Source: http://prsa.org/supportfiles/news/viewNews.cfm?pNewsID=842347662
On Oct. 23, the City College of New York hosted “The Living Room Experience” with Harold Burson, APR, Fellow PRSA, founding chairman of Burson-Marsteller. The 87-year-old PR veteran spoke with moderator and professor Alicia Evans and a crowd of about 60 PR students and professionals.
In a wood-paneled room with stained glass windows, surrounded by pillows, cushions, rugs and plants, Evans and members of the audience asked Burson, the architect of the largest PR agency in the world, about how he got his start, changes he has seen in the profession through the years and tips for future and current PR professionals.
Defining public relationsBurson began by stating that public relations has been around since people first started interacting with each other. He referenced early PR practitioners like Ivy Lee and Edward L. Bernays, while encapsulating the history of profession. Burson cited Bernays as the person who first established the methodology of public relations, which he says is very much still the methodology of today.
He agrees with Bernays’ original definition of public relations as the function, which analyzes public opinion and helps determine a policy or actions that will agree with the public interest. He added, “after you set your course of behavior and actions that way, then you start communicating… and public relations really has two parts: behavior and communication. I subscribe very much to his definition, but what I have been objecting to the last 20 years is how the word communications has taken over as a descriptor for public relations and I think it really demeans what we do.”
An early startBurson began working at The Memphis Commercial Appeal, a daily newspaper, when he was 13 years old. He received on-the-spot editing and advice from his editor, which he said was the best training he’s ever had. After graduating from high school at age 15, Burson went to college at Ole Miss and became a stringer for the Memphis paper, making 14 cents per column inch.
Around 1940, he started working and “realized it is better to be part of management rather than to be the people who do all the work,” he said. Burson met the owner of a construction company who asked him to take a leave of absence and handle media relations for him. Six months later he was in New York doing publicity for the company. Burson decided he wanted to learn the business and traveled with him for three years, which he referred to as his “business school education.” So, by age 25, he was already working with the business press and the trade press in publicity and started on his own firm in August of 1946 with two clients. Soon after, he teamed up with Bill Marsteller, who was known for his advertising tactics, founding the Burson-Marsteller agency.
The agency goes internationalA defining moment for Burson-Marsteller came in 1959 when Burson read a New York Times article stating that a treaty had been agreed upon by six European nations that would start a common market. Shortly thereafter, two of his largest clients announced that they were opening manufacturing operations in Europe. Since Burson was always interested in foreign relations, he decided to expand into Europe. The agency opened its first office in Geneva in 1960 and opened its second office in Berlin in 1965.
“From 1960 to 1990, Burson-Marsteller and Hill & Knowlton — the largest firm overseas at the time — were the only two local PR firms,” he said. “It was a great market for us. International business was more profitable than domestic business and for thirty years, Burson-Marsteller and Hill & Knowlton had the international business to ourselves.”
After Burson briefly discussed his foray into the PR profession, he fielded questions from Evans and the audience. Among the topics covered:
What is the common thread in public relations in all countries?
“I’ve always had trouble with international public relations, I don’t think there is any such thing. Public relations is country by country by country so basically its being able to coordinate and… deliver the same message in all these different countries, taking into account the differences in culture and the way that they do business.”
What keeps you enthused?
“I like the people and getting involved in [solving] different problems. I like young people and I like going into the office each day. I have three ongoing client interests (now four) that I continue to putter around with… Merrill Lynch, Coca-Cola and recently AIG and I still do some institutional and ceremonial appearances.”
What in this business is always consistently true?
“The basics of the business have been constant since the beginning and will be constant until the end of time and that is that you can’t make promises and not deliver on them — and that if you are going to make a claim, you’ve got to deliver on that claim. Also I feel that every action that is not in the interest of the people and does not meet public expectations may be successful in the short term, but it will never be successful in the long term. I believe that truth, transparency, and payoffs… I think if you have problems, no matter how serious or difficult, try to make it and get by — make a one day story out of it if you can. I think our successes depend on our serving the public with truthfulness.”
“Looking ahead, there will be a very tough job market. Particularly in the field of communications, there are more college graduates coming out of school than there are jobs — you need to know that you’re going to have a lot of competition when you get out there.”
Burson also offered three important things young people and professionals should be doing right now:
1. Build A Network. There is nothing that will serve you more in life, no matter how old you grow up to be, than being networked with people. Being networked is not only just knowing somebody — but you’ve got to work to keep in contact with those people. And the trick is you want to try to network with the winners, and not the losers.- We did a survey in our New York office on how people got to Burson-Marsteller and for 40 percent of them, it was by knowing somebody who knew somebody — sometimes three or four remote. But with these networks — you know, if you get into trouble or need some information, you’ve got somebody you can call on. I urge you to keep up with people who you think are going to be important in your life and to start now.
2. Spend as much time as you possibly can trying to be a good writer. If you are a good writer, then you are going to be a special person in any organization that you have anything to do with. If somebody comes into our organization and it becomes known that they can write well, that person becomes 110 percent billable almost over night. There are so few people who are coming out of school today who are really good writers. Writing is really getting to be a dying art and the computers and text messaging is not helping it at all.
3. Try to develop a body of knowledge about a lot of different things. Whenever anything comes up, at least you can talk for two minutes about it and make people think you are smart. You have to be able to speak knowledgeably for the first few minutes and the only way I know how to do that is to do as much reading as you possibly can — newspapers, magazines, books, talk shows on television and things like that. My father had an expression — he said that you should “always be in the know.”
Amy Jacques is the associate editor of Tactics and The Strategist Online. E-mail: amy.jacques@prsa.org.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment