I recently came across this story and felt that warm creamy feeling of happiness inside. It’s a really good example of what Public Relations is and inspired me to write about why I love it so much!
PR, at its root, is all about making people love your organisation. It doesn’t matter how much money you make, all you care about is the image of your organisation. That’s the main difference between PR and Marketing. Marketing will always look at that bottom line. Ironically, it’s been proven many times that PR is actually more profitable than marketing. I mean just looking at the article that I linked, I’m sure the kid’s dad will buy more LEGO toys for his kid, let alone other parents who might run across the article. Not every story becomes popular the way this one does, but it’s usually talked about to a few people and that’s how you create a strong and loyal customer base (and all you had to do is makes someone’s day… is there any reason not to do it?)
I’ve gotten mixed feelings from friends when I tell them I “work” in PR. The general impression is that our job is to spin stories to make it look like the company look good. I can’t really blame my friends. Organisations regularly get caught up in their lies and attempts at making things look good when they’re actually horrible. The reality is; that’s what a bad PR rep would do. Why? Because the truth ALWAYS comes out and it WILL makes things look worse.
That means it’s important for an organisation to always be honest and try to fix their mistakes. One of the most popular examples comes from Tylenol. In 1982, 7 people died from cyanide-laced Tylenol capsules. Johnson & Johnson immediately announced it worldwide, took responsibility for their mistake and recalled the product all over the country (lost more than 100 million dollars for it). At first it was a clear loss, but as it turns out, they had gained the trust of costumers everywhere. Sales increased and studies showed that some people even switched painkillers to Tylenol just because they felt like Tylenol did in fact care about their customers. Many companies today need to learn from that example; they seem to forget that their customers have feelings and only look at the money.
All of this to say, PR for Valhalla is going to be EXTREMELY easy haha. It’s great to be a part of a project whose goal is to make a positive change in the world. I doubt there will ever be a time where we have to explain why something bad happened… and if something bad does happen; I’m sure it’ll be easy to explain why it happened, what we were thinking and what our real intentions were.
Have a good weekend everyone!