Communicating in a Climate of Mistrust

By Philip Robertson vice president, marketing Daniel Yankelovich. Inc.

\/OUR president, Ben Cancell, I characterized the AFI 30 month communication program as an attempt to "help breed a climate of acceptance for the actions and policies of (your) industry." But communications are delicate and difficult in the present climate of mistrust.

Any businessman who has been alive and breathing these past few years knows what sweeping changes have taken place in the business environment in a remarkably short period of time. Perhaps the most troublesome change involves a shift from a climate of public confidence in business to one of skepticism and mistrust.

It is not easy to do business in a climate of mistrust. Not all of you have yet experienced its full force. But the automotive industry has in its dealings with Washington on the issue of auto emissions. The petroleum industry is finding it difficult to have the country accept at face value the fact of the gasoline shortage and the energy crisis. Your industry is trying to make the public understand that "trees are renewable." The predominant reaction in Philip Robertson, one of a team of rnajor speakers at the recent American Forest Institute annual rneeting in Portland, is currently superaising preparation of a special opinion study for the forest p roducts industry to help gauge the ex,tent to which the public is willing to pay for enuironmental improaement. For earlier couerage of that important gathering, see The Merchant Magazine, Nouember issue, p. 10.$ditor.

the country is the mistrustful, almost paranoiac feeling that the industry must be artificially creating a shortage in order to raise prices and abandon new environmental constraints.

Most business executives now realize that business has a problem of credibility and are trying to assess just how serious it is, what lies behind it, and what to do about it. Since it is impossible to do justice to the full complexity of the changing business environment in the time allocated to my talk this afternoon, I will compress an overview of the problem into eight brief summary points.

(l) Plumrneting public confid,ence in business. Throughout the post World War II era up to the late 1960s, a majority of the public placed their confidence in big business and expressed the belief that business was successful in balancing the pursuit of profits with good service to the public. Toward the end of the 1960s, this confidence began to erode. 1970 was the watershed year. In that year, public confidence in business was brutally cut in half, plummeting from majority to minority status.

(2) Confidence in other institurions. The erosion of public confidence is not confined to business; it affects other institutions as well. Indeed, the slippage in public confi.dence in other institutions has been almost as great as in business. For business, public confidence slipped almost 40 pointsfrom 707oin 1968to about32%o atthepresent time. For military leaders, public confidence in this same time period went down about 30 pointsfrom 627o to 357o.

For education, it also fell about 30 points617o to 33Va.

For Congress, the decline was about 20 points427o to 2IVo.

For science. it was also about 20 points567o to 377o.

And, lbr the federal government, it fell about 20 pointsfrom 8lVoto 6l%o.

(3) Multiple causes. No one factor is responsible for this erosion in confidence. the drop occurred as a result of the convergence of three deeply-rooted trends all coming together at the same timeroughly at the end of the I960s and the beginning of the I970s.

Story at a Glance

A brief examination of business' low rating with the public, howwe got to that point and some quick pointers on how to cope with today's difficult conditions.

One of these trends is the acceleration throughout the 1960s ofa trend Dan Yankelovich calls a "galloping psychology of entitlement." This is the psychological process whereby a person's wants or desires become converted into a set of presumed social rights. (E.g.) From, "I would like to have a secure retirement" to "I have the right to a secure retirement.tt

(E.g.) From, "If I could afford it,I would have the best medical care," to "I have the right to the best medical care whether I can afford it or not."

(E.g.) From, "I'd like to have a job that gives me pleasure and satisfaction, rather than just something I do to make a livingo" to "I have ari,ght to work on something that lets me do a good job and gives me pleasure."

(E.g.) From, "I hope we will be able to afford to send our children to college," to "Our children have just as much ri6ht to a higher education as anybody else."

(E.g.) From, "I hope that this breakfast cereal is fresh, " to "I have the ri,ght to know when it was made and how long it will stay fresh."

Orepac Buys A. J. Johnson

Oregon Pacific Industries, Portland-headquartered wholesaler of lumber/plywood and building materials, has purchased the assets and inventory ofA. J. Johnson & Co. of Tacoma, Wa. No price was disclosed.

The acquisition was announced jointly by Orepac president Darrell Robinson and Richard A. Johnson, president of the 27-year-old Washington firm.

Robinson said that Johnson will remain as manager of the Tacoma facility, which will become Orepac's third Pacific Coast warehouse, under the supervision of Glenn A. Hart, Portland, general manager of the distribution and warehousing division.

Their Wilsonville, Or. warehouse which opened in September, Robinson said, and its Fairfield, Ca., warehouse represent almost a $6-million investment in buildings and inventory.

Plans are to build its Tacoma warehouse truck fleet to 8 units by January, serving 200-plus lumber yards and other retailers throughout Washington and Alaska. It will also increase the Johnson staff from 14 to 25 during r974.

A. J. Johnson & Co. was founded by AHred J. Johnson in 1946.It operates from a 20,000-sq.-ft. warehouse on Tacoma's waterfront, at 459 East 15th St. From it. Orepac will offer most of its two-dozen brand-name product categories (3000 different line items), plus a full softwood/hardwood inventory of dimension lumber. plywood, and allied wood maierials.

With the addition of Tacoma, Orepac now maintains a western stock of more than 4 million b.f. of lumber and 3 million sq. ft. of plywood, serving businesses from Alaska to Mexico through its direct and warehouse sales offices, plus selling nationally and internationally through its Portland-based sales force.

Builders on Scarce Fuel

A prolonged oil and gas shortage will cripple the operations of home builders and suppliers throughout the country warned George C. Martin, president of the National Assn. of Home Builders, addrCssing the opening session of the INBEX exposition in Chicago.

"The energy crisis," he further noted, "coming on top of a severe mortgage credit crunch, has so clouded the outlook for housing that all production forecasts have become meaningless."