Correcting popular misconceptions

As previously pointed out, public-relations workers must sometimes aim their efforts at correcting popular misconceptions. Elsewhere we said, reference was made to the problem which confronted modern-day industrial engineering—the problem of dispelling the belief that, in a factory, any effort made to step-up production and workers' earnings by improving operating methods was really aimed at making employees work harder. Labor expressed its opinion of the system by calling it the "speed-up" and the "stretch-out," because it remembered earlier days when those epithets were often deserved.

Labor failed to recognize the fact that the modern-day industrial engineer, with his motion-picture camera, had a brand-new and socially-minded concept of his profession's true objectives and, what was equally important, that he had a brand-new concept of how those objectives were to be approached.

Attacking the fallacious opinion about greater productivity

To the industrial engineer, measures to increase productivity did not represent a means of setting up an industrial dictatorship, nor an attempt on the part of management to impose upon the workers a soulless system of operation under which they became merely parts of the machines that they operated. On the contrary, the engineer regarded the project in every plant to which he was assigned as a means of making possible closer cooperation, easier and more productive work, and higher earnings for both capital and labor.

In the light of that concept, the engineer accepted an assignment in a plant only upon the condition that, in the very beginning, the workers in the plant would be informed of the purpose of his assignment; that they would cooperate in conducting the study; that they would be consulted in the setting of the new piecework rates which the system would require; and that, if those rates should be changed later on, the workers would be given the reasons for the change. Within each given plant, the engineer adhered to that policy and saw to it that the management also adhered to it.

Many factory workers, however, belonged to unions, and were influenced by the views of their union leaders, many of whom regarded the aims of industrial engineering with considerable suspicion. Accordingly, in its efforts to dispel misconception and make clear the truth, the profession of industrial engineering carried its case to the general public, especially since the general public is composed partly of factory workers. Spokesmen for the engineers talked not merely to industrialists, but before associations and groups of consumers.

With some help from public-relations workers, the engineers gave out interviews to the press and wrote articles for magazines. They wrote articles, also, for the labor press. This educational process of changing the public's mind about a matter on which the public is not informed still goes on. The task is far from finished. Nevertheless, an increasing number of people, including labor-union leaders, are now ready to concede that modern-day industrial engineering provides a means of improving the living standards not only of factory workers but of the public in general.

The misconception about the laundry industry

For many years a large number of housewives firmly believed that a laundry was a place of destruction. Many of them still do; but thanks to the laundry industry's continuing public-educational program, their number is diminishing. For this misconception, the laundrymen themselves were partly to blame. Although, over the years, their research agencies had been at work devising improved machinery and improved methods for doing laundry work, and although the industry made great progress along these lines, the laundrymen neglected to inform the public of this advancement.

Furthermore, with all their technological advance, and with the appearance in laundries of equipment that had just taken form from draftsmen's drawing boards, the laundrymen still clung to their original technical terminology which gave the public a false impression.

For example, one of their machines, a mechanism wholly devoid of claws, teeth, or jaws, continued to be called a mangle. It was that word, particularly, that the women misunderstood. Their misunderstanding became apparent when, as a part of a broad public-relations program, the laundry industry laid out a plan for the holding of "open-house" affairs for women by laundries in communities all over the country. In instance after instance, the first question that the women asked after they had stepped inside the laundry's doors was: "Where is the mangler?"

Over the country, the "open-house" program went forward, a program into which was introduced one interesting feature. To induce their communities' women to visit them, the laundries offered a kind of bounty. For instance, the laundry manager would say to the head of the Ladies Aid Society of the United Brethren Church: "If your society will come, we will pay into your treasury a dollar for every lady that attends." While many a treasury benefited from this procedure, it paid the laundries by bringing a large number of visitors to them. Meanwhile, the laundry industry, realizing the effects of words upon opinions, revised its terminology. Today, at least in better-informed laundrymen's circles, a mangle is called an ironer which, in fact, is its proper name.

Overcoming a threatened change in custom

At one time, the hat-making industry regarded with concern what it considered a potential tidal-wave of hatlessness among men. Seemingly, this anti-social movement had risen from the campuses of colleges and was sweeping across the country with such force that, in a matter of weeks or of months at the most, all hats would disappear and, with the hats, the hat industry.

Research revealed that, on the campuses of higher learning, about all that was needed was a new kind of higher learning in so far as the hat industry was concerned. To be sure, college boys sometimes went hatless. Furthermore, as a matter of tradition, most of them in their freshmen year wore alleged head covering in the form of "beanies." With so sacred a collegiate tradition as the "beanie," the wiser and calmer heads in the hat industry decided that it would be better for the industry not to interfere.

In their sophomore, junior and senior years, male college students owned hats of some kind and wore them at times. Here, the form of higher learning required was indoctrination into the belief that, as well-dressed gentlemen, they ought to own more hats and better hats, and wear hats more frequently. Consequently, the hat industry proceeded to provide that indoctrination through the medium of articles by fashion authorities in publications read by college students, and by means of personal visits by fashion authorities to college campuses.

Disposing of a superstition

After meeting the college campus crisis, the hat industry found that it had to contend with another disturbing and negative influence. Research disclosed that this influence was rampant not among college students, but among more mature men. This was the belief that wearing a hat caused baldness.

The hat industry knew that this belief was unfounded. The problem was how to erase it from the public mind. The industry decided that the best means was to marshal authoritative and convincing evidence of the truth by taking a poll of the medical profession. From coast to coast, general practitioners, dermatologists and other kinds of specialists who were qualified to testify upon the matter were asked whether it was true that wearing a hat would cause a man to lose his hair. The doctors' unanimous response may be summed as follows:

Baldness generally is hereditary, or it may be caused by disease of the skin or by some systemic disorder or deficiency. Wearing a hat does not cause baldness, but going without a hat will not cause lost hair to return. Going hatless in summer can cause harm to the scalp and to the general constitution through action of the sun's actinic rays. Going hatless in winter aggravates such disorders as the common cold and sinus trouble.

The hat industry made this unanimous opinion of the doctors publicly known through the various channels of communication. It received wide publicity because it was news. Consequently, there are now relatively few cases where a man goes hatless because he fears that, if he wears a hat, his head will eventually look like a bowling ball.

As a result of its two lines of public-relations activity –the one directed at the college campuses and the other directed at mankind at large–the hat industry sells more hats and feels much more contented about the industry's future.

Influencing styles

On a different page, attention was called to the fact that the public-relations worker, operating in cooperation with the motion-picture industry, is able to influence women's acceptance of styles and fashions. It is also true that men can be influenced by public-relations work.

When the men's clothing industry aspires to introduce low-swinging lapels in coats or spread-eagle effects in collars, or pyrotechnical displays in neckties, the public-relation's worker resorts to the same technique as he does when his problem is to influence women's styles. He sits down with the motion-picture companies and says, "This is what the well-dressed man soon will be wearing." In a matter of weeks, the well-dressed man appears on the screen wearing the style of clothing predicted by the public-relations worker. In a matter of days thereafter, provided that the country's retailers have been stocked with the new styles in advance, the man on the street is seen dressed in accordance with the new fashions.

Influencing taste

Sometime ago, the jewelry industry became apprehensive that it was facing a drop in sales because Adolph Menjou, fashion-plate of the cinematic world, declared through a magazine article that he did not care to wear jewelry. Although other men might wear it, he preferred to do without it, a statement which was a considerable blow to the jewelry trade, since he was considered to be the "best dressed man."

To meet this crisis, the jewelry industry got in touch with the motion-picture companies and asked them to take measures to offset the effect of Mr. Menjou's statement. As a result, the next time Mr. Menjou posed for a portrait in the public prints, he appeared bejeweled, complete with watch chain, stick pin, finger ring and, as an added touch, jewel-mounted cuff-links which were not even visible. After that, the man on the street, whose doubts had been raised as to whether he was socially right to wear a star sapphire for his adornment and personal satisfaction, did not hesitate to walk into his favorite jewelry store and open negotiations for purchasing it.

As in the case of entire industries, individual companies can use public-relations techniques to formulate public opinion, counteract trends, and start new trends. For individual companies, public-relations techniques, including the techniques of paid-for advertising, help establish and uphold corporate reputations. They help forestall imitators and infringers. Furthermore, they help to earn and hold public loyalty, an influence which, in times of emergencies, can be extremely valuable.

The case of McKesson & Robbins

Every corporation, as has been seen, has a multiplying roster of internal and external "publics." When trouble comes, the number and importance of these "publics" become a tangible matter. In 1938, F. Donald Coster, president of McKesson & Robbins, who was in reality the ex-convict Philip Musica, committed suicide, bringing to the attention of the public the rather complex affairs of one of the country's leading enterprises, a national wholesaling organization in the fields of drugs and drug sundries, and of wines and liquors.

Unfortunately for the company, routine citations of the Federal Food and Drug Administration for Technical violations of regulations pertaining to the production and labeling of drugs were extant against the firm at this time. This unconnected misfortune, plus the suicide of Musica, and the revilement of his past life, defalcations and other complications, added up to a powerful blow at McKesson & Robbins. It hit the company in the sensitive areas represented by good customer-relationship, by stockholder and director confidence, and by public faith which is so necessary to a firm in the drug business.

Following a voluntary petition in bankruptcy, all elements connected with McKesson & Robbins, and its geographically widespread and commercially intricate operations, were bewildered and distrustful. The name, which had been an asset of high integrity, became a liability linked with a puzzling scandal. A trustee was appointed and, within a fortnight, he selected a public-relations counsel to implement and articulate the reorganization. It was made clear that the public-relations counsel, William H. Baldwin, of Baldwin & Mermey, was operating on behalf of the trustee, William J. Wardell, the court-appointed administrator of the corporation.

Steps taken to save the company

The first moves of the trustee were to get control of all the company books, and to retain an accounting firm of high repute, S. D. Leidesdorf & Company, for a comprehensive audit. Following a thorough examination of the books, the trustee telegraphed key persons in the drug trade that McKesson & Robbins would stay in business.

To speed decisions, a representative of Winthrop, Stimson, Putnam & Roberts, the legal firm which was retained by the trustee, was put in an office next to that of the trustee, thus making him available for quick action. This made it possible to answer quickly and authoritatively questions from suppliers, retailers, and McKesson & Robbins' own top home office and regional staff, as well as from other interested people. The object was to prevent delay or indecision that would emphasize the feeling of lack of confidence in the firm, which these energetic measures were designed to dispel.

This decisiveness brought three encouraging factors into rapid play. First, leading pharmaceutical houses let the company know that they wanted McKesson & Robbins to continue its important part in the distribution of drug products. Second, the editor of Drug Topics, an influential trade journal, gave the trustee his moral and editorial support, a powerful factor among the nation's 60,000 retail druggists. Third, the company personnel, located in sixty-six regional offices, gave reassuring and sincere attestations of loyalty to the company, and a desire to continue with the reorganized outfit.

Part played by public-relations work

Analyzing the situation, the public-relations counsel went to work turning the high news value of the McKesson & Robbins' tragedy from a liability into an asset. A statement was obtained from the Food and Drug Administration clarifying the company's record of compliance with regulations. The plans of two Hollywood film producers to make feature movies based upon the Musica scandal were headed off.

In addition, the trustee cooperated fully with the local, state, and Federal officials who were concerned with the criminal implications bequeathed to the company by the suicide. With the aid of experts, accountants, and engineers, the trustee concentrated on doing a thorough job of evaluating the company's assets.

The company's usual advertising was continued. In addition to such advertising, which was chiefly devoted to products accepted for a long time by the trade and the public, a series of supplementary advertisements were run, headed "Facts About McKesson & Robbins." These advertisements were published in the newspapers of the sixty-six cities where the company had its offices, and proved to be particularly effective in restoring the confidence of the company's own personnel, as well as of retailers, officials, and the public.

Audits and analyses were prepared by experts, and these were incorporated into widely-distributed releases, showing that the company's assets and sales had not been materially impaired by the company's complicated activities which had been spotlighted by the sudden suicide of its president. Technical experts also prepared reports on the physical properties of the firm, which presented a reassuring picture to all concerned in the matter.

Legal complications, which would have involved lawsuits for negligence against trustworthy directors by arbitrarily linking them with the fraudulent machinations of the late Musica, were settled out of court to avoid potential litigation that would have cost not only money but public faith in the company. Following this settlement, essential to a real "laying of the ghost," reorganization steps were taken and completed. The open investigation of the company by the trustee, with frank publicity as to the results, thus brought about renewed faith without any disturbance to the company's relations with its customers and suppliers.

Summing up this object lesson in how public relations of the highest and most intensive order breathed life into what could have been a moribund corporation, the public-relations counsel in the case, William H. Baldwin, in an article in the Harvard Business Review, expressed himself as follows:

The reorganization of McKesson & Robbins was much more than a mere financial adjustment. It involved most spectacularly a complexity of other factors deserving more attention than they have often received in reorganization proceedings to assure a sound, going enterprise thereafter. Prominent in the McKesson & Robbins case was the defalcation by the president, the relationship of the business to public health, the morale of the men in charge and, finally, the maintenance of public and trade confidence during the reorganization. For such confidence was essential to continued operation of the business as a source of earnings upon which to base the new capital structure.

Meaning of public relations to a public-relations firm

The case of McKesson & Robbins provides an example of how a big job in public-relations work can be successfully handled. Success of this kind depends to a large extent on a proper conception of the public-relations field, such as that of Win Nathanson & Associates, Inc., of New York, a leading public-relations firm.

In a brochure aimed at potential clients and others interested in its work, this firm describes the basis of its .operations as "service to the client through service to the public." Going on further with its description, the firm says: "Public service, to us, is not lip service to a high-sounding ideal. Through practical accomplishment ,of benefit to the public, we secure for our clients increased prestige and public support, wider markets, and a stronger and sounder position in the community, the nation and the world."

Examples of public-relations fobs

Win Nathanson & Associates cites several examples of public-relations jobs which the firm has handled. It describes one job as follows: "A school education campaign was conducted for the Pan-American Coffee Bureau. The significance of this vital product in the United States economy and world trade was highlighted through public service techniques which furthered the idea of inter-American friendship and unity, and reached directly into the classrooms of the nation through essay contests, student guide books, and teacher's aid pamphlets, tying in with history, economics, commercial geography, botany, literature, and home economics."

Another public-relations job was in the field of health, on behalf of the American Heart Association. In connection with this job, the public-relations firm said: "The observance of National Heart Week in February has been used as a device to announce the program of the Association and to focus attention upon the problems of heart disease. In its continuing campaign, the Association is being aided in organizing additional local heart groups. Distribution of thousands of community plan books has stimulated interest in public health programs against heart disease."

The public-relations firm also cites its work with the Spool Cotton Company, for which it has been conducting a National Sewing Contest, through the National Needlecraft Bureau, for nine years. This contest, which has stimulated home sewing, has enjoyed the cooperation of department stores, newspapers, and women's organizations.

These examples of work in the field of public relations indicate that the application of sound techniques and the development of an understanding of public reaction are turning the practice of public relations into a responsible profession which is essential to all activities dealing with all publics. The public-relations expert is beginning to hold as an important place in the corporate and organizational field as that held by the psychiatrist and psychoanalyst in the field of individual psychology.

Public Relations
Activities for public relation
Budgets for public relations
Changing happenings into news
Community relationships
Consumer relationships
Costs for public relations
Effective areas of PR
Functions public relations
Government relationships
Labor relationships
Magazines public relations
Methods of communication
Newspaper public relations
Prestige achievements
Public field relations
Public utilities
Radio, TV and PR
Stockholder relationship
Techniques public relations