PR Planning

• Focus
• Improved Effectiveness
  • Objectives aligned with organisational goals and brand values
• Resources
  • Budget for PR programmes
  • Better resource maangement
    • Time
    • Money
• Contingency
• Enroll partners, achieve consensus and resolve conflict
• Facilitates pro-activity and control

• Lack of know how
• Lack of consensus
• Perceived lack of time
• Plans quickly outdate
• Planning may be taught to:
  • Stifle opportunistic initatives
  • Result in formulaic programmes

• What is the problem? (Issue)
• What does the plan seek to achieve? (Objective)
• Who should be talked to? (Publics)
• What should be said? (Message)
• What's the big idea? (Strategy)
• What is going to be done? (Tactics)
• How is success judged? (Evaluation)

• Organisation
  • Publics
  • Sectoral Considerations
  • Stage or organisational development
  • Organisational characteristics
  • Issues
  • Public opinion
  • Timescales
  • Resources

Publics

• Types
  • Specify
  • Number and location
  • Influence and power
  • Connection with organisation
• Prioritisation and targeting
• Relationships
• Research attitudes and behaviours

Messaging

• Understanding publics enables the creation of meaningful messages and identify channels
• Messages need to be adapted according to different publics

• How you will achieve objective
• Overall approach
• Coordinating theme
• Guiding principle
• Dictated by issues raised in analysis

Getting Strategy Right

• Based on your research analysis
• Overall PR programme - Sum total of the parts
  • Coordinating theme/big idea
  • Guiding principle
• How will you achieve your objectives?

Why do you need a strategy?

• To know how you are going to do something
• Idea ensures all work adheres to logical approach
• Strategy brings together what you have learnt in research

• Every 12 months
• Test against new issues and publics
• Feedback and refine
• Holistic approach
  • Internal drivers
  • External drivers

• Objectives critical
• Considered at beginning
• Continuous
• Objective and sceintific
• Programmes and processes
• Inputs
• Outputs
• Outcomes
• Measure subjective things
• Media analysis

• Measuring success
• On-going process
• Encourages:
  • Effort and effectiveness
  • Costs efficiency
  • Good management
  • Accountability
• Should not be problematic despite aggregation issues
  • Clear about what is being evaluated
  • Understand what can be achieved
  • SMART objectives

• In-house resources
  • Human
  • Operating costs
  • Equipment
• Consulting costs
  • Retainer
  • Project basis
• Varies
  • How seriously PR function taken
  • Organisations resources

Timescales

• External - Competitor activity
• Internal - Human resources

Planning

• Planning the preparation
• Planning the execution

Timescales

• External - Competitor activity
• Internal - Human resources

Planning

• Planning the preparation
• Planning the execution

Why tactics?

• How you achieve what you want to, tie in with research, focus on achieving objectives, tie in with strategy

Getting tactics right

• Answer strategy, fit with budgets, fit with timescales, fit with resources, fit with brand

Tactics

• What you will do to achieve objectives, how from strategy, appropriateness, deliverability, relates to selecting the right tools and technqiues, relates to creativity

Examples

• Media relations, publications, interest groups, lobbying, community relations

• Helps identify issues that are then addressed in objectives
• Consider environment
  • PESTLE
  • Strategic
• Key issues
  • SWOT
  • Structural
  • Crisis
  • Current Affairs

Setting Types of Objectives

• Awareness - Cognitive
• Attitudes and opinions - Affective
• Behaviour - Conative
• Use - Output objectives and outcomes

Prequisites for Objectives

• Ally to organisational objectives
• Ensure that objectives relate to public relations
• Work to priorities
• Make sure they can be achieved
• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Realistic
• Time-framed

(See Mind Map for diagram)

Analysis --<-->-- Objectives

Publics

Messages

Strategy

Tactics

Timescales   -

Resources

Evaluation

Review