How do Americans REALLY feel about the whole Michael Phelps PR Nightmare? Are they willing to forgive him? What about how he came out and apologized for his actions– did that affect how people are perceiving him? Phelps is not the only high profile sports personality that has been in a PR Nightmare recently. What about the incident with Brett Favre and the deal with him going to the New York Jets after “retiring” from football? Or Michael Vick involved in dogfighting or Marion Jones and the whole BALCO Scandal? I am also sure now people are placing Alex Rodriguez in this category as well after it was released that he tested positive for steroids back in 2003. Never a dull moment in sports reputation management, that is for sure!
These are the burning questions that PR professionals want to find out for their clients– whether they are representing sponsors of these athletes (ex. Kelloggs and Michael Phelps) or an organization that has invested time and image in a sports personality (ex. USA Track and Field with Marion Jones.)
One thing that is absolutely amazing is to see people’s perceptions of an issue or individual in real time. A great web site that my professor in Advertising and PR Research showed us today is MediaCurves.com. It is a web site that conducts “national surveys online to obtain Americans’ views on advertisements, talk show appearances by political figures, and controversial statements by actors, actresses, political figures and sports personalities” (About Media Curves, n.d.). It is absolutely amazing to see how people’s perception and how much they actually “believe” these individuals changes based on how the information is presented in their crisis message response in a crisis situation.
We as Public Relations professionals need to know exactly how the public perceive these individuals. Public Relations professionals more than ever have to understand and look at consumer behavior and marketing research to be better informed of the current situation. Also, it will better prepare ourselves in forming our campaigns and communication messages to the media and other publics. It is a way to be more knowledgeable about how the spokesperson and company is perceived, and we can then work together in managing our corporate and brand reputation. Anyway, MediaCurves is a great web site and source for consumer behavior and marketing research studies! Check it out! 🙂
Hope you all are having a great day! 🙂
Best Wishes,
Karen
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