As humans we’re constantly trying to build a business, lead a happy life, and make enough cash to be comfortable. Every once in a while, our attempts don’t seem to work out that well and we start to make mistakes. Did you know that PR principles can help you boost your business ideals without spending tons of cash? As long as your plan is good enough for the people, it can spread excellent news and save the day.
What is good PR?
Good public relations are all about principles, and as long as you follow the rules things will go your way. A food PR plan must be properly laid out for your company; it’s like a process that interacts with the people, keeps them interested, and most importantly, offers them reasons to buy your products or services. Whether we’re talking about small business or massive corporations, good PR shouldn’t involve practices that lead to a scandal. The goal is to emphasize on your business’s good reputations in the marketplace.
A perfect example would be the very recent concerns regarding hygiene and safety, and playing areas found in certain US restaurants. McDonald’s Playlands was originally intended to offer kids entertainment and enable the parents to enjoy their meals in peace. However, some parents saw this as a terrific opportunity to sue the restaurant when they noticed that their children are continuously trying to jump from the slide and injure themselves. None of the kids knew how to land correctly and the slides immediately became a danger.
Something that was meant to be fun turned into a real nightmare for the McDonald’s PR department who had to come up with a solution to the problem. Personally, I don’t quite agree because responsible parents shouldn’t allow their 3-year old toddlers to play in such areas. My kids are 5 and 6 years old, and I like to believe they’re capable of making a difference between safe and dangerous places.
How can good PR save the day?
Over the years there were several disappointing PR programs that led to complications that no one could have anticipated. For example, to help the PR department, McDonald’s employees introduced a new concept named the Trust Bank. Everyone that worked in the company had to make all sorts of “deposits” to show their generosity, help the community, and aid less fortunate people. The corporation slowly gained people’s trust, so during the playlands scandal everyone expected McDonald’s to do the right thing.
McDonald’s came across a plethora of similar problems in the past too. During their first glass promotion, it was discovered that the manufacturer left a very small quantity of lead in the paint from the glass. Although the amount was not dangerous for the health, McDonald’s acted fast and immediately withdrew all glasses from the market to prevent its promotion from being considered dangerous. You might consider that’s good food PR and it is, but deep down McDonald’s was only looking after its best interests. Can you imagine what would have happened if they didn’t withdraw the glasses? I bet the media was already planning to tear apart future glass campaigns, and because they couldn’t let that to happen they acted fast.
Food PR plans that work miracles
Food companies are forced to deal with harsh criticism regarding the level of nutrition their food has. McDonald’s menus for example, are considered unhealthy from a nutritional point of view, and the media highlighted that they use dangerous substances to keep ingredients fresh. But did you know that McDonald’s was one of the first restaurants that disclosed all its production strategies? They had a very honest and straightforward attitude regarding their food preparation and preservation techniques, and they even claimed there’s a whole nutrition team behind that’s constantly trying to find ways of making the food better, healthier, and safer for the consumers.
When food companies first came around, they had to use a lot of PR power to get known by the people; the truth is they didn’t have any other advertising resource. Using public relations was the best way to gain people’s trust, and we must admit that most food companies were not using good PR. Nevertheless, in spite of the criticism they survived, and we’re not talking here only about McDonald’s. Coca-Cola, Subway, Burger King, and others, have all implemented well-thought public relations plans to spread the word, get worldwide exposure, and surpass their competitors.
Author Bio:
The article is written by a sophisticated writer Jefferey Morgan. He loves to talk, discuss and spread awareness about anything interesting going on around us. He is also a PR advisor at a site which is an independent public relations consultancy and the link for the site is http://www.wildcard.co.uk/sectors/food-and-drink.
