PR Strategies

Strategic Communication Implies

-persuasion & social influence: we use communication to get people to be aware, think, feel, like, support, etc. -PR: mass communication but also interpersonal, use of opinion leaders. ex: special events, presentations

Stereotyping

-the process of attributing particular traits, characteristics, behaviors or values to an entire group of category of people -advantage: allows us to categorize quickly -disadvantage: may lead to improper inferences, or apply to an individual who does not conform to stereotype

PR Definition

-use of 1) strategic communication 2) maintain & enhance relationships with 3) publics 4) inside & outside an organization

Tactics (Smith)

-visible elements of a strategic plan; what people see and do (news, blogs, etc)

Why do we Research?

-want results of research (and analysis) to help us make better decisions

Inside/Outside Organization Implies

-we look inside & outside an organization or "boundary spinners" -one of unique aspects of PR - contrast to advertising, marketing

External Environment

-what is going on outside organization (that directly affects organization) i) supporters -currently or potentially aligned with interests of organization

Types of Research

1) Casual 2) Secondary Research 3) Qualitative 4) Quantitative

Types of Survey Items

1) Closed-Ended Survey Item -all potential answers to the item are provided by person constructing the survey 2) Open-Ended Survey Items -examples: -what is your age? -how often do you exercise?

Smith's Strategic Planning Model

-formative research -strategy -tactics -evaluative research

Strategy (Wirtz)

-general approach of how to accomplish a desired goal

Goal of Formative Research

-get to know your client, the clients situation, the nature of relationships between the client and its publics

Analyzing Publics

-once identify publics, then most decide how important they are -recall: not all groups are equally important -nonpublic: group that isn't important to organize -latent public: group that share issue with organization but don't yet recognize they share issue -apathetic public - share issue but don't care -aware public - group that recognizes issue but isn't really organized in response

Strategy (Smith)

-organization's overall plan

Maintain & Enhance Relationship Implies

-our job is more than just spin -importance of relationships with client, opinion leaders, media, etc -but also understanding nature of relationship - ex. are they involved? do they purchase our product?

Stakeholder

-(smith) does not give his own separate definition for stakeholders, considers stakeholders and publics to be the same -publics may or may not care about organization -stakeholders are conscious of relationship and care about outcome -(wirtz) can see a distinction

Formative Research

-(smith) information gathered that will guide development of a plan/communication campaign -may include combination of informal research and more formal research

Market

-(smith) particular types of publics with whom an organization intends to conduct business or generate support and participation -markets are like your friends, you select friends based on shared interests -(wirtz) more commonly - customers or potential customers for a particular product or service

Audience

-(smith) people who pay attention to medium and receive messages -(wirtz) more commonly: group or groups of individuals who receive a message -difference between potential audience and actual audience -potential audience: how many people are targeted and could be exposed to a message -actual audience: people who received message at some level

Public Relations Audit

-Smith: analysis of strengths and weaknesses of organization -Wirtz: analyzing context within which client operates but also often includes identifying and analyzing publics

Strategic Communication

-a statement of communication themes or vehicles that will be used to accomplish a specific objective

In-depth Interviews

-a structured interview that focuses on understanding why people think/feel the way thy do about a topic of interest -usually one-on-one (although sometimes can be conducted in paris)

Action Objective

-addresses a 'hoped-for response' -that is, some type of measurable behavior -how to measure action objectives: opinion - smith defined as verbal action, behavior - some type of overt behavior -wirtz: kind of dichotomy, but keep in mind sometimes these differences matter (WOM) -sample: to increase new donors by 5% within one year of name change implementation

Interpersonal Communication

-advantages: -org. has almost total control of message and messenger -can be tailored to the audience -adjustments can be made in the moment -can be used with internal/external politics -disadvantages: -labor intensive -small reach -not best for raising awareness -interpersonal communication generally one-to-one or one-to-two -small group -smith: "interpersonal comm is the most persuasive and engaging of all comm tactic" -wirtz: generally agree with this caveat -not just positive; can do great damage also -think negative word of mouth -think of how many events use interpersonal communication element -implication: valuable skill to be able to meet and talk with people

Audience Reach (inverted triangle)

-advertising -news media -organization media -interpersonal -think about things in two ways: audience reach (most people, news media, mass comm coverage) or as you move down to interpersonal (when triangle is inverted) you reach less - persuasive impact

Persuasive Impact (regular triangle)

-advertising -news media -organization media -interpersonal

Paid Media

-advertising, paid placement of persuasive message

Disadvantages of In-Depth Interviews

-can be difficult to generalize findings -same problem with any qualitative research -takes time to conduct, as well as to code info -can be uncomfortable with some people in one-on-one setting

Strategies

-can think of strategies as proactive (doing what you want, when you want) or reactive (doing something because you need to) -strategic communications: a statement of communication themes

Acceptance Objective

-deal with how people react to information -that is, what do they accept to reject your message -how we measure acceptance objectives: interest (how people respond emotionally) -sample: to create a positive attitude toward the university name change among 75% of people

Awareness Objective

-deal with knowledge and information -how we measure awareness objectives: -comprehension, retention -attention: does public pay attention to message

Advantages of In-Depth Interviews

-easier to conduct than focus group -good for obtaining individual interpretations of product/situation -allows for in-depth discussion of topic that may not be suitable in group format

Message Strategy

-example: we think of having a message strategy = "overall plan" or approach for our messages -use messages that create fear in message recipients to increase BSE -use messages that are humorous to raise awareness

Step 2: Analyzing the Organization

-getting to know your organization and broadly its internal environment, external environment, public environment 1) review organizations "direction" materials a) mission statement: -broad statements that answers: why do we exist (needs or opportunities), how are we/will we meet these needs or opportunities b) vision statements -tend to be future-oriented -what the future will look like if organization succeeds c) value statements -represent the core priorities (or deeply held beliefs) in organization culture example of corporate values: -profitable -leadership in field -customer service -social responsibility -eco-friendly 2) SWOT analysis -basic analysis of an organization's position with regard to its competition 3) communications audit -analysis of the effectiveness and quality of all communication vehicles -note: often more tactical than strategic -general includes: obtaining examples of all internal and external communication, analyzing quality of materials, determining effectiveness (and possibly reach) -includes benchmarking, interviews and or focus groups with publics and or surveys

Qualitative Research Strengths

-good at helping to understand context of situation -rich detail from participants -uses language of participants, could be useful for certain populations, children english as a second language

Publics

-group of people who share a common goal or problem recognize their common interest (dewey in smith) -group of people who have the same type of relationship with organization - ex. customers, suppliers, employees, media

Step 3: Analyzing Publics

-group of people who share a common problem or goal and recognize their common interest -a group of individuals who have similar characteristics (i.e., age, gender, SES) and/or a similar relationship with an organization, as well are similar needs -once identify publics, then must decide how important they are -nonpublics - group that isn't important organization -latent publics - group that shares issue with organization but don't yet recognize they share issue -apathetic publics - share issue but don't care -aware publics - group that recognizes issues but isn't really organized in response -active publics - group that recognizes issue and is engaged -when analyzing publics the bottom line: how do characteristics of public potentially influence the nature of relationship with public? the type of messages that you might send? the channels you might use?

Public Environment

-how an organization is perceived? -note: smith sometimes refers to this as 'public perception' i) visibility -focus is on how well-known your organization is -can include local, region, national depending on organization -how 'top of mind' is your organization -PR: can raise visibility via media coverage

Strengths of Informal Research

-inexpensive -no special training needed -accomplishes its goal relatively quickly and easily

News Media

-information gathered and disseminated by media -could be traditional news but also news entertainment -increasingly, blogs treated like media -examples: direct news material, indirect news material, opinion material, interactive news opportunities -advantages: credibility of messenger, reach large audience, free/earned media: potentially move production costs to third party -disadvantages: lose control of message, may not reach intended audience, increasingly difficult to break through to media

Organizational Media

-information or content published or produced by organization -examples: general publications, direct mail, electronic media, social media -advantages: org has control of message and messenger, often publics are interested (information-seeking), middle ground between interpersonal and news/advertising -disadvantages: cost, "disney" effect: raising expectations of organizational communication - expectations are very high, difficult to break through clutter

SWOT Analysis

-internal factors (strengths): what do you perceive to be internal strengths of organization? what points of differentiations are there? -internal factors (weaknesses): what are the internal weaknesses of the organization? what don't you do well? what do you lack? -external factors (opportunities): what opportunities do you perceive in the external environment in which your organization operates? what 'market' is not being served -external factors (threats): what threats do you perceive? what are your competitors doing well? better than you?

Survey Basics

-item: an individual or single element on a survey -scale: a series of items designed to measure something -for measuring things like attitudes, personality characteristics, etc, we usually use a multi-item scale

Reporting Results for Surveys

-mean: arithmetic average -median: midpoint in highest to lowest -mode: most commonly occurring score -mean is the most common way to report

Owned Media

-media an organization owns & controls

How Do You Understand the Situation

-media coverage -trade publications -information from government -increasingly: specialized blogs

Earned Media

-media covers you don't pay for or positive media coverage

Analyze Qualitative Data

-narrative summary: summarize observations, themes, common with ethnographies, & case studies -content analysis: look for themes, then summarize and interpret, note: may allow themes to emerge or may look at data looking for certain themes -computer-assisted content analysis: word count or counts of certain phrases

State Of Media

-news media still reach large audience -audience becoming more fragmented, more partisan, credibility of news media falling (but still overall favorable) -talk radio continues to be strong -"ethnic media" continues to grow

Weaknesses of Informal Research

-often based small sample/convenience sample -potentially leads to incorrect inferences -note: we tend to remember first things and things to stand out -be VERY careful making inferences from your personal experience (or the experience of someone you know)

Secondary Research Weaknesses

-often general while specificity desired -rely on method of someone else

Secondary Research Strengths

-often inexpensive -can quickly provide an overview of an issue or market, that is, quicker than gathering own information -often only one person needed to analyze

Advertising/Promotional Media

-produced by organization -controlled content and placement -note: PSAs-control message but not always control placement -examples: print advertising media, electronic media advertising, out-of-home advertising, promotional items -advantages: total control, reach large audience, ability to target audience -disadvantage: cost can be high (production, placement), difficulty in breaking through clutter -promotional items: make sure items reflect brand positioning that is, be careful of cheap products

Characteristics of Publics

-publics are distinguishable, recognizable and can be separated from others -they are homogeneous and they share common traits and features, wirtz thinks they can target with the same message -not every group is important, or deserves attention -smith thinks size is large enough to warrant attention and wirtz thinks large can mean impact

Informal Research

-research that aims to obtain overview of situation or organization -not scientific in method or sample -also known as exploratory research (sometimes called 'casual research')

Informal Research

-research that aims to obtain overview of situation or organization -not scientific in method or sample -people rely too much on informal research in PR

Qualitative Research

-research that derives data from observation, interviews, or verbal interactions -researcher is the primary instrument for data collection and analysis -often involves researcher physically going to the people, setting, etc, to observe or record behavior in its natural setting -examples: ethnographies, individual case studies, in-depth interviews, focus groups

Quantitative Research

-research that examines a state or phenomenon through the numerical representation of observations and statistical analysis -key point: numerical representation/attempt to quantify phenomenon -almost always relies on gathering data from sample and then making inferences to entire population of interest -thus, sampling becomes a major concern

Secondary Research

-research that uses existing data (information) collected to answer a different question(s) that it was originally collected -provides a step beyond informal research -examples: pay for access, free, proprietary or data owned by organization but collected for anther purpose, customer usage or satisfaction surveys, customer complaints, etc

Qualitative Research Weaknesses

-researcher (almost always) present -difficult (some say impossible) to generalize findings -high investments- time, human resources

Writing Objectives

-similar to stakeholder/public debate -almost always written in the infinitive -frequently have time point (within six months, over next 12 months, by 2020) -must be measurable -smith suggests the following 1) public -who are you addressing the message, initiative to? 2) category -awareness, acceptance, action 3) direction -create something new, increase, decrease -note: maintaining support (customer retention) 4) specific effect -flesh out awareness, acceptance or action -what specifically do you want? -recognize message? positive attitude? visit website donate blood? 5) focus 6) performance measure -desired outcome in numerical terms -quantify desired results -increase usage by 30%, increase website traffic by 50% 7) time period -how long you have to achieve result -six months, one year, six weeks

Step 1: Analyzing a Situation

-situation: set of circumstances facing an organization, can be positive and negative -opportunity: something that offers potential advantage to an organization -obstacle: something that limits organization in realizing its mission -management pyramid: issues management, risk management, and crisis management -benchmarking: looking at what organizations are doing; company yourself to those organizations

Positioning Statements

-smith connects organizational goals with "positioning" -positioning: process of ho wan organization distinguishes itself from competitors

Hierarchy of Objectives

-smith states: -'an order hierarchy exists among communication objectives, growing out of a logical progression through the three stages of persuasion: awareness, acceptance, and action' -he then talks about a model of behavior based on three parts 1) cognitive 2) feeling (affective) 3) conative (behavior) -wirtz comment: -derives from hierarchy of effects persuasion model -A: Attitudes -I: Interest -D: Desire -A: Action -problem: pretty discredited model, because research does not support it that said, hierarchy of objectives is a good way to organize what we often do in PR (as well as advertising, marketing)

Typology of Publics

-smith suggests four categories: Producer, Enablers, Limiters, Customers -wirtz suggests that it may be bit of an overkill, and there is a distinction between customers and customers of customers

Objectives

-smith: a statement emerging from an organization's goals; clear and measurable -wirtz: a clear statement of intended purpose that represents a measurable outcome -strategic communication: a measurable destination that represents the achievement of a campaign goal

Goals

-smith: a statement rooted in the organization's mission or vision -wirtz: a broad outcome that indicates to an organization when it has succeeded -strat. comm: a conceptual statement of what you plan to achieve -characteristics: -defines a broad outcome rather than a specific action -some disagreement on whether it is/should be quantifiable -smith: "stated in general terms" -wirtz: tend to think of goals as destinations

Strategic Communication Tactics

-smith: four broad categories of tactics 1) interpersonal communication 2) organizational media 3) news media 4) advertising and promotional media

Tactics (Wirtz)

-specific action or set of actions that enacts or embodies a strategy & leads to accomplishing a desired goal or objective

What to do with Results?

-strengths: maintain and build upon (leverage) -weaknesses: address and improve (if possible) -opportunities: prioritize and maximize -threats: counter by building on strengths

Strategic Planning

-the process of ID an organization's long-term goals and objectives and then determining the best approach for achieving the goals and objectives -usually includes "resource allocation" or budgeting -strategic planning can occur at multiple levels: organization level, department level, but also may occur as a specific campaign

Types of Closed-Ended Scales

1) Likert or Likert-type Scale -scale with a statement; respondents indicate degree of agreement or disagreement -advantages: versatile, easy to construct, easy to understand -disadvantages: easy to misuse 2) Semantic Differential -give participants topic -place series of bipolar or opposite words -participants lean toward one adjective (or other) -advantages: easy to construct, easy to administer, easy to understand, tend to be reliable -disadvantages: only useful for objectives that apply to bipolar adjectives, anchors may mean different things to different people

Smith's 5 Things to consider as you Analyze the Publics

1) Public Relations Situation -assess publics wants, interests, needs, expectations related to an issue, as well as what it does not want or need -implication: if 'basic needs' not met, may influence relationship with organization 2) Organization -consider what impact your organization has on the public and vice versa -consider formal relationship and expectations but also informal relationships -realize that impact often results in response 3) Communication Behavior -identify media channels a public uses: consider who is a credible source -consider who is likely to be accepted -what media do they use? -who is credible? 4) Demographics -consider characteristics such as age, income, gender, etc -at one level, already have done this by identifying characteristics of publics -what do these characteristics mean? -will they affect message strategy? -will they affect message delivery? 5) Personality Preferences -consider psychological and temper mental preferences of public -Wirtz: seems to be stretched, although, much discussion about Baby Boombers vs. Generation X vs. Generation Y

3 Most Common Research Tools for PR

1) Surveys 2) Focus Group 3) In-depth Interviews

Quantitative Research Weaknesses

1) Validity Questions -validity of measures: are you measuring what you think you are measuring -validity of sample: does your sample really represent population 2) Can be time consuming and expensive 3) Ability to make data support what you want -"if you torture your data ling enough, they will confess"

3 Steps According to Smith

1) analyze situation - identify broad issues that may (or may not) be of concern to organization 2) analyze organization - identify & understand individual/groups/situation that are of interest to organization 3) analyze publics - identify publics & the nature of relationships between organization and publics

Two Common Ways to Code Data

1) develop code book (or use one developed by someone else) -look at portion of data -identify themes -look for those themes in rest of data 2) allow themes to emerge in a data -look through all data -identify common words or phrases -report all common words/phrases or discuss those that occur most commonly

Quantitative Research Strength

1) external validity - assuming representative sample, can generalize to others 2) may allow us to make casual statements -ex. exposing teens to fear-inducing images causes lower intention to start smoking -note: usually experiments, certain types of survey designs 3) data allow for fairly sophisticated analyses -ex. comparing by gender, by SES, by religion, etc

Two Components of Strategy According To Smith

1) general strategic approach -proactive vs. reactive -earned media vs. special events -attack vs. conciliatory approach 2) message strategy -strategic decision related to message design and delivery

Steps for Conducting Likert Scale

1) identify topic -often provided by client, dictated by project 2) identify words, concepts associated with topics -anywhere from 10-15 -think of thought listing words, adjectives -can do individually, in group 3) choose most important words -narrow down list of 10-15 to top 3,5,7 -3-5 is a good rule of thumb 4) convert concepts into statements -recall: likert= statement with which someone agrees or disagrees-- NOT A QUESTION 5) pretest by giving to sample -rule of thumb: have about 10 take survey but can go with as few as 5 6) make corrections/adjustments based on feedback -example: suppose you were given the task of measuring how satisfied TTU students are with the SUB

Why does Strategic Planning Fail

1) lack of "stakeholder by in" -often people who are tasked with implementing strategic plan do not believe and/or have not been asked for their input 2) lack of institutional will -change is hard -as such, organization often fail at implementation -may require firing someone/multiple people, eliminating, departments, changing procedures, etc -ex: puck a behavior and change it for a semester 3) effort to thwart implementation -any policy, idea, dept, budget develops a constituency -that is, people who want "it" to continue, so will often actively or passively act to make implementation more difficult -active: doing something to make fail -passive: allowing something to fail by not giving best effort

Conducting Content Analysis

1) prepare for analysis -involves reviewing questions, getting data ready -as mundane as transcribing tapes, making copies, etc 2) get to know your data -read, reread data (2-3 times) -easy to jump in and start making judgements immediately, should avoid this 3) categorize information/code data -we use the term 'coding' -in general: coding data is simply looking for/identifying themes 4) identify patterns and connections within and between categories -example: males & females -within: what themes emerge among males? -between: how are males and females different? 5) interpret the data -what is it that your data is telling you? -given the themes in the data, begin to draw conclusions -males are more likely to... -in general, males say X, while females say Y

Proactive Strategies

1) public relations action -"tangible deeds undertaken by organization to achieve its objectives" -actions or general approaches taken by organization I) organizational performance: what an organization does on a day-to-day basis -never forget: most important thing is what you/organization actually does -components include: quality of products (or services), customer service, adapting to changes in market place II) audience participation -two-way communication: opportunities for publics to respond; not just organization trying to convince publics to think/do something -triggering events: president gives speech; organization opens new building III) special events -staged activities: used to generate audience participation -example: anniversary of company, product launch -recall: publicity stunt: 'gimmick planned mainly to gain publicity' IV) alliances & coalitions -building relationship with groups with similar values and concerns -advantage: can leverage resources -disadvantage: less control V) sponsorships -can sponsor/can use sponsorship in fundraising -ex. charity golf tournament -note: subtle way for business to be a good citizen of community, business to say thank you to customer VI) strategic philanthropy -giving money, supporting cause that align with organizations mission -often used by corporations to improve community relations VII) activism -confrontational strategy -depends greatly on organization -recall: news values-conflict -so, can use this to get publicity 2) Communication Strategies A) positive publicity/earned media -classic use of media to tell our story -note: using credibility of third-party source -story 1: Look at me, I'm great -story 2: Look at him (hmm, he's great) -even though credibility of media has fallen, still higher than "public relations" or "spokesperson" B) newsworthy information -recall hard news values: timeliness, proximity, prominence, impact, conflict -but also soft news values: currency, unusual, human interest -focuses on providing information of interest to media -ex. Texas Tech Tier One status and local media C) transparent communication -"open and observable activity" -need for transparent communication driven by: cynicism, selective attention (to media), technology (amount of information we are exposed to) D) engagement/dialogue -encouraging dialogue with publics -providing opportunities to interact -primarily via social media

3 Types of Goals

1) reputation management goals -focus on identity and perception of organization -recall: visibility and perception -ex: improve reputation of TTU among peer institutions 2) relationship management goals -focus on connecting publics to organization -recall: what is the nature of relationship between a public (or specific publics) and the organization -ex: enhance relationship between TTU and alumni 3) task management goals -focus on "getting certain things done" -that is, everything else you have to do in your job -ex: increase student support for Tier One status -note: still fairly broad and abstract but will become more defined and concrete with objectives

What Makes a Public a Public

1. distinguishable -recognizable, can be separated from others 2. homogeneous -share common traits/features -wirtz: implies can target with same message 3. important to organization -not every identifiable group is important, deserve attention 4. size -smith: large enough to warrant attention -wirtz: large can mean impact 5. accessible -can reach them with messages

Additional Informal Research Tools

5) Google Search 6) Lexis-Nexis Search -note: sometimes hear PR practitioners use term: environmental scanning which is the process of continually acquiring information on events occurring outside the organization to identify and interpret potential trends 7) Informal Discussions or Interviews -ask people affected by situation thoughts, concerns, opinions -note: journalists often to this with person-on-street interviews

Reactive Strategies

A) preemptive action -smith uses term "prerebuttal" -idea is to get your message out first -advantage: potentially gives you greater control as you frame (or attempt to frame) discussion B) offensive response -possibility when operating from position of strength -especially when organization or attacker has high credibility -examples: attack, embarrassment, stock, threat C) defensive response -less aggressive response -caution: may be perceived as shifting blame back to other party -examples: denial, excuse, justification D) diversionary response -shift attention away from problem to something else -caution: can be perceived negatively -examples: concession, ingratiation, disassociation, relabeling E) vocal commiseration -recognizes problem and potential pain and suffering of public -always weighed against potential liability - saying sorry implies you were wrong and you can get sued -example: concern, condolence, regret, apology, CEO toyota example F) rectifying behavior -organization attempts to make changes that address problem -credibility of outside organization -government: nonpartisan investigation -examples: investigation, corrective action, restitution, repentance G) deliberate inaction -often waiting to see if it will blow over or crisis is so deep cannot act (appearance of being under siege) -examples: strategic silence, strategic ambiguity,

Proactive vs. Reactive

A) proactive strategies -launch "under conditions and timeline that fits best for organization" -doing what organization wants when it wants -often ongoing -recall PR principles: planned vs. unplanned change B) reactive -respond to "influences and opportunities from environment" -organization chooses (or is forced) to act because something happens (usually outside its control)

For Organization of Notes

Smith thinks of when you use research, Wirtz thinks of broad types of classes of research

Internal Environment

i) performance -focus on quality and viability -what is the quality of what organization produces? -how viable is organization's mission, goals, etc? ii) niche -focus on position relative to others -what makes your organization unique? iii) structure -focus on structural aspects of organization and PR operation -what resources are available to assist PR function iv) ethical base -focus on how organization sees itself and how it acts