Low level PR
Still from the movie "Office Romance". At all times, secretaries in offices played a very important, although not always noticeable, role. And, like any other person, such a secretary can also become an object of PR influence...
Often the surest way
mislead a person -
tell him the honest truth.
Mark Twain
mislead a person -
tell him the honest truth.
Mark Twain
People and society. Articles about PR in the 90s aroused the keenest interest among VO readers. But, unfortunately, many read these materials hastily and inattentively. And they simply did not understand the content of such a concept as “public relations.”
So, many people thought that this was deception and “lies.” In fact, there is no point in resorting to deception for a skilled PR man, since he knows that everything secret sooner or later becomes clear. And he doesn’t need the reputation of a liar. And if deception does take place, then... either C students worked here, and they always exist, were and will be, or... this is not PR! Or PR, but bad, “black” PR, which the teachers of the department of our Penza University, including myself, never advised our students to resort to. It can work, yes, but it is simply dangerous to resort to it constantly.
Perhaps the examples given by the author played a role in this perception of PR. There were many of them, they came one after another, mostly had a negative message and... People fell for it.
But any journalistic material must... be catchy! That is why these examples were given. Because how can material about routine PR work, which consists of writing and distributing press releases for the media, catch on?
Therefore, today we will talk about other examples of the work of public relations specialists. Not as impressive, but they also happened. But first, let us note that this profession requires observation, attention to detail and great erudition. People who have not read books will not succeed in it. This is where we will start.
Once they invited a CO specialist to a company... to increase its income. And the main rule of PR is that any PR campaign, be it promoting a governor or a bathhouse, must be preceded by research.
In this case, the PR man came, walked around the room where visitors came, looked around, and... suggested changing the pink linoleum that was on their floor to brown.
People were surprised, but they did it... After some time, their income actually increased! You should have seen how surprised they were! Well, what's the connection here?
And the connection, by the way, is the simplest - from 25 to 30% of people are afraid to step on pink linoleum, because it seems to them that it sags under their feet, and this causes them discomfort. This is written about in specialized literature, but the businessmen from this company, of course, did not read such literature, and by laying pink linoleum in their place, they cut off a rather significant segment of potential visitors.
Another time, a PR man was invited to a bank office that was ready to open, which was being decorated according to the designer’s design and which, except for the computers, was painted in a “dark metallic” color, and the inscriptions on it were dark blue. It all looked simply terrible, like some kind of cage from which you wanted to leave as quickly as possible.
The PR man came and swore at the bankers, saying that they should have invited him before the renovation began, and not after everything was already done. And I began to think about how I could “help.” It was necessary to somehow revive this “gray desert” and bring joy to people’s eyes.
He interviewed the employees, met history this bank and realized that only blikfang can help this office. And blikfang is such a shiny “thing,” for example, a brooch on the right lapel of a lady’s suit jacket, a pebble shifted to the right on a man’s tie clip, or something that sparkles in the interior. The fact is that in this case people turn out to be like forty - they are attracted by everything shiny and, looking at it, they can no longer think about anything else!
In this case, a half-open “antique” wooden chest from a gift shop was used as a blikfang, in which “silver coins” were placed - round cardboard boxes wrapped in silver paper! He was supposed to stand behind the operating table with a row of computers and could not help but attract the attention of everyone who approached the operators. It was impossible to see from such a distance whether it was real money or not!
A story was invented for the chest, which was based on another story, a true one, which concerned the creation of this bank, which existed back in tsarist times. It was founded by a merchant who kept money in a wooden box (“little box”), discovered in the attic of his house after nationalization.
All this was written about in the new “history”. The operators were told to memorize it and tell it to clients when necessary. As many as three TV companies with three cameramen were invited to the opening of the office, and so, in one case, a “living head” was broadcasting from the screen, but in the other two, the cameras, having “travelled” around the office, focused all their attention on... that's right, the chest with shiny coins!
What about the employees? They first talked about the chest in which... they kept... and then... and so we... decided to continue the tradition... and... put... And only then they started talking about the services of the bank itself.
As a result, no one remembered the broadcast with the “talking head”, but they liked the stories with “shiny chests” so much that many office visitors, upon arriving there, first of all asked: “Where is that chest?” A trifle, as they say, but nice!
But the funniest PR story for a company known to the author was this.
One company's revenues fell. For various reasons they fall, but more often because of the stupidity of their owners. I know, for example, an enterprise where they sew... no matter what, and where its owners are an elderly husband and wife. And they are also designers! And... they constantly refer to their old experiences. “Here we started from scratch in the 90s and did everything ourselves!” Managers (young) tell them: “Everything is different now, forget about your successful 90s!” But they just get offended and don’t listen. And they should, if they were smarter...
In this case, the company's income fell for another reason. Its owner, about 50 years old, became infatuated with his secretary. A typical case: gray hair in the beard, demon in the rib! And a good wife, and two daughters... But... legs from the shoulders, breasts tearing the dress, languid eyes - how can you not get carried away? Naturally, he started things up. All thoughts were only about... how... and so on. But the employees are happy: there is no control, and one can argue when and in what form their boss’s fall from grace will take place and on what piece of furniture.
He invited a PR specialist - figure it out, they say. And he, as is customary, began with a study, and built it on a survey of employees, and organized it in exactly the same way as detective Cuff did in Wilkie Collins’ novel “The Moonstone.” That is, those who gave him valuable information, he ridiculed and pretended that it was unimportant, but to those who spoke nonsense, he heartily shook their hand and said: “You helped a lot!”
He received the most complete information about what was happening from the cleaning lady “Baba Valya,” but he also ridiculed her, so she then swore at him and called him a fool. But the real fools were swollen from the sense of self-importance instilled in them and walked around the office like roosters - that’s the impression they made on the invited PR man.
And he concluded: this “secretary” needs to be fired! But how can you tell a selfish company guy about this? He will be offended and will not listen! So the PR man thought about all this and looked out the window onto the street, and there was a bank opposite it and next to it a red car, from which a woman in a red suit and a red hat was getting out. "Who is this? Director of this bank. Have you applied for a loan from this bank? Yes, we applied, but we were refused..."
So the PR man says: “All your problems are due to lack of finances! We need borrowed funds for new equipment. But we will resolve this issue.” He went to the bank and found out that his director loved red roses. He bought a gorgeous bouquet and said to the director of the company: “Here is the bouquet. When you come to the office, stand with him by the window. When the director of the bank arrives, go downstairs, approach her and... praise her, her outfit, her car, say that you thought that she should like red roses, and so... I allowed myself... I would be pleased if you accepted my humble gift..."
He came to the office, and there was his long-legged secretary smiling flirtatiously: “Is this for me?!” "No! This is for work!” Here she pouted and turned blacker than a cloud. And the director was completely absorbed in the meeting with the headmistress and did not pay any attention to her suffering. Then the director arrived, the bouquet was handed to her, the secretary saw all this through the window and became even more angry, and the woman invited the director to her place for coffee. And then the question of the loan resolved itself...
It ended with the fact that the stupid secretary, who had no advantages other than long legs and a bust, took offense at her admirer and made it clear to him so sharply that... she caused his displeasure. And then the PR man added fuel to the fire and said that her behavior was unacceptable, that she was destroying the entire image of the company and himself, and that now that he was entering an important stage of modernization, he needed a more respectable secretary. Which, by the way, the PR man had already found in advance. A kind of “Madam Bok” from the cartoon about Carlson, in a black dress with a turtleneck and a horizontal bust of such a size that the very sight of it would simply make any normal person shiver.
After that, the long-legged one was driven away, the wife and daughters felt the love of their husband and father, and “Mistress Bock” built everyone up in the company so well that... things went much better than before. That is, the PR man fulfilled his task.
This kind of PR also happens, and how could we manage without it?
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