PR THEORY

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PR THEORY

• M.SAHNI

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• Public relations is a management function that
  influences organizational objectives and
  philosophy and facilitates organizational change.

The Means Public relations practitioners
communicate with all relevant internal and
external publics (people groups) to develop
positive relationships and to create consistency
between organizational goals and societal
expectations.
The Purpose Pubic relations practitioners
develop, execute, and evaluate organizational
programs that promote the exchange of influence
and understanding among an organizations
constituent parts and publics.
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The Profession as a Management Function

• Public relations practitioners provide three
  management services essential to the life of an
  organization
• Communicate with internal and external publics.
• Define objectives, policies and philosophies.
• Facilitate organizational change in harmony with
  environment.

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• Managing as a Communicator
• The practitioner acts as a manager as he or she
  seeks to understand in depth management level
  decisions.
• Only then can we clearly communicate those
  decisions to employees and the public.
• Defining Objectives as a Manager
• Public relations can make important contributions
  to forming an organization's ideas about what it
  is, what it should do, and what society wants and
  expects from it.
• Often a managers perception of an organization
  is different from the perception of its publics.

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Communication Tasks

• Public relations practitioners often produce the
  following communication materials
• Press releases
• Annual reports
• Employee magazines
• Electronic newsletters
• PR campaign creations and management

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Matching Philosophy with Behavior

• One of the PR practitioners most strategic roles
  is in the
• Structuring of company philosophy and carrying
  out of that philosophy in practice so that what
  the institution says is not at variance with what
  it does.

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Communicating Public Opinion to Executives

• PR practitioners accurately monitor community
  needs and public opinion regarding organizational
  issues.
• Practitioners participate in management planning
  regarding sensitive public issues.
• Practitioners can then represent the public
  interest and predict public reaction to
  institutional decisions.

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PR The Four-Step Process

• Research in public relations
• understanding public opinion.
• Planning in public relations
• ensuring the effectiveness of the process.
• Action and communication
• how public relations messages are transmitted to
  the publics.
• How public relations is evaluated
• the ways in which practitioners assess the
  outcomes of their activities.

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The Public Relations Process Seeks a Proactive
Responsible Influence

• Recognize that organizational behavior does
  affect public opinion.
• The practitioner attempts to
• predict behavior through research
• plan accordingly to influence behavior
• maximize benefits for all concerned

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What Do We Mean by Responsible Influence?

• Influence is best practiced with a
• high commitment to ethics
• sincere social responsibility
• The practitioner should constantly be asking
  What is in the best interest of society?

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What Is a Public?

• A public is a group of individuals or
  organizations who recognize their connection with
  a common problem, cause or goal.
• There are six major groupings of publics

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Identifying and Defining Publics
Practitioners define publics by several aspects.
Age Gender Ethnicity
Attitude Opinion Behavior
Marital-family status
Education Income level
Political religious affiliation
Work location Residence
Media use
In relation to specific products, services, or
organizations
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Defining Public Opinion

•              Knowledge and information
•              Beliefs (about reality)
•              Values (about goodness)
•              Norms (about behaviour)
•   gt attitudes, which in turn gt contextualise
  and colour specific opinions on specific issues.
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• Public Opinion a set of shared attitudes based
  on knowledge, beliefs, values, norms.
• i.e heart-and-head on an aggregated scale

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Public Opinion in Public Relations

• Public relations deals with public opinion rather
  than mass opinion with the opinion of defined,
  targeted populations.
• These publics have been categorized as groups
  that
• face similar indeterminate situations
• recognize what is indeterminate in their
  situations
• organize to do something about the problem

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Public Opinion in Grunigs Categories

• Public opinion is sorted a little differently by
  James Grunig into three groups ...

Latent Publics
Latent publics do not recognize the problem.
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The Second Grunig Opinion Group
Aware Publics
Aware publics develop from latent publics after
they recognize the problem.
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The Third Grunig Opinion Group
Active Publics
Active publics develop from aware publics after
they begin to do something about the problem.
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The Value of Strategic Public Relations Planning

• Supports an organizations mission, goals.
• Treats cause, not just effects.
• Its strategic communication vs. products.
• The focus is on outcomes, not outputs.
• Plan is dynamic and is updated often.
• It is a management tool that promotes
• accountability.

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Necessary Skills for Strategic Public Relations

• The ability to
• Conduct research on issues, publics and
• organizations.
• Develop strategy, starting with goals and
• objectives.
• Develop a strategic plan with the right
• tactics, budget, and timeline.
• Conduct research to determine if goals
• and objectives were met.

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Research

• What to research?
• 1. The organization itself.
• 2. The organizations current situation.
• 3. The organizations publics.

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Research

• 1. The organization itself
• Internal environment
• performance, structure, barriers to
• success. Conduct SWOT analysis.
• External environment friends and foes.
• Public perception visibility, reputation, what
  publics think about you.

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Research

• 2. The organizations current situation
• What issues does the organization face?
• What problems and/or opportunities does the
  organization face?
• How do these affect the organizations ability to
  achieve its mission?

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Research

• 3. The organizations publics
• Customers current and potential.
• Employees, bankers, suppliers.
• Media, government regulators,
• opinion leaders, industry groups.
• Competitors and opponents, friends
• and foes, publics that can hurt you.

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How to Research

• Qualitative and quantitative research.
• Primary research
• Focus Groups.
• Interviews.
• Surveys/questionnaires.
• Secondary research
• Use existing research and adapt it to your
• situation.

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Developing Strategy Goals

• Goals are grounded in the organizations
• mission.
• Goals are general statements without measurement.
• You should have a number of goals.
• You can set goals for your organizations -
• Reputation how you wish publics to perceive
  you.
• Relationships how you connect with publics.
• Management how you will get things done.

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Developing Strategy Objectives

• Objectives follow goals and show how
• you will achieve them.
• Objectives should be stated so that
• they are measurable.
• Objectives serve as reference points
• for evaluation of your plans success or
• failure.
• You should have several objectives for
• each goal.

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Developing Strategy Objectives

• Objectives should help accomplish
• the following
• Create awareness of the
• organization or some specific aspect
• of it.
• Generate acceptance of something.
• Produce action, such as a change of
• attitude, opinion, or behavior.

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Developing Strategy Objectives

• Objectives must be SMART
• Specific.
• Measurable.
• Attainable.
• Relevant.
• Time-sensitive.

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Tactics

• What will you do to achieve your goals and
• objectives?
• Tactics are the things that publics see and
• touch and feel.
• All too often, public relations professionals
• concentrate of tactics rather than developing
• strategy.
• Remember The focus of strategic public
• relations is on outcomes, not outputs (tactics).

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Tactics

• How will you reach your key publics?
• 1. Face-to-face, or interpersonal
• communication.
• 2. Media relations tactics.
• 3. Internal media for employees.
• 4. Advertising and promotional media.

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Tactics

• 2. Media relations tactics
• Establish a media relations program.
• Press conferences.
• News releases.
• Press kits.
• Video news releases
• Radio actualities.

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Internal Media Tactics

• 3. Internal media for employees
• Publications.
• Direct mail.
• Electronic media
• Intranets.
• Websites.
• Blogs.
• Podcasts.

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Advertising Promotional Media Tactics

• 4. Advertising and promotional
• media
• Print advertising in magazines,
• newspapers, and other publications.
• Broadcast media advertising.
• Outdoor advertising, transit ads.
• Promotions and specialty advertising.

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Program Or Plan Evaluation

• Program or plan evaluation simply
• measures the outcome of the work
• youve done.
• The focus is on goals and objectives
• were they accomplished?
• This is called Research Design.
• Do this well, and you are in an elite
• category among public relations
• professionals.

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Program Or Plan Evaluation

• Expected outcomes
• Increased knowledge among a public.
• Change of attitude among a public.
• Change of behavior among a public.
• Achieve coordinated action that
• achieves mission, goals, objectives.

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Strategic Public Relations Plan

• 1. Title page.
• 2. Executive summary write this last, for
  obvious reasons.
• 3. The communication process/background, a
  teaching tool.
• 4. Situation analysis the issues your
  organization must deal with.
• Organization.
• Situation.
• Publics.
• 5. Recommendations what you propose to do about
  the issues.
• Goals and objectives.
• Strategy.
• 6. Implementation plan how you will proceed
  with PR activities.
• Tactics.
• Timeline.
• Budget.
• 7. Program/plan evaluation, your research design.
• Did you accomplish your goals and objectives?
• How will you prove it?
• What lessons did you learn that will help you
  in the future?

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The Diffusion Process

• Diffusing Information Requires

Identifying audiences by awareness category
Latent Aware Active

• Identifying audiences by target category
• Primary
• Intervening
• Moderating

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The Diffusion Process Involves

• Five stages of adoption that apply equally to
  ideas, products and services
• Four channels of influence only two of which
  are active during any stage of the adoption
  process.

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The Five Stages Of Adoption

• 1. Awareness Topic known but knowledge
  limited.
• 2. Interest Development of interest begins
  information sought.
• 3. Evaluation Idea applied to individual
  situations, more information obtained.
• 4. Trial Use begins on a small scale.
• 5. Adoption Idea, service or product adopted
  after being proven worthwhile.

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Biased Channels of Influence

• Mass media, print and electronic
• Biased intermediaries such as salespersons

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Unbiased Channels of Influence

• Unbiased third parties such as consumer groups
  and government agencies
• Significant others, including spouses, friends,
  relatives and others admired by potential adopters

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Channels Engaged In Each Stage

• mass media and significant others
• mass media and significant others
• unbiased third parties and significant others
• unbiased third parties and significant others
• significant others and personal experience

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Adoption Is Facilitated Through

• Stakeholder analysis categorizing groups that
  perceive themselves as involved in the issue
• Problem analysis examining stakeholder groups
  to determine
• Which should be the subject of each action
  step?
• What action should be taken?
• What results should be sought?
• How each action should fit into the overall
  plan?

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The Analytical Process Assists In

• Identifying communication channels
• Analyzing them in terms of
• Audiences
• Time Factors
• Costs