Winning Reputations: How to be Your Own Spin Doctor

207 Pages·2002·0.726 MB·English

by  Chris Genasi (auth.)

Winning Reputations
How to be your own Spin Doctor
Chris Genasi
Winning Reputations
Also by Chris Genasi:
Corporate Community Investment, How to Make your Business
Profitably Popular
WINNING
REPUTATIONS
HOW TO BE YOUR OWN SPIN DOCTOR
by
Chris Genasi
© Chris Genasi 2002
Reprint of the original edition 2002
All rights reserved.No reproduction,copy or transmission of
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The author has asserted his right to be identified as the
author of this work in accordance with the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2002 by
PALGRAVE
Houndmills,Basingstoke,Hampshire RG21 6XS and
175 Fifth Avenue,New York,N.Y.10010
Companies and representatives throughout the world
PALGRAVE is the new global academic imprint of
St.Martin’s Press LLC Scholarly and Reference Division and
Palgrave Publishers Ltd (formerly Macmillan Press Ltd).
ISBN 978-0-333-96365-4 ISBN 978-1-4039-3753-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781403937537
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and
made from fully managed and sustained forest sources.
A catalogue record for this book is available
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
has been applied for
Editing and origination by
Aardvark Editorial,Mendham,Suffolk
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To Jill
Contents
List of figures ix
List of tables x
Foreword xi
Acknowledgements xiii
Chapter 1 A good reputation is worth fighting for 1
Rocket-fuelled reputation drivers 3
The rights and responsibilities of reputation builders 7
Chapter 2 Mastering your reputation:the first small steps 19
Chapter 3 Reputation as the new religion:the powers behind
the movement 29
Beginning the journey to a winning reputation 29
Whose reputation is it anyway? 31
Chapter 4 Your reputation architecture:a blueprint for
a winning reputation 51
Engineering a healthy PR genome 52
Five key stages of the reputation architecture blueprint 53
Stage 1:surveying the terrain 54
Stage 2:sketching the finished building 56
Stage 3:safe foundations 69
Stage 4:structural strength 76
Stage 5:ongoing maintenance 83
Chapter 5 You are your PR:living out your reputation 86
Becoming a micro celebrity 89
Working out your key messages 90
Assembling a message delivery kit for a winning reputation 96
A personal winning reputation plan you can stick to 100
Chapter 6 Reputation as performance art 104
Working backwards to reputation 105
Sound bites – speaking in headlines 105
Reach out when you speak out 106
Top props 108
vii
Contents
viii
Surprise others by surprising yourself 110
The grand gesture 111
Symbols 112
Chapter 7 What the reputation consultants say … and
don’t say 113
Getting best value from PR consultants 116
When to turn within and when to turn without 118
Extracting the most from your dream consultant 120
The consultants’advice on consultants 122
What makes a great PR guru? 125
Chapter 8 The new e-economy:what it means for those
building a winning reputation 128
Internet-nots 130
Media meltdown 132
Your online information service 134
Making the trip worthwhile 137
Sales/lead generation 138
Internal communications 138
Opinion former/stakeholder communications 139
Content,content,content 139
Visual connections 140
Online issues and crisis management 141
Chat room etiquette 145
The dark side of the boom 146
The new frontier with the old rules – getting started 146
Chapter 9 Spreading your gospel:how to turn your
employees into your biggest fans 148
Three steps to turning your employees into evangelists 150
The symbiotic relationship between PR and HR 151
Creating an employee communications campaign 153
Workers of the world unite … into market segments 155
Blurred visions and missions 155
Putting on a show for the troops 157
Chapter 10 Winning reputation case studies:learning from
the best 160
Recommended further reading 192
Index 193
List of figures
3.1 Converging stakeholder interests 33
3.2 Consumers becoming corporate – results of research in France 40
3.3 Consumers becoming corporate – results of research in Germany 41
3.4 Consumers becoming corporate – results of research in Australia 42
3.5 Consumers becoming corporate – results of research in Singapore 43
3.6 Consumers becoming corporate – results of research in the USA 44
4.1 The PR genome 53
4.2 Attributes and drivers of reputation 60
4.3 The reputation ladder 68
4.4 Joined up reputation flow 77
4.5 The audience/activity checker 78
4.6 Joined up PR 79
5.1 Message mapping:master messages and trident messages 92
5.2 Message mapping:master messages,trident messages and killer facts 93
5.3 Message mapping flow chart 95
ix
List of tables
3.1 Who matters to your business? 37
3.2 How stakeholders are converging 45
4.1 Five stages of the reputation architecture blueprint 54
4.2 Fortune,the Financial TimesandManagement Todaycorporate
reputation criteria 58
4.3 Reputation scorecard – example 61
4.4 Criteria for judging companies 62
4.5 Reputation scorecard with stretch goals 63
4.6 Typical PR work plan 80
4.7 The five stages of the reputation architecture blueprint 85
5.1 PR action plan for Mytown 102
7.1 The consultants’view:what makes a good client? 123
7.2 What makes a great PR guru? 126
x