Free Essay

Public Opinion and Reputation Management

In:

Submitted By lowejaxxxon
Words 1402
Pages 6
Public Opinion and Reputation Management
Kevin Jackson
University of Phoenix
MKT/578
November 11, 2012
Sandra Payne

Public Opinion and Reputation Management
Every company, organization, or governmental entity must be able to communicate to its publics in a clear and consistent honest manner. This includes press releases to the public. According to Seitel (2011) (p. 47), communication has four goals, which are; to inform, to persuade, to motive, and to build understanding. Whatever, the ethical and legal nature of the problem a company, organization, or governmental agency is facing, what is communicated to the public can determine how public opinion is influence. Public opinion is defined as a representation of a consensus. This consensus derives from many individuals opinion, beginning with people’s attitudes toward the issue in question (Seitel, 2012). Depending on what the ethical and legal nature of the problem a company, such as Paula Deen Enterprise is facing can influence public opinion positive or negative. It is the public relations professional job to sway public opinion in a favorable light and properly manage the client’s reputation.
Paula Deen Enterprise Ethical Issue
Paula Deen’s ethical issues started after a lawsuit from a former employee surfaced in the media. The lawsuit alleged that the Paula Deen used racist language referring to Afro-American’s as “niggers,” and her brother engaged in sexual harassment at one of her restaurants Uncle Bubba’s Seafood and Oyster House. In a deposition, Paula Deen admitted using the racist word in the past, however; a deposition is public record ("Paula Deen: "i Beg For Your Forgiveness"", 2013). When the media obtain this deposition, it forced Paula Deen to issue a press release. Paula Deen posted two videotapes apologizing and begging forgiveness from fans and critics for using racial language in the past. The first message Paula Deen communicated to her publics was ("Tv Chef Paula Deen Apologizes For 'Hurtful Language'", 2013),
“Please forgive me for the mistakes that I have made for using racist language. I want to apologize to everybody for the wrong that I have done. I want to learn and grow from this. Inappropriate and hurtful language is totally, totally unacceptable. Your color of your skin, your religion, sexual preference does not matter to me.”
The second message Paula Deen communicated to her publics was an interview with Matt Lauer on the Today show, where she communicated to her publics (Longeretta, 2013),
“The main reason I am here today is, it’s important to me that I tell you and everyone out there, what I believe, and how I live my life. I believe that every creature on this earth, every one of God’s creatures was created equal,” “I believe that everyone should be treated equal. That’s the way I was raised, and that’s the way I live my life.” “I am here today because I want people to know who I am, and people that have worked beside me, have walked beside me, know what kind of person I am.” … “I have apologized.” “I would never, never with any intention have hurt anyone on purpose, and I never would.”
The first message Paula Deen tried to influence public opinion. In influencing public opinion the public relation program can crystallize attitudes, reinforce beliefs, and occasionally change public opinion. The opinions to be changed or modified must be identified and understood (Seitel, 2011). In this case for Paula Deen opinion to be changed or modified is that she is not a racist. Second target publics must be clear; this would include the public and her corporate sponsors. Third the public relation professional must have a sharp focus of the laws that govern public opinion (Seitel, 2011).
For example, when opinion is highly sensitive to important events in this case the use of racist language from a celebrity such as Paula Deen can be highly sensitive to the events as it unfolds. The second message that was communicated to her publics was managing her reputation. According, to Seitel (2011) (p. 73), “for an organization or an individual concerned about public opinion, the organization or individual should manage the reputation. Relationship management aligns communication with an organization’s character and action. This creates recognition, credibility, and trust among key constituents to stay sensitive to its conduct in public with customers and in private with employees. Reputation management understands its responsibilities to the broader society and is empathetic to society’s needs.”
Legality of Messages
To protect Paula Deen Enterprise from defamation, her lawyer made a communicated that Paula Deen Enterprises will not comment on pending litigation. This is to ensure that any statement made by Paula Deen or those who represent her do not commit libel (written) or slander (orally) to the media. According to Kubasek et, al. (2012), defamation is the intentional publication of a false statement harmful to an individuals reputation. The messages that Paula Deen communicated to the press were carefully constructed to focus on what she has said in the deposition and nothing related to the defendant Lisa Jackson, so a charge of defamation could not be filed in court.

Recommendation
There were no ethical and legal issues with Paula Deen’s messages to her publics. She was honest in her communications, admitting using racist language. However, it did not to sway public opinion for her target audiences, which were her corporate sponsors. For example, after she had posted the first message on YouTube, the Food Network decided not to renew her contract, although she has apologized for using such language. The problem with that first message was that she communicated ("Tv Chef Paula Deen Apologizes For 'Hurtful Language'", 2013),
“I want to learn and grow from this. Inappropriate and hurtful language is totally, totally unacceptable.” This message to her target audience did not sway public opinion about Paula Deen because it was not sincere. A more precise way to sway public opinion, even though it would be temporary,
“ In the past I have used hurtful language, and I am extremely sorry for that. Over the years, I have learned and grown that all races are equal, and in the business environment and elsewhere in society inappropriate and hurtful language is totally unacceptable. I hope that my fans, critics, and sponsors can forgive my past transgressions.”
Remember, if public opinions are to be changed or modified it must be identified and understood, the target publics must be clear, and the public relation professional must know the laws that govern public opinion (Seitel, 2011). The public relation professional did not clearly define the target publics.
The target public for Paula Deen was her corporate sponsor to her company Paula Deen Enterprises. Companies such as WalMart, Food Network, and Caesars Entertainment did not believe Paula Deen’s apology or was swayed that she was not a racist, and ended the long-term relationship. In managing her reputation, Paula Deen was again unclear. Her public relations team should have included examples of corporate social responsibility of giving to a diverse ethnic group with lower income status. Corporate social responsibility is about how companies manage the business process to produce an impact on society (Seitel, 2011).
This would have shown that she was sorry for her past transgressions and she also have learned and grown from them as well. Paula Deen’s public relations team was unclear when communicating to the target public (corporate sponsor’s), although it was honest communication and it inform the public, it failed to persuade, motivate and build understanding with her corporate sponsor’s. In the event of not properly communicating to her publics about the unethical use of language much of her corporate sponsor’s ended the relationship with Paula Deen.

References
Kubasek, N.K., Browne, M.N., & Herron, D.J., Giampetro-Meyer, A., Barkacs, L.L., Dhooge, L.J., Williamson, C., (2012). Dynamics of Business Law (2nd ed.). New York, N.Y.: McGraw-Hill Irwin.
Longeretta, E. (2013). Paula Deen Sobs In ‘Today’ Show Interview: I’m Not A Racist. Retrieved from http://hollywoodlife.com/2013/06/26/paula-deen-today-show-interview-racist-apology/
Paula Deen: "I beg for your forgiveness". (2013). Retrieved from http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-207_162-57590509/paula-deen-i-beg-for-your-forgiveness/
Seitel, F.P. (2011). The Practice of Public Relations (11th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall.
TV Chef Paula Deen Apologizes for 'Hurtful Language'. (2013). Retrieved from http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/tv-chef-paula-deen-apologizes-hurtful-language-19460783

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

The Role of Pr in Reputation Rebuildin in Hollywood

...FINDINGS. It is the primary task of public relations to build a strong relationships in order to promote the reputation of an individual, an organization, or an identity that relies on the public’s opinion for it to function. In order to do so, public relations people have to make sure that the messages being communicated to the public are aimed at acquiring allies and supporters. In Hollywood, public relations is a very useful tool in managing the reputation of personalities, especially so when one is in trouble due to some controversies. With the recurring influx of scandals that surround the stars of Hollywood, public relations have become a necessity in a celebrity’s life in order to maintain a favorable image to further their career. Hollywood personalities often find themselves in interesting, it not bizarre situations, which often find their way to newspapers, magazines, the Internet, radio broadcasts, and TV news. Each particular situation calls for a specific action, but the initial goal is to ensure that the subsequent effects of the controversies are minimized. There are several ways available to achieve this but all PR specialists agree that more than anything, effective communication holds the key in solving all problems. The current research looked into the different roles that public relations play in order to build a reputation for Hollywood stars. In particular, the research aimed to address four questions: 1. When do the PR personnel of a Hollywood...

Words: 4137 - Pages: 17

Premium Essay

Essays

...Martha Stewart’s lost reputation 1. The basis of Martha Stewart’s reputation? Her reputation is faith, trust, and goodwill that shareholders, friends, and business community have for her and her company, a homemaking-product & TV show industry. If the company’s performance is unchanged for over the time, the gain of the company’s share would be reasoned by its reputation or brand. 2. MSO’s stock price decline Because the public lost the trust or confidence on Martha and her company’s business. Her scandal in insider trading would reflect her moral judgments and her business 3. Martha Stewart’s target market Homemaking-product consumers and TV and design show audience, magazines. 4. Qualities of Stewart’s brand: intimacy, family values, trust, honest, healthy living. The accusations of insider trading would affect business associated with advising services such as TV shows, magazines or design industry. 5. Level of sales and profits would MSO would reach to $ 300 million dollars level and its profit at $ 23 M because in 2002 revenue was $295 M, 2001 was $289$. 6. Stock price would be $18 - $25 per share. 7. As in video, if she take a day after the announcement she would still execute her decision selling her share without any doubt. The information after the public announcement would avoid the conflict of interest, even she has a friendship with Mr. Walksal. 8. She would tell the truths and cooperate with the investigation. These actions reflect her...

Words: 769 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Bank Communications Plan

...TABLE OF CONTENT 1. Introduction/ starting points 2. Definition of the problem / open questions 3. Intention and communication goals 4. Target groups 5. Strategy of communication 6. Communication plan (description of communication activities) 7. Cost approximation 1. INTRODUCTION / STARTING POINTS Alpha bank is a Greek bank, which is present in many countries, not only in Greece and Macedonia. It is a successful international financial institution, which is present in Cyprus, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Ukraine, Albania, United States and in Macedonia. In spite of its international presence and tradition, the bank (through its’ acquired predecessor) has been present on the Macedonian market since 1993, it has problems with its perception and recognition, which eventually leads to a smaller market share / number of clients. Since Greece and Macedonia have unresolved dispute about the name of the state Macedonia, the bank has decided to communicate mostly tradition and trust (»Credibility, reliability and efficiency in banking services. Loyalty, commitment and vision”.) and not the origin of the financial group. In the past and current year most of the investment effort has been placed in completing the branch network, which has not yet been properly communicated. Subsequently the problem of (un)experience of the branch employees arises. Only recently the corporate communications department – The PR Department has been set-up, which means corporate communication...

Words: 2135 - Pages: 9

Premium Essay

Public Relations Practices

...What is Public Relations, Anyway? * Marston’s 4-step Race Model * R = Research * A = Action * C = Communication * E = Evaluation * The model describes the public relations process * Public relations is a planned process to influence public opinion, through sound character and proper performance, based on mutually satisfactory two-way communication * Public relations helps an organization and its publics to mutually adapt to each other. * Public relations is an organization’s efforts to win the cooperation of groups of people * Sharpe’s 5 Principles * Honest communication for credibility * Openness and consistency for confidence * Fairness of actions for reciprocity, goodwill * Two-way communication to build relationships * Research and evaluation to determine actions and to adjust for social harmony * Roles of PR * 1. Management * To succeed, public relations must report to top management, unimpeded by any other group. * 2. Action * True public relations cannot take place without ethical, consistent action. No amount of persuasion will cover up for poor performance. * PR as a management interpreter * Public relations professionals interpret these roles of management to the public * Philosophies * Policies * Programs * Practices * PR as public interpreter ...

Words: 5318 - Pages: 22

Premium Essay

Public Relations

...DEFINITION OF PUBLIC RELATIONS 3 WHY IS PUBLIC RELATIONS IMPORTANT 5 HOW DOES PUBLIC RELATIONS WORKS 7 IMPORTANCE OF PUBLIC RELATIONS IN AN ORGANISATION 8 CONCLUSION 10 BIBLIOGRAPHY 11 INTRODUCTION Public relations is the way organisations, companies and individuals communicate with the public and media. A public relations specialist communicates with the target audience directly or indirectly through media with an aim to create and maintain a positive image and create a strong relationship with the audience. Examples include press releases, newsletters, public appearances and other public relations tools. An organisation is a social unit of people that is structured and managed to meet a need or to pursue collective goals. All organisations have a management structure that determines relationships between the different activities and the members, and subdivides and assigns roles, responsibilities, and authority to carry out different tasks. Organisations are open systems that is they affect and are affected by their environment and public relations is important for the functioning of an organisation. The world of business is characterised by severe competition and in order to win new customers and retain the existing ones, the organisations have to distinguish themselves from the competition. But they also need to create and maintain a positive public image. A public relations specialist or firm helps them both create and maintain a good reputation among both...

Words: 1609 - Pages: 7

Free Essay

Stakeholder Engagement

...organisations which have a sound operating philosophy. By engaging with the stakeholders, the CEO’s ensure the long term success of their business or projects. This is by getting the various interested parties to buy into the success of their venture by making them a part of the decision making and also ensuring that their concerns or requirements are met. Even though this may be driven by rules and regulations to a great extend, we are witnessing a more proactive, inclusive and broader approach in recent times. This is usually a cradle to grave approach taking into consideration the whole life span of the project and its continued or total impact on the various parties involved. The positive impact of good stakeholder relationship on reputation and in turn the profitability of the venture is well recognised by the business community. In fact the brand value of a company is directly proportional to its positive rapport with its stakeholders. As in any relationship mutual trust, respect, transparency and understanding, all play a part in maintaining a constructive engagement with the stakeholders. It takes time to build trust and past records become very important for an organisation embarking on a new venture. Organisations have to tailor their engagements to suit their business depending on the size of the project, its nature and impact on the stakeholders and the environment. The more controversial the project is likely to be, the earlier the stakeholder engagement has to begin...

Words: 1382 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Corporate Reputation

...Corporate Reputation Introduction Nowadays, people are living in a digital age. Internet and social media begin playing irreplaceable roles in everyday life as well as business. What changes of corporate reputation appeared under the digital era, and what do corporates react to those changes are discussing in the report. Key issues and how to address are also provided. Key Differences in Corporate Reputation Pre and Post Digital Age The earliest version of the Internet, Web 1.0 was composed of about 250,000 sites and 45 million users worldwide in 1996. However, with Web 2.0 appeared in 2006, with about 80,000,000 sites and over one billion users1, a new digital age has arrived, giving more opportunities and threats for business. The new era brings three key differences for corporate reputation.  Geography and Demography With the growth of global Internet, news can deliver all around the world. Things happened in Asia can be post online and read by North Americas, vise versa. By 2013, there are 39% Internet users globally (world population is 7.1 billion), see Table 1. Especially for international companies, who have locations around the world, corporate reputation is more globally involved. For example, Pepsi was criticized by people worldwide because of its brutal treatment to workers in India2. Also, because that computers and Internet have been owned by increasing number of people, more people are involved. Consumers are influenced by word of mouth, online reviews/research...

Words: 1783 - Pages: 8

Premium Essay

Nanny's Flaps

...specific business situations." (1) Many people are of the opinion that ethics does have a place in business, whilst others disagree with that opinion and believe ethics has no place at all in the business. Ethics concern an individual's moral judgements about right and wrong. Decisions taken within a business may be made by individuals or groups, but whoever makes them will be influenced by the culture of the company. The decision to behave ethically is a moral one, employees must decide what they think is the right form of action, this could often involve rejecting the route which would lead to the biggest short-term profit. An ethical business may choose the next best ethical form of action to ensure the image of the business is not hindered in any form. Various arguments arise of people under the opinion that caring about moral standards or following under the ethical criteria does not build profits. They believe, to ensure profits, a business should only produce the needs of society and should be completed in an effective way. The second argument that occurs is, it is argued that "only law is necessary for the companies to run and ethics should not be taken into account." (2) In contrast, the mass majority of people including myself believe that ethics in a business is vital for a business to pursue profits and in addition to this, excell in the industry and most importantly, in the eyes of the people of the public. Today's world is healthier place based on the moral standards...

Words: 1335 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Cathy Walter

...internal auditor during 2002. He had specifically advised Walter, who was chair of the Audit Committee, that the NAB was not exposed to the risk of FX losses as occurred in another overseas bank earlier that year. The external auditor, KPMG, had raised concerns about the NAB’s FX trading in 2001 and 2002. John Thorn resigned as a partner of PwC in September 2003 to become a director of the NAB and a member of the Audit Committee the following month. The board’s Risk Management Committee had been formed by the NAB in August 2003 with the charter of its Audit Committee changed accordingly. But the Risk Management Committee, chaired by Graham Kraehe, had only met once before a junior employee blew the whistle on the hidden FX losses in January 2004. The 7 non-executive directors ganged up against Walter to protect PwC and themselves in March 2004 by calling an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) of shareholders on May 21 to have Walter removed as a director. Evaluation of Cathy Walter’s Actions There are two opinions about Cathy Walter’s actions; A. She did not act in the best interests of the company 1. Breach of duty of Care She neglected the duty of due care and vigilance as required by section 180 of ACL .It is directors duty to act with due care without blindly accepting management's recommendations. But Cathy along with other directors did not carry out this duty of care because she relied on management's report that the company is not incurring any FX losses. 2. Inappropriate...

Words: 1569 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

Pr Overview

...An overview of PR What is PR? PR - the management, art & science of building & maintaining relationships between organizations & their stakeholder publics. PR •Public in PR is called "publics" •It has an "S" at the end •Segmentation •It is cyclical In PR, The word audience is not encouraged. Why? because it refers to a "passive" group of people not "reactive". PR is guided by these steps: Step 1: There is researching and analyzing. Step 2: There is policy & formation. Step 3: There is programming. Step 4: Communication Step 5: Feedback PR people: •Boundary spanners •Must be connected to both •Organization •Publics •Problem Solvers *Problems are opportunities for you to make a difference A conceptual schema for studying PR The duties of the PR Profession 1. Responsible for assimilating & communicating information 2. Span the boundaries 3. Relate the needs & interests of publics 4. Maintain effective relationships w/ the media 5. Arrange company representative and have direct contact w/ various publics 6. Write speeches and edit publications 7. Produce & distribute films, videos & other print collaterals 8. Manage fund raising campaign & community activities 9. Develop & maintain new media Elements of PR 1. Counseling – Giving advice to management 2. Research – Determing attitudes & behavior 3. Media Relations – Working w/ mass media to seek publicity 4. Publicity/Publication...

Words: 1362 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Case 4.1 Enron Corporation and Andersen, Llp

...case are: 1) Valuation issues with international assets; 2) Aggressive accounting treatments towards SPEs; 3) Negligence of information disclosure, and 4) Dereliction of duty of internal auditing department. The auditing issues involved in Enron’s case are: 1) Putting its reputation at risk, Andersen issued “clean” audit opinions on Enron’s financial statement; 2) Auditing and consulting services were provided by the same accounting firm, which led to conflict of interest and jeopardized integrity, and 3) The revenue of providing auditing service to Enron occupied so large a share of Andersen’s total revenue that it lost its independence when confronted to Enron. Questions: Q2. a. Every company should be headed by an effective board which is collectively responsible for the long-term success of the company. The board is responsible for providing entrepreneurial leadership of the company within a framework of prudent and effective controls that enables risk to be assessed and managed. The board should set the company’s strategic aims, ensure that the necessary financial and human resources are in place for the company to meet his objectives and review management performance. The board should set the company’s values and standards and ensure that its obligations to shareholders and others are understood and met. But the primary responsibility of the board of directors is to protect the shareholders' assets and ensure they receive a decent return on...

Words: 997 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

Bp-Crisis

...ISSN: 2278-3369 International Journal of Advances in Management and Economics Available online at www.managementjournal.info CASE STUDY Crisis communication failures: The BP Case Study Daniel De Wolf1, Mohamed Mejri2* 1University 2Ecole of Littoral Côte d’Opale (ULCO)/Management & Economics, Dunkerque, France. Superieure de Commerce/Management Department, University of Manuba, Tunis, Tunisia. *Corresponding author: Email: mohamed.mejri@univ-littoral.fr Abstract On the 20th of April 2010, an outstanding explosion of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig situated in the Golf of Mexico caused the largest maritime disaster oil spill in the USA history and particularly caused considerable reputation and financial losses to BP.To deal with the spill oil as well as reputation and financial losses, the company particularly use many tactics and tools to communicate with stakeholders during and after the crisis. However, crisis management and communication experts’ opinions differed on whether BP crisis communication was effective or ineffective.This paper aims to assess BP crisis communication and mainly to point out possible failures through a content analysis of secondary data collected from various sources (newspapers, magazines, annual reports and blogs). Keywords: British Petroleum, Crisis communication, Crisis Management, Deepwater horizon. Introduction On the 20th of April 2010, the petroleum industry has been marked by the largest maritime disaster oil spill...

Words: 6804 - Pages: 28

Premium Essay

Business

...BUSINESS RISK AND THE AUDIT PROCESS. Should the risk of litigation, sanctions or an impaired reputation affect the conduct of an audit? by Craig A. Brumfield, Robert K. Elliott and Peter D. Jacobson Business risk is the probability that an auditor will suffer a loss or injury to his professional practice. It differs from audit risk, which is the probability that an auditor will issue an unqualified opinion on materially misstated financial statements. For example, an auditor may be sued (business risk) whether or not the audit and the financial statements comply with professional standards (audit risk). Audit risk can infiuence business risk because an inappropriate opinion can be a significant factor in the events that lead to loss or injury to an auditor's professional practice. Conversely, business risk may, within limits, influence the auditor's assessment of the acceptable level of audit risk. The concept of audit risk is directly related to the third standard of fieldwork, which requires the auditor to gather evidential matter sufficient to support the opinion. It follows from the concept of sufficiency that a minimum level of audit work, or evidence gathering, is required on every audit conducted in accordance with generally accepted auditing standards. Although this is obvious, it must be accepted that the concept of a required minimum level of audit work is basically undefined and the concept of audit risk unmeasurable with current techniques. The auditor uses his...

Words: 4278 - Pages: 18

Premium Essay

Corporate Retention In Crisis Management

...Contents Introduction 1 Why Corporate Reputation is Important? 5 Crisis Management 7 Human Resources issues and solutions 7 FINANCIAL ISSUES / PROBLEMS 7 OPERATIONAL ISSUES / PROBLEMS 8 MANAGEMENT ISSUES / PROBLEMS 8 SOLUTIONS 8 OPERATIONAL SOLUTIONS 9 MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS 9 PLANNING PROCESS 9 Conclusion 10 References 11 Introduction As we all know there are too many different circumstances that would specify the management quality of any company for instance Malaysian Airlines (MAS) once flight MH370 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing disappeared. Since that incident which still no one’s know anything about the destiny of that MH370 that air traffic control centers did announce which they lost all the control with the plane at around...

Words: 1581 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

Social Media Impact That Affects the Pr Practices.

...sharing content, opinions, experiences, and many more and it have been online practices with the use of technology of social media (Lariscy, et al 2009). A two-way proportioned communication between the partakers is encouraged by the social media sites (Lariscy, et al 2009). Social media enable two-ways communication rather than one-way. The term social media has a wide range of platform and it does not only include social networking sites as it consist of also forums, blogs, picture sharing, video sharing, message boards, RSS, podcasts, search engine marketing, other networking sites and microblogging sites (Wright and Hinson 2009). However people usually think of Facebook and Twitter when it comes to social media but there are many types of social media such as LinkedIn, Blogs, microblogging and online news. (Wright and Hinson 2009) 2.1.2 Social media impacts in PR practices Those who practice public relations have believed to have grown in terms of its precision and trustworthiness by using social media and other developing media (Gordon 2010). Furthermore, they agreed to a certain extend that these new media will turn to be an overseer for traditional news media that will impact corporate and organizational transparency and ethical culture. New media will outrun traditional media and turning to a key of the future (Gordon 2010). Blogs is one of the important tools in Public Relations Practices. Blogs popularity has increased reason being Public Relations Pratitioners...

Words: 4398 - Pages: 18