So who’s Werner and why should you care? In 1941, he founded the PR department at Procter & Gamble. And, while Edward Bernays is considered the Father of Public Relations – even helping P&G in the 1920’s, William Werner took up where Bernays left off and helped standardize the practice of corporate public relations. Some might argue Werner had a more arduous task than engineering consent.
During his 50-year tenure at P&G, Werner also served as the sixth national president of PRSA. But this post is inspired by comments I found about Werner (in italics), and from Werner himself ("in quotes and italics") about public relations.
Lost in the Archives*
Werner was perhaps the first advocate for the need for basic public relations thinking in any business, civic or charitable effort.
He urged public relations people to stimulate deeper and more continuous public relations thinking throughout their organizations, to apply the results of that thinking more broadly and skillfully in their external dealings, and to do their best personally to make the significance of the words, “public relations,” more widely understood and respected.
Today’s Takeaway: How often do you consider how to franchise PR thinking throughout a company? And how broadly are you considering this when you do? This is more than simply explaining PR and merchandising the results of PR efforts. It's arguably a constant state we could be in.
The Power of Public Opinion
Key to any worthwhile public relations effort, Mr. Werner believes, is getting to facts about what people actually think about an organization, product or cause. "They are ingredients which are far more important to an organization’s standing with the public than all of the tactical stunts of publicity that stick out and create attention as a program.
"The north star of your course should be other people’s opinions. Walk across the street and look at your store as other people see it. Instead of thinking about a broad, hazy public, think rather in terms of the many different publics your organization meets and serves, their differing needs, likes and dislikes.
“Good public relations thinking – two-way thinking – digs up the reasons why the public feels as it does about a business.”
Today’s Takeaway: This was written by someone that started his career at P&G 100 years ago. A century. And it could not be more applicable today. Following his call to action, understanding public opinion, couldn’t be easier to accomplish through search and social media.
Werner's opinion focus is clearly an influence of Edward Bernays. But the ability to decipher public opinion – to some degree even without primary research -- is something we tend to forget or we simply don’t invest the time. But it’s a big miss when we do.
Perhaps this is a side effect of using machine vs. humans in some of our work. We can view the automagic tools using math to make their decisions as time savers. They are time savers. But sometimes we should roll up our sleeves and invest instead of save.
Counsel: Think vs. Just Do
“Not only a creator of publicity material, but also an advisor, suggestor and coordinator, the public relations (person) and (her) thinking deal with the most precious property of a business, its reputation
“In fact, while a company’s advertising usually highlights its products or services, a time may come when another brand of the company should be advertised. That other brand is the most important – it’s the name of the company itself.”
Today’s Takeaway: Always keep the bigger picture in mind -- where your work fits into the brand and most of all the business. One way to ensure this happens is to always ask or consider “why?” first before even considering "what?"
Think Visual
“(Public Relations) requires specialized talents in communication, in creating visual material such as house organs, bulletins, movies, slide films, training pamphlets.”
Today’s Takeaway: Werner created class projects and films for use in classrooms on topics like cleanliness, personal grooming, baking and laundering, “which teachers countrywide in appropriate school grades welcome and use.”
Counsel: Think vs. Just Do
“Not only a creator of publicity material, but also an advisor, suggestor and coordinator, the public relations (person) and (her) thinking deal with the most precious property of a business, its reputation
“In fact, while a company’s advertising usually highlights its products or services, a time may come when another brand of the company should be advertised. That other brand is the most important – it’s the name of the company itself.”
Today’s Takeaway: Always keep the bigger picture in mind -- where your work fits into the brand and most of all the business. One way to ensure this happens is to always ask or consider “why?” first before even considering "what?"
Think Visual
“(Public Relations) requires specialized talents in communication, in creating visual material such as house organs, bulletins, movies, slide films, training pamphlets.”
Today’s Takeaway: Werner created class projects and films for use in classrooms on topics like cleanliness, personal grooming, baking and laundering, “which teachers countrywide in appropriate school grades welcome and use.”
Werner stressed the need for visual content then and it’s still needed today. Arguably we need it more than ever as consumers are bombarded with 34GB of information daily. We’re getting there thanks to an influx of tools and trends like infographics and video, but we can always do more.
100 Years Later
So was William G. Werner ahead of his time? Or does this simply show PR people have ignored great advice for 80 or 90 years now? Meh, I think it shows that we can learn from history -- even if it’s just a friendly reminder. I know I just learned a thing or two from Mr. Werner.
100 Years Later
So was William G. Werner ahead of his time? Or does this simply show PR people have ignored great advice for 80 or 90 years now? Meh, I think it shows that we can learn from history -- even if it’s just a friendly reminder. I know I just learned a thing or two from Mr. Werner.
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