All PR is Good PR – Right?

Public Relations is the practice of managing the communication between an organisation and its publics. This can be seen to include anything (intentional or otherwise) which is communicated on behalf of the company as well as the brands, public, response to consumers/press. Ultimately, PR is about creating communications which drive the brand objectives – be it proactive or reactive.

There have always been whispers of this urban legend that “all PR is good PR”. While I don’t personally believe this to be true, there is certainly a case to be made for both sides of the argument.

The simple reality is that there will always be conflicting views in terms of priorities in marketing theories. Many advocates of the “All PR is Good PR” rely on the “top of mind awareness" principle. This theory states that purchasing decisions are made based on the brand which comes to mind first and is recognised.

From this standpoint, it makes sense that brands do whatever possible to drive top of mind awareness. This does however, come with some fundamental flaws. Way back in the 1890s Ivan Pavlov was doing some great work on classical conditioning which states that we have unconscious emotional responses to all stimulus and that these responses are learnt based on past interactions. According to this, your publics may be all too aware of your brand and you may have top of mind awareness, but for all the wrong reasons.

Take for example the recent situation with Kanye West at the VMA. Following the awards, Kanye got a great deal of publicity which certainly drove top of mind awareness but the associated sentiment was terrible and he was being ridiculed online – which ultimately affected his reputation.

On the other hand, Vegemite used a clever strategy of inciting consumer unrest to drive PR for a new product which they wanted to launch. By naming the product iSnack2.0 consumers got incredibly upset and an onslaught of #vegefail comments erupted. Vegemite then quickly launched the actual product and converted the top of mind to positive brand engagement. A fantastic case of how strategically all PR can be good PR.

The point is that in the correct circumstances all PR can be good PR. This is particularly true in the case when the brand is new and requires some buzz to assist it in its launch. Moreover, if it’s followed up with a quick credibility driving campaign it can be incredibly powerful as the awareness is then converted into a positive reputation.

While the top of mind awareness approach certainly has its merits, there are contrary theories.

Take for example Kevin Keller’s Brand Equity model (which plays more to Operant Conditioning), in this model it is theorised that all interactions with a brand result in either a positive or negative change to the brands perception which impact purchasing decisions. It’s critical that brand touch points provide a positive stimulus to the consumer (as is the objective of all good brand managers). Unfortunately, negative PR undermines this effort – as was the case with the PR crisis which recently faced United Airlines in the form of “United Airlines Breaks Guitars”, which lost them $180 million in market capital.

As consumers are increasingly empowered to research brands and investors are increasingly impacted by what they read online (see the Steve Jobs heart attack hoax), controlling the perception around larger brands through PR is fast becoming a critical activity. Negative PR can have disastrous consequences for a brand and it’s therefore clear that not all PR is good PR.

In essence all PR can be good PR but it really depends on what the brand is trying to achieve and how much of a reputation the brand already has established. If simple brand recognition (irrespective of the associated emotional response) is important – as is the case with new and smaller brands – then a shotgun approach to getting PR will certainly lead us to believe that all PR is good PR.

On the converse, an established brand requires a strategic communication strategy which ensures that the brand achieves positive brand equity, top of mind awareness and that its overall reputation is maintained as positive.

The best measure of this is to track a brand online, its direct competitors and compare the brand momentum (KPI for top of mind awareness)and reputation (KPI for brand equity) and from this, determine the success of a communication campaign and recommended next moves.