‘Business Is Personal’, says Penny Power, MBE, and that is indeed the title of a book she published on the subject. The purpose of this post is to amplify that point, and to extend it into the realm of PR. To achieve positive public relations – to have your brand, service or product so liked and loved that it sells – you should remember that success relies on who you are, what you are like to others, ALL the time.
We have worked with a lot of clients from high street businesses, to corporate clients, services suppliers, manufacturers, charities, and musicians and an arts festival. There are some basic rules to success, and we have blogged about some before, for example in ‘How to be a hot date with PR‘.
It is possible for a business to be led by someone who is, or who becomes, a toxic brand because of the way they talk and behave. Brewdog’s Chief Executive James Watt seems to have a talent for attracting negative headlines, but his business survives it, for now. Meanwhile, PR’s shudder at just how fast a brand can be destroyed by ill-placed comments. Such as the former Chief Executive of jewellers the Ratner Group, Gerald Ratner, whose remarks had cataclysmic outcomes. Here I borrow from Wikipedia:
“Ratner made a speech addressing a conference of the Institute of Directors at the Royal Albert Hall on 23 April 1991.[5] During the speech, he commented: We also do cut-glass sherry decanters complete with six glasses on a silver-plated tray that your butler can serve you drinks on, all for £4.95. People say, “How can you sell this for such a low price?”, I say, “because it’s total crap.”[6] He compounded this by going on to remark that one of the sets of earrings was “cheaper than a prawn sandwich from Marks and Spencer’s, but I have to say the sandwich will probably last longer than the earrings””
Whilst a business can be destroyed overnight by ill-judged and very public remarks like these, in the world of Small and Medium-sized businesses (SME’s) it is just as possible for business owners and their board members to hold their companies back and to drag them down by their very behaviour and attitudes, day in, day out, without even realising it. In fact, this appears to be quite common.
Recently, our Founder, Darren Weale, was quoted in Positive News magazine, as saying, “The world is crying out for positive news, and for people to be reminded, repeatedly, that they can create it.” That is one of our greatest areas of consistency now, that we work with positive clients, projects and campaigns that are trying to make a difference.
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