Focus on Asian Public Relations Management & Writing a Media Release

Part 1: Focus on Asian Public Relations Management

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For particular topic, we must first get into the perspective of Asia. It is not possible to copy wholesale or apply Western PR theories to Asian regions. There must be a tweak and modification of these theories for application. For this post, I would like to center on China as a case study in Asia and how they managed PR successfully and their apparent difficulties to establish PR in their countries.

China being one of the largest economic trade players in the world, is able to pull attention to its country. It is especially disadvantageous to China because of its human rights problems in 1989. This is highlighted by the Tiananmen Square incident and the student demonstrations. China was able to turn its weakness into strength by showing how quickly they can be aware of the importance of public relations and the media. This is done so by education, to learn and import skills and expertise from Western countries to learn PR and media techniques. An interesting argument by Ni Chen and Hugh Culbertson (2003) states that China's long history of more than 5000 tears, a state that requires continuous support from citizen is a great public relations achievement. This is very much so for the Chinese, their long history and rich traditions of being a "People state" allows it reach its economic status today.

However, we cannot exactly prove that relationship development is not as important as Western-style PR, I do not really agree that one can compare the two aspects to see which outweigh each other. Relationship development also allows Chinese businesses to flourish but at the same time, the Chinese are able to keep up with the Western world of PR by rapid education of PR relations and media techniques. The phenomenon of PR growth in China merely states that the Chinese is being updated and incorporating PR into their country.

One can also identify China's quick progression to learn English language to cope with the millions of tourists looking forward to attend the Olympics in 2008. On a personal note, one particular documentary, "Mad about English", showcases this particular phenomenon of the Chinese trying to learn English and due to the growing necessity to communicate to tourists. This is a very good lesson for PR practitioners that in order to have a successful PR, language plays an important role. It will be good to identify the target audience's primary language to communicate and to learn their culture if possible. If not, it is of utmost importance to have a local as a guide to conduct PR in foreign countries or non-English speaking countries.

China was also capable in establishing PR due to the openness received by the Chinese government. The government intent was made very clear: to receive the Olympics with open arms and to be ready by 2008. They readily knew who their target was - the world. Another lesson to learn is that target audience must be identified first before any PR can be conducted. Research on the audience is also important to tackle any cultural/potential problems that one may face. As the chapter mentions, stakeholder identification is crucial.

Another very interesting point about PR in Asia is that PR practitioners there highly regard personalisation and professionalism. One example is Toyota's PR plans for exporting its motor technologies to the U.S. In order to cater to the U.S. market, Toyota sent its teams to U.S. to live for 2 years and with much observation and study, they developed LEXUS which stands for Luxury Export United States. Now, LEXUS is well-known not only in U.S. but the rest of the world for Toyota Luxury motors. A personal touch mixed with professionalism creates a great impact and awareness to the brand.

Part 2: Writing a Media Release

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A media release is a bridge between PR and the Journalism world. Hence, a good media release (a strong bridge) is important to make sure they would use your story and help generate publicity (best part of it, its free of charge!).

Here are some of the advantages:

- saves times for you and the reporter

- helps the reporter get the facts right

- may be used word for word in local or trade media if it is written in the right style

- it forces you to think through what you want to say, condense it and check your facts

- easily clear it with your organisation

- have a copy of what was issued

- it enables multiple dissemination to a number of reporters and publications at the same time.

To create an eye-catching story, it must have one of the following:

- celebrities/politicians

- timeliness (current or future)

- local angle (relevancy)

- public interest (well-talked about or something that people want to know)

- novelty (new and unusual at first)

- achievement (by an individual or an organisation, although must be well-played)

- emotion (humour, conflict, tragedy or romance)

In conjecture with the short loans online readings, I would like to focus back on Chapter 11 of our PR book which gave very good advice on how to write a good and successful media release. It provides the same information from the short loan's book but in a concise version. This is taken from McLean & Phillipps (2009, pp. 315) for easy reference:

1) Headline, do not overplay it, but do not underplay it either; include a verb

2) Use the active voice with strong, interesting quotes

3) Have one or two main points of the story in the first sentence.

4) Include the five Ws and an H early in the news release: the 5Ws and 1H of the issue and event

5) Keep it simple--a dozen or so short paragraphs at most, with more information as backgrounders available on request or in the media kit.

6) Standardise dates to the style the outlet uses, most often as in Friday, April 4 2008 or, Friday , 4 April 2008. If you refer to 'tomorrow', put in the date.

7) Introduce a new spokesperson before direct quotes; make sure quotes are relevant.

8) Standardise on titles and minimise punctuation

9) Localise the release: target the editor's specific audience: address their information needs

10) Cut out all clichés, jargon, claims of uniqueness or spectacular success.

Writing a news story can be extremely tricky, but through practice and first success, one can be assured that there will be a second time.

New Media and Public Relations

In the 21st Century, we have witnessed the wave of IT hitting developed worlds. With endless of connectivity and information on the Internet, it is true to some extent that we have created and developed a cyberspace; an electronic dimension where data is free to roam and any user is free to obtain and contribute to this deep source of information. Without a doubt, new media is the reflection of mainstream media and any PR practitioner looking to keep up to date with means to gain publicity is to utilise this new forms of media.

Establishing a foothold on the Internet is to create a personalised website for the organisation or client. We no longer need to rely on mainstream media to post ads or have big billboards to show and generate recognition. In today's age, it is to be one of the top few results of the search engine to be posted. It is simply by the amount of hits generated by the website or by paying Google to have your website on the top of the list in search results.

Another way to keep users on your website and the news is to make use of instant messaging components like Twitter or Facebook which automatically publicise your message to users who have 'followed' you. It is the online way of keeping a network of contacts as well as the connection to the public online. In the past, we keep in contact by asking for cellphone numbers and emails, which could take some time and hassle to inform news to someone else. With a click of button, a single message can be disseminated instantly 'on the fly' to everyone online who is connected (most people are and most likely your target audience will be online).

Besides from disseminating news and publicity, new media offers free of charge publication of audio and visual content. This is similar to the likes of having a news report or advertisement on the television or radio. Websites like Myspace and YouTube offers free online hosting of your video content. Similarly, generating high a hit count will earn you a featured spot and on the top of the list for viewers' picking. Blogs which are a side variant of websites can include podcasts which are like a radio station that broadcast your audio content (be it news spoken online or interviews of such). This can be useful as well when people are on the go and connected via WiFi and may download your podcast daily to listen to your news on the go.

From the general trend we can see, online it is all about generating publicity with the amount of hits (which means clicks on your content). By successfully doing so, even more people will visit your content and more publicity is generated. However, PR practitioners must be extremely cautious and careful not to produce two-way asymmetrical content which benefits the organisation through manipulative message and propaganda. Such messages are short-lived and public/stakeholders will not support such content for long. A successful usage of new media for PR is to include channels of feedback and response for organisations and PR practitioners to reflect upon and better improve the plan.

PR on the online world can be extremely competitive, while one can be looking to generate more publicity, others will be sure to use similar methods to do so. Hence, at times, it would be advisable to use both means of new and mainstream to have a broad approach to the masses.

An Issues-Crisis Perspective & Reputation Management: A Driving Force For Action

Part 1: An Issues-Crisis Perspective

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As Howell (2009, pp. 275) has defined issues management, "it is a specific type of management function that allows identification of potential, emerging or actual trends, concerns, or issues likely to affect an organisation and its key publics. Once this issue is identified, the organisation will develop a coordinate response to best manage and influence its progression".

Crises on the other hand as mentioned by Howell (2009, pp. 276), are said "to be highly uncertain events in which the cause and effects are unknown. A crisis is a major occurrence with a potentially negative outcomes that affect the organisation, company, or industry, as well as its publics, products and services, and its reputation. Crises interrupt normal business operations and can threaten the existence of the organisation".

Upon inference, the two factors both uses a similar word meaning. In English, an issue or crisis could associate to a form of incident. However, in PR, it has a completely different meaning to it. An issue is deemed to be a setback or a void that requires the attention of the company to solve it. As compared to crisis, it is an incident whereby it could potentially destroy a company's reputation and it may require a complete makeover or liquidation.

Just to sidetrack from the textbook, in Singapore we've encountered many of such cases. For example, the Prima Deli food poisoning case which affected businesses. Their crisis management was to provide widespread publicity of an enquiry line to answer to the public. They also stopped similar and affected products to determine the problem. In addition, they provided full cooperation to health authorities to determine the cause of the problem. This transparency as we have seen is a credible part of Prima Deli to admit to their mistakes and to take into account the public's impression.

In another example, is the case of the Geylang Serai Rojak food poisoning case. Not only was the stall affected, businesses of the other stalls were compromised. Firstly, people who visited the particular rojak stall (it was famous) stopped visiting the food court entirely. Secondly, it was suspected that other food stalls could possibly be dirty as well. It was not an easy task to restore the reputation of Geylang Serai market. It took a 40-month makeover as a restart to the businesses. The particular affected stall "Geylang Serai Rojak" was restored under the original owner's wife's name. The incident was labelled as a cause of mishandling seafood. However, the stall's reputation somewhat saved the situation as patrons were able to put the incident behind them. Fans also setup a countdown for the reopening of the stall.

Although the crises may seem impossible to overturn, sometimes, like an individual, one must live up to the mistake and admit to it. By showing full transparency and cooperation to an investigation as well as taking account the public's views, it could very well show the responsiveness to take responsibilities for the organisation's actions. Upholding a good reputation can also help the situation. However, in a crisis, it takes tremendous amount of time and resource to overturn the situation, like the Geylang case, it took time and money to revamp the entire image of the market. Hence, prevention is always better than a cure.

Part 2: Reputation Management: A Driving Force For Action

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Establishing a name/reputation as well as maintaining it, is perhaps one of the most difficult and messy task for a PR practitioner. In today's society, we see that organisations are at a new age of sponsorship compared to the past where it was fairly distant and profit-making. As mentioned before, more companies facing with scandals and the possibility of it because of their opaque view on their operations. In order to change this 'tainted' image, organisations are looking to sponsor and affiliate with cause-related organisations as well as incorporating a heavy list of code of ethics and quality management.

To put my own experience into account, while I was serving my National Service in an Ammunition depot, my unit is no different from an organisation. Our daily task and work was to be justified and revamped to suit with quality, resource and time management. It was in line with one of our objectives, to obtain the highest standard of quality; the International Organisation for Standardisation certification. Why bother obtaining such a qualification you might ask? It is simply put, to have a better impression on the public and something to show to Singaporeans that our ammunition to our soldiers are up to standard and probably, up to the world's standard.

At times, it is not as easy as achieving a standard or certification to restore or build up reputation and image. Ms. Tanya has shared a very inspiring case study of the Phillips Live Earth concerts. Phillips sponsored an event called Live Earth which featured famous bands to raise awareness for the importance of living green and saving our planet. However, the event was scrutinised about leaving the amount of refuse and rubbish at the scene of the concerts as well as the amount of carbon dioxide emitted from flying the singers to various locations to conduct the concerts.

In every PR campaign, there will always be such instances of backfire and it requires amount of awareness to be alert on such instances of 'counter' and setbacks.