pr campaigns an overview 1 meenakshi upadhyay,academician,udcj

PR Campaigns

An Overview

1Meenakshi

Upadhyay,Academician,UDCJ

Culbertson, Jeffers, Stone, and Terrell (1993) noted that public relations practitioners appreciate theory for academic reasons but see little use for it outside the classroom. The authors observed, however, that marketing experts' reliance on theoretical concepts has resulted in their success in identifying target market segments and in positioning products or organizations. The authors concluded that that success should spur public relations practitioners to adopt theoretical approaches. 1

1 Alfonso González-Herrero, and Cornelius B. Pratt, "An Integrated Symmetrical Model for Crisis-Communications Management," Journal of Public Relations Research8.2 (1996): 81, Questia, 16 June 2009 <http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=95874225>.

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German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804; 1793/ 1971) examined the relation between theory and practice, noting that (a) the soundness of any theory, grounded in experience, depends on its applicability; (b) the importance of any theory is its guide to action in fruitful ways; and (c) the practical relevance of any theory is that it is a set of principles that specifies procedures for achieving certain ends.

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Definition

Campaigns are coordinated, purposeful, extended efforts designed to achieve a specific goal or a set of interrelated goals that will move the organisation towards a longer-range objective expressed as its mission statement

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Campaigns are designed and developed to address an issue, to solve a problem or to correct or improve a situation

They accomplish these purposes by changing a behaviour; by modifying a law or opinion; or by retaining a desirable behaviour, law or opinion that is challenged

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A campaign may be constructed around a positioning statement –an objective operating statement for the organisation e.g. Asian Heart Hospital

The term positioning is often used in marketing to refer to a competitive strategy- way to identify a niche in the market for a product or service

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Types of PR campaigns

Public Awareness program-simple awareness

Public Information campaigns-to offer information along with awareness

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Public Education campaign-this means that a person has encompassed the material sufficiently and is emotionally and attitudinally comfortable enough with it that he can actually apply it to daily behaviour

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Re-enforcement campaigns- here we must re-enforce the attitudes and behaviour of those who are in agreement with our position

Cognitive dissonance campaigns-change or attempt to change attitudes of those who do not agree to your position

Behaviour modification campaigns

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Basic principles of successful campaigns Assessment of the needs, goals,

and capabilities of priority publics or target publics

Systematic campaign planning and production

Continuous monitoring and evaluation to see what is working and where extra effort needs to be made

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Consideration of the complementary role of mass media and interpersonal communication

Selection of the appropriate media for each priority public, with due consideration of that medium’s ability to deliver the message

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Planning a campaign

Campaigns are designed to accomplish specific organisational objectives

A campaign’s foundation is the organisational mission and its roof or its containing factor is the budget

The elements are research, publics and evaluation

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It involves setting up of goals, creating time-tables and developing budgets

Setting up a theme and media to use in communicating with the designated publics

Internal strategy is critical to establishing organisational support for the campaign

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Campaign Plan Outline

SITUATION ANALYSIS / INTRODUCTION

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES COMMUNICATION STRATEGY TACTICS EVALUATION

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Using Research for planning

Research is critical at every step of public relations work, from planning and goal setting to identifying results for purposes of future planning and action

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Six ways to use research

To formulate strategy To gauge success To test messages To size up connection To get publicity To sway opinion

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A public relations practitioner interested in putting together a program to bring an organisation's goals and objectives to public’s attention begins by examining all available research information indicating how various publics view the organisation (or similar organisations)

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When a public relations practitioner reaches the point of planning messages for various publics, audience research becomes critically important

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Issue Forecasting An organisation uses collected

information to determine how it and its publics might react to a future event, trend or controversy

Anticipate issues, analyse issues, recommend an organisational position, identify publics/opinion leaders, identify desired behavior of publics/opinion leaders

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Learning about publics

Deciding upon the major publics, minor publics, prioritizing them

Reexamine their profiles to see how each might be affected by the situation

What are the real facts with the publics?

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Grunig says we must take into consideration that people control their behavior

Expect different communication behaviors from information seekers than from information processors

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An information seeker is interested enough in the problem or situation to want to know more about it

An information processor is aware of the of the communication and may be touched by the message but does not actively seek the information

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Planning media use What media different publics use is

widely available from professional, trade and academic journals

How people use media, which media they use and who the users are

A medium will provide its own research data to help sell time or space or to provide editorial guidance

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Setting goals and timetables and Budgets

Planning your goals for the campagains from the research data

Making estimates or timetables for achieving results

Allow for foul-up time or finishing work ahead of schedule

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Contingency planning Deciding you budget

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What is a strategy?

An elaborate and systematic plan of action designed to

achieve a pre-determined goal

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What is the objective of the campaign?

What are the desired results? What is the deadline or the

period fixed for the campaign Last but not the least: Budget?

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Objectives could be Delivering a positive vote or reaction

at the proper time Building support for an issue that will

be resolved in due courses Raising funds for an organization so

that it can proceed with growth Attracting enough support to

guarantee continuance or survival of an organization at critical time

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Successful organizations also base their actions on a game plan.

The process starts with the enunciation of a mission statement. This is an important part of a strategic planning .

“Making a fair profit for our stockholders by developing and distributing the highest-quality goods to a national market.” “treating our consumers and employees fairly and being good citizens of the communities where are facilities are located.”

Out of the mission statement grows a list of goals-somewhat more specific than the mission statement, but still general in nature and unspecific as to time frame or numerical targets.

Goals for the manufacturing company may be “to be a market leader in the small appliance field.”

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Only when a mission statement and goals are in place can the management of an organization move to the necessary task of setting objectives.

What makes objectives different from mission and goals is their specificity. An objective should specify the desire effects as specifically as possible. E.g. “To decrease the number of newspapers in the state that oppose rate reforms for the insurance industry from 60 percent to 40 percent by the first of the year.”

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Once goals and objectives are in place, they can be drawn upon to plan campaigns and programs.

Research on the problem or opportunity Action that includes evaluation and planning Communication of the message from organization to publics,

and Evaluation of the effects of those messages

Grunig’s “ Behavioral Molecule” further broke the management steps into:

detecting a problem constructing a possible solution defining alternatives selecting the best course of action confirming the choice by pre-testing behaving by enacting a program, and then returning to the

process of detecting whether the program met the desired objectives.

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Behavioural molecule by Grunig In the context of a ‘behavioural molecule’, Grunig

describes the elements of public relations as detect, construct, define, select, confirm, behave, detect.

The process of detecting, constructing, defining, selecting, confirming, behaving (which, in systems language, means producing outputs) and detecting, continues ad infinitum

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During the planning of a campaign or a program, part of the analysis of each key public should include such questions as:

Where do members of our key publics get their information? Which media do they rely upon to make decisions about what is

important and how to behave? Which channels provide the two-way communication that enables

key publics to provide information to our organization about their needs and concerns?

Another level of analysis focuses on the characteristics of each medium and their relationship to the campaign or program:

Which media allows us to get our point of view across most effectively?

Which media are best suited to the information requirements of our campaign, such as the presenting of visual images, the need for two-way communication, or the ability to tell a story in depth?

Which media are most cost-effective for this type of information?

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Budgeting must follow the setting of goals and objectives, and it also must follow the identification of key publics. It precedes media selection and message design

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Format of a plan

Date Activity Responsibility

Print Mainlines TV Radio

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Format of a plan

Media opportunities

Media activities

Non-media tools

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pr campaigns an overview 1 meenakshi upadhyay,academician,udcj

Documents

udcj slide

meenakshi upadhyay

campaign campaigns

public relations practitioners

campaigns foundation

definition campaigns

enforcement campaigns

public education campaign