The godfather of public relations on public relations

Read Edward Bornes’s The Crystallization of Public Opinion. Edward Bornes was one of the founders of the public relations industry. He was born in 1891 and died in 1995, living to the age of 104.

Bornes is a legend, psychologist Freud is his uncle, and Nazi propaganda minister Goebbels is his reader. During World War I, he was a public relations consultant of the American government. In pazos’s trilogy America, he was the prototype of one of the protagonists. His clients include four American presidents, the largest industrial and consumer goods companies in the United States, such as Ford, General Motors and Procter & Gamble, as well as Time magazine and The New York Times. It is estimated that the highest level of public relations can only be achieved.

The Crystallization of Public Opinion was published in 1923, and it has been 100 years since today. In the past 100 years, the media itself has undergone tremendous changes. For example, newspapers and magazines were still the most influential media at that time. Today, the main forms of media have become social media and short video platforms. However, many of Bornes’s expositions, read today, can actually echo the reality.

It can be seen that 100 years is long enough to make great changes in technology and media, but too short for human nature changes.

I. Three stages of public relations

Bornes divided the attitude of American companies towards public relations into three stages.

The first stage is "the age of public damn""In the attitude towards the public, American industry and commerce in the 19th century has regressed to be as dictatorial as the guild in the Middle Ages."

The phrase "the public should die" comes from the eldest son of Vanderbilt, one of the most famous billionaires in the gilded age. Vanderbilts got rich by monopolizing railways. It is said that when Vanderbilt wanted to adjust the train frequency between new york and the outside world, he was reminded that the railway, as an infrastructure, such adjustment would inevitably affect the public, so it was necessary to communicate with the public. Vanderbilt famously said, "Damn the public."(Later, some historians also verified that this sentence was not Vanderbilt’s original intention, but it has become one of the most famous words of that era. )

At this stage, large companies avoid the media and the public, thinking that they don’t need to care what they think or see.

The second stage is "the era that the public should know".

One of the important reasons for this stage is the famous dung scraping movement in the history of news. Some journalists have gained fame for writing about the negative aspects of big companies, the most famous of which is Ida Tabell who serialized the history of Rockefeller and Standard Oil Company in magazines. Tabell’s report basically turned Rockefeller from a self-made richest man into the most notorious and greedy person in the United States.(But interestingly, Tabell himself is not an anti-businessman, which is another story. )

At this stage: "commercial organizations realize that in addition to selling goods, they should also sell themselves to the public. Commercial organizations must explain their social contributions. "

Therefore, large companies have hired public relations consultants to provide their own news and explanations to various media. Including rich companies, also publish their own brochures and distribute them to interested people. Because big companies realize that public opinion is an equal playing field, since everyone is talking, they should try their best to speak out.

In his later years, Rockefeller also hired another public relations legend, ivy lee, as a public relations consultant for the Rockefeller family to help reverse the image of the Rockefeller family.

Bornes himself defined the third stage,At this stage, companies and institutions should take the initiative to guide public opinion through their own actions.

Bornes’s definition of public relations includes three levels: first, informing the public of information; Second, persuade to change public attitudes and behaviors; Third, the efforts to integrate the attitude and behavior between the organization and the public.

"Successful public relations is essentially a practice in which enterprises improve their social behavior through business and other activities, and then establish cooperative relations with the public … Successful public relations lies not only in how to say it, but also in how to make actions that can win public support, and let the public know these actions through publicity and education."

Action is the starting point for Bornes to handle public relations. He cited an example, when a well-known hotel in new york was rumoured to be closed. The way he gave to dispel the rumor was to give the public some positive information to make them believe that the hotel will continue to operate. At this time, the contract of the hotel supervisor happened to expire, so he asked the hotel and the supervisor to renew the contract for five years, and then advertised it. In doing so, although there is no positive response to the rumors of closing, everyone knows that the hotel will definitely continue to operate.

Second, psychology in public relations

Bornes was also the first person to combine social psychology with public relations. Many of his expositions on public relations are related to public psychology.

He said: "A public relations consultant must face the fact that a person knows almost nothing about a problem, but always forms a definite and active judgment on it."

Bornes cited three psychological concepts to explain this point.

The first concept is called"anti-logical isolation layer"It means that one’s point of view cannot be changed by logic, rational debate or obvious facts. "A person’s thoughts are often the biggest barrier between him and the facts."

The second concept is called"Cluster Hint"（herd-suggestions）. It means that the members of each group, after accumulated hints, have regarded their basic concepts as transcendental truths that need not be discussed. "Everyone finally feels that his point of view is impeccable and can’t find those fallacies that are obvious to his opponent."

The third concept was put forward by lippman."Stereotype". "Stereotype is the core survival principle of different groups in the public" and "to a great extent, it determines which facts we will see and from which angle we will look at them".

Based on this, Bornes said: "Public relations consultants must consider the public’s transcendental views and their established beliefs before proposing any steps to change public affairs", "Those forces that influence and change public opinion must successfully win the support of existing ideas if they want to produce the expected results" and "the shapers of public opinion must make good use of existing ideas".

Third, the common factors of appealing to humanity

It is precisely because "so many people hold such different views", each has his own ideas and disagrees with each other’s ideas. Therefore, in order to form public opinion, we must find "the most important common factor among all groups".

These most important common factors are the underlying concept of human nature, something that basically everyone will believe. China and China will call it "cultural matrix", while others will call it human nature.

The job of public relations should be to "extract some ideas based on human instinct from customers’ demands and then present them to the target public."

Bornes listed some human instinct and emotion that psychologists think.(Today’s psychologists have already elaborated more)：

A. escape-fear; Disgust-disgust; Curiosity-surprise; Aggressive-angry; Self-dazzle-joy; Shame-obedience; Parental love-compassion.

B. conformity; Individualism; Possession; Construction.

C. self-protection instinct.

How to enhance the reputation of a brand in the public mind? Based on this theory, the method should be: find out how to associate this brand with some specific concepts in the public mind. Of course, these concepts must be consistent with the image that the brand expects itself to be in the eyes of the public.

Bornes also emphasized the importance of symbols. He quoted lippman as saying: "human nature is vague and vacillating. If you want to remember them firmly, you have to use tangible symbols." I wonder if this is also one of the theoretical sources of "super symbols" between China and China.

This article comes from WeChat WeChat official account:Xiang Li, Xiang Li (ID: GH _ B19AAB226944), Author: Call me Ishmael