PR Research Abstract Paper

Earth Fare's Public Relations Department Dilemma: Built, Connected, Exchanged, and Well Handled by Aubrey Gonzalez

Keith M. Waters
Augusta State University
Public Relations Theory & Case










April 19, 2012


Aubrey Gonzalez grew up in New England and moved to Augusta, Georgia at the age of 16. After high school she attended Georgia College and State University where she studied mass communications with a focus in public relations. She also minored in culinary arts. She always wanted to work in the communication field because of her love for people, her desire to inform others, her good personality, and her ability to speak to a large audience.
In college she worked for the college radio station doing marketing and promotions. During this time she learned the value of making connections in order to further herself and promote Georgia College's concerts, sports, fundraisers, and on campus events. Surprisingly her internship took place while she was still in her core classes. After college she worked for Beasley Broadcasting, a radio station based in Augusta, Georgia. She worked for Beasley for ten months as a morning radio personality under the pseudo name 'Zoe' on 95 Rock FM. After that she moved onto WRDW News Channel 12. At WRDW Aubrey worked in the productions, promotions, and marketing department for three years. While in college she had no plans to be involved in media related communications, but this experience was great for her resume and opened many doors for a successful future in public relations. At WRDW News Channel 12 Aubrey was hired at a level one entry position, but she picked up her manager's slack. Although this required Aubrey to work harder, she viewed this as an opportunity to learn media public relations, which she would not have learned in her position otherwise. Frustrated with her manager at WRDW, she decided that it was time to move on. After leaving, her hard work was recognized by her manager's boss because of the work load they gained after her departure, and her old manager was fired two weeks later.
The exposure to media combined with her University's teachings gave Aubrey a leg up in the business at a young age, and she recognized the vast number of ways to put information in the public's hands. The number one thing Aubrey learned by working those three years and ten months in two large media outlets was that she preferred a smaller company who uses face-to-face and interpersonal communication to reach the public, rather than faceless corporate work behind closed doors. She wanted to get outside. At this time she found a smaller, yet solid place to practice public relations. She focused on a place where she could use the vast wealth of knowledge which she had learned, and earned, during her time in radio and television. So Aubrey used her many connections through friends and business associates to find out about any job openings in Augusta. A friend told her about an opening at a local health food market looking for a Community Resource Coordinator. Aubrey's major in public relations and minor in culinary arts made her a perfect candidate for this new job. This is where Earth Fare comes into the picture.
Earth Fare is a substantial corporate health food market growing in the southeast. Earth Fare originated in Ashville, North Carolina, extends as far north as Ohio, and stretches throughout Alabama. On average, three new stores are added annually. Earth Fare's public relations department has the task of educating and communicating with the public with hopes that individuals better themselves and their community. Three months ago Aubrey rewrote the mission statement to better fit her store specifically. Augusta's Earth Fare's mission statement is now something to the effect of; Nutrition and wellness throughout the community, with activism, involvement, and grassroots, in order to better oneself and their surroundings. Although this company is technically a grocery store, but it acts like more of a restaurant in the food and beverage industry. Professor Caywood, who wrote The Handbook of Strategic Public Relations & Integrated Communications, talks about how the food and beverage industry is constantly evolving into a "new animal". (3). In turn, the practitioner must stay ahead of these changes. To be a corporate store, each individual store's public relations practitioner has a great deal of freedom, and has only one person working PR in each store. Adding difficulty, the freedom does not come along with a large budget. Aubrey could not disclose her weekly budget, but she did say "it is an amount that other stores would laugh at". Because of this, Aubrey emphasizes her need for creativity. Cutlip and Center, in 1967, knew very well of the need for creativity, even in simpler times when the media was much more basic, as was the field of PR. In 1967 the need for creativity may have been needed more since technology was not around to create for the practitioner. The field was open to change, and more free to mold and grow. (4). The reason each individual public relations practitioner, at each Earth Fare, has so much freedom is because each city, or location, is different. Culture norms have slight variations in each city, and this requires different public relations knowledge. It is a good thing for corporate that all their stores are located in the southeastern United States. It is a bad thing for corporate that they cannot develop a central formula to maintain consistency throughout all of their store's PR programs. Again, because of this, Aubrey emphasizes her need for creativity. It did help that Earth Fare would hold weekly skype meeting to get the PR practitioners together to share any new ideas. Earth Fare's corporate office would hold annual PR conferences in order to bring everyone together to go over figures for the year, share any new concepts which have worked well or are predicted to work well, and also to relax and have fun together with team building exercises. Even members within a PR firm need to keep their relationships strong. (2).
Aubrey gave great advice. Aubrey agrees, as do most public relations professionals, like Torence Flynn, that this field is in no way simple. There is never one formula to use in order to find solution. "Less complex times had simpler public relations" (1), we now live in complex times. Public relations are multidimensional, and require one to think on their feet, and outside of the box. For Earth Fare, the public is best reached with a fun activity for families which is also informative. This begins with an idea requiring creativity. The activity may appear simple to a typical customer who wants to be involved, but what they don't see is all the work which goes into pulling the idea off, and getting the public to attend, join in, and spend their money. Aubrey has a wealth of creativity to set up, make connections for, reach people of all ages, teach nutrition, and run the events she puts together. Earth Fare's largest market lies with families. Each week there are events at the store, or promotional events outside the store which Aubrey must hold. The amazing thing is that she holds these events and other activities five to six days out of each week with a minimal budget. She also mentioned the toughest part of her job is time management, the need to be totally organized, flexible, and to be resourceful is key.

The biggest problem Aubrey has been faced with since being with Earth Fare occurred at the very beginning of her career there. Earth Fare's PR freedom can be good or bad depending on the practitioner. This freedom is needed because every city is unique. Since Earth Fare's PR practitioner has so much flexibility with their duties, the former practitioner leaned toward bad, and left Aubrey with "mess" to clean up. For privacy sake, I will call Earth Fare's former PR practitioner "Teresa". The situation Aubrey was left with was not technically a mistake, but it was a problematic dilemma, and not up to the standards Aubrey holds for herself, or for any successful company using PR to communicate with publics. Teresa was a new mother. Her focus was on motherhood first, and public relations second. Aubrey said, "The resources were always there for Teresa, she simply did not know how to use them. This became a problem." Teresa used her new found knowledge on motherhood to relate to the small community. Her work did not take any surveys, did not have any data to back up her daily activities, and her weekly events, if any, and were based around mother and child, literally mother and child. Teresa did not focus on large groups. She found individuals from parenting classes, mothers from church, or day care type places, where she handed out flyers or talked with one on one. Teresa was knowledgeable on nutrition, so she structured the department the way she saw best. Being new to the company and having a problem to solve, it took Aubrey a year and a half to get the PR running smoothly. Once she did, sales went up, and corporate saw her worth to the company.
The Relationship (Management) Theory is essential in public relations. Public relations is entirely aimed at building relationships. When building a relationship, the right communications are key in developing a strong, or weak, company. Constituents such as investors, employees and costumers view the company based on the public relation's communicative tools which are used to represent what the company is all about. Public relations is not just about selling a product, it's about having those constituents stand by the company in good or bad times. (2). During such bad times the public relations used must become as strong as ever, must maintain strong communication lines, and must be honest about essential information within the company's walls which has effect on constituents. Building relationships is something a company has control over which can last a lifetime, advertisements run for a short period of time. (2). Public relations practitioners are never finished building relationships. This is an ongoing process because for one- some relationships close with a uncommunicative exit; second, it is best to have various relationships with people who have different abilities and further sources; and lastly, it is not going to hurt to collect a massive amount of connections for now and the future. (5).
Aubrey found that Augusta is unique, the two largest groups of people (receivers) are the medical community and Fort Gordon's military. She needed to think big, and develop a relationship with the right individuals who could help her earn a customer account (transactions per day), and in return she could provide these individuals with benefits. Through her husband she already had connections with the military. So this is where her focus was directed. She used the Relationship (Management) Theory to solve her dilemma of not having initial connections left over by the former practitioner, the mother, "Teresa". After she made contact with the various platoon sergeants, she developed those relationships (5) by making phone calls and keeping in touch, by visiting on post and taking nutritional information tailored to fit a military diet (high protein, high carbohydrate, low fat), she took the time to meet with individual military personnel and talk about their family's nutritional needs, etc. She nurtured the relationships, conditioned the clients, and in the end it all paid off. (5).
Aubrey spent weeks meeting with the right people, who consisted mainly of platoon sergeants. Her reasoning behind focusing on platoon sergeants is because platoon sergeants had large groups of people with whom they can share information. The information Aubrey conveyed was not about simply shopping at Earth Fare. Fortunately for her, the military requires its soldiers to stay fit, be health conscious, and maintain a certain weight. Aubrey held the information on how to do such. Also, one company runs all of the military housing, so she went to the company, coordinated with the housing coordinator a tour of Earth fare for all of the housing personnel, then walked them through all the different aspects of how they can benefit from shopping there. In return, Aubrey offered the housing personnel discounts for them and their family. She also met with the corporate office about implementing a military discount. This got approved. So Aubrey brought health knowledge, health food, and a discount to the platoon sergeants' table. In return the sergeants brought there platoons' business to the table. Finally after months of hard work using the Social Exchange Theory, Aubrey had developed a "productive exchange" (1) between Earth Fare, the sergeants, and the military individual soldiers. This is how Aubrey used the Social Exchange Theory for solution.
The Social Exchange Theory looks at information in an organization as an equation. (5). "One way to illustrate the benefits and considerations involved in such alliances is to examine the implications from the perspectives of member firms." (5). Meaning the equation must be balanced. It would not have been fair if Aubrey put months of work into teaching nutrition and giving discounts to the platoon sergeants, if they didn't follow through with communicating the benefits of Earth Fare to their military personnel. Same for the opposite. Since none of this deal was in writing and signed, trust was of extreme importance in this relationship. This theory is based on the power of reciprocity in a relationship. (1). People naturally like to be in a balanced relationship, and if it is not balanced then the relationship is exited by one or both members. "One prediction of the Social Exchange Theory is that whenever a relationship is not perceived as being equitable and balanced, communication among rational individuals, organizations, and publics will occur." (1). Meaning that one unfair exchange in the communication process during business will be talked about by others, and eventually get out into the public which can have a strong impact on future relationships.
Cutlip and Center write about the military's use of public relations. "It's mandatory, therefore, that the armed forces create public understanding of their duties." (4). Aubrey looked at the "Army's Organization of Function" to find which mediums would work best to reach her audience of military personnel. Since the Commanding General was out of reach for the task at hand, the Platoon Sergeant was the next best medium. Just as the military "insures (the public) understanding of the Army's role" (4), Aubrey had to insure the military of Earth Fare's role, and how they could benefit from shopping and communicating together.
Since her husband is in the military, Aubrey is moving to Italy, and is currently learning Italian. She has hopes to find some small PR work there.

















Endnotes
1. Note. From Managing Systematic and Ethical Public Relations, by M. McElreath, 1993, Towson State University, p.7, p. 76-77, p. 99-104, Copyright 1993.
2. Note. From The Influentials, by G. Weimann, 1994, People Who Influence People, p. 109-112, p. 114, p.135-138 , Copyright 1994.
3. Note. From The Handbook of Strategic Public Relations & Integrated Communications, by Ph.D. C. Caywood, 1997, Department of Integrated Marketing and Communications Medill School of Journalism Northwestern University, p. 244-247, p. 311, Copyright 1997.
4. Note. From Effective Public Relations (3rd Edition), by A. Center & S. Cutlip, 1964, p. 180, p. 426-445, Copyright 1964.
5. Note. From Strategic Public Relations Counseling, by Ph.D. Nager, 1987, Models from the Counselors Academy, p. 21-58, p. 158, p. 200, p. 272, Copyright 1987.
References
Nager, Ph.D., N. R. & Truitt, R. (1987). Models from the Counselors Academy. Strategic Public Relations Counseling. White Plains, NY: Longman, Inc.
Center, A.H. & Cutlip, S.M. (1964). Effective Public Relations (3rd Edition). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc.
Caywood, Ph.D. C.L. (1997). Department of Integrated Marketing and Communications Medill School of Journalism Northwestern University. The Handbook of Strategic Public Relations & Integrated Communications. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Weimann, G. (1994). People Who Influence People. The Influentials. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
McElreath, M.P. (1993). Towson State University. Managing Systematic and Ethical Public Relations. Dubuque, IA: Brown & Benchmark Publishers.

*for footnotes at bottom of page- Note. From "The Superflu and You," by D. Welsh, 2002, Journal of Biotechnology, 14, p. 22. Copyright 2001 by D. Welsh. Reprinted with permission.












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Earth Fare's Public Relations Department Dilemma