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WHAT PUBLIC RELATIONS CAN AND CANNOT DO Skeptical hospitality executives may ask: "Why should I be interested in PR?" In other words, "What's in it for me?"
One objective of any public-relations program should be to determine what your establishment is, how good it is, and what distinguishes it from the pack in terms of your customers' needs, and then communicate it so that the public perceives it properly. This is called "positioning." Obtaining the answers to these questions and getting this information to the proper publics will help you avoid falling into the trap best described in the following: If you don't know where you're going, any road will do.
Other equally important objectives that should be considered in developing any PR program include improving sales, lifting profits, letting the community know more about the hotel or restaurant, indicating the advantages it offers guests or patrons as compared with its competitors, and building a good relationship with the media. Chapter 5 describes how to achieve the latter.
Properly planned, a public-relations program can call widespread attention to the achievements of the hotel or restaurant represented or the benefits of using the product or idea being promoted.
Denver's independent Brown Palace Hotel, for example, celebrated 100 years of continuous operation with a year-long public-relations program. Entitled "100 Years of Memories," the carefully planned campaign kicked off with a news conference on the hotel's 99th anniversary. During the next 12 months, the Brown Palace offered many programs to highlight its centennial celebration. These events included historic tours of the hotel twice a week and displays of antique artifacts including old china, menus, guest registers, and other memorabilia, some of it from the hotel's collection and some donated by former guests. The hotel's restaurants promoted a number
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of menu items from the past, offering recipes to guests. New ones were also created in honor of the lOath anniversary.
During the anniversary year numerous special room packages were developed for guests. A commemorative edition of "The Brown Palace Story," a history of the hotel, was also published. Price of admission to a "birthday" party open to the public was a toy donated to a local children's home. Another party was held for present and former employees. "The 'lOa Years of Memories' was a tremendous success for the Brown Palace. It made more people aware of the hotel through media stories or visits to the property, and increased revenue for the hotel during the year."?
As mentioned earlier, one way to define public relations is doing the right thing and getting credit for it. It is important to remember, therefore, that public relations cannot make a bad institution, product, or idea good. As public-relations pioneer John W. Hill puts it, "Public relations has no power to create any lasting value where none exists."
A business can prosper and grow only with the understanding and support of public opinion. To achieve this is one of the main objectives of public relations.
Thus management's attitudes, policies, and actions must merit public regard. The property also must be in good physi cal condition. Only then can you take advantage or the I1CXt step, getting credit for doing the right thing. This is HeCOlnplished via communications, which has been called Lhe WUI king tool of public relations. PR admittedly can't make II 1)ld ~llt:uation good. But it can make a good story bellcf IIHI II Ilad story not so bad.
Let's say a restaurant employee saves a YOllll1 pt'ISOII'1I lire: by performing the Heimlich maneuver (a 111(1IWl1Vt', IlIlI'd In dislodge food from the windpipe). Pn'vclltilll', t l u: Ilill! 1111111 choking on a bit of food makes a good StOlY. All :i1t:11 111.lII.li~I•1 should quickly provide the news media wit lage, address, job title, and employment history of the employee