School of Management,
University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland,
e-mail: ahj@onet.pl
SCIENCE
NEEDS GOOD PUBLIC RELATIONS:
Let’s start
with basic relations: A country’s innovativeness depends on various factors.
Among them is a scale of the commercialization of scientific achievements. The
scale of the science commercialization is one of results of an intensity of
co-operation between science/the R&D sector and industry/enterprises. A
good, i.e. wide and intensive co-operation is favourable to the science
commercialization and – in this way – to the economy’s innovativeness. So,
science-industry relations (SIRs) are here of a crucial importance. A state of
SIRs is dependent, among other reasons, on a level of public understanding of
science (PUS). A high PUS level well serves the cause of SIRs. In turn, PUS
depends mainly on science communication with society as a whole, in this case,
with industry or the business sector. A high level of PUS is then one of
results of a good communication between science and industry.
Results of
the commercialization, i.e. of practical implementation of scientific
achievements, are technological innovations. As known, innovation ‘stands on
two legs’: one leg still lies in R&D and another one already lies in
Production. Therefore, the ‘passage’ between R&D and Production is very
important and so science-industry relations.
In this
paper, Poland will be a case-study. By the end of the 80s, we had a centrally
planned economy and at the beginning of the 90s, radical politico-economic
reforms started. The essence of the transformations has been an introduction of
free-market forces into the national economy together with its deep
restructuring. Innovations are expected to play a key role in the economy’s
restructuring. As a legacy after the previous system, at the beginning of the
transition, there existed two separate ‘worlds’ in the Polish economy, i.e. science
and industry. In detail, we had:
The present
state of the affairs is still unsatisfactory and needs improvements.
The essence
of the communication process is that a sender sends a message and a receiver
reacts on it, so there is a two-way exchange of messages. The sender or
communicator must answer three key questions :
With the
communication of an organization with its environment, a concept of public
relations (PR) is closely connected. In
literature, the concept is understood in various ways. Bernays (1955), e.g.,
treated PR as an element of the social communication. Authors of Marketing
course-books universally consider PR as a component of so-called marketing-mix
(Lazer and Culley, 1983; Kotler, 1991;Schoell and Guiltinan, 1995). In turn,
Black (1993), Scott et al (1994) and Gregory, ed (1998) treat PR as an element of
a firm’s management. E.g. in Black’s opinion, PR is wider than advertising or
propaganda, and goes far beyond marketing. Also many authors, including
marketers, agree that PR is a broader concept than marketing.
As known,
the concept of marketing-mix contains 4Ps: product, price, place
(or distribution) and promotion. Promotion, being the main subject of my
interest, is an information activity with a purpose to promote (back up) a
product/service and its producer/seller. So, the organization is here an information
sender, and a potential client is an information receiver. This component of
marketing-mix is now more and more often named just communication. Of course, not the change of name is
important but the essence of this activity. Although its aim remains the same,
this P is, nowadays, treated as a complex way of communicating between
the organization and the market where there exists a permanent exchange of
information (feed-back) between the two. Public relations is one of four
‘classic’ forms or tools of marketing communication, besides advertising,
personal selling and sales promotion.
The role of
PR as the communication instrument considerably increased in the last decades.
‘As
the power of mass advertising weakens owing to rising media costs, increasing
clutter and smaller audiences, marketing managers are turning more to PR.
Clearly, public relations can make a memorable impact on public awareness at a
fraction of the cost of advertising. The company does not pay for the space or
time obtained in the media. It pays for a staff to develop and circulate the
stories and manage certain events. If the company develops an interesting
story, it could be picked up by all the news media and be worth millions of
dollars in equivalent advertising. Furthermore, it would have more credibility
than advertising. Some experts sat that consumers are five time more likely to
be influenced by editorial copy than by advertising’ (Kotler, 1991, p.643).
Differences
between marketers and PR specialists are not so big. For Kotler, who calls PR
‘a marketing stepchild’, the main aim of PR is to create a company’s positive
image. For Black, it is a good reputation and proper publicity. Similarly, for
Gregory (1998) and Pluta (2001), a firm’s positive reputation is most important
here. Kotler mentions ten following PR tools: press kits, speeches, seminars,
annual reports, charitable donations, sponsorships, publications, community
relations, lobbying and identity media, while Black embraces these in five
groups:
(1)
a
written or spoken word,
(2)
exhibitions
and conferences,
(3)
lobbying,
(4)
parliamentary
contacts and
(5)
sponsoring.
As can be
seen, both of them mention similar instruments. For instance, they include
sponsoring and lobbying into PR, although in literature, there are authors who
consider these separately.
The
essence of public relations is well presented in the book The Essentials of Public Relations:
PR is a science and art of achieving a harmony with the environment through a
mutual agreement based on the real and full information. And philosophy of PR
assumes that aims are being achieved easier with a social understanding and
support than with an opposition or indifference (Black, 1993). The science
sector, of course, needs the harmony with its environment and the mutual
understanding and support from society. This proves that public
relations as a communication tool is fully useful here.
In Poland, science
needs good public relations because of the following reasons:
1)
There
have appeared symptoms of a crisis in the Polish science, mainly from a
financial point of view.
à One of spheres of PR activities is just
reacting to the organization’s difficulties.
2) As mentioned, a low level of
PUS exists in the country.
à An influence of PR on the general public
allows neutralizing hostile opinions and strengthening
favourable opinions,
3)
There is a lack of agreement among political elites that science
(together with education) should be
a priority in the country’s
development.
à PR’s aim is to achieve a mutual agreement and
consensus via dialog.
4) Managers in research organizations
do not have enough skills to run marketing actions.
à PR, which is a broader concept, can
support and sometimes even replace some shortcomings
in marketing activities of R&D institutions.
5) Soon Poland will join The European
Union and so a competition will grow between
research institutes – in the country and in Brussels.
à PR actions run by R&D organizations allow
them to strengthen their positions
in ‘the R&D market’.
Generally
speaking, in Poland we had good experiences in (political) propaganda within
the previous system but very little experience in the field of PR. According to
a recent questionnaire research among employees in 374 small and medium-sized
enterprises (Pluta, 2001), as many as 40 % of them do not know a concept of PR;
and only 5 % of the surveyed firms have a separate PR unit reporting directly
to the board of directors. So, a general picture of PR in the country is
unfavourable.
As far as
public relations of science is concerned, we already have certain experiences
in this field. The main institutions
responsible for the science communication with society (in Poland, we call it a
dissemination, popularization and promotion of science) are:
The
Ministry of National Education plays, unfortunately, a very small role in this
system. In turn, a crucial role of media in the area of PR is here obvious.
Therefore, let me shortly describe activities of the three remaining
institutions (Jasinski, 2001).
The
State Committee for Scientific Research (the KBN):
- to run public science policy and
- to distribute state funds for
R&D
- Science Promotion
Advisory Team and
- Advisory Team for Science
Dissemination and Scientific Information,
*
The main aim of both teams: to award financial resources as a
co-financing, by applications, of various
initiatives concerning the
science dissemination, popularization and promotion,
The
Polish Academy of Sciences’ Centre for Science Dissemination:
- permanently collecting the information on directions of science
dissemination in Poland
and other countries,
- initiating and conducting research concerning science dissemination in
the country and abroad,
- undertaking various actions for better science dissemination and
popularization in Poland.
The
Polish Foundation for Science Dissemination:
- to organize information systems on scientific achievements,
- to subsidize Polish scientific centers abroad, scholarly societies and
schools engaged
in the science dissemination,
- to conduct publishing, film and audiovisual
projects, lecturing activities, training courses, etc,
- to help researchers and other individuals in their efforts
for the science dissemination and
popularization.
Let me
shortly describe the role of Science Promotion Advisory Team (SPAT) at the KBN.
(Author of this paper is a member of SPAT). The Team’s support goes in the
following directions:
a)
presentation
of a crucial role of science in the modern society,
b)
dissemination
of information on worthy scientific achievements,
c)
informing
entrepreneurs about benefits on the application of the R&D results,
including fiscal preferences, and
d)
promotion
of scientific interests in society, especially among young people.
However,
the main effort in the field of the science-communication activities is being
undertaken by their initiators, i.e. scientific institutions, which constitute
three sub-sectors of the Polish science sector:
(1)
higher
education institutions (HEIs),
(2)
the
Polish Academy of Sciences’ research institutes, and
(3)
branch
R&D institutions subordinated to various ministers.
(In Poland,
a sector of firms’ in-house R&D units is almost non-existent).
As far as
Polish initiatives for the science dissemination, popularization and promotion
are concerned, apart from publications which are a natural tool of the science-society
communication, one can mention for instance (data from various KBN internal
reports):
by the Science Dissemination Centre at least once a year,
- ‘Proton’ showing the latest developments in the world’s science and
- ‘Polish Nobel’ presenting recent
Polish scientific achievements and their authors.
For
example, the latest VI Scientific Picnic, as usually organized by The Polish
Radio Bis, a state-owned broadcasting company, took place on 8 June 2002. It
was the biggest popular-scientific happening in Central and Eastern Europe;
many people, mainly youth, attended. The main sponsor was The Polish Post
Office. A
chairman of
Honorable Committee was president of the earlier mentioned Polish Foundation
for Science Dissemination. A financial support was given by The Town Hall and
the State Committee for Scientific Research.
Although
the above initiatives seem very interesting and should be continued, nevertheless,
the following reservations can be formulated here (Jasinski, 2001):
1)
the
main stress put on the dissemination and popularization rather than on
promotion of science,
2)
too
small the funds, mainly state-owned, spent for these activities,
3)
too
narrow the scale of the activities,
4)
dominated
by the Polish Academy of Sciences, most active in this field,
5)
too
limited the Ministry of Education’s contribution,
6)
too
small the engagement of local governments.
But the
main accusations towards those activities are:
This state
of affairs needs improvement. The philosophy of public relations as an element
of marketing communication may be very helpful here. One can imagine that the
following mechanism will function:
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Publicity |
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Reputation |
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PUS |
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Finance |
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Science offer |
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Thus, from
the view-point of a scientific institution, we can expect the following, chain
reaction:
(1)
skilful
marketing
communication,
(2)
appropriate
public relations,
(3)
wider
publicity and good
reputation,
(4)
better
public
understanding of science,
(5)
more
finance for
research and development,
(6)
wider
science offer and
commercialization.
In the case
of science, public relations consists in the presentation, to the
environment, of its activities and all functions of science - as a
public good – in the process of satisfying social needs. Following Black’s
classification, PR tools can be formulated in this case as follows:
According to the earlier mentioned AMT
approach, a starting point should be an identification of strategic groups of
information receivers, in marketing called as target markets. Here we shall
speak about target audiences. In Poland, e.g., PR actions being
undertaken by scientific institutions should be mainly addressed to:
1. Politicians, both central and
regional/local authorities,
2. Journalists, both from central and
local media,
3. Businessmen, mainly industrialists;
they are the main object of my interests
(see further),
4.
Teaches and other workers in the education system,
5.
Youth, both pupils and students,
6. Local communities.
Reaching target groups is the key task of
public relations. Known in marketing, a concept of market segmentation is
extremely useful here. The segmentation allows us to identify segments of a
given market and then to choose, from among them, one or more target markets
(see e.g., Kotler, 1991; Schoell and Guiltinan, 1995).
In the case of Poland, these target audiences
for science ought to be divided into two groups:
a) first three segments which should be
reached in the short term, i.e. primarily, and
b) the other segments which should be
reached in the long term, as a long-run activity.
Each of the audiences requires various ways to
communicate with. The methods must be adjusted to their information needs,
which ought to be well recognized before. Let’s notice that politicians (group
1), journalists (group 2), representatives of businessmen associations (within
group 3) and teachers (within group 4) are opinion leaders, very important for
creating publicity and reputation of the science sector. Thus, they require an
additional attention within PR actions.
According
to the previous statement, further I shall deal only with the business sector
(shortly: industry) as a receiver/audience of PR messages being sent by science
as a sender/communicator. The special treatment of the
business
sector within PR activities result from a poor state of science-industry
linkages in the field of technological innovation in Poland. The main symptoms
of this state of affairs are (Jasinski, 2000):
The fault
lies on both sides. One of the reasons, as already mentioned, is a weak
experience of research organizations in marketing. The Polish science needs
a good marketing - not only in the country but also abroad, in the European
research market (within the process of integrating Poland with the European
Union). Let’s notice that marketing of science belongs to institutional
marketing or, as it has been recently named, to B2B Marketing. This sort of
marketing has its own specificity and is addressed not to consumers but to
institutions, firms and other organizations. In our case – to industry.
Therefore, institutional-marketing experiences can be useful here (see e.g.,
Morris, 1992; Haas, 1995).
One must
remember that the scientific organization’s complex marketing approach should
contain all four Ps. In this field, we should speak about the
market offer of science, containing a scientific product (service),
properly priced and distributed, and skillfully promoted. Here the stress will
be obviously put on promotion/communication being an element of marketing-mix,
and precisely, on public relations as a marketing-communication instrument. It
means that the other promotional tools like, e.g., advertising, will be
omitted, although is highly important in marketing of scientific research.
For the
purpose of using PR, it is necessary to answer two questions:
The science
sector offers industry:
-
results
of the R&D work in a form of new scientific-technical achievements, being
spread via distribution channels. This activity has also commercial aspects,
and
-
information
on itself and on its products via communication channels. Here is a place for
public relations within the dialog with industry.
In turn,
one may expect the following industry’s reactions to PR actions undertaken by
the science sector:
-
sponsoring
of scientific conferences, fairs and exhibitions of its achievements, and
similar events,
-
donations
for research projects and education in universities and other HEIs,
-
orders/contracts
for the R&D work,
-
purhase
of scientific books, professional journals and other publications.
In result,
science in Poland can gain more finance for research and development, and so
there will be a wider science offer and commercialization.
A
message addressed by science to industry within its PR activities should contain the
following watchwords:
(1)
Science
is interesting, important and useful for the modern industry,
(2)
In the
knowledge-based society, the firm’s development must be based on knowledge
which is offered by science,
(3)
Entrepreneurs
can highly benefit on the application of the R&D results.
And a final
issue: How to reach with this message to those recipients who need it? Also
here a marketing philosophy may be helpful. I mean that the adoption of
selected market-research methods can be useful to identify potential receivers
and their information needs.
As seen, we
can here speak about a full usefulness of the AMT approach and instrumentarium
of public relations, especially of: (a) publications, (b) press conferences
and (3) fairs and exhibitions. First of all, I’d like to stress an enormous
potential role of mass-media, hitherto underestimated by Polish scientists.
This
general outline, of course, needs to be theoretically deepened and further
developed in practice.
E.Bernays
(1955): The Engineering of Consent, University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma
S.Black
(1993): The Essentials of Public Relations, Kogan Page Ltd, London
A.Gregory,
ed (1998): Public Relations in Practice, Kogan Page Ltd, London
R.W.Haas
(1995): Business Marketing, South-Western College Publishing,
Cincinnati,
A.H.Jasinski
(2000): Technology Transfer in Poland: A Poor State of Affairs and a
Wavering Policy,
Science
and Public Policy, No 4
A.H.Jasinski
(2001): Marketing Communication as a Tool of Better Communication Between
Science and Society, an oral presentation at the 6th PCST
Conference, Geneva, CERN, 1-3 February
Ph.Kotler
(1991): Marketing Management, Prentice Hall, New Jersey
W.Lazer and
J.D.Culley (1983): Marketing Management Foundations and Practices, Houghton
Mifflin, Boston
M.H.Morris
(1992): Industrial and Organizational Marketing, Macmillan, New York
W.F.Schoell
and J.P.Guiltinan (1995): Marketing, Prentice Hall, New Jersey
M.Scott et
al (1994): Effective Public Relations, Englewood Cliffs
E.Pluta
(2001): Public Relations, Twigger, Warsaw
The author thanks The Ministry of National Education, Warsaw
and The National Research Foundation, Pretoria for their financial support,
which allowed him to participate in the Conference. I owe special thanks to
Marina Joubert, the conference chair.
This
article is based on a paper to 7th PCST
Conference ‘Science Communication in a Diverse World’,
Cape Town,
SA, 4-7 December 2002.