The Publics in Public Relations

1
The Publics inPublic Relations

• Chapter 4
• Public Relations
• A Values-Driven Approach

2
What Is a Public?

• Public Any group whose members have a common
  interest or value in a particular situation.
• Stakeholder A person, or public, that has a
  stake or an interest in an organization, or an
  issue that involves the organization.)

3
Why Are RelationshipsNecessary?

• Resource dependency theory
• Different publics have different resources that
  organizations need to achieve their goals.
• Values-driven and therefore acquiring resources
  helps to fulfill these values.
• Two-way symmetrical public relations is simply
  supply/demand.

4
The Publics in Public Relations

• Traditional Publics Groups in which we have
  on-going, long-term relationships with.
• Nontraditional publics Unfamiliar to an
  organization but has the possibility of becoming
  a traditional public.
• Intervening publics When an organization
  delivers a message with the expectation that it
  will be passed on to another such as the news
  media.

5
The Publics in Public Relations

• Primary Those that can directly affect an
  organizations ability to achieve its goal.
• Secondary While still important, they have
  minimal ability to affect an organization.
• Internal and External publics
• Domestic and International publics

6
What Do We Need to Knowabout Each Public?

• How much can the public influence our
  organizations ability to achieve our goals?
• How dependent are you on this public?
• What is the publics stake, or value, in its
  relationship with our organization?
• Who are the opinion leaders and decision makers
  for the public?
• If you are seeking media coverage, reporters and
  editors are the decision makers.

7
What Do We Need to Knowabout Each Public?

• What is the demographic profile of the public?
• age, gender, income, education
• What is the psychographic profile of the public?
• what they think, feel, or believe
• What is the publics opinion of our organization?
• This shapes your values and your approach

8
Employee

• Executives say employee and internal
  communication is a top priority.
• However, studies show many employees rely on the
  grapevine and dont believe that their
  organizations tell them the truth.

9
Changes Reshaping Workforce

• A distributed workforce
• Home offices, work sites across the world.
• The increasing use of temps
• 2.5 million are temps. Hard to produce
  long-term relationships
• As the technology required for managing
  information changes, so does the need for
  training.

10
Changes Reshaping Workforce

• The growth of diversity
• The aging of the baby boomers
• Median age in the workforce today 45
• Generation X (1966-1980)
• Generation Y (1980-1984)
• Different generations have different motivations

11
News Media

• Serves as gatekeepers to the larger public.
  Today there are more than 30,000 outlets.
• Newspapers
• Magazines and other periodicals
• Radio stations (AM and FM)
• Television (network and cable)
• The World Wide Web

12
Government Publics

• Government officials play an important role in
  the success of public relations efforts.
• Governments exist at several levels (local,
  state, and federal).
• Advice from lobbyists Be well-prepared and work
  fast.

13
Investor Publics

• Individual shareholders
• Financial analysts
• Financial news media
• Mutual fund managers
• Institutional investors
• Employee investors

14
Investor Confidence

• Even after 9/11, 82 percent believe remaining in
  the stock markets is a good idea.
• 66 percent say theyre more cautious about
  investments than they used to be.
• Almost two-thirds say theyre concerned about
  corporate scandals.
• Energy costs and loss of jobs to overseas
  employers are the top concerns.

15
Investor Profile

• Average age 49.9
• Median household income 89,000
• 69 percent are college graduates.
• 56 percent are male.
• 83 percent are married.
• 91 percent are white 2 percent are black 2
  percent are Hispanic 2 percent are
  Asian-American.

16
Community Publics

• Leaders
• Public Officials
• Educators
• Religious Leaders
• Professionals
• Executives
• Bankers
• Union Leaders
• Ethnic Leaders
• Neighborhood Opinion Leaders

• Media
• Mass Media
• Specialized Media
• Community
• Civic
• Business
• Service
• Social
• Cultural
• Religious
• Youth
• Political
• Special-Interest Groups

17
Consumer/Customer Publics

• Consumer spending is the most powerful force in
  the U.S. economy.
• Average annual U.S. household income is 49, 430
  -- average household spending is 40,667.
• The biggest spenders are age group 45-54.
• Women account for 83 percent of US spending.
• On-line shopping continues to grow.

18
Constituent (Voter) Publics

• Voters are important to government practitioners.
• Voters are important to anyone seeking to
  influence public policy.
• Not all eligible voters vote.
• The United States ranks 139th among the worlds
  170 democracies in voter turnout.
• Age is the greatest indicator of who votes in the
  United States
• Age 65 and older vote in the highest percentages.

19
Who Votes in the United States?

• Married citizens 55 percent single citizens 29
  percent
• College graduates 61 percent high-school
  dropouts 28 percent
• Household income of 50,000-plus 57 percent
  household income of less than 10,000 25 percent.

20
Who Votes in the United States?

• Women 47 percent
• Men 46 percent
• White citizens 49 percent
• Black citizens 42 percent
• Asian-American citizens 31 percent
• Hispanic citizens 30 percent

21
Business Publics

• B2B Business-to-business communication
• Publics can include vendors, distributors,
  retailers, customer businesses and even
  competitors.