The reputation or prestige of a social entity (a person , a social group , an organization , or a place) is an opinion about that entity – typically developed as a result of social evaluation on a set of criteria, such as behavior or performance.
94-586: Prestige refers to a good reputation or high esteem; in earlier usage, prestige meant "showiness" (19th c.). Prestige may also refer to: Reputation Reputation is a ubiquitous , spontaneous , and highly efficient mechanism of social control . It is a subject of study in social, management , and technological sciences . Its influence ranges from competitive settings, like markets, to cooperative ones, like firms, organizations, institutions and communities. Furthermore, reputation acts on different levels of agency: individual and supra-individual. At
188-443: A bad online reputation, they can easily change their pseudonym, new accounts on sites such as eBay or Amazon are usually distrusted. If an individual or company wants to manage their online reputation, they will face many more difficulties. According to one study, 84% of responding business leaders saw the greatest reputation threat online to companies as negative media coverage. The next two greatest threats are customer complaints in
282-455: A bit further, may actually be in the phase of initiating it. Gossip can also be used as an identifier only – as when gossiping about unreachable icons , like royalty or showbiz celebrities – useful only to show the gossiper belongs to the group of the informed ones. While most cases seem to share the characteristic of being primarily used to predict future behavior, they can have, for example, manipulative sub-goals, even more important than
376-468: A brand or product on the Internet, on Facebook , Twitter , blogs, and other social networking sites and websites. Online reputation can be evaluated by how well it is managed . This form of reputation is usually called web or digital reputation to distinguish it from online reputation. Indeed, digital or web reputation does not concern the virtual online reputation only, but the whole real reputation of
470-426: A candidate's social networking profiles on sites such as Facebook , Twitter , and MySpace , employers gain insight into a candidate's character and suitability for a job. Some individuals and organizations hire reputation management companies to attempt to hide truthful but unflattering information about themselves. A recent alleged example is that of Dr. Anil Potti , who resigned from Duke University after it
564-422: A central role in doing public relations. After a public relations practitioner has been working in the field, they accumulate a list of relationships that become an asset, especially for those in media relations. Within each discipline, typical activities include publicity events , speaking opportunities, press releases , newsletters , blogs , social media , press kits, and outbound communication to members of
658-421: A company's reputation but could be the reputation of an individual, country, brand , political party , industry . But the key point in reputation is not what the leadership insists but what others perceive it to be. For a company, its reputation is how esteemed it is in the eyes of its employees , customers , investors , talent , prospective candidates, competitors , analysts , alumni , regulators and
752-408: A company's reputation could also influence the decisions and perceptions of its managers; in some cases, reputation can promote the use of risk-reduction strategies by managers as they seek to preserve the reputation they have cultivated. In other cases, researchers argue that reputation can embolden managers to take risks in areas unrelated to their reputation, since stakeholders may be focused on
846-474: A company's reputation for honesty or safety may cause serious damage to finances. For example, in 1999 Coca-Cola lost $ 60 million (by its own estimate) after schoolchildren reported suffering from symptoms like headaches , nausea and shivering after drinking its products. Although most companies see reputation management as a central part of a CEO's role, managing reputation involves a set of ongoing activities that are best managed when they are delegated to
940-441: A company, it takes a lot of time and effort to address individual-direct responses. One study showed that "...72% of customers expect a reply within one hour." In order to best recover from negative complaints on social media, it is important for a company to prove its authenticity by providing more specific answers directly to its critics. A corporate reputation can be managed, accumulated and traded in for trust, legitimization of
1034-664: A host of different types of business verticals such as entertainment, technology, music, travel, television, food, consumer electronics and more. Many publicists build their career in a specific business space to leverage relationships and contacts. There are different kinds of press strategies for such as B2B (business to business) or B2C (business to consumer). Business to business publicity highlights service providers who provide services and products to other businesses. Business to Consumer publicizes products and services for regular consumers, such as toys, travel, food, entertainment, personal electronics and music. Litigation public relations
SECTION 10
#17328515962571128-437: A new lexical item , image , whose character should be immediately evident and is clearly linked to reputation. Image is a global or averaged evaluation of a given target on the part of an agent. It consists of (a set of) social evaluations about the characteristics of the target. Image as an object of communication is what is exchanged in examples 1 and 2, above. In the second case, we call it third-party image. It may concern
1222-421: A person or a company as it is affected by the Internet. Online reputation, furthermore, should not be confused with a company's digital identity . An online reputation is the perception that one generates on the Internet based on their digital footprint . Digital footprints accumulate through all of the content shared, feedback provided, and information that is created online. Due to the fact that if someone has
1316-518: A political party. Those members would then be considered stakeholders, which are people who have a stake or an interest in an organization or issue that potentially involves the organization or group they are interested in. The Publics in Public Relations are: Early literature authored by James Grunig (1978) suggested that publics develop in stages determined by their levels of problem recognition, constraint recognition and involvement in addressing
1410-445: A position of power and social recognition, and people are prepared to pay a premium price for goods and services offered, which in turn generates higher customer loyalty, a stronger willingness from shareholders to hold on to shares in times of crisis, and greater likelihood to invest in the company's stock. Therefore, reputation is one of the most valuable forms of "capital" of a company. "Delivering functional and social expectations of
1504-466: A real menace to democracy as it renders the public discourse powerless. Corporations are able to hire public relations professionals and transmit their messages through the media channels and exercise a huge amount of influence upon the individual who is defenseless against such a powerful force. He claims that public relations is a weapon for capitalist deception and the best way to resist is to become media literate and use critical thinking when interpreting
1598-447: A satisfactory phrase to describe what I do." In 1948, historian Eric Goldman noted that the definition of public relations in Webster's Dictionary would be "disputed by both practitioners and critics in the field." According to Dr. Ren, the public relations counsel is the agent working with both modern media of communications and group formations of society in order to provide ideas to
1692-818: A set of fundamental guidelines that people within the public relations professions should practice and use in their business atmosphere. These values are: Other than the ethics put in place in the United States of America there are also International ethics set to ensure proper and, legal worldwide communication. Regarding these ethics, there are broad codes used specifically for international forms of public relations, and then there are more specific forms from different countries. For example, some countries have certain associations to create ethics and standards to communication across their country. The International Association of Business Communication (founded in 1971), or also known as IABC, has its own set of ethics in order to enforce
1786-408: A set of guidelines that ensure communication internationality is legal, ethical, and is in good taste. Some principles that members of the board of IABC follow include. The IABC members use the following list of ethics in order to work to improve values of communication throughout the world: Spin has been interpreted historically to mean overt deceit that is meant to manipulate the public, but since
1880-652: A significant motivation for contributing to online communities . Individuals employ monitoring to ensure that they keep up with their online reputation. Given the number of sites on the Internet, it is impossible to manually monitor the entire web for pages that may affect one's online reputation. Free tools such as Google Alerts can be used to keep track of online reputations on a small scale, while larger businesses and clients may use more powerful analytics to monitor online interactions and mentions. Paid tools for online reputation management focus on either brand protection or online reputation. These tools track mentions of
1974-767: A specific individual in the organization. This is why some companies have created the position of chief reputation officer (CRO). A growing number of people in the business world now have the word "reputation" in their titles – including Dow Chemical , SABMiller , Coca-Cola , Allstate , Repsol YPF , Weber Shandwick , and GlaxoSmithKline (although no longer). Hoover's shows a list of such officers. Social media like Twitter, Linked In, and Facebook have made it increasingly important for companies to monitor their online reputations in order to anticipate and respond to criticisms of their actions. There are two main routes that customers can take when complaining about companies: individual-direct response or broadcast-based response. For
SECTION 20
#17328515962572068-422: A subset of the target's characteristics, i.e., its willingness to comply with socially accepted norms and customs, or its skills (ways), or its definition as pertaining to a precise agent. Indeed, we can define special cases of image, including third-party image, the evaluation that an agent believes a third party has of the target, or even shared image, that is, an evaluation shared by a group . Not even this last
2162-512: Is a believed, social, meta-evaluation; it is built upon three distinct but interrelated objects : In fact, reputation is a highly dynamic phenomenon in two distinct senses: it is subject to change, especially as an effect of corruption, errors, deception , etc.; and it emerges as an effect of a multi-level bidirectional process. Reputation is also how others know and perceive you as an individual. While image only moves (when transmitted and accepted) from one individual cognition to another,
2256-419: Is a reflection of companies' culture and identity . Also, it is the outcome of managers' efforts to prove their success and excellence. It is sustained through acting reliably, credibly, trustworthily and responsibly in the market. It can be sustained through consistent communication activities both internally and externally with key stakeholder groups. This directly influences a public company's stock prices in
2350-402: Is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics." The UK-based Chartered Institute of Public Relations focuses its definition on reputation: "Public Relations is about reputation – the result of what you do, what you say and what others say about you. Public Relations is the discipline which looks after reputation, with
2444-411: Is also a part of broader PR activities. An example of good public relations would be generating an article featuring a PR firm's client, rather than paying for the client to be advertised next to the article. The aim of public relations is to inform the public, prospective customers, investors, partners, employees, and other stakeholders , and persuade them to maintain a positive or favorable view about
2538-435: Is an intangible asset and a source of competitive advantage against rivals because the company will be viewed as more reliable, credible, trustworthy and responsible to its employees, customers, shareholders and financial markets. In addition, according to MORI 's survey of about 200 managers in the private sector, 99% responded that the management of corporate reputation is very (83%) or fairly (16%) important. Reputation
2632-414: Is considered important in business , politics , education , online communities , and many other fields, and it may be considered as a reflection of a social entity's identity . Since 1980, the study of 'corporate reputation' has attracted growing scholarly attention from economics, sociology, and management. The concept of reputation has undergone substantial evolution in the academic literature over
2726-611: Is controlled internally, whereas publicity is not controlled and contributed by external parties. Public relations may include an organization or individual gaining exposure to their audiences using topics of public interest and news items that do not require direct payment. The exposure is mostly media -based, and this differentiates it from advertising as a form of marketing communications . Public relations often aims to create or obtain coverage for clients for free, also known as earned media , rather than paying for marketing or advertising also known as paid media. However, advertising
2820-442: Is essential to mitigate negative impacts and maintain public trust. Public relations professionals both serve the public's interest and private interests of businesses, associations, non-profit organizations, and governments. This dual obligation gave rise to heated debates among scholars of the discipline and practitioners over its fundamental values. This conflict represents the main ethical predicament of public relations. In 2000,
2914-523: Is furthermore influenced by culture , as nationalities differ with regard to how valued specific aspects of the company's brand identity are in the respective national culture (e.g. environmental concerns or work ethics) as well as with regard to popular cultural dimensions (e.g. Hofstede ). Subsequently, these differences impact the success of reputation transfer significantly. The cognitive view of reputation has become increasingly prominent in reputation research. It has led to improved understanding of
Prestige - Misplaced Pages Continue
3008-497: Is important to clarify the meaning of reputation. Organizations frequently make missteps that cause them to lose the positive regard of stakeholders. In the wake of studies addressing the disproportionate penalties that accrue to high reputation firms when they make such missteps, reputation researchers have proposed models to account for both reputation damage and reputation repair, summarizing prior work in disciplines including economics, marketing, accounting, and management. In
3102-408: Is more powerful because it may not even be perceived by the individual to whom it sticks, and consequently it is out of the individual's power to control and manipulate. More simply speaking for those who want a working definition of reputation, reputation is the sum of impressions held by a company 's stakeholders . In other words, reputation is in the "eyes of the beholder". It need not be just
3196-404: Is often considered to be a pragmatic evaluation – actors determine whether the target of the evaluation can be seen as useful to them. Until recently, the relationships with these adjacent constructs were merely theoretical; that is, they were not formally tested or empirically validated for their " nomological relationships" with these other, related constructs. Myriad reputation studies from
3290-444: Is reputation, since it tries to define too precisely the mental status of the group. Reputation , as distinct from image, is the process and the effect of transmitting a target image. We call reputation transmission a communication of an evaluation without the specification of the evaluator, if not for a group attribution, and only in the default sense discussed before. This covers the case of example 3 above. More precisely, reputation
3384-548: Is the management of the communication process during the course of any legal dispute or adjudicatory processing so as to affect the outcome or its effect on the client's overall reputation (Haggerty, 2003). Public relations plays a crucial role in crisis management by helping organizations prepare for, navigate, and recover from unexpected events that threaten their reputation, operations, or stakeholders. A crisis can range from natural disasters and product recalls to scandals and cybersecurity breaches. Effective crisis communication
3478-419: Is the most frequent form of referral. All examples concern the evaluation of a given object (target), a social agent (which may be either individual or supra-individual, and in the latter case, either a group or a collective), held by another social agent, the evaluator. The examples above can be turned into more precise definitions using the concept of social evaluation . At this point, we can propose to coin
3572-404: Is the use of Internet tools and technologies such as search engines , Web 2.0 social bookmarking, new media relations, blogging , and social media marketing . Interactive PR allows companies and organizations to disseminate information without relying solely on mainstream publications and to communicate directly with the public, customers and prospects. PR practitioners have always relied on
3666-594: Is to produce content that users will share with their social network to help a company increase brand exposure and broaden customer reach. Some of the major social media platforms currently include Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, and Snapchat. As digital technology has evolved, the methods for measuring the effectiveness of online public relations have improved. The Public Relations Society of America, which has been developing PR strategies since 1947, has identified five steps for measuring online public relations effectiveness. Publicists can work in
3760-477: Is ultimately to undermine the central goal of building trust and nurturing a good relationship." The techniques of spin include selectively presenting facts and quotes that support ideal positions ( cherry picking ), the so-called " non-denial denial ", phrasing that in a way presumes unproven truths, euphemisms for drawing attention away from items considered distasteful, and ambiguity in public statements. Another spin technique involves careful choice of timing in
3854-512: The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) responded to the controversy by acknowledging in its new code of ethics "advocacy" – for the first time – as a core value of the discipline. The field of public relations is generally highly un-regulated, but many professionals voluntarily adhere to the code of conduct of one or more professional bodies to avoid exposure for ethical violations. The Chartered Institute of Public Relations ,
Prestige - Misplaced Pages Continue
3948-539: The World Wars (compare journalism ). World War I (1914–1918), which affected not only military but whole populations, is considered to be "modern propaganda's launching pad". This led to more sophisticated commercial publicity efforts as public-relations talent entered the private sector. Most historians believe modern-day public relations was first established in the US by Ivy Lee (1877–1934) in 1903 when he started working as
4042-400: The anonymous character of reputation makes it a more complex phenomenon. Reputation proceeds from the level of individual cognition (when is born, possibly as an image, but not always) to the level of social propagation (at this level, it not necessarily believed as from any specific agent) and from this level back to individual cognition again (when it is accepted). Moreover, once it gets to
4136-415: The attitudes other actors have about some socially desirable behaviour , be it cooperation, reciprocity , or norm -compliance. Reputation plays a crucial role in the evolution of these behaviours: reputation transmission allows socially desirable behaviour to spread. Rather than concentrating on the property only, the cognitive model of reputation accounts not only for reputation-formation but also for
4230-557: The interest (s) of each stakeholder group carefully. Therefore, it becomes essential to integrate public relations into corporate governance to manage the relationships between these stakeholders which will enhance the organization's reputation. Corporations or institutions which behave ethically and govern in a good manner build reputational capital which is a competitive advantage . A good reputation enhances profitability because it attracts customers to products, investors to securities and employees to its jobs. A company's reputation
4324-436: The press , arranging interviews for company spokespeople, writing speeches for company leaders, acting as an organization's spokesperson , preparing clients for press conferences , media interviews and speeches, writing website and social media content, managing company reputation ( crisis management ), managing internal communications , and marketing activities like brand awareness and event management. Success in
4418-622: The 1950s has shifted to describing a "polishing of the truth." Today, spin refers to providing a certain interpretation of information meant to sway public opinion. Companies may use spin to create the appearance of the company or other events are going in a slightly different direction than they actually are. Within the field of public relations, spin is seen as a derogatory term, interpreted by professionals as meaning blatant deceit and manipulation. Skilled practitioners of spin are sometimes called "spin doctors." In Stuart Ewen 's PR! A Social History of Spin , he argues that public relations can be
4512-416: The 1980s to the 2000s demonstrated that a company's reputation was positively related to various performance measures, such as financial success and profitability. However, more recent work demonstrated that reputation can be both "a benefit and a burden", suggesting that "the bigger you are, the harder you (might) fall" with respect to reputation. Relatedly, researchers have theorized or demonstrated that
4606-519: The Public Relations Society of America, and The Institute of Public Relations are a few organizations that publish an ethical code. Still, Edelman 's 2003 semi-annual trust survey found that only 20 percent of survey respondents from the public believed paid communicators within a company were credible. Individuals in public relations are growing increasingly concerned with their company's marketing practices, questioning whether they agree with
4700-456: The UK, the equivalent job titles are Account Executive, Account Manager, Account Director and Director. Public relations specialists establish and maintain relationships with an organization's target audiences , the media, relevant trade media, and other opinion leaders . Common responsibilities include designing communications campaigns, writing press releases and other content for news, working with
4794-457: The aim of earning understanding and support and influencing opinion and behaviour. It is the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics." Public relations can also be defined as the practice of managing communication between an organization and its publics. Quentin Langley argues the use of the word "publics" in
SECTION 50
#17328515962574888-430: The benefit of all their "stakeholders," not just their shareholders . Stakeholders of a company include any individual or group that can influence or is influenced by a company's practices. The stakeholders of a company can be suppliers , consumers , employees, shareholders, financial community, government , and media . Companies must properly manage the relationships between stakeholder groups and they must consider
4982-512: The best places to work, the best business schools, or the most innovative companies. These rankings are explicit orderings of corporate reputations, and the relative positions of companies on these rankings reflect their relative performance on various cognitive attributes. Corporate reputations are found to influence the attractiveness of ranked companies as suppliers of products, as prospective employers, and as investments. For those reasons, companies themselves have become increasingly involved with
5076-420: The company's social responsibility. They seek more influence over marketing and more of a counseling and policy-making role. On the other hand, individuals in marketing are increasingly interested in incorporating publicity as a tool within the realm marketing. According to Scott Cutlip, the social justification for public relations is the right for an organization to have a fair hearing of their point of view in
5170-424: The context of brand extension strategies, many companies rely on reputation transfer as a means of transferring the good reputation of a company and its existing products to new markets and new products. Consumers who are already familiar with other products of an established brand , exhibiting customer satisfaction and loyalty, will more easily accept new products of the same brand. In contrast to brand extension,
5264-423: The disease are stakeholders, but the audience is anyone who is likely to donate money. Public relations experts possess deep skills in media relations, market positioning, and branding. They are powerful agents that help clients deliver clear, unambiguous information to a target audience that matters to them. A public is any group whose members have a common interest or common values in a particular subject, such as
5358-408: The effect of social media in 1999, was controversial in its time, but by 2006 the effect of social media and new Internet technologies became broadly accepted by the general public. Public relations professionals present the face of an organization or individual, usually to articulate its objectives and official views on issues of relevance, primarily to the media. Public relations contributes to
5452-402: The expression "it is said that John Smith is a cheater" is intrinsically a reputation spreading act, because on one hand it refers to a (possibly false) common opinion, and on the other the very act of saying "it is said" is self-assessing, since it provides at least one factual occasion when that something is said, because the person who says so (the gossiper), while appearing to spread the saying
5546-478: The field of public relations requires a deep understanding of the interests and concerns of each of the company's many stakeholders. The public relations professional must know how to effectively address those concerns using the most powerful tool of the public relations trade, which is publicity. Ivy Lee , the man who turned around the Rockefeller name and image, and his friend, Edward Louis Bernays , established
5640-468: The financial market. Therefore, this reputation makes a reputational capital that becomes a strategic asset and advantage for that company. As a consequence, public relations must be used in order to establish long lasting relationships with the stakeholders, which will enhance the reputation of the company. Reputation models can be placed in a broader framework that distinguishes reputation from its underlying causes and from its consequences. This approach
5734-492: The first definition of public relations in the early 20th century as: "a management function, which tabulates public attitudes, defines the policies, procedures and interests of an organization... followed by executing a program of action to earn public understanding and acceptance." However, when Lee was later asked about his role in a hearing with the United Transit Commission, he said "I have never been able to find
SECTION 60
#17328515962575828-411: The forecast. In the case of a communication between two parties, one (the advisee) that is requesting advice about the potential for danger in a financial transaction with another party (the potential partner, target), and the other (the adviser, evaluator) that is giving advice . Roughly speaking, the advice could fall under one of the following three categories : Note the care to maintain
5922-423: The general concept of reputation transfer also requires the transfer of a company's values and identity to the new products and/or services and the related brands when entering new markets. It is important, however, to pay attention to the image fit between preexisting and new brands, for this factor has been proven to be critical for the success of brand extensions. In contrast to the special case of brand extension,
6016-430: The general concept of reputation transfer also requires the transfer of the values and identity of a company to the new products and/or services and the related brands when entering new markets. A strong image might therefore even hamper the introduction of new product lines if customers do not associate the competences relevant to the new market/category/product line with the existing company or brand. A company's reputation
6110-437: The image maker for and corporate advisor for Rockefeller. Edward Bernays (1891–1995), who handled the publicity of theatrical associations in 1913, then spread internationally. Meanwhile, in the nascent Soviet Russia of the 1920s, artists and poets (such as Mayakovsky ) engaged in public-relations campaigns for various state agencies and causes (note for example Likbez ). Many American companies with PR departments spread
6204-507: The issue. The theory posited that publics develop in the following stages: Messaging is the process of creating a consistent story around: a product, person, company, or service. Messaging aims to prevent readers from receiving contradictory or confusing information that could instill doubt in their purchasing choices, or other decisions that affect the company. Brands aim to have the same problem statement, industry viewpoint, or brand perception shared across sources and media. Digital marketing
6298-422: The list goes on. Online reputation is a factor in any online community where trust is important. Examples include eBay , an auction service that uses a system of customer feedback to publicly rate each member's reputation, or Amazon.com , which has a similar review system. One study found that a good reputation added 7.6% to the price received. In addition, building and maintaining a good reputation can be
6392-668: The marketing perspective of seeing public relations as part of marketing, which he claims is too focused on just one of Hayward's six publics: customers. Public relations has historical roots pre-dating the 20th century. Most textbooks regard the establishment of the "Publicity Bureau" in Boston in 1900 as marking the founding of a public relations profession . Academics have found early forms of public influence and communications management in ancient civilizations. Aristotle 's Rhetoric , for example, explains core foundations for persuasion . Evidence shows that it continued to evolve during
6486-419: The media or on grievance sites online (71%) and negative word of mouth (54%). This negative word of mouth could come not only from dissatisfied customers but from employees as well. With the power of business review websites and customer forums, a company's online reputation can be damaged anonymously. Employers have begun using the online reputations of job applicants to guide their hiring choices. By checking
6580-671: The media such as TV, radio, and magazines, to promote their ideas and messages tailored specifically to a target audience. Social media marketing is not only a new way to achieve that goal, but also a continuation of a strategy that existed for decades. Lister et al. said that "Digital media can be seen as a continuation and extension of a principal or technique that was already in place". Social media platforms enable users to connect with audiences to build brands, increase sales, and drive website traffic. This involves publishing content on social media profiles, engaging with followers, analyzing results, and running social media advertisements. The goal
6674-598: The needs and desires of the audience they are trying to appeal to. Sometimes the interests of differing audiences and stakeholders common to a public relations effort necessitate the creation of several distinct but complementary messages. These messages however should be relevant to each other, thus creating consistency in the overall message and theme. Audience targeting tactics are important for public relations practitioners because they face all kinds of problems: low visibility, lack of public understanding, opposition from critics, and insufficient support from funding sources. On
6768-492: The organization and the public interest ." The Public Relations Society of America , a professional trade association, defined public relations in 1982 as: "Public relations helps an organization and its publics adapt mutually to each other." In 2011 and 2012, the PRSA solicited crowd-supplied definitions for the term and allowed the public to vote on one of three finalists. The winning definition stated that: "Public relations
6862-596: The organization, its leadership , products, or political decisions. Public relations professionals typically work for PR and marketing firms, businesses and companies , government , and public officials as public information officers and nongovernmental organizations , and nonprofit organizations. Jobs central to public relations include internal positions such as public relations coordinator, public relations specialist, and public relations manager, and outside agency positions such as account coordinator, account executive , account supervisor, and media relations manager. In
6956-403: The other hand, stakeholder theory identifies people who have a stake in a given institution or issue. All audiences are stakeholders (or presumptive stakeholders), but not all stakeholders are members of a target audience. For example, if a charity commissions a public relations agency to create an advertising campaign to raise money to find a cure for a disease, the charity and the people with
7050-560: The past several decades. Terminology such as reputation, branding, image and identity is often used interchangeably in both the popular press and – until recently – in the academic literature, as well. The academic literature has generally settled on a small cluster of perspectives on "what reputation is" in a company context. Economists use game-theory to describe corporate reputations as strategic signals that companies use to convey to markets some of their qualities and abilities. Sociologists view corporate reputation as descriptions of
7144-462: The plural is "central to the understanding" of public relations, writing "all organisations have a series of publics, or stakeholders, on whom their success depends". He follows Roger Hayward (1991) in dividing the publics into "customers (past, present, and future), staff (past, present, and future), investors (past, present, and future), politicians and regulators, neighbours, and business partners (suppliers, distributors, etc.)". Langley also contests
7238-431: The population level, reputation gives rise to a further property at the agent level. It is both what people think about targets and what targets are in the eyes of others. From the very moment an agent is targeted by the community , his or her life will change whether he or she wants it or not or believes it or not. Reputation has become the immaterial, more powerful equivalent of a scarlet letter sewed to one's clothes. It
7332-450: The possible levels of truth (the adviser declares – but could be lying – it believes – but could be wrong – etc..). The cases are listed, as it is evident, in decreasing order of responsibility. While one could feel most actual examples fall under the first case, the other two are not unnecessarily complicated nor actually infrequent. Indeed, most of the common gossip falls under the third category, and, except for electronic interaction , this
7426-553: The practice of reputation management . Like any social construct, reputation is similar to (i.e., convergent with) certain concepts and different (i.e., discriminant ) from others. Reputation can be compared to other "social evaluation" or "social judgment" constructs. For instance, reputation is said to be convergent with adjacent concepts like corporate image, identity, celebrity, status, legitimacy, social approval (likability), and visibility (prominence), but discriminant from related constructs like stigma and infamy. Reputation
7520-575: The practice to Europe when they set up European subsidiaries in the wake of the Marshall plan of 1948–1952. In the second half of the 20th century, public relations entered an era of professional development . Trade associations, PR news-magazines, international PR agencies, and academic principles for the profession were established. In the early 2000s, press-release services began offering social-media press releases. The Cluetrain Manifesto , which predicted
7614-399: The press. Video and audio news releases (VNRs and ANRs) are often produced and distributed to TV outlets in hopes they will be used as regular program content. A fundamental technique used in public relations is to identify the target audience and to tailor messages that are relevant to each audience. Audience targeting requires public relations professionals to have a deep understanding of
7708-476: The propagation of reputation. To model this aspect, it is necessary to specify and develop a more refined classification of reputation. In informal settings, gossip , although vague, may contain precious hints both to facts ("I've been told this physician has shown questionable behavior") and to conflicts taking place at the information level (if a candidate for a role spreads defamatory information about another candidate, whom should you trust?). Moreover,
7802-478: The public forum, but to obtain such a hearing for their ideas requires a skilled advocate. Marketing and communications strategist, Ira Gostin, believes there is a code of conduct when conducting business and using public relations. Public relations specialists have the ability to influence society. Fact-checking and presenting accurate information is necessary to maintain credibility with employers and clients. The Public Relations Society of America has established
7896-510: The public on the one hand and manage to build a unique identity on the other hand creates trust and this trust builds the informal framework of a company. This framework provides "return in cooperation" and produces reputation capital . A positive reputation will secure a company or organisation long-term competitive advantages. The higher a company's reputation capital, the lower the costs of supervising and exercising control." According to stakeholder theory , corporations should be managed for
7990-587: The public's consciousness. Furthermore, he is also concerned with ideologies and courses of actions as well as material goods and services and public utilities and industrial associations and large trade groups for which it secures popular support. In August 1978, the World Assembly of Public Relations Associations defined the field as "the art and social science of analyzing trends , predicting their consequences, counselling organizational leaders and implementing planned programs of action, which will serve both
8084-498: The relative status that companies occupy in an institutional field of rivals and stakeholders. Management scholars describe corporate reputations in one of two main ways, including: In practice, corporate reputations are revealed by the relative rankings of companies created and propagated by information intermediaries. For example, business magazines and newspapers such as Fortune , Forbes , Business Week , Financial Times , and The Wall Street Journal regularly publish lists of
8178-618: The release of certain news so it can take advantage of prominent events in the news. Negative public relations, also called dark public relations (DPR), 'black hat PR' and in some earlier writing "Black PR", is a process of destroying the target's reputation and/or corporate identity . The objective in DPR is to discredit someone else, who may pose a threat to the client's business or be a political rival. DPR may rely on IT security , industrial espionage , social engineering and competitive intelligence . Common techniques include using dirty secrets from
8272-485: The reputation itself and inattentive to other areas of the company. Many organizations create public relations and corporate communication departments dedicated to assisting companies with reputation management. In addition, many public relations and consulting firms claim expertise in reputation management . The growth of the public relations industry has largely been due to the rising demand for companies to establish credibility and reputation. Incidents which damage
8366-435: The role played by reputation in a number of practical domains and scientific fields. In the study of cooperation and social dilemmas , for instance, the role of reputation as a partner selection mechanism started to be appreciated in the early 1980s. Working toward such a definition, reputation can be viewed as a socially transmitted meta- belief (i.e., belief about belief) that is a property of an agent, that results from
8460-639: The settling of the New World and during the movement to abolish slavery in England. Basil Clarke is considered the founder of public relations in the United Kingdom for his establishment of "Editorial Services" in 1924. The United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and others used the concept of propaganda , which later evolved into public relations, to rally domestic support and to demonize enemies during
8554-427: The supra-individual level, it concerns groups, communities, collectives and abstract social entities (such as firms, corporations, organizations, countries, cultures and even civilizations). It affects phenomena of different scales, from everyday life to relationships between nations. Reputation is a fundamental instrument of social order , based upon distributed, spontaneous social control . The concept of reputation
8648-404: The various mediated messages. According to Jim Hoggan , "public relations is not by definition 'spin'. Public relations is the art of building good relationships. You do that most effectively by earning trust and goodwill among those who are important to you and your business... Spin is to public relations what manipulation is to interpersonal communications. It's a diversion whose primary effect
8742-528: The way an organization is perceived by influencing the media and maintaining relationships with stakeholders. According to Jacquie L'Etang from Queen Margaret University, public relations professionals can be viewed as "discourse workers specializing in communication and the presentation of argument and employing rhetorical strategies to achieve managerial aims." Specific public relations disciplines include: Building and managing relationships with those who influence an organization or individual's audiences have
8836-466: Was discovered that he had misrepresented himself on his resume and became the subject of a scientific misconduct investigation. Public relations Public relations ( PR ) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business , government agency , or a nonprofit organization ) to the public in order to influence their perception. Public relations and publicity differ in that PR
#256743