James G. Hutton

Reputation management: the new face of corporate public relations?

Abstract An empirical study of Fortune 500 companies suggests that “reputation management” is gaining ground as a driving philosophy behind corporate public relations. Whether the phenomenon is a trend or a fad is not clear, given the lack of consensus in defining reputation, the instability and questionable validity of reputation measures, and unanswered questions about when and how (or even whether) reputation can be “managed.” Besides reputation management, corporate public relations departments in the study embraced a wide variety of other definitions of their function, suggesting that public relations continues to have great difficulty in defining itself. While the study did not find a strong correlation between reputation and overall spending on corporate communication activities, as had a similar study the prior year, it did find some interesting correlations between reputation and specific categories of spending.

A study of brand equity in an organizational‐buying context

Addresses two basic questions: do organizational buyers exhibit brand‐equity behaviors such as the willingness to pay significant price premiums for certain brands; and under what conditions do those buyers place a premium on well‐known brands? Finds significant brand‐equity behaviors, based on hypothetical buying situations, in the form of organizational buyers’ willingness to pay a significant price premium for their favorite brand, make referrals, and extend their brand preference to other products with the same brand name. The better known their favorite brand was, the more likely buyers were to exhibit the three brand‐equity behaviors.

Narrowing the Concept of Marketing

SUMMARY The misapplication of marketing to major American social institutions-education, religion, health care, the media, government and the legal system-has frequently undermined the fundamental purposes of those institutions, to the point that Laczniak and Michies (1979a; 1979b) worst fears about marketing as a force for social disorder may have become a reality. Even more perplexing is a deeper question that marketers have yet to address adequately: Is the customer metaphor, which is so central to business and consumer marketing, fundamentally incompatible with the nature of a productive social institution?

Using Feature Films to Teach Public Relations: An Assessment Model from Nonmajor Students' Perspective.

Teaching fundamental public relations courses to students from diverse backgrounds poses additional complexities in learning effectiveness. This exploratory study evaluated the effectiveness and identified the challenges of using films to teach public relations among nonmajor students. Results from an online survey and two focus groups found that the use of films to teach public relations concepts to nonmajors is an effective means of developing greater understanding and appreciation of concepts. A heuristic model was developed to help public relations educators to use this pedagogical technique on deciding how to teach public relations courses and concepts.