Its Uses for Industry

NO major industry," said Adman Bruce Barton 19 years ago, "has the moral right to allow" itself to be unexplained, misunderstood or publicly distrusted, for by its unpopularity it poisons the pond in which we all must fish." As U.S. industry has outgrown the proprietor-owned and operated companies of old, and as organized labor has gained in strength, more and more corporations have recognized the need for being understood by their employees, stockholders and the public at large. Yet the sad fact is that industry has lost ground in its public-relations campaign.

Six years ago, Elmo Roper conducted a survey to find out which groups were thought to be doing the most good for the nation-religious, business, governmental, congressional or labor. Business garnered 20% of the votes, second only to the religious category (34%). But when Roper ran the same survey last year, business slumped from 20% to 10%, while the religious groups rose to 40% and Government jumped from 11% to 18%. On the question of who was doing the least for the country, business, which got only 6% of the votes in 1948, got 9% in 1953.

One trouble is that industry frequently waits until it is in trouble before worrying about its reputation. Said Public Relations Man Earl Newsom, who numbers Ford, Jersey Standard and American Locomotive among his clients: "Businessmen are so preoccupied with the notion of making and selling things that they often fail to recognize developing public-relations problems until it is too late."

The tobacco companies, for instance, have long known that studies on the connection between cigarettes and cancer were being made. But they waited until the results were publicized and sales started to fall before getting together to make their own tests. The steel companies are another example. Every boost in the price of steel since the war has been followed by a hue & cry, even though the price has risen only 86% since 1939, compared with a 120% rise in all commodities in the same time. But the steel industry did little to take its case to the public.

Many companies also fail to realize the difference between pressagentry and public relations. Pressagentry is usually a one-shot attempt to get a story in the papers. Public relations is a long and continuing campaign, aimed at molding public opinion on a broad basis for the benefit of a corporation.

Many years back, for example, when Manhattan's Carl Byoir took over the Libbey-Owens-Ford plate-glass account, he got architects to plug for more glass in houses, had a book written on glass, encouraged automen to stress the safety features of more visibility (and more glass). By increasing the overall use of glass, Byoir helped boost sales of his client.

Many of the companies that realize the value of public relations still regard the job as a mere offshoot of advertising or a task for a gladhander. They appoint incompetents (of which the field is full), and assign them a spot so far down on the table of organization that they often have no knowledge of what the company is planning-or why. Such public-relations-minded companies as Ford, G.M. and Lockheed long ago learned that their top public-relations men must sit in on policymaking decisions to keep the public informed.

Many a corporation has grown so big that unless a broad effort is made to "humanize" it through the officers, the public will see it as only an impersonal conglomeration of plants. Giant Du Pont is one of those that has realized the need for a more personal approach, has made President Crawford Greenewalt its public face and spokesman. On the other hand, there are many corporate executives who still feel that when they have issued a handout to the press, they have done their duty. They make no attempt to make themselves available in press conferences, thus are often misunderstood or misrepresented by politicos or labor leaders.

For a good company, there is no mystery in good public relations. The secret is simply to tell all it can about itself. One of the first to realize this was American Telephone & Telegraph, which staffs its public-relations department with ex-newspapermen and experienced company hands. Five of A.T. & T.'s subsidiary Bell presidents once headed its public-relations program. A.T. & T. capitalizes on its own greatest asset. Instead of answering stockholders' complaints or other communications by letter, it calls them up.

In a broader sense, Inland Steel Co.'s Board Chairman Clarence Randall summed up the public-relations job still to be done: "Every American businessman must have his own thoughtful, personal philosophy ... if we are to be restored as leaders. We must communicate those ideas to those about us on every conceivable occasion, by every medium at our disposal."

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