What is "the public"?

The fact was previously brought out that toward a business enterprise can adversely affect its relations with its stockholders, its employees, its "plant neighbors," and various other segments and groups of the public with whom the enterprise comes into contact. This raises the question as to what is "the public." The fact that the persons who comprise the public can be broken down into different groups seems to make it apparent that what generally is called "the public" is really a number of publics.

Characteristically, in free countries, such as the United States and Canada, few individuals "stay put" in classifications or categories. Rather casually, we speak of consumers. Offhand, we are likely to think of consumers as constituting a race apart. Yet, obviously, a consumer can also be a stockholder, as he frequently is. Likewise, a consumer can be a supplier. He can also be a "plant neighbor." He can be a professional man as, for example, a physician, and belong to a professional society. He can be a "government man," such as a legislator, an executive, or a member of the staff of a governmental bureau or agency.

The individual's different personalities

Since the foregoing classifications may sound like cold descriptions of chief interest to only a statistician, let us personalize this taken-for-granted multiplicity of the average citizen of the United States or Canada. The multiplicity of the people of these countries is greater than that of other people because these countries are richer, and their interests are consequently more diversified. Take, for instance, the case of William Smith, a typical citizen, and analyze his social anatomy. The reader may then put himself in Smith's place and see how many personalities he has of his own. Whether a person knows it or not, he is more than one person. The public-relations worker must always consider that fact, since his business, in the literal definition of the term, is to handle public relations, and public relations cannot be adequately handled unless one knows who the public is, or who the publics are. The different personalities of a typical member of the public, as exemplified by William Smith, may be listed as follows:

His different personalities

• Voter: local, state, federal.
• Taxpayer: local, state, federal.
• Employee: office or factory.
• Employer: supervises subordinates in office or factory; domestic help at home.
• Consumer: buys goods and services from stores, producers or other sources.
• Tenant: occupant of his home.
• Son.
• Husband.
• Father.
• Veteran of World War I or World War II: American Legion; other veterans associations.
• Churchgoer.
• Member of a labor union.
• Member of a Parent-Teacher Association.
• Landlord: sublets rented house or rents out house he owns.
• Country-dweller: owns or leases country home.
• Sportsman: fisherman, hunter, golfer, and so on.
• Alumnus: college; high school.
• Member of fraternal order: Mason, Elk, Odd-fellow, or other.
• Regional patriot: Bostonian, New Yorker, Texan, Californian, and so on.
• Member or descendent of a particular racial or national group: English, Scottish, Irish, French, and so on.
• Member of a religious body: Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, or other.
• Stockholder or bondholder: holds securities of a corporation, municipality, state or nation.
• Insured: protected by life, accident, fire and other insurance.
• Automobile owner.
• Reader of newspapers, periodicals and books.
• Indulger in entertainment: theatre, movies, television, radio, and so on.

A list, such as the foregoing, of the different personalities of an individual might be greatly extended. To the list could be added professional personalities, hobby personalities, and family personalities such as grandfather, uncle, or nephew. The list could also include the personalities into which people are molded because of physical ailments, such as the ailments suffered by the hard-of-hearing, by the men with weak eyes, by the rheumatic, the ulcerous, the cancerous, the limbless, the diabetic, and by the high blood-pressure cases, the obese, and the thin.

Individual's complexity poses a problem. In public relations, one must bear in mind that each important interest of an individual is not only a factor shaping that individual, but that it also forms a direct entrance to his head and heart. This simple fact is often forgotten, even by the most astute politicians. As a matter of fact, the over-slick, over-professional politicians and sales promoters frequently are so enchanted by the high-powered perfection of their "machines" and plans that they forget the complexity of the ultimate consumer. This was notably illustrated by the 1948 presidential campaign in the United States, and the generally unexpected outcome of the election.

Each of the twenty-six or more different personalities of an average person has its own individuality, its own interests and prejudices. Each responds in its own way to publicity efforts and sales appeals. To practice public relations on an intelligent basis, one must know what "makes, people tick." Furthermore, he must know that the tick of an American or Canadian is a sound produced by the different "movements" of the many personalities which compose each individual. Thus, the situation takes on complexity. With identities and with interests so diverse, the public-relations worker faces the problem of where to begin and where to leave off.

Certain public-relations "tools" were previously mentioned. These "tools" will be discussed in more detail later on, particularly as to how they are made and how they are used. First, however, the question of where to start employing these "tools" must be considered.

Need of research

Once the matter has been given thought, it can hardly be denied that the "general public" consists of several publics, even though the interests of these various publics may interlock and overlap. Consequently, from the standpoint of public relations, these publics may be regarded as separate entities, with each entity providing its own public-relations problems.

If, for example, a public-relations problem takes the form of an unfavorable or downright unfriendly attitude, the question arises as to precisely who feels unfriendly. Which of the several publics has been offended? How has it been offended and in connection with what? What do people say, think, or feel, and why? Questions like these must be answered before a problem can be solved. Furthermore, every problem must be isolated. Only in this way can a problem be dealt with directly and treated specifically. It thus becomes evident that the first step in solving a problem is research work.

Surveys and opinion polls

Despite their unsatisfactory functioning in the national election of 1948, surveys and opinion polls remain the only means by which the public-relations worker can determine people's thoughts, feelings, and beliefs about various matters. Nevertheless, surveys and opinion polls must be carefully planned, and carefully evaluated and interpreted. The errors in the election polls of 1948 did not arise from any fault in the principles that underlie the polls; those errors lay entirely in the poll analysts' conclusions. As a matter of fact, the analysts did not go too far wrong. Although they "elected" the wrong candidate for President, percentage-wise their margin of error was relatively small.

In any case, the principles remain undamaged. These principles the public-relations worker applies, either on a simple scale or an elaborate one, depending upon the scope of the problem, for the purpose of discovering and, if possible, of diagnosing specific sore spots.

Opinion-polling has come to be regarded as a speciality to be employed by specialists. This does not mean that a less experienced person cannot successfully size up opinion under certain circumstances. If he does it on a limited scale as, for example, among an enterprise's wholesalers, he can usually come up with an accurate appraisal by asking questions of a relatively small number of persons. When, however, it is desired to plumb the depths of the views of thousands of the buyers and users of a company's products, there arises the need of a highly developed procedure, requiring the employment of a staff of fifty or a hundred trained managers, supervisors and field workers. It is thus a task that can be accomplished adequately only by an organization which specializes in such work and knows the right questions to ask and to whom to address the questions.

In any event, whether the task of sizing up public opinion is on a small scale or large, the public-relations worker needs to know where opinion-polling techniques are to be applied and, once this has been determined, to direct or assign the application of these techniques. This involves answering the question as to what are the publics –after allowance is made for overlapping and interlocking identities and interests –which may be regarded as separate entities, to be approached separately and separately dealt with.

The consumer public

First of all there is the great consumer public which consists of all persons who buy and use the products produced by business concerns. These are the persons whose opinions of a company's products, as well as of the company itself, including its policies, directly influence the concern's competitive position in the market place and so directly influence its volume of sales.
Furthermore, in a democracy, such as the United States and Canada, these are also the persons who influence government. They vote. They influence legislation, including legislation that affects business operation. In addition, through their elected executives and through those executives' appointees in governmental agencies and bureaus, these are the persons who influence the application and enforcement of legislated restrictions, regulations and directives having to do with the carrying on of manufacturing and distributing in the field of business enterprise.

Business personnel

Another public with which the public-relations worker has to deal is comprised of business personnel. By business personnel is meant company executives, production workers, office employees, salesmen, service men; in fact, all persons in business organizations whose attitudes, feelings and beliefs can harm the business or help it. The discontented production worker spreads his discontent among other workers, with the result that production suffers.

The discontented executive or supervisor "takes it out" on his subordinates; therefore, morale goes down. The salesman with a gripe complains to his customers and, in consequence, sales fall off in his territory. A correspondent in the adjustment department of a company nurses a grudge against the management and "lets off steam" by writing an ill-mannered letter to a buyer in Spokane. This results in making the buyer an enemy of the company for life.

"Plant neighbors"

Still another public consists of "plant neighbors" to whom reference has previously been made. This public is comprised of the people of the communities in which industrial plants are situated. In the case of this particular public, a company can win friends or make enemies, by influencing people, favorably or unfavorably, in two ways: (1) by its relations with them directly; and (2) by its relations with them indirectly through its employees.

If a company fogs the air with smoke and fumes, it incurs these people's dislike. If it treats its employees unfairly, or seems to do so, it builds in the minds of the community's people the conviction that the company is hard, stiff-necked and selfish.

The trade

A fourth public may be termed "the trade public." This public consists of the "middlemen" through whom goods are sold. They are the wholesalers and their salesmen, and the retailers and their salesmen. They are the men and women who, if they like a manufacturing concern can cause its goods to move, and who, if they dislike the concern, can cause its goods to gather dust in warehouses and on store-room shelves.

For example, a person may go into a retail store to shop for a certain type of article. He describes in general terms what he wants. The sales-person shows him an article that nearly meets his specifications, but not quite. The shopper shakes his head. The sales-person then shows him a somewhat different type, but again he shakes his head. Finally, out from a drawer where it had lain unseen, comes exactly what the shopper wants.

Why was it that the hidden article was not shown to the shopper in the first place? Research by the manufacturer of the article might disclose a number of reasons over which the manufacturer could exercise no control at all. It might reveal, however, that the salesperson bore toward the manufacturer or, which is just as serious, lacked confidence in the product and even in the manufacturer himself.

Suppliers of materials

A fifth public is comprised of those persons who keep an enterprise alive by supplying it with raw materials, with equipment, with fuels and lubricants, with office supplies, and sometimes with finished products. There are several reasons why it is important for an enterprise to have the good-will, friendship and cooperation of its suppliers.

In the first place, suppliers provide an enterprise with its nutriment. They are the soil upon which its business feeds. Upon them, in large measure, the concern must depend for both the quantity and the quality of its products. In the second place, an enterprise must depend upon its suppliers for credit. Without adequate and flexible credit, no concern, particularly if it is of no more than average size, can operate at its full effectiveness, and take full advantage of such factors as market trends. In the third place, an enterprise must depend upon its suppliers for prompt delivery of its requirements. Unless these requirements are promptly met, the concern will suffer from costly delays in fulfilling its own commitments to its own customers. In wartime and in periods of scarcity, those concerns which have achieved good relations with their suppliers are particularly at an advantage since they are likely to be given priority in obtaining the available supplies.

Security holders

A sixth public is comprised of security holders. This public may be considered to include not only the individual holders of stocks and bonds, but also financial establishments, such as banks, investment houses and insurance companies, which either hold securities in their portfolios as investments, or serve as distributors in the sale of securities to investors in general.

A company needs to give particular attention to its relations with its stockholders. Its stockholders own the business. Although many stockholders are not personally engaged in operating the business, they are, in the last analysis, the company's top bosses. Through their elected directors, they run the business. They establish policies. They approve or disapprove projected undertakings.

Suppose that a company envisions an expanded program and that, in order to carry out this program it needs a budget, not of $50,000, but of $100,000. Who approves or disapproves the increase? Ostensibly, this is done by the directors. Upon what considerations, however, do the directors base their decision? It is based partly upon a study of the job to be done, with consideration given to the need for it and to the means of obtaining the money to meet the cost. Mainly, however, the directors rely upon the judgment of the men who bring the proposal forward, namely the men who constitute the management.

But back of it all, the directors keep in mind the fact that ultimately their decision will be reviewed, even though at a distance in many cases, by all the stockholders. Consequently, the directors give primary consideration to the question of how wise, prudent and sound the management has proved itself in the past. Will that record make the stockholders feel that, even if performance on the project should fall a little short of expectations, the directors' "go-ahead" decision was right?

Since security holders may be regarded as a public having a distinct identity, a management is wise to carry out a public-relations program which is particularly adapted to such a public. One of the best means by which a management can promote good relations with its stockholders is to do a good managerial job and see that its stockholders are kept aware of this fact.

Improvement in management-stockholder relations

"Minority" groups of stockholders of large companies have now and then made news for the business sections of newspapers by asking questions about the companies which the top managements seemed reluctant to have aired in public. Similarly, the women stockholders, who claim that they own the majority of stocks and bonds of American and Canadian companies, have complained at times of lack of consideration on the part of corporations. As a means of improving relations with these groups of stockholders, several firms have responded to these organized protests by electing women as directors, and by treating "minority" groups with greater consideration when they have taken it upon themselves to air their views.

If a sound public-relations policy had been in effect, steps would have been taken beforehand to prevent these situations from arising. Public relations, however, like medicine, is seldom practiced until some trouble develops which demands attention.

The fact should not be overlooked, however, that the development of trouble, such as is illustrated by the two foregoing instances, is doing a good public-relations job in forcing corporations to recognize the importance of the individual stockholder, male or female. The old annual stockholders' meeting, held in some inaccessible town, or in a hush-hush atmosphere, is yielding to the modern, democratic idea of making these meetings a form of "get-togethers," where the management makes frank reports to the stockholders, and the stockholders are invited to express their views. Such a policy serves to create "boosters" of company products from the ranks of the stockholders. This is a step forward of great potential importance to the national economy of both the United States and Canada, and the retention of the democratic way of life.

The "financial community"

Good relations with a seventh public, the outside "financial community" are always important to an enterprise. Internal good relations are a prerequisite for this. Business must look ahead. It must always keep in mind the probability that, sometime or other, it will need new financing; for instance, it may require new funds for expansion. The enterprise which makes itself favorably known to the "financial community," namely, the banks, investment houses, and insurance companies, improves its position to market new securities at the most favorable rates available at the time it needs new funds. Internal squabbles weaken the investment desirability of a company, no matter how high the earnings, or how sound the management.

Professional groups

Professional groups comprise still another public; in fact, they comprise several publics. Take, for example, a concern which manufactures cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. Its cosmetics are marketed through the trade, through wholesale houses and retail stores, but its pharmaceuticals, which the industry calls "ethicals" are dispensed only on the prescriptions of physicians. Physicians, therefore, constitute a separate public, and it is vitally important to the pharmaceutical company to maintain the physicians' confidence in its "honor and integrity."

As another example of the professional-group public, take an industrial concern which not only makes ready-to-install production machinery but also builds industrial equipment to special order. This concern sells its ready-made line either through distributors or directly to users. Its custom-built line, however, the company designs and constructs to specifications. Consequently, this concern must recognize and cultivate one of the publics which comprise the general professional-group public—in this instance, chemical or mechanical engineers.

Disseminators of information. Another public, which it is particularly important for public-relations workers to recognize, is comprised of the men and women who control, or are engaged in, the dissemination of information. As has been previously emphasized, the public-relations job consists, in large measure, of "telling the story." The story cannot be told and the facts cannot be made known, however, unless the channels through which information is disseminated are kept open. It is essential to keep these channels from being even partially blocked by the skepticism, the disbelief or the downright dislike of editors, reporters, columnists, editorial writers and commentators.

The public-relations worker needs to win these people as friends of the business. In order to do this, however, he must have the help of the business enterprise which he represents. This help will be forthcoming only if the enterprise earns the confidence of these people and with their confidence their mutual cooperation. The good-will of these people is virtually priceless, while their can do incalculable harm.

Government people

One more important public to consider is composed of the people who represent the government, particularly the legislative and executive branches. By "government" is meant the Federal, state and local governments in the United States, and the Dominion, provincial and local governments in Canada. In this public, the processes of democracy may be seen at work. In a democracy, government officials reflect the opinions, ideas, wishes and aspirations of the people.

This means that when a legislative or executive governmental official is faced with a question or an issue concerning a business enterprise, that official's attitude toward that enterprise will prove to be largely a reflection of the attitude of the people back home. Does the enterprise come before him, or his legislative committee or executive agency, with clean hands? Is the enterprise regarded as honest, honorable and upright? Has its public record been good? In short, is the enterprise in good standing with the people? Rightly or wrongly, in a democracy, the answers to such questions as these have a marked influence on the government's attitude toward the issue immediately at hand.

Lobbying, however, is a factor in the situation. Lobbying is definitely an art, but whether it is an art which should be condoned or frowned upon is no concern of this Text. Nevertheless, if the art consists of "pulling strings" and, regardless of the merits of an issue, of playing politics to influence legislative or executive action, then the art belongs beyond the scope of public relations. If, however, lobbying is a matter of "telling the story" to government officials, then lobbying may be properly considered a specialized job in public relations.

Presenting a business concern's case to governmental officials, and presenting it truthfully, fully and convincingly, is often an assignment which the public-relations worker shares with the company's legal counsel. In fact, to an ever-increasing degree, legal counsel is welcoming the public-relations worker's specialized collaboration.

The foregoing discussion has covered all the important publics with which a fairly typical public-relations program must concern itself, and with which it must devise ways to deal. In other pages, methods will be examined for reaching these various publics, or "fronts" as they are called in the practice of public relations. Particular attention will be given to the consumer "front" and to how the public-relations worker deals with consumers not only in their role of buyers and uses of products, but also as organized segments of society.

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