First, I want to give you a quick overview of where I believe public relations is today. And second, an equally brief run-through of how I believe process can work to advantage of your organizations.

Now, in case you just asked yourself, what am I doing here?, let me say that I believe deeply that public relations, properly executed, can be crucial to success of ANY organization. So, this is a topic that must be of interest to a non-public relations audience whose members care about their organization and, hopefully, who work productively with their own public relations people. I hope you will agree at end of talk.

Let’s start with a few givens.

The fact is that NO organization – business, non-profit or public sector – can succeed today unless behaviors of its most important audiences are consistent – I guess we say “in-sync” these days – with its objectives.

So, for most of your organizations, that means public relations professionals must modify somebody’s behavior if they are to hit their objective and earn a paycheck – everything else is a means to that end.

Which is why, when public relations goes on to successfully create, change or reinforce public opinion by reaching, persuading and moving-to-action those people whose behaviors affect organization, it accomplishes its mission.

So, if your organization isn’t getting behavior changes it wanted at beginning of program, its wasting its public relations investment. On other hand, one way management can increase its comfort level with that investment, is to make certain those behaviors ARE modified as agreed upon up front. That way, management KNOWS it’s getting its money’s worth.

Here’s why I say that. People act on their perception of facts, and those perceptions lead to certain behaviors. Which means that, at end of day, management must keep its eye on end-game because main reason we do public relations in first place is to change behaviors of certain groups of people important to success of our organization.

While on way to this goal, we insure that our activity nurtures relationships between those target audiences and our organization by burnishing reputation of its products and services. Yes, we’ll do our best to persuade those audiences to do what our organization wishes them to do. But, while seeking that public understanding and acceptance, we’ll insure that our activities not only comply with law, but clearly serve public interest. It is then that we pull-out all tactical stops to actually move those individuals to action.

But where does it all begin? For emphasis, let me repeat something I said a moment ago. The practice of public relations is based upon three realities:

0 People act on their perception of facts; 0 Perceptions lead to behaviors; 0 Something can be done about those perceptions and behaviors that leads to achieving organization’s operating objectives.

But, too many of us – inside and outside public relations business – don’t think of public relations in that broad a context. Instead, public relations is defined by only one or two of its components: ”PR is all about publicity,” or ”PR is really crisis management” or ”PR is primarily special events” when, in fact, it’s based upon three realities above.

All of which brings me to a leading question: What IS a public relations home run?

My answer to that question is short and sweet and, by now, you probably can anticipate it: The public relations professional must modify somebody’s behavior as agreed upon at beginning of program. When accomplished, THAT is public relations home run, and that is way we earn our paychecks – as noted above, everything else really is a means to that end.

What I want to do here, is demonstrate a logical progression in public relations problem solving with emphasis on a clear, defined result that meets a key business objective.

And by way, one reason I define a public relations home run that way is because I believe very few general management people, including those in this room, ever think about PR this way. I want to get your attention by announcing that, in public relations, a home run can mean nothing less than survival when it successfully changes perceptions and, hence, behaviors of certain groups of people important to success of organization.

In other words, when those changes clearly meet original behavior modification goal set at beginning of program, public relations effort is successful.

Do I expect this general management audience to question whether public relations is REALLY equipped to do that? I certainly HOPE you will!

Answer? Yes, because our roots are planted deeply in principle that people act on their own perceptions of facts. When public relations successfully creates, changes or reinforces public opinion by reaching, persuading and moving-to-action those people whose behaviors affect organization, its mission is accomplished.

Aha, you will ask, but does it work out in REAL world? It does, and here’s how:

First, we identify key operating problem to be addressed. For today’s talk, I’ll use example of a national marketer of furniture imported from Far East. Let’s say we receive news reports and other input, amplified by competitive trouble-making out in trade, about rumors circulating to effect that serious quality problems have cropped up in company’s factories in Southeast Asia.

Here, we verify whether allegation is true or false. We want to clearly understand how vulnerable we may be. So, because company’s sales have leveled off and are starting to decline, public relations counsel and staff, working closely with company’s manufacturing people here and abroad, establish conclusively that reports and rumors of declining quality are without foundation, and simply untrue. Obviously, were they true, major corrective responsibility would fall to manufacturing and international marketing people in company.

But since rumors are NOT true, we want to verify status of both consumer and trade perceptions of company’s product quality. Again, we want to be certain about this step because, here, we establish specific public relations problem.