Association PR: Techniques of great PR teams

Public Relations Quarterly, Winter 1999 by Levy, Ronald N

To the delight of members, top PR teams are creating mass media coverage to:

A. Increase member income.

B. Increase cost efficiency.

C. Increase PR compensation and budgets.

There is a primitive justice in compensation and budgeting for association PR: practitioners who make the most for the members tend to also make the most for themselves - and get enlarged budgets to do still more for members.

Member Income

The most skilled PR executives are making money for the members in five main ways:

1. Increase sales by giving consumers helpful information on how to use member products or services.

The Louisiana Seafood Promotion Board sends recipes to the mass media. So do more than 50 other associations for foods. Recipes for consumers often double as recipes for increased member income.

2. Increase brand preference by teaching consumers the difference between the good stuff and other stuff.

Not all auto parts are created equal, so National Auto Parts Association (NAPA) does a series of newspaper releases that help the reader to become an "expert customer." The professional societies doctors, lawyers, architects and others - increasingly do PR so the public will know the difference between the highly trained experts and those who may not have the same training and experience.

3. Avert unduly restrictive regulation by building awareness of:

a. How-to-use information so thousands of people won't misuse a product or service and then blame the industry. National Electrical Safety Foundation saves lives and reduces property damage, in addition to protecting the members, by doing "Plug Into Electrical Safety" releases.

b. Positive facts that reduce the spread of halftruths and untruths that could injure the members if widely believed. The American Sheep Industry does releases on "Keeping the Environment Sheep Shape" so people will know that sheep are good for the environment, not bad.

c. Little known realities that prevent misunderstandings. The Specialty Steel Industry of North America repeatedly enhances public awareness that stainless steel - whose sales would be hurt if legislatures voted to buy the cheapest - save the public money in the long run and sometimes in the short sprint.

4. Increase recognition of what the letters or association symbols mean. Brilliant medical specialists never really get used to some people thinking they are "dog doctors" or "those chiropractors."

So not mainly for money, since great doctors have more than enough work, but more to fulfill professional responsibility and serve the public interest, doctors and accountants and others do releases - often lifted from association literature to help the public choose and use the professionals people need.

5. Bring in contributions. Many of the great NPO teams now urge not "give to" but "give through," encouraging a relationship between givers and recipients - and presenting the NPO as a facilitator.

When it fits, some NPOs make an even stronger appeal: give to yourself! The more people understand that they themselves may be better off if the association's goals are met, the more support tends to come in.

What ties all the association PR efforts together is the need to increase public awareness of the truth. Budget for association PR thrusts is frequently obtained by presenting this reasoning: our industry will be safer if the public knows the truth - and we'll have more money.

It's persuasive.

Cost Efficiency

Use it Or lose it - that's a basic choice of PR executives once a speech has been written, a booklet printed or a TV tape created. The basic choice is to use the speech, booklet or tape for more member benefit - or to let the creativity sit in a file once a single use has been made.

Associations are taking the cue from member PR teams - and an excellent example is the work of auto industry members.

General Motors helps to promote education and wins public gratitude for doing so - by turning speeches into releases that tell what GM is doing to promote education - and what GM urges others to do.

Ford Motor Company hit hundreds of newspapers by turning a William Clay Ford speech into a bylined article. Especially in the wealthy suburbs, editors have a business-oriented readership but no business editors, so business-related articles by experts are very popular.

DaimlerChrysler, eager to show that it is doing what it can to create electric cars, but also eager to not make it sound easy nor perhaps imminent, turned a carefully worded speech by a top executive into an informative article that got over five million in circulation.

"Res ipsa loquitur" - a Latin term used by lawyers - means "the thing speaks for itself." An x-ray, for instance, speaks for itself if it shows a sponge or forceps left inside a patient after surgery. In a more positive way, an article speaks not only for itself - but also for the author - if it presents a speech by someone on an idea that will benefit America.

If you like the idea, you tend to like the speaker - and the speaker's organization. So business leaders like Don Winkler, Chairman and CEO of the Finance One Group, have written on unacceptable risk for Americans - and the risk-averse tend to appreciate these ideas.