Is it the art of war, or just the art of good PR?

Many of us who work in the PR business, occasionally face those times that no matter what you do, you just can’t seem to win everyone over to your way of thinking. Earlier this week, I was discussing this quandary with a colleague of mine who is more than twenty years my junior.

Being the elder statesman in the conversation, I was reminiscing about how different things are today then they were when my corporate career began. Probably the most obvious difference is the speed in which we can now release messages to our intended audience. When I started in the business, it would take us days and weeks to prepare simple presentations or produce even the most elementary of ads.

It was also more difficult to find out what our audience thought of our message and what their opinions were of our product or service. Having to wait on the results of complex surveys delivered by mail, or analyzing data generated by focus groups … sometimes months went by before you would know the results of your marketing efforts.

Today we have so many tools that can be used to monitor the pulse of our intended audience quickly and efficiently. As PR professionals, its important for us to know what our market is thinking, but it is also important not to be too concerned with only a minor amount of negative chatter and clutter. That’s a normal phenomenon. The old adage “you can’t please all the people all the time” is certainly true.

So if there is some negative chatter, how do you separate what you do well with what you are not doing well? PR professionals are some of the most unappreciated employees in many organizations. If you asked the average top executive what does your PR person really do all day, they probably couldn’t tell you. Many of us are in the background promoting others while rarely promoting ourselves. We observe our industries from a different perspective than others. We look at trends and analyze what does well for others. We focus on our media contacts and try to pitch them stories they will sink their teeth into. We listen to our customers and our constituents and look at how we can best explain our message to them. We learn how to do things better, faster, and less expensive. And while we are engaged in all this deep thought, let’s also remember that most of us do a lot of everyday grunt work to keep our brand in a positive spotlight.

PR offices do a lot. When the sky is blue and everything is humming along like it should, rarely is there a line of people outside your door waiting to give you the thumbs up. But if there happens to be even the smallest amount of contrary noise, the lines then begin to form. This time it is filled with folks who want to know why your not doing more or recommending ways for you do your job better. Such is the life we lead.

Let’s get back to my colleague who is more than twenty years my junior. Her organization is vibrant, and I give her and her office great credit for that. The majority of stories that appear in the media about her organization are positive, and I give her and her office great credit for that as well. The things she has tried to promote her organization have been gutsy. She is what Sun Tzu referred to as ”hence his victories bring him neither reputation for wisdom nor credit for courage” for she like me is a background person.

I loaned her my copy of the “Art of War” to read since she wasn’t a part of the corporate raider mentality of the 1980’s like I was. When she returned it a few weeks later we got to talking about the book and how much it relates to public relations. As we talked about how those PR bumps in the road can sometimes consume our thoughts more than we need them to, we both agreed that Sun Tzu said it best. “Amid the turmoil and tumult of battle, there may be seeming disorder and yet no real disorder at all”.

So in the career of any PR person, we are going to have our share of accomplishments. We are also going to have our share of failure. We have got to take them both in stride. The public will be on your side one day, and against you the next. This is the life we lead. If we do our job well, than the message we send will be a strong one. Those are the message we need to remember when there is the appearance of disorder yet no disorder at all. So ... is it the art of war, or just the art of good PR?