Sometimes the job of a
PR firm is not to create or massage the message, but to advise and correct the messengers. A form of psychological counseling for the client's attitude or corporate culture (in this case, Boeing), not for the attitudes of the audience. In effect, CRM training for the corporate cockpit - and beyond.
A few examples of strategic
PR advice for a "trust" issue:
- Don't be defensive. Don't see any question or adverse comment from the outside as an attack to be deflected or a justification for anger. Take it as an opportunity to engage with the outsider and develop a mutual and non-adversarial understanding.
- Go into meetings with stakeholders (regulators, legislators, airline customers, the flying public) with a question - "What do we need to do and say to make this right and restore your trust?" Don't
tell them what you've decided to do -
find out what you need to do. And don't bitch about the cost or other problems their answer may imply - save that for internal deliberations. One of the things a
PR firm can do for you is ask such questions of "derived customers" - i.e., the flying public, who don't buy your product directly, and whom you will rarely meet face-to-face yourself (although there is a time and place for that) - but can have a strong influence on your success and survival.
- Compartmentalize: Don't let the stresses of your responsibilities to one stakeholder "put your back up" or spill over when dealing with another stakeholder. Your problems are not the stakeholders problem -
you're the one paid to manage things. Kick over the trashcan in your
private office, if you need to let off stress.
In short, convert the old saw of "Always be sincere, whether you mean it or not," to "Always be sincere
, whether you mean it or not!" And back it up with attitude as well as actions.
Back in the 1950s, the local New York VW dealers decided to hire a joint ad agency. At their first meeting with the fledgling Doyle Dane Bernbach, one of the agency guys said "You know, your problem isn't the size or the power or the odd shape of the VW - it's that you're trying to sell a Nazi car in a Jewish town!" Comfort
with the car was as important as comfort inside the car. Similarly, when brainstorming ads for Panasonic as it entered the US market, one "creative" jump up and said, "I can see the headline now! '
From the People who brought you Pearl Harbor....
! ' "
In both cases, the understanding of the comfort-problem defined the strategy - not a bunch of engineering mumbo-jumbo and corporate-speak, but the development of trust through humor and personality.
Along with good engineering to maintain that trust.