Do the right thing … or else!

“Do the right thing.” It sounds simple enough, but amazingly, so many people can’t seem to manage to do so, especially in public relations. Recently, my class read and wrote about the first chunk of “Do the Right Thing” by James Hoggan. Early in the book, Hoggan shares his three golden rules of public relations: “1. Do the Right Thing, 2. Be Seen to be Doing the Right Thing and 3. Don’t Get #1 and #2 Mixed Up,” (pp. 9-14).

Public relations professionals have become some of the most hated people in our country, it seems. Unfortunately, with one of our founding PR fathers, Edward Bernays, being a master of the art of “spin,” how could we even blame the people for hating us? We, contemporary PR professionals, were taught to never “spin” a story or even a bit of information. Instead, we are encouraged to tell the truth. Always. Never lie. Granted, we aren’t advised to develop “diarrhea of the mouth” and spill every bit of information about our clients.

We all know about the very, very bad outcome that lying to the public has. Bad guys in PR learned a hard lesson about the damage lying to publics could cause their corporations. The Enron accounting scandal is a classic example of the heavy consequences of lying.Honesty has become a vital component of our field. With the public becoming increasingly perturbed by corporate and political attempts at tricking them, there is very little room available for lying (or even subtle attempts at covering up the truth). Fact checking has become much easier, as well; if people want to verify the accuracy of a claim, Wikipedia and Google become starting points that allow investigation of virtually anything.

Hoggan repeatedly emphasizes the value of maintaining a relationship with people built on honesty. Social networking makes two-way communication a consumer expectation. The public wants to feel heard and wants to maintain sincere relationships with companies in particular.

People also tend to be more forgiving of a company that is up front with them as opposed to a company that attempts to hide the truth. Although being honest sometimes causes short-term fiscal losses, those short-term fiscal losses are nowhere near as damaging as the losses incurred by a decline in public respect for your corporation.

An amazing example that Hoggan uses is with the organic food store Capers. After discovering one of its employees had Hepatitis A, Capers responded by closing its deli counters. Although the store suffered a short-term loss, the appearance of being genuinely concerned for the safety of its customers was invaluably beneficial in the long run.

Gladwell's analysis of tipping points in fashion

As part of my class, we read Malcolm Gladwell’s “The Tipping Point” as part of my

PR Research & Strategies course. Gladwell gave me a few examples of how unpredictable fashion trends can be, and how quickly such trends come and go.

First, “The Tipping Point” was an analysis of how small changes can often lead to monumental positive or negative changes. Such monumental changes can occur either in terms of increase or decrease. (Check out Gladwell's website here: http://www.gladwell.com/)

According to Gladwell, a Tipping Point is“that one dramatic moment in an epidemic when everything can change all at once” (Gladwell, p. 9). Gladwell also defined a Tipping Point as “the boiling point” that serves as the precursor to monumental change (p. 12).

Gladwell begins by using the rise of Hush Puppies as an example of a tipping point. With trends that are constantly changing and unpredictable, fashion is an everyday example of tipping points in action.

In the early ‘90s, Hush Puppies, a retro shoe, were so unpopular that they were unavailable in most stores. In fact, Hush Puppies had reached such a low point in their sales that they were only available in little Mom and Pop stores or secondhand thrift shops. However, after two kids on the Soho club scene were spotted wearing the shoes, now a rarity, Hush Puppies caught on with reputable designers. These designers included Hush Puppies in their fashion collections and runway spreads, and from there, the popularity of Hush Puppies tipped dramatically. In two years, Hush Puppies went from a dying product to a product that could not stay on the shelves in stores. The shoe even went on to become an award-winning accessory (pp. 2-7).

Image source: (http://www.obl.msu.edu/PHOTOS/HushPuppies.jpg)

Another example Gladwell gives of a tipping point in the fashion industry is with Airwalk shoes. When the Airwalk shoes’ availability was limited, they were more popular. It seems that in this society, what is rare is valuable. When the Airwalk shoes became more available at larger, less-elegant stores where less fashion-forward people could find them, the shoes lost their appeal (pp. 207-213).

Image source: (http://www.gamesneaker.com/images/Airwalk%20simmer.jpg)

These two examples Gladwell gave show how our society is constantly finding value in what is rare and what is new. Trends seem to come and go and are constantly determined by a few people who make something seem “cool.”

As PR practitioners, we are constantly studying trends and figuring out how to market something to various communities. The challenge becomes dealing with a society where something can be uncool one day and then extremely cool the next, or extremely cool one day and considered tacky the next. The PR practitioners who are most focused on chasing what society considers as cool are nicknamed Cool Hunters — rightfully so.