Are You Getting Enough Money from PR?

What PR superstars often produce better than others is not just media coverage buy MONEY - more money from sales, more from investors and more from averting unduly restrictive regulation.

Yet without realizing it, some in PR may turn away from massive amounts of money by ignoring three rules

1. Don't stop too soon.

2. Don't do only what seems like enough.

3. Don't think only of yourself.

Don't Stop Too Soon

TUNA. America's tuna industry had a huge and growing problem: environmentalists were urging anti-industry government action and consumer action.

The problem was that cute, bottle-nosed dolphin feed on tuna and swim on the surface over schools of tuna. So tuna boats looked for schools of dolphin, knowing there was a good chance that schools of tuna would be below. But when nets were cast to catch the tuna, the nets also trapped dolphin that are air breathing and perished when caught in the nets.

Save Flipper! That's what the public and legislators were asked. At aquariums and amusement parks with dolphin shows, wide-eyed children and their parents were warned that "uncaring" tuna fishermen were "needlessly" killing dolphin when catching tuna.

In truth, tuna fishermen were far from "uncaring" and actually cared very much about making a living for their families who needed food and shelter like the rest of us - and cared also about preserving dolphin since these animals were a helpful guide to where schools of tuna could be found. America's tuna boat industry went so far, by government regulation, as to have on each tuna boat a government inspector who'd make noise to scare away the dolphin before tuna nets were cast!

The noise-making inspectors were not totally successful. The industry, fearing even more restrictive government regulation, turned to Hill and Knowlton, where a team of communicators and nutritionists persuaded millions of consumers and their legislators that (a) tuna provide health-protecting nutrition at low cost for millions of children and adults, and (b) the noisy inspectors were scaring away almost all dolphin so relatively few would up in the nets.

PR success! "The public comes first," the public and legislators often feel, and anti-industry sentiment dissipated as H&K spread the word of how tuna fishermen help the public and how many millions of Americans benefit.

"Problem solved," industry leaders decided - and the services of H&K were terminated. Environmentalists soon resurfaced, the public heard "save Flipper" pleas but heard little or nothing about how tuna nourish millions of American children and adults inexpensively. So before long, Washington imposed severe restrictive regulation on the industry, and American tuna boat owners could no longer compete with unregulated fishing vessels from Asia. Our tuna boats were sold to the Asians - and goodbye American tuna industry. Goodbye income for an American industry and goodbye American jobs. We have the same brands as before, and the same boats, but now the boat owners and crews are Asians, and there are no inspectors to scare away the dolphin before nets are cast.

Don't stop PR too soon.

STAINLESS STEEL. Stainless costs a lot more than aluminum. Aluminum is softer so it bends and can be cut more easily. But the stainless steel industry hired a big, terrific firm called Basford where Ketchum's brilliant John Paluszek was then a senior officer heading elite PR teams on architectural stainless, automotive stainless, consumer stainless, business stainless and more. Results were so wonderful that the industry saw no further need for PR on which the industry "saved" by discontinuing it. Stainless steel quickly started losing out to aluminum, Washington saw no need to help American producers and today most stainless comes from abroad.

CLAIROL had shrewd Dick Weiner heading a money-oriented team at Ruder Finn. He not only had his people do routine product promotion but also had clipping services send him clips for all other hair care products. Anytime clips showed a competitor of Clairol was test-marketing a new product, Weiner promptly and quietly did massive PR in the test markets. Competitors, not knowing of the Ruder Finn effort, soon decided from their lack of sales that the proposed new product wouldn't sell well. Clairol was spared from the extra competition.

FIBERGLASS was helped at Burson-Marsteller by one of the best product promotion teams ever assembled. Sales soared. When inferior substitutes started to flood the market, Burson-Marsteller got Fiberglass to start tagging the real thing with a big red "F" tag - and created all media coverage on how looking for the red "F" would protect consumer safety and value. Solved. The substitutes started vanishing. Owens-Corning, which made Fiberglass, budgeted amply for product promotion yet relatively little for corporate protection. Largely because of inadequate PR protection, the company eventually went into bankruptcy.

Don't Do Just Enough

It looked increasingly grim for Wal-Mart. One widely-published story was that foreign-born cleaning workers, some of them in the U.S. illegally, were employed by Wal-Mart and "locked in" to stores at night. Another story was that women had been denied promotion based on their gender. Still other stories were that Wal-Mart was "lowering wage rates" and not providing enough health insurance - and in some cases none at all.

The company was sued repeatedly. Jurors and even judges were pre-conditioned so that before ever getting to the courtroom, many had heard bad things about Wal-Mart. Some politicians were saying Wal-Mart shouldn't be allowed to build stores in central cities. The situation was bad!

Wisely, Wal-Mart brought in the powerful Edelman public relations firm with its world-class department managers - and hired for inside WalMart one of Edelman's top government relations experts. Wal-Mart not only hired a great PR team as many companies with a problem have the sense to do, but Wal-Mart went and listened to the resulting PR advice. Gradually, the Wal-Mart side of the story got into the media. The cleaning workers had been employed not by Wal-Mart but by an outside firm in the cleaning business - a supplier that was promptly dropped. Store doors were locked at night for the same reason that most home doors are locked - to keep crooks from coming in. Wages offered were better - not worse - than other employers were offering and we can see this because otherwise employees would take jobs with employers who provide more pay and benefits. Health benefits were improved.

The PR has had excellent results, media coverage became more balanced, and it will be understandable if Wal-Mart's top executives give a sign of relief plus instructions to "just keep doing" what Edelman is already doing. This "just keep doing it" advice would be a PR blunder.

If you see common sense in the idea that a proper objective of PR is not just a better press and more management comfort but more money, look at some of the additional opportunities for PR to increase shoppers per week, and average purchases per shopper, by making it more FUN to shop at Wal-Mart.

* Give a weekly "thank you for shopping at Wal-Mart" gift of an appliance to the $50-or-more customer whose receipt number wins.

* Have a Wal-Mart "Ooops Table" where manufacturers can dump small quantities of damaged merchandise at ridiculously low prices.

* Allow customers to vote for an employee of the month to be rewarded, with photo displayed, as a Wal-Mart Winner.

* Have a cartoon figure of a seal - a smiling Wal-Mart Seal of Approval - whose appearance on a tag assures quality. (Let's hope that seals don't eat tuna.) Store signs could easily be made more fun with cartoon characters - Penguin Pete for snow shovels, Squirrel Away storage cabinets, Funny Fishes tub toys.

* Have a monthly Wal-Mart "cause for celebration" - a local good cause, selected by civic leaders, that is celebrated inside the entrance with a sign and photos of how much good the cause does - and a box for donations.

* Have a part of one wall above the counters, space that's now just a flat yellow nothing, filled with drawings selected by teachers, with an Award of Excellence for pupils and a laudatory sign from the store manager saying art is not just drawing but thinking.

* Honor Wal-Mart's "Super Service Stars" - local insurance agents, travel agents, car rental dealers and tradespeople whose photos and store locations are shown and who give a "Wal-Mart Price" or a "Wal-Mart Bonus" to Wal-Mart customers who show their Wal-Mart card.

* Have a Wal-Mart "tips from our professionals" website with tax tips from local accountants, "where there's a will there's a way" ideas from estate lawyers, back-to-back wisdom from chiropractors, plus helpful hints from dentists, emergency room physicians, and from architects or adding a room or avoid basement water damage.

* Also on a local website: the artwork, employee of the month, causes for celebration, service stars, news of weddings, births, graduations and who's been admitted to which colleges, a directory of local services - emergency, government and civic (with photos showing the heads of these services) - and Google-type ads next to the editorial. It sounds hard but Edelman and several other firms have experts who know how to do these things.

One or another of these ideas might not work, just as some new product introductions are not successful, but notice how many easy ways there are for PR to go after more money by making it more fun to shop Wal-Mart - and give Wal-Mart more community involvement: "We're in this together."

Don't Just Help Yourself

What you do unto others, and for others, can be immensely profitable for not only them but also for your organization and for you. Your good deed for doctors at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center may also prevent grief and economic ailments for top managers of your own organization.

Just as the anesthesiologist is paid not for putting you to sleep but for skills that produce a more important achievement - waking you up - PR superstars guide management not only in giving money away but also in what management may appreciate much more: getting back ample benefits in return. How some of PR's brightest stars do this will be the subject of my next article: "Economic Health Insurance for Your Management."