MKTG 123 CH 4: Public Opinion

loss of public opinion can result in

loss of prestige, business, and reputation

PR firms bill themselves as

experts in reputation management

The best public relations campaign in the world can’t build

trust when reality is destroying it.

if your product doesn’t worj, if your service stinks, if you are a liar, if the people you depend on are

committing secret unspeakable acts, then no amount of “public relations” will change that.

You must change the “action” before

credibility or trust can be built.

The heart of PR work lies in

attempting to affect the public opinion process.

Public

signifies a group of people who share a common interest in a specific subject.

Opinion

is the expression of an attitude on a particular topic.

When opinions become strong enough

they lead to verbal or behavioral actions

when attitudes become strong enough

they surface in the form of opinions

Public opinion is

the aggregate of many individual opinions on a particular issue that affects a group of people.

Research indicates that attitudes may more likely be

evaluations people make about specific problems or issues.

Attitudes are based on a number of characteristics

1. personal

2. cultural

3. educational

4. familial

5. religious

6. social class

7. minority status

attitudes are

positive, negative, or nonexistent.

cognitive dissonance theory

individuals tend to avoid information that is dissonant or opposed to their own points of view and tend to seek out information that is consonant with, or in support of their own attitudes

social judgement theory

people may have a range of opinions on a certain subject, anchored by a clear attitude.

Maslows hierarchy of needs

1. physiological needs
2. safety needs
3. love needs
4. esteem
5. self-actualization

elaboration likelihood model

1. when we are interested and focused on a message to take a direct “central route” to decision making

2. when we are not particularly engaged on a message and need to take a more “peripheral” route.

Best way to motivate interested people is with

arguments that are strong, logical, and personally relevant.

Best way to motivate people who are less interested might be through

putting them in a better mood or demonstrating through speech or clothes or mannerism, that you are very much “like” them.

Power of Persuasion

• persuading is the goal of most public relations programs

• getting someone to do something through advice, reasoning or arm-twisting

Classic Persuasion Theory

People may be of two minds in order to be persuaded to believe in a particular position or action

(systematic or heuristic)

Systematic mode

referring to a person who has carefully considered an argument — actively, creatively, and alertly

Heuristic mode

referring to a person who is skimming the surface and not really focusing on the intricacies of a particular position to catch flaws, inconsistencies, or errors.

What kind of evidence will persuade?

1. facts

2. emotions

3. personalizing

4. appealing to “you”

Laws of Public Opinion

1. opinion if highly sensitive to important events
2. opinion is determined more than events by words
3. at critical times, people are more sensitive to the adequacy of their leadership
4. once self-interest is involved, opinions are slow to change
5. people are able to form opinions more easily on goals than on methods to reach those goals
6. if people in a democracy are provided w educational opportunities and ready to access info, public opinion reveals a hardheaded common sense

Reputation is gained by what one does not by

what one says.

Reputation management

protecting clients from damage in the court of public opinion