|
|
|
Competitive Marketing Analysis
The keyword in this phrase gives us a hint - "competitive". The
competitive marketing analysis is an in-depth study of your
business's competition and the markets available to you in order
to ensure your advertising and public relations budget...
How NOT to Let PowerPoint Kill Your Presentation
PowerPoint is very popular in certain circles. In fact in some organizations a presentation can’t be given without it. But I invite you here to take a second look at the use of PowerPoint because: ·It’s overused ·It can be confusing ·It can be a...
Leading with Power and Authority: Energize Others with Deep Green Leadership
One of the most significant aspects of leadership involves the stewardship of resources both collective and individual. People instinctively want to understand how their needs will be met in the present and in the future. When they are confident...
Make Your Mark – How to Attract Clients and Grow Your Business
Marketing: how you attract clients and promote your business is an important part of your recipe for success and profitability. Developing a strategic marketing plan will ensure your success and allow you to not spend time and money in the wrong...
Strategic Planning Basics
Strategic planning is vital while starting a new business or expansion of an business or planning to boost the performance of an existing business. But it requires detailed strategic planning and controlled deployment activities. Strategic planning...
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Public Relations: Power Tool For The 21st Century
I address this article to businesses, associations, non-profits and public entity managements seeking a direct connection between the money they’re planning to spend on public relations, and the achievement of their organizational objectives.
We can save a lot of time – you and I – if we can agree on one point: I believe that deep down – and I mean DEEP down – most chief executives understand that doing something about the behaviors of their most significant external audiences can rank in importance right up there with increased sales and earnings.
Whether they do anything about it or not is another question. But I believe many sense – as do legislators who know they cannot govern without the consent of the governed – that managements cannot “govern” their enterprises without the support and understanding of their most important audiences. I refer to audiences such as members, supporters, customers, sponsors, prospects, regulators, employees, thoughtleaders, public interest groups, journalists, suppliers, strategic partners, educators, trade unions, community residents and the like.
If I’m right, there are some bright days ahead in this brand new century not only for public relations people but world commerce as well.
Fortunately for all concerned, that success will spring from the fundamental premise of public relations: people act on their own perception of the facts, and those perceptions lead to behaviors about which something can be done. When public relations creates, changes or reinforces that opinion by reaching, persuading and moving-to-desired-action those people whose behaviors affect the organization, the public relations effort is a success.
What that should mean to a CEO seems obvious. “I guess that money I’m spending on public relations really could result in the kind of change in behaviors of my key stakeholders that leads directly to the achievement of my organizational objectives.”
That conclusion will let us do what we do best – reach those key audience perceptions with the facts as we know them. Hopefully, the messages we use will be clear and persuasive, and will create, change or reinforce perceptions as needed, then alter behaviors in the employer/client’s direction.
When the problem solving sequence is completed, that particular public relations mission is accomplished. However, we must constantly guard against simply emphasizing those communications tactics we fervently HOPE will reach the target audience. Instead, we must go further and actively track how well those tactics and persuasive messages are altering the perception of that target audience. And then monitor to what degree audience behaviors have moved in our direction.
This matters in a very important way. Management really CAN establish the desired behavior change up front in the planning phase, then insist on getting that result before pronouncing the public relations effort a success.
What that means is that management’s comfort level with their public relations investment will increase when that investment produces the behavior modification they said they wanted at the beginning of the program. Because they’ll KNOW they’re getting their money’s worth.
This is powerful stuff! A chief executive of an association, a business, a non-profit and even a public entity can work with his or her public relations counsel and agree in the planning phase what they must do to achieve a specified adjustment in the behaviors of a really important
external audience.
Even better, the way to do this is well-known in the public relations business: select your target audience;
gauge its perception levels;
gauge the behaviors that have resulted;
set your public relations goal;
set your public relations strategy;
prepare the persuasive message;
select and implement the communications tactics that will carry the
message to that key audience;
monitor for perception change;
monitor for behavior change and, hopefully, a public relations
success.
What will the employer/client want from us as we move ahead into the 21st Century? I believe s/he will want us to apply our special skills in a way that helps achieve his or her business objectives. But, as always, no matter what strategic plan we create to solve a problem, no matter what tactical program we put in place, at the end of the day, we must modify somebody’s behavior if we are to deliver value to the employer/client and earn our money.
Now, you ask, if public relations is so good, why do some managers shy away from it? I believe it’s because they don’t understand or believe the direct connection between what public relations is capable of delivering , and their need to achieve their specific business objectives.
It’s lost opportunity of the worst kind. And a shame because the reason we do public relations in the first place is to change the behaviors of certain groups of people important to the success of those very Doubting Thomases (and Thomasettes!).
When at last we come to the end game, we’ll continue to ask the $50 question – did we meet the behavior modification goal we established up front? If we did, our public relations program is successful. If we didn’t, we must reevaluate our goal, strategy, messages, communications tactics and our audience perception data gathering methods, and adjust them for the next effort.
Now, when will that employer/client of ours be fully satisfied with the public relations results we have achieved? Only when our “reach, persuade and move-to-desired-action” efforts have produced the visible modification in the behaviors of those target audiences they wish to influence.
Let me conclude our look at Public Relations: Power Tool For The 21st Century by highlighting once again the three benefits our employer/client will continue to receive when the behavioral changes become apparent and meet the program’s original behavior modification goal.
1. Their public relations program will be a success.
2. By achieving the behavioral goal they set at the beginning of the program, they will be using a dependable and accurate public relations performance measurement.
3. When our “reach, persuade and move-to-desired-action” efforts produce that visible modification in the behaviors of those people they wish to influence, they will be using public relations’ core value to its very best advantage ensuring that they really DO receive their “money’s worth.”
end
About the Author
Bob Kelly, public relations counselor, was director of public relations for Pepsi-Cola Co.; AGM-Public Relations, Texaco Inc.; VP-Public Relations, Olin Corp.; VP-Public Relations, Newport
News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co.; director of communications, U.S. Department of the Interior, and deputy assistant press secretary, The White House. mailto:bobkelly@TNI.net
Visit: http://www.prcommentary.com
Speaking: http://www.ExpertsWhoSpeak.org/kelly.html
|
|
|
|
|
| Strategic Planning (in nonprofit or for-profit organizations) |
| Adapted from the Field Guide to Nonprofit Strategic Planning and Facilitation. ... First, a Point About For-Profit and Nonprofit Strategic Planning ... |
| www.managementhelp.org |
|
| Basic Description of Strategic Planning (including key terms to know) |
| Adapted from the Field Guide to Nonprofit Strategic Planning and Facilitation. ... Strategic planning often includes use of several key terms. ... |
| www.managementhelp.org |
|
| Strategic Planning, Strategic Plan, Business Strategy, Strategic ... |
| Strategic planning advice with free strategic planner & sample strategic plan covering mission statement, SWOT analysis with business plan software for cash ... |
| www.planware.org |
|
| Strategic Planning |
| FAQs regarding strategic planning - geared primarily toward non-profit organizations but with enough detail and general information to provide useful ... |
| www.allianceonline.org |
|
| Frequently Asked Questions |
| Strategic Planning · Fundraising · Financial Management · Risk Management · Credit Card Acceptance. The FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) listed on this ... |
| www.allianceonline.org |
|
| Strategic planning - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
| Strategic planning involves defining objectives and developing ... Strategic planning uses "the big picture" to pursue large scale, long term objectives. ... |
| en.wikipedia.org |
|
| 08/26/96 STRATEGIC PLANNING |
| You guessed it: strategic planning. Suddenly, the idea of rising above the ... But if strategic planning is back with a vengeance, it's also back with a ... |
| www.businessweek.com |
|
| Dr. Strategy - Dr. Pete Johnson, Keynote Speaker, Marketing ... |
| StrategicPlanning.com “Turning Change Into A Competitive Advantage”. Dr. Pete's Preview Video Click Here. Take-Away Value Sample Program Handouts ... |
| strategicplanning.com |
|
| Strategic Planning Society: Strategy Development and Implementation |
| Strategic Planning Society: Strategy Development and Implementation. |
| www.sps.org.uk |
|
| Guide 7 |
| Strategic Planning in Smaller Nonprofit Organizations ... In short, as a result of a strategic planning process, an organization will have a clearer idea of ... |
| www.wmich.edu |
|
| STRATEGIC PLANNING MANUAL |
| File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML |
| Your browser may not have a PDF reader available. Google recommends visiting our text version of this document. |
|
| BPubs.com: Strategic Planning & Business Planning Articles |
| Business Publications related to Corporate Strategic Planning. |
| www.bpubs.com |
|
| Strategic Planning Tools |
| Strategic Planning is a method for positioning an organization to take ... A strategic planning process incorporates an in-depth planning model that takes ... |
| www.nsba.org |
|
| Center for Simplified Strategic Planning, Inc. |
| The Center for Simplified Strategic Planning offers training, seminars, consulting, speakers, workshops, a book and a newsletter on strategic management for ... |
| www.cssp.com |
|
| LEADERSHIP: Strategic Planning and Strategic Management |
| Introduction: Is strategic planning really worth it? ... The purpose of strategic planning is to encourage thinking about your organization's "big ... |
| vskn.ca |
|
| The CEO Refresher Archives - Strategic Planning |
| When done right, the integrated strategic planning process can take a ... Strategic Planning and Project Management: The Key to Successful Implementation ... |
| www.refresher.com |
|
| HEFCE : Publications : 2000 : 00/24 - Strategic planning in higher ... |
| This guide reviews good practice in strategic planning in higher education (HE). It originated in a consultation exercise which we held in 1998 to review ... |
| www.hefce.ac.uk |
|
| The Association for Strategic Planning |
| The Association for Strategic Planning (ASP), is a non-profit professional society whose mission is to enable people and organizations to succeed through ... |
| www.strategyplus.org |
|
| Amazon.com: Strategic Planning for Nonprofit Organizations: A ... |
| Amazon.com: Strategic Planning for Nonprofit Organizations: A Practical Guide and Workbook: Books: Michael Allison,Jude Kaye by Michael Allison,Jude Kaye. |
| www.amazon.com |
|
| Amazon.com: Simplified Strategic Planning: A No-Nonsense Guide for ... |
| Amazon.com: Simplified Strategic Planning: A No-Nonsense Guide for Busy People Who Want Results Fast!: Books: Robert W. Bradford,Robert W. Bradford,J. Peter ... |
| www.amazon.com |
|
|