Transparency And The Truth In Public Relations

We talk in PR about transparency, the need for companies to tell the truth, to avoid hiding or camouflage facts. But how can PR be transparent? Im thinking if there is a link between truth telling and transparency. Telling the truth means giving up all facts and secrets, where as transparency means you need to show your every step.

Do companies want to give up their whole process? Maybe for some companies it is relevant, but companies like Apple live on their secrecy. No one knows about their product before the launch day, and it works for them, and seams like their audience forgive them for the discloser of information. So why do people require transparency and availability to any information they want?

Looking up the definition of transparency: “Transparency is the opposite of privacy.” Of course, you can’t say that about truth, which drives this discussion about the difference between truth and transparency. Truth doesn’t require that “all information…is open and freely available.” Maybe people want the truth and not transparency. I believe with the new online communication, many question if what we read online is the truth, who writes the information, some one we can trust? PR since its beginning have been perceived as a deception practice, which means the transparency in online communication might be our way to put things straight and change this perception by for once telling the truth.

I'm writing this to see what others think, as i want to explore this 'transparency' concept further in my dissertation.

Corporate Branding

Apple's Brand and Identity

View more presentations from Yekaterina Odintsova.

Brand Image

The Apple logo is one of the most famous logos in the world. Apple fans not only put this logo on their vehicles to show their loyalty, they go to the extreme of tattooing themselves with it, a level of dedication very few brands achieved.

Also it was kind of iconic about taking a bite out of an apple. Something that everyone can experience. It goes across cultures. An interview with Rob Janoff, where he is telling about the logo design and its history. " I was told by my boss that there is a computer term called byte". And I was like: "You're kidding!" So, it was perfect, but it was coincidental that it was also a computer term. At the time I had to be told everything about basic computer terms.

In advertising Apple used great leaders like Cesar Chavez, Gandhi and the Dalai Lama, to persuade people that a Macintosh might also allow them to "Think Different."

Brand reputation

Ask marketers and advertising experts why Mac users are so loyal, and they all cite the same reason: Apple's brand. Apple, of course, is the archetypal emotional brand. It's not just intimate with its customers; it is loved.

Apple is about imagination, design and innovation. Mark Gobe said about Apple "It goes beyond commerce. This business should have been dead 10 years ago, but people said we've got to support it." "Absolutely, completely dead. The brand is all they've got. The power of their branding is all that keeps them alive. It's got nothing to do with products." "It's like having a good friend," Gobe said. "That's what's interesting about this brand. Somewhere they have created this really humanistic, beyond-business relationship with users and created a cult-like relationship with their brand.

It's a big tribe, everyone is one of them. You're part of the brand.

The company has established a "heartfelt connection" with its customers. This can take several forms, from building trust to establishing a community around a product. In Apple's case, its products are designed around people: "Take the iPod, it brings an emotional, sensory experience to computing," said Steve Jobs. "Apple's design is people-driven."

It’s been pointed out that seeing Apple’s cool logo makes you feel more creative and smarter. And it’s not only about that — how you feel — but how you act. That’s an interesting proposition: in a collective spirit of self awareness, you’re inclined to actually feel smarter and more creative about your sense of personal self awareness, when you actually see an exemplar of creativity — Apple.

The Apple brand personality is about lifestyle; imagination; liberty regained; innovation; passion; hopes, dreams and aspirations; and power-to-the-people through technology. The Apple brand personality is also about simplicity and the removal of complexity from people's lives; people-driven product design; and about being a really humanistic company with a heartfelt connection with its customers.

Brands are more important than products. Products have limited life cycles, but brands can last forever.