But be forewarned. Most companies will readily accept a story proposal that focuses on change and aberration. But most will resist proposals that point to conflicts and problems.

Stand your ground. If your job is to get your company into news media, then it is your responsibility to insist that your company maximize its potential for news coverage. The trick is to do it in a way that does not harm or embarrass your company.

In this, you must be guided by common sense and good judgment. Look for conflicts and problems that portray your company as a hero or as an underdog. Do this, and resistance within your company will melt away.

Just as attorneys must keep their clients within law, and accountants must keep their clients within generally accepted accounting principles, so must you – as your company’s media relations counsel – prod your client or your boss to make most of any opportunity to create news.

The PR Rainmaker knows: Change is news. But to really get attention, you must find a way to include conflict, aberration and problem in any story proposal.

Copyright 2003 by W.O. Cawley Jr.

Sanders typecast himself as a Kentucky colonel, complete with black string tie and white linen suit. You know rest.

The point is: Not only should you accept typecasting, you should embrace it. When Jack Welch became CEO at GE, he got rid of 100,000 employees to streamline corporate giant’s bureaucracy. That earned him name “Neutron Jack,” which refers to neutron bomb, a device that kills people but leaves buildings untouched.

Warren Buffett is known as “Oracle of Omaha,” and is often referred to as “most successful individual investor of all time.” These titles recognized Buffett’s skill at picking stocks, like Coca-Cola and Gillette. But they ignore fact that Buffett generated most of his billions by assembling and maintaining his mighty conglomerate, Berkshire Hathaway, and not through stock picking.

Sam Walton possessed one of sharpest and most ruthless retailing minds of 20th century. Yet he is usually depicted as kindly “Mr. Sam,” dog-loving, pickup-driving bubba who just happened to launch Wal-Mart.

Did Welch, Buffett and Walton reject their typecasting? Of course not. They understood what every PR Rainmaker understands: Typecasting is only path to a singular identity.

When typecasting is combined with a powerful reputation, result is sort of corporate prestige that separates Jack Welches, Warren Buffetts and Sam Waltons from rest of nation’s CEOs.

Copyright by W.O. Cawley Jr.