Reputation Management: The Heart of PR

Jared Meade:

Ask any public relations professional what the most essential skill for someone entering the industry is, and nine times out of ten, you’ll hear that it’s writing. Full stop. No context or caveats, leaving many to believe that being a good writer is all you need to be successful in PR. 

I entirely disagree with this conventional wisdom. Let me explain. While written and verbal communication skills are undeniably important tools for a PR practitioner, they are merely the vehicles for the deeper, more strategic work that is at the heart of what we do – Reputation Management. The most essential skill for anyone entering the public relations industry today is an understanding of human behavior. This is the psychological and strategic foundation that makes our written and verbal communication efforts meaningful and effective.

Think about it: we can teach almost anyone to write a press release or craft a social media post and AI is increasingly capable of producing technically sound copy. But what sets the PR professional apart is understanding why people respond to various messages, how trust is built and broken, when to communicate versus when to remain silent, where to connect with audiences most effectively and what truly drives reputational change. These insights require practitioners to have a grasp of human psychology and strategic thinking that no amount of skilled writing or AI can replace. 

When a PR professional truly understands human behavior, they can craft content and campaigns that connect on an emotional level, predict how people will react in tough times, and build authentic relationships that go beyond one-off interactions, ultimately boosting brand loyalty. Without this foundational understanding, even the most eloquent communicator is essentially writing in the dark, hoping their message resonates.

For those of us in the U.S., recent events perfectly demonstrate why understanding human behavior is more important than communication skills, as seen in the Cracker Barrel logo crisis. Last month, Cracker Barrel unveiled a new minimalist logo that eliminated the iconic overalls-clad “Uncle Herschel,” which triggered public outrage and caused the company to lose more than $100 million in market value within days of the announcement. Cracker Barrel received so much backlash that it announced it would drop the new logo and return to the original, less than a week later.

While I’m sure the Cracker Barrel marketing and communications teams had what they thought was a well-thought-out communication plan around the rollout of its new logo, what they did not understand was their customer base’s deep emotional attachment to the company’s tradition and nostalgia. 

Even with a limited understanding of human behavior, a true PR professional would have anticipated the public’s reaction. They would have known that for Cracker Barrel’s customers, the logo isn’t just a brand; it is a symbol of nostalgia and tradition, of the memories they shared with family and friends, something that they connect with emotionally. There was never going to be any amount of well-crafted communication that could have corrected the fundamental misunderstanding of customer psychology.

The importance of psychological insight has been fundamental to effective public relations since the field’s inception. Edward Bernays, the “father of public relations,” defined public relations as the “engineering of consent.” He believed that public relations was the application of psychology and social science in shaping public opinion and behavior, demonstrating reputation management in practice. His concept of “crystallizing public opinion” laid out the process of influencing how the public perceives an organization, transforming uncertain perceptions into a strong, positive reputation. Bernays’ foundational ideas emphasize reputation management as a core aspect of PR.

Reputation isn’t something that happens to an organization – at least not a positive reputation – it’s something that must be strategically engineered through the careful study of the psychology of an audience and deliberate cultivation of their approval. All PR activities aim to ethically build, maintain, and protect reputations that influence the long-term success of an organization in gaining public support for its goals, making reputation management not just a part of public relations but its very nature. 

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Jared Meade, MPS, APR, MPRCA, brings more than 20 years of public relations experience – emphasizing the healthcare and education sectors – to his current role as founder and principal of Rayne Strategy Group (RSG).  He is a Strategic Columnist

Written by: Editor