Communicators are more frequently testing the role of community relations - which has historically taken a back seat to high-profile PR such as media and investor relations - as not only an image booster but as the core of corporate PR. And they're allocating some pretty beefy budgets for this kind of outreach.
"Community relations leads the pack [when compared to other PR specialties]," says Dorothy Dowling, VP of marketing for Travelodge. "We're spending over $250,000 a year, and this has become a marketing focus for us."
For Travelodge, community relations has emerged as more than just a building block. It has become the foundation of its business strategies, a chance to humanize the company and its 524 properties nationwide.
Through CR, Travelodge has revived its 43-year-old mascot Sleepy Bear with a list of strategic partnerships. Among them, this sure PR bet: sick or injured children who are flown via helicopter to hospitals in Ontario, Canada, are given bears donated by Travelodge. That stands as a PR impact that's hard to measure, but whose humanitarian value is mammoth.
And Travelodge is not alone in CR that works.
"Ten years ago, maybe 10 percent of our 30 clients were concerned about community relations," says Scott Allison, senior VP and principal of The Gable Group, a marcom firm headquartered in San Diego that's expected to bring in $2.7 million in billings in 1998. "Now about 80 percent of our 50 clients are interested in some sort of cause-related marketing or community-based PR."
What makes CR an attractive prospect for those in PR is the many colors it can take on. The key is finding unique CR efforts that don't come across as communications subterfuge. Consider what PR and marketing boutique, The Olguin Co., San Diego, has overseen that typifies this kind of communication.
Olguin has handled PR for International School Licensing Corp., Los Angeles. ISLC bases its entire business approach on the impact of community relations. In the fall, it partnered with the Confederation of Oregon School Administrators and the Oregon School Boards Association to implement a licensing program that provides funds for band, sports and drama programs. When consumers buy items or services affiliated with the "Officially Licensed School Programs" symbol, money goes back to the schools.
CR As A PR Leader
It may be hard to think of CR as a bellwether of PR, but it's nabbing a spot in the hierarchy. A survey released last year by Thomas L. Harris & Co. and Impulse Research ranked community relations as No. 12 (out of 24) in the kind of PR work that's handled in-house by companies as well as divvied out to third parties. CR surpassed other PR genres, including issues management; online communications; public affairs; business-to-business marketing; and labor relations. Nos. 1 and 2 were media relations and internal communications, respectively.
Sources say community relations has moved to the forefront of corporate PR efforts today because of these contributors:
- Market research that extends beyond demographic information to determine lifestyle issues that affect consumers;
- The convergence of PR and marketing;
- The push to plug the kinder and gentler side of corporate America;
- The willingness of companies to invest in business moves when the payoff may not be apparent until months (or years) down the road; and
- An increase in CR staffs and funding.
CR As the Good PR Neighbor
But before you launch - or buff up - your CR approach, it's wise to allow for employee feedback (through surveys or advisory committees), and to undertake annual evaluations of your overall CR philosophies, according to the Boston College Center for Corporate Community Relations, an organization that researches the growing trend of corporations as Good Samaritans.
More than three-fourths of communications professionals today have full-time CR responsibilities, according to the center. However, in 1987, CR was designated as a part-time profession and only 9 percent of pros handled full-time CR undertakings.
Michael Olguin, president of Olgiun, thinks that part of what's driving the CR trend is that there is a groundswell of information that companies can access about consumers. "There's so much you can find out about a target market that it's becoming more important to market to the individual and to the community he or she is a part of," he adds.
Personalizing PR has been an approach that media relations execs have traditionally used to make inroads into news rooms. And now community relations is hinging on the same kind of immersion. "This is a tool that allows you to cut through the clutter and establish brand equity," agrees Allison.
But both Allison and Olguin caution that some elements should be inherent with any community relations project you take on: make sure you align yourself with legitimate non-profits and be certain that once you make a commitment, you don't short-shrift it. (Boston College Center for Corp. CR, 617/552-4545; Gable, 619/234-1300; Olguin Co., 619/234-0360; Travelodge, 973/560-8913)