vacations but also for flexible hours during the week.  The result is a fresher, more energetic group, and the quality of work shows year-round.
• Mid-year reality check – As a manager, summer is also an important time to take a close look at how the year is tracking performance-wise.  Are goals set back in December taking shape as expected?  Are course-corrections needed?  Has the company made some strides that we should take time to celebrate internally?  These assessments can get the team refocused and reinvigorated as well.

As we approach the Fourth of July Weekend, we hope the next six months bring a strong and productive “Act II” to your 2011!

It happens about once or twice a year, it seems:  one of the most prominent multinational public relations firms is exposed for unethical practices, and the whole profession is faced with yet another perceptual mess to clean up about how public relations should be conducted without resorting to sleight-of-hand.

This past week, it was Burson-Marsteller’s work for Facebook, where according to The Wall Street Journal’s initial report, “Facebook hired (Burson-Marsteller) to try to plant stories harshly criticizing Google’s privacy practices. The efforts backfired when the firm approached a blogger who not only declined the assignment, but also went public with the exchange.”

The ethics breach hinges on Burson-Marsteller’s alleged failure to disclose the client’s identity behind their efforts, which runs opposed to the Public Relations Society of America’s Code of Ethics “disclosure of information” provision.

The provision states as its intent to “build trust with the public by revealing all information needed for responsible decision-making,” and that “revealing the sponsors for causes and interests represented” is a requirement.

From the reports I’ve seen, it appears Burson-Marsteller’s management is passing the buck, indicating that the strategy employed for its client came as a result of “Facebook (requesting) that its identity remain secret,” and that Burson-Marsteller “admits that violates its own policies” – inferring that perhaps some rogue element within the firm went off the reservation to do a client’s nefarious bidding.  As of late this past week, Burson-Marsteller and Facebook have parted ways, not surprisingly.

I myself am a Harold Burson Summer Internship alumnus through the firm’s New York office in the early 1990s, and while I remain grateful to Burson-Marsteller for the learning opportunities I received, this incident just irks me, and I’m sure I’m not the only one with previous or current company ties who feels that way.

For well more than half a century, Harold Burson himself – now in his 90s and a fellow native of Tennessee – has been a stalwart proponent of what I consider to be the profession’s most noble aims and ethics-based best practices.  His fierce intellect and thought leadership continue to provide some of the greatest sources of direction to the entire profession.  I can only imagine that it frustrates him a great deal to witness this incident.  Members of the internal team involved in the Facebook account might be reminded to have some respect for the man whose name is on the door.

So on to my point:

Public relations firms of all types, from the locally based or boutique level (like mine) to the multinationals, should be setting the examples of best ethical practices, because the media spotlight scrutinizes these companies the most, driven by their volume of work.  And of course, the larger the firm, the more intense the spotlight.

When any single firm makes a clear-cut ethical misstep – particularly one resulting in the level of media attention driven by a behemoth like Facebook – it reflects poorly on the profession as well as the entire agency sector.  Further, it sets back efforts to achieve long-term public and business-community understanding about the critical role of ethics in communications strategy.

This reality should factor into every agency’s own ethics policy, and agency employees at all levels should understand the implications for themselves, their firms and the profession itself if they veer away from the basic standards put forth by the PRSA Code of Ethics.

On a final note, agencies must demonstrate some backbone when dealing with any client that suggests (or mandates) a strategy or tactic that doesn’t pass the smell test.  Claiming “My client made me do it!” is downright lame and demonstrates no serious commitment on an agency’s part to keep their ethics m.o. in check. 

If an agency is in business long enough, and certainly if it employs scores, hundreds or thousands of people, mistakes in judgment will happen.  I’ve made a fair share of mistakes in my own career, particularly in the very early years.  Recovery from mistakes is possible if one takes a serious approach, such as we would advise a client in any crisis.

I hope that internally within Burson-Marsteller, this situation will result in a silver lining with renewed management-to-front-line awareness-building and practical focus that is in keeping with The Harold Burson Way.