How to run ethically sound pr campaigns

By Steven Le Vine[48]

Any first-rate publicist can carefully craft and execute a proper PR campaign that will both generate a substantial amount of press exposure, and also help to portray his or her client in a positive light.

But, not all publicists will do this without taking a few shortcuts on the way. Sometimes shortcuts can be beneficial – a way to speed up a process that would normally take a longer amount of time. Other times, not so much.

However, just as with any situation in life, ethics are always an important, yet often sidelined topic. Sometimes this is due to a simple oversight. While other times it’s done on purpose, so that one can engage in unethical behavior in order to take a shortcut.

Here are five tips we have prepared on ways that one can run a smooth, successful, and most importantly, ethical PR campaign.

1. Always Be Honest.There’s an old Russian proverb that goes: “With lies you may get ahead in the world – but you can never go back.” And that’s just as true when you’re sharing a story with the public. If you present even just one lie in a story, it may possibly help you in the short-term, but there is always a strong chance it can come back to bite you. Not only can you ruin your own credibility as a publicist, and make it hard or even impossible for a media outlet to ever take you seriously again, but also if you’re a notable personality or brand, the negative consequences can be tremendous, as your reputation is always on a pedestal for the public to judge. Although a crisis can always be a possibility when you’re in the limelight, one never wants to help make it an actuality.

2. No Pay-For-Play. While it has been reported that certain countries, such as China, for instance, only accept press releases and stories if space within a publication is purchased, the idea of public relations is that it is “earned media.” In other words, stories are important enough that they are worthy of a publication’s real estate, not bought. Paying for placement not only delegitimizes an important story, but it is also antithetical to the whole idea of a media outlet offering a third-party endorsement, one of the primary goals of public relations.

3. Don’t Misrepresent Facts. Similar to not lying is not distorting facts to suit one’s needs. Think about it. If you’re a large corporation, should you tell your shareholders your company’s stocks are only worth $5 per share, when they’re really worth $50? Should a doctor tell his or her patient with cancer that most people with their type of cancer live for two years, when in reality they live for only three months? If you twist the facts, you run a major risk in not only destroying your own and the media outlet’s credibility, but you also deceive the public by providing them with incorrect information.

4. Don’t Throw Competition Under the Bus. It’s never a smart idea to slander your competitors, especially in the public arena. It’s one thing to present a valid reason to make a distinction for the sake of comparison, but it’s an entirely different thing to pull your competitor into a bullfight and wave a red cape in front of them. For one, you open yourself up to their revengeful efforts at any time. But more importantly, whenever one protests too much about someone else, it never looks good for his or her own character. Just as Queen Gertrude stated in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”

5. Don’t Offer Bribes for Coverage.Taking a reporter or producer out to lunch is one thing. Offering them a trip to Cabo San Lucas is another. Although you may really want that Wall Street Journal real estate reporter to cover the launch event for your client’s new residential project, it’s a bad idea. For one, it makes you and your client look desperate, having a story not worthy of print exposure. It also does a disservice to all parties. Moreover, how would you like for the reporter to get fired for accepting your bribe and then hold it against you when they move on to another position at a different newspaper? Next time, think about sending them a box of chocolates or a Starbucks gift card after they cover your story, instead.

Assignments

1. Comment on the following proverb: “With lies you may get ahead in the world – but you can never go back.”

2. Why does paying for placement not only delegitimize an important story, but it is also antithetical to the whole idea of a media outlet?

3. What do you understand under misrepresentation of facts?

4. Why shouldn’t we throw competition under the bus?

5. Why is it important whenever one protests too much about someone else?

6. Why shouldn’t we offer bribes for coverage?

7. Offer your tips for ethical PR campaign.

8. Did you face with unethically hold PR campaign?

9. Have you ever been deceived while PR campaign?

10. Summarize the text.

Negotiation

Text 1

DEAL OR NO DEAL? RESOLVING CONFLICT THROUGH NEGOTIATION

By H. Boyle[49]

Negotiation is a specialized type of conflict resolution. We negotiate because we have to not because we want to. We negotiate because we cannot, otherwise, get what we want - not unless we enlist others. However, most people hate to negotiate. They dislike the confrontation that negotiation sometimes involves. They experience stress and fear. They worry that they aren't getting a good deal. Some people will do almost anything to avoid it.

Negotiation is a powerful method for resolving conflict which requires skill, and experience. And, good negotiators aren't born they are made. Anyone can improve their skills and ability through practice and dedication. Which is worth doing because we engage in one negotiation or another everyday and many times a day.

Negotiation is not a spectator sport! Studies show that human beings tend to retain 20% of what they hear; 50% of what they see; and, 80% of what they do. That's why we focus on case studies and role plays. The evaluations show that what is most meaningful for participants are the things they did and learned from not our lectures or slide shows. Remember the answer to the question, "[H]ow do I get to Symphony Hall?" The answer is the same for improving your negotiating abilities, "Practice! Practice! Practice!!!"

Effective Negotiators Are

· Purposeful not reactive. They choose their objectives after careful analysis and reflection rather than being "run" by their emotions. They are well prepared and systematic.

· Explicit about process as well as substance. Most people find the substance or "what" of the negotiation easy to talk about, but they ignore the process issues. How the negotiation should be conducted, what issues will be discussed and in what order? What methods might be used to reach a resolution. Often when discussions on substance bog down, switching the discussion to process can help move things forward.

· Know that managing shared, differing and conflicting interests is a joint problem which forms the core of any negotiation. This is an example of a process issue. Often negotiators focus only on their own concerns and ignore the other side's. This can be fatal for if the negotiation is to conclude with anagreement, each side needs to walk away with at least some of its needs met.

Negotiation typically involves a tension between discovering shared interests - maximizing joint gains or maximizing our own gains at the expense of the other side's when interests seem to conflict. Many negotiators manage this tension poorly. Some overdo the opportunity for unilateral gain which often means sacrificing potentially more significant joint gains. Or some underemphasize the existence and importance of conflicting interests which can mean they do less well than they should have.

What is Negotiation?

Besides a much maligned term, that it? It comes from the Latin word "negotium." Consider what these definitions have in common:

· Use of information and power to effect behavior.

· The art of getting what you want.

· A process for reaching agreement when there are conflict interests.

· Negotiation is a discussion between two or more parties each with a goal of realizing agreement on issues separating them when no side has the power to get its own to get its own way.

· Negotiation includes any instance in which two or more people are communicating each for the purpose of influencing the other's decision.

Negotiation is a process for mutually satisfying needs. We negotiate because we have to, not because we want to. For there to be a negotiation, each party recognizes that s/he can't get what they want on their own and that they need something from the others. For negotiation to work each side has to walk away with at least some of its needs met.

Yet negotiators too often ignore this fact. They spend little time preparing – determining their own needs, objectives, and aspirations and priorities. And, totally ignore the needs, objectives, aspirations, and priorities of the other side. They assume a conflict of interests between the parties rather than engaging in a rational pursuit. This is just one of many errors in negotiator judgment that, left unrecognized, can thwart a negotiation at the start.

Win/Win vs. Win/Lose

Distributive negotiation, or traditional negotiation, is the style which is familiar to most people. In this model the objective is to convince the other side that s/he wants what you have to offer more than want what s/he has to offer. Negotiation means hard, tough bargaining. It is a win/lose model whose underlying assumption is the fixed pie. That is every time you take a slice there is that much left for the other side. But that is only true, if there is only one issue to decide.

Most people would consider the price for the sale of some object like a piece of art as one example. However, is there truly only one issue? Is it possible that the buyer would pay more if terms could be arranged or a payment plan, so s/he wasn't laying out the full price immediately? Would the seller take less if the buyer offered cash? Is delivery an issue that is important to one side? Does timing have an impact? Are there intangibles that are important to a side?

Whenever there is more than one issue to negotiate there is the potential for integrative negotiation. Differences in the parties' preferences make mutual gains possible. Integrative negotiation or win/win focuses on the parties working together collaboratively to produce an agreement that provides gain for each side. That each side does better due to having engaged in the negotiation process than s/he would have done on their own. See All Things BATNA.

This win/win approach is also called Principled Negotiation or Mutual Gains Bargaining and was first outlined in the groundbreaking book, Getting to Yes, by Roger Fisher and William Ury in the 1970's. If you read no other book on negotiation read this one. You can click on its link for more information. It is ground breaking because it laid out the steps negotiators need to follow to apply the win/win approach.

These are

Focus on Interest not Positions. Interests are the submerged part of the positions people take in a negotiation. They are the why to the what.

Separate the People from the Problem. While emotions have an important role in negotiation, they should never be allowed to overwhelm the negotiation. Negotiations should always be centered on the negotiators' ideas and their merit not on the personalities of the negotiators.

Create Options for Mutual Gain. Adopt a problem solving approach, avoid lock-in. Be willing to explore a range of possibilities. Look for possible tradeoffs that can benefit both sides.

Insist on Objective Criteria. When conflicts of interests do arise look to acceptable external standards or procedures that are independent of either side, legitimate, and apply equally, for guidance on how to resolve rather than making it a test of wills.

Know Your BATNA - your no agreement alternative. What is your back up plan?

Assignments

1. What is negotiation according to the author?

2. Why do people negotiate?

3. What are the characteristic features of effective negotiators?

4. What does negotiation involve? Use the figure below.

Fig. 7.1 The Negotiation Process

5. From what Latin word does the term “negotiation” come?

6. Why negotiation is the art of getting what you want?

7. Comment the following statement: “Negotiation is a process for mutually satisfying needs.”

8. What steps do negotiators need to follow to apply the win/win approach?

9. Why should we focus on interests not positions?

10. Summarize the text.

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