Continuing on with brand storytelling, in this video, we will talk more about the key messages used in public relations practice. You might be thinking it seems like a lot of pressure to be responsible for the brand story. But if a brand has been purposely built meaning the brand's mission and core values are clearly defined. Public relations planning is the fun part of it all because practitioners are just then talking about the brand and what it's all about. Connecting with stakeholders and building relationships, creating word of mouth while also managing the reputation of the brand, a lot of pressure, it's all in a day's work in public relations. Brand storytelling focuses on the mission and core values, this creates a brand identity or what the brand says about itself. The brand is communicating with employees with consumers, with stakeholders. The brands communicate in an identity, what the brand is all about. I'm an associate professor at the University of Colorado and I'm up at the Boulder campus. The identity here is be bolder and part of the brand is the Boulder community and that reflects the nature of what this campus is striving for diversity, entrepreneurship, innovation and excellence. C.U Boulder identifies itself with the community of Boulder. Public relations practitioners for the university use earned media like newspapers, blogs, owned media like the website and shared media like social media to tell the story of the University of Colorado Boulder. I should also mention that the University of Colorado Boulder has its own mission in core values separate of the university systems that I showed you in the previous video. Boulders mission in core values just hone in on what this particular campus is all about. Image is what people say about our brand, historically, people might have called the University of Colorado Boulder a party school. But in recent years this campus has become known for its work in aerospace engineering and the work researchers are doing with NASA. The University of Colorado Boulder made a conscious decision to shift at storytelling to be about the academics and the achievements of students. And faculty communication then is often about these researchers or the awards they've won or discoveries they've made. This shift was an effort to change the public's image about the brand, public relations works to manage the reputation. We want the identity and image to align what we say the brand narrative or the identity is also what the public thinks or the public perception or image. Remember my example of Volvo, the identity and image aligned for this brand. When I say University of Colorado Boulder does the brand's identity align with the image as you are building out the brand narrative, you will also begin thinking about key messages. These messages should communicate the core values in some way. That doesn't mean just bluntly because that probably doesn't resonate with your audience. Instead, the key messages should be concise and simple, remember audiences today like snack size pieces of information. The messages should be compelling in a way that motivates the audience to think or do messages should be memorable and relevant, but also tailored to the specific audience. I love diet coke as an example, I drink one can of diet coke every day, that's my limit. How the brand diet coke connects with me, a loyal consumer is very different than how diet coke communicates with an infrequent consumer or with a consumer who loves diet Pepsi. We want to make sure our messages specific to our audience segment. Lastly, I save strategic for last because it pushes us into the next slide. Many think only advertising is strategic, but the entire practice from start to end in public relations should be guided by strategy. I'm going to take on the role of professor for a minute and talk theory. In very simple terms, this is the elaboration likelihood model or ELM as it is often referred to. This is a widely cited theory in psychology, the big idea here is that people can be persuaded of things in one of two different ways, depending on their level of elaboration for a particular topic. The elaboration likelihood model is a theory of persuasion that says there are two routes of persuading people of something depending on how invested they are in a particular topic. The central route of persuasion occurs when people are motivated to think about an argument and weigh the pros and cons. For example, this type of messaging is more complex and asked that audience tune in and think about the message. When this happens and people are called upon to think they can recall the information later, much more easily. So in many cases, public relations practitioners strive for central route processing. We want to communicate key messages that audiences actually think about and consider so. In many cases, public relations practitioners strive for central route processing because we want to communicate key messages that audiences think about and consider. Peripheral route is a more lazy way of processing information when people don't have a lot of time and are not that interested in a topic. Persuasion happens by peripheral route and that's basically a shortcut in peripheral route, we are more susceptible to being influenced by cues. This is when source choice is important, as many are influenced by particular celebrities and opinion leaders. If kim Kardashian says so, okay, I agree whatever, right? I'll buy it, I'll do it, I love you Kim Kardashian. There is a segment who Kim Kardashian is a queue for and using her in our pr messaging, will alert audiences to use the peripheral route. This is why spokespeople celebrities and now social media influencers are so often used. As you think about your brand narrative and begin crafting messaging, remember as a PR practitioner, you develop the brand story and create the identity. You'll craft messaging that advances the brand's mission and communicates the core values to key audiences as we'll learn in the upcoming modules, understanding the audience is critical to the success of the messaging. I would encourage you to go to the North Face website and find their brand and core values. Then look through the website and especially some of the brands initiatives like sustainability and conservation. Look through the stories that the North Facce houses on its website and you'll see how they are communicating the mission. I hope you will also notice the public relations management function of the brand. You can see the core message of the North Base is all about exploration very broadly. Then, as the North Face communicates with different audiences, core values are highlighted so as to appeal to that particular segment, this is good public relations. The North Face is creating an identity through the stories it is telling on its website and social media using media relations and influencers. The North Face works also to manage the brand's image and reputation.
