CHAPTER SIX: Public Relations Practice

Public relations practice covers a wide range of topics ranging from the different skillsets required by PR practitioners operating in companies of different natures to the challenges and pressures faced by PR agencies and their employees regardless of where and how they operate.

I would like to focus on one very important and sometimes overlooked aspect of the public relations practice - the fact that PR cannot be generalized and lumped into one broad category of practice. There are many forms of PR and many ways of conducting PR. The responsibilities of a public relations practitioner and the skills that he or she needs are influenced greatly by the nature of the organization that the practitioner is working for.

THE NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION

The increasing number of non-profit organizations (NPO) means and increasing demand of public relations practitioners who can work for these organizations. In NPOs, the PR practitioner needs to be multiskilled - a jack-of-all-trades, in other words. This is due to the nature of how these companies operate. Areas which are specifically and strategically divided in the corporate sector like marketing, fund-raising and public relations tend to overlap when it comes to NPOs.

There are also a few key differences between the PR practice in the not-for-profit (NFP) sector and the corporate sector. For instance, the two main attributes that NPOs must have are governance and accountability. The organization MUST be properly governed and has to be accountable for everything that it does. For example, money that is collected from fundraisers and donations must be properly and securely channeled to fuel the intended purposes.

For a fresh graduate like me (in about a year's time :)), NPOs are a good place where I can start off and gain experience while honing my skills in the trade. The reasons for this can be found in a very useful list that I came across while reading the course text by Joy Chia and Gae Synnott:

• work with small budgets
• builds up experience in fundraising and promotional areas
• develops people skills (dealing with volunteers)
• cause-based - your objectives, goals and values are clear
• learn importance of communication with target audience
• learn how community organizations work

THE CORPORATE SECTOR

The main aim of the corporate sector is to generate profits, provide returns to shareholders and to continually build and improve their businesses. Clearly, this is a stark contrast to what NPOs exist for and thus, the role of the PR practitioner in this arena differs as well.

Organizational structure plays a key role here as it directly impacts factors like the job scope of the PR practitioner and who the PR practitioner is supposed to report to. For example, a PR agent in a large multi-national company might be required to report directly to two bosses - their line manager and the functional manager.

Compared to NPOs, the line of work of a PR practitioner is the corporate sector tends to be more specific and specialized. This is partly due to the more structured nature of corporate organizations and that departments are clearly defined.

There are several aspects that comprise the public relations umbrella in the corporate sector:

Media Relations

Developing and maintaining strong relationships with national and local media, journalists and organizations.

Government Relations

Maintaining relationships with members of the government (like politicians) to better understand government and political processes.

Shareholder Relations

Point-of-contact for shareholders, providing them with relevant information about the company.

Public Relations

Understand and respond to public's expectations and perceptions of the company and leading community investment programmes.

CHAPTER FIVE: Public Relations Research

Research is a crucial part of any public relations campaign that cannot be overlooked. Any plan or strategy that lacks proper research is more often than not, doomed to failure.

"Research

is to see what

EVERYBODY

has seen and to think what

NOBODY

has thought."

- Albert Szent Gyorgyi, Hungarian bio-chemist.

The research process can be divided into three main stages during a PR campaign.

The first stage is during the input stage, before the actual plan is carried out. The focus of the research done here is mainly to determine the WHO, WHAT, WHY, WHEN and HOW of the campaign itself. These are some of the questions that the research will attempt to answer:

• Identifying the issue/opportunity
• Who are the target audience/consumer?
• What does the consumer need/want/expect?
• Where do we draw the line on what is considered ethical?
• What does the plan want to achieve?
• What are the benchmarks that can be used to measure success (or failure)?
• What strategy shall be used? Which media is most suitable? Etc.

The second stage of research is ongoing throughout the campaign itself. This research includes the measuring and monitoring of statistical elements as the campaign progresses, quantifying them to see if they meet the campaign's intended benchmarks/expectations and adjusting the campaign if necessary to produce the best possible results. For example, a campaign done through a website might measure the number of hits on the site to determine if there is enough participation.

The final stage of research is done after the campaign has been run and is largely used to evaluate and determine the overall result of the PR campaign. This can be determined by asking questions like "Did the consumers react/do what we wanted them to do?" or "Has the problems and issues previously identified been addressed?".

Let us observe a case study featuring the launch campaign of the launch of Match.com in Australia. Match.com is an online dating sites where singles can sign up and find a suitable date.

www.match.com.au

INPUT

The first step the PR agency did was to do research on the current situation. The website was to be launched on a Valentine's Day. Based on their research, they determined that there would be a lot of media noise that would distract their target audience from their website. As such, they took steps in order to overcome this.

They also identified various other issues associated with the launch date and proceeded to plan measures that would address these problems. Competitors were also identified and any issues related to these were also accounted for. Goals and objectives were also reviewed and steps were taken to ensure that these goals would be met.

Also, a full-on survey was conducted on the target audience to find out things like their perception of online dating and what they thought were the pros and cons of online dating.

IMPLEMENTATION

One of the interesting things that they did during the campaign itself was to release the statistics provided by AC Neilson to the media. Now, I've been going on about how research is important to determine many things, but to use the positive results obtained via research as a tool for marketing?? That was definitely something I did not think of.

Traffic on the Australian Match.com website was of course constantly being monitored and measured to determine if the campaign was working.

EVALUATION

The PR agency divided the evaluation research into two categories, QUALITY and QUANTITY. Quality will refer to the campaign's success in leaving a positive impression on consumers and how deep the impact of that impression was. This could be done through surveys and interviews. QUALITY is simply about measuring the number of visitors to the website and to see if there was indeed an increase.

To end off, here is an advert done by Match.com on Youtube.

CHAPTER FOUR: Public Relations Ethics

Ethics is a word that is very easily and commonly used not only in public relations, but in businesses, politics, conflicts and our everyday lives. But is the concept of ethics really as simple as how some people and organizations make it sound?

Ethics concerns mainly behaviour, with the focus being on "good" behavoiur. It's about doing what is "right" and this concerns the morals and values of both, individuals and society as a whole. Theories on ethics revolves mainly around three schools of thought;

Virtue Ethics

Deontology

Consequentialism

Each of these theories focus on different aspects of ethics and morals, as I shall explain in greater detail.

VIRTUE ETHICS

Virtue ethics emphasizes on the development of personal character and values that would guide an individual to decide what is right and what is wrong. This enables a person to have his or her own "bottom line" when it comes to deciding if something is within ethical boundaries.

However, this school of thought has a gaping weakness - virtue ethics are extremely individualistic and subjective as the basis of what is ethical and what is not stems from an individual's set of morals and values. Something that is ethical or good to one person may be deemed as unethical or evil by another individual.

Therefore, virtue ethics is the most subjective and the least clear-cut school of thought regarding ethics.

DEONTOLOGY

Deontology zooms in on the aspect that there is a certain absolute list of morals and principles that have to be followed when deciding if something is ethical. Examples of such lists would be the law, the rules of a game, the required nettiquette of an online forum or even The Ten Commandments.

Deontology is the school of thought which involves the least amount of uncertainty and "gray areas" when determining what is right and wrong. As it focuses on set rules and laws, making "ethical" decisions would be simple and clear cut. However, the main problem with this would be the lack of flexibility. Rules cannot possibly apply to every single situation that arises. Furthermore, there will always be cases where rules, when followed to the letter, results in an "unethical" action rather than an ethical one.

Therefore, deontology presents a very rigid and narrow-minded view on ethics.

CONSEQUENTIALISM

Consequentialism bases itself on the utilitarian principle on taking the action which results in the most positive and beneficial outcome. According to this school of thought, the most ethical solution is the one that would make "everyone happy" in the end.

One advantage of this theory is that it forces the individual (in this case, a PR practitioner) to think ahead and plan for what might happen in future if certain actions are taken. It encourages them to be visionaries, which is an important quality to posses. The downside to this method, though, is that sometimes, in order to achieve the best possible outcomes, undesirable and unethical approaches and actions are taken. Since this school of thought places heavy emphasis on outcomes, such actions are often overlooked.

After reading the chapter on ethics from the textbook, doing my own research and looking through a few examples and case studies, I find that the topic of ethics is an extremely debatable one. It is difficult to make ethics and morals something clear-cut without crossing the line and becoming unforgiving, rigid and inflexible.

Thus, in my opinion, the best way to approach the concept of ethics is to address issues and problems with considerations from all three school of thoughts and then decide the best possible action to take based on careful scrutinizing and analysis. Of course, having said that, I am fully aware that such a statement is much more easily said than done. But I feel that PR agencies and practitioners should at least consider the most ethical options instead of ruling out the concept of ethics altogether just because it is subjective and open-ended.

CASE STUDY: The Launch Of The Coke Zero Brand

Although there are many tried and tested methods when it comes to developing a PR plan or campaign, most of these are centered and developed around the steps listed below:

1. Research
2. Analysis
3. Goal Setting
4. Objective
5. Developing strategies
6. Devising and implementing tactics
7. Monitoring
8. Evaluation

I've done some research and came across an example of an excellent PR campaign organized by the Coca Cola company when it launched one of its products - the Coca Cola Zero. Using the guide above, I will attempt to break down Coca Cola's campaign into the various stages of its development.

Image source: http://www.siampolonews.com/images/logoCokeZero.jpg

Research and analysis:

Through market research, Coca Cola was able to discover that consumers in their 20s preferred healthier drinks (with less sugar) compared to the existing Coca Cola. Although they had the Diet Coke product, males generally stayed away from it as the "diet" label suggests a milder taste. Thus, the company decided to go with the "Real Taste, Zero Sugar" concept.

Goal Setting and Objectives:

While the main goal of the campaign was to successfully launch the Coke Zero brand, the initial PR objective was to launch the Zero Movement - a movement to encourage low-sugar consumption WITHOUT introducing the Coca Cola brand. It was only after the success of this campaign that Coca Cola Zero was officially launched.

Developing Strategies:

The core strategy of the campaign was to launch The Zero Movement (which will gain lots of media publicity and attention) and allow the launch of Coca Cola Zero to ride on the waves of the campaign's success. Sponsorships and additional media campaigns will the follow up to continue advertising the brand.

Implementing tactics:

Following this would be the actual implementation of the strategies which included the Zero Movement and the actual media campaign itself. Here are a few video clips featuring television commercials promoting Coca Cola Zero.

Evaluation:

An evaluation would then be carried out to measure the success of the campaign. Since the brand was able to make the launch of the Zero Movement a complete success, it was able to use it to gain media coverage for the new Zero brand. The objectives of the PR plan was met, therefore making the campaign a success.