PRPA 602 LECTURE NOTES (PDF Flip) WEEK 1.1. - Steps in the PR Planning Process

The Graduate School: PRPA 602 Public Relations Tactics and Techniques

Lecture Notes Steps in the PR Planning Process
Week 1.1.

For his book title “Of Mice and Men,” of which you may be familiar, American author Steinbeck
took from the Robert Burns, the Scottish poet, a couple of lines from his “To a Mouse” (Burns,
n.d.). Burns wrote:

The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men,
Gang aft agley,
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promis'd joy!

Translation—the best laid plans of mice and men often go wrong—the best of ideas can fail. Dwight
D. Eisenhower, the 34th President of the U.S. and former WWII Army General, said, “In preparing
for battle, I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable” (Eisenhower,
n.d.).

Planning (and Strategic Planning) frequently is the most unappreciated but critical part of public
relations or business planning. Some schools of PR practice cite four major components of planning:
“Research, Planning, Communicating and Evaluation” or “RACE”; others use a slightly different 4-step
approach: “Research, Planning, Implementation and Evaluation” or “RPIE (Figure 1).

Reserch Note: Ideally, you s hould vi ew yo u r
Planning PR pl a nni ng cycl e a s 360-degree
Im plementi ng evol ution. Often, depending o n th e
Evaluation s ubject or event, thi s 360-degree
process becomes 720, or more, a s i t
becomes a continuous process when
a n event or a ctivity i s repeated. Thus,
your “Eva l uation” on the “first” p l an
ca n l ead to additi o na l re s ea rch to
refi ne the planning elements f or i ts
next i teration.

(Figure 1)

Whether you use RACE or RPIE both encompass “four steps.” However, to be complete and
effective, PR planning is a bit more complicated and requires more elements. Therefore, for this course,
we will use RPIE with an expansion, from the basic 4-step PR process to the 10 steps as discussed

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below. (Note: Understanding these elements also can be very useful should you seek professional PR
accreditation. *See note at the end of this paper.)

Background 10-step PR Planning Document Outline
Goals Provide an overview of your project, assignment or task and relevant
information, as brief as necessary—the general “who,” “what,” “when,”
Objectives “why” and “where”; it “sets up” the premise for what you intend to do.
State “what” you intend to accomplish with the project, assignment or
Audiences task.
Messages State “how” you intend to accomplish each goal. For example:
Strategies
Weak—Improve employee understanding of Acme Home Rentals.
Tactics Stronger—Employees will be able to articulate the company’s three
Timeline principles of Acme Home Rentals customer relations.
Provide a list of the various audiences that may be involved.
Budget
Discuss the specifics of the messages for each audience group.
Evaluation Briefly describe “how” you are going to carry out each goal and objective.

Example: Acme Home Rentals will partner with local restaurants and other
stores to provide customer with discount cards to encourage shopping in
the area.
Discuss the specifics of how you are implementing the strategies, such as
using e-mail, Social Media, Media Releases and/or Media Conference,
public events, Editorial Board, etc.
Express when you are going to carry out each element of your plan. This
can be minute-by-minute, hourly, daily, weekly, etc., so that everyone will
know what needs to be done when.
How much money is required to carry out the plan in as much detail as
necessary. Expenses can range from employee costs, printing, travel, and
space rental, to postage, etc.; in other words, what is it going to cost the
organization or a client to carry out the plan and it’s elements.
Discuss how the plan worked, what went “right,” and what went “right,”
and what should be changed or considered for the next plan, including any
“customer” feedback. While you might not use this plan again, it’s nearly
always a good idea to review your efforts so you can make adjustments for
your next plan, if it’s on a completely different project/subject.

Goals, Objectives, Audiences, Strategies and Timeline

Among the above ten elements of a good PR plan, lets take look at several that merit a more in
depth analysis so that you have a good appreciation for things to consider when putting your plan
together.

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Goals

The hoped-for end result that a PR plan wants to achieve:

 Aspirational statements, or
 Recap problem in a positive way to solve, meet a challenge, or maximize an

opportunity
 Don’t have to be “quantifiable”
 Consistent with mission, vision and values – and market positioning
 9-15 words (approximately)

Verbs, Terms Often Used in “Goals”

 to be recognized as the brand of choice  to recapture market share
 to have reputation (or image) as  to win public support
 to regain the trust  to advance social change
 to become a leader  to create a favorable climate
 to fulfill our mission as the preferred  to attract a sell-out crowd

Objectives

Specific measures to achieve on the way to reaching the goal; usually focused on publics. Here
are some types of objectives to consider:

 Outcome: influence your public’s “awareness,” “attitude” or “actions”
 Process: your efforts to “inform,” “educate,” “show,” or “explain”; one-way

communication
 Output: significant benchmarks that demonstrate you are on the path to achieving goal;

frequently involve “attendance,” “coverage,” “reach, and “hits”

Remember, “SMART” objectives are: “Specific,” “Measureable,” “Attainable,” “Relevant (realistic)”
and “Time bound.”

Terms/Verbs Often Used in “Objectives”

 change  achieve, obtain, attain
 increase, improve, gain, maximize rise  maintain, reinforce
 decrease, reduce, minimize, lower  retake, regain, retain
 create, establish  neutralize, oppose, support, endorse
 generate, garner  buy, purchase, consume, give, donate
 activate, adopt, motivate  participate, engage, vote, volunteer

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Audiences

Public relations focuses on developing mutually beneficial relationships between an
organization and its publics. Knowing who those publics are is seminally important to the work we
do. There are a number of different ways to categorize our publics. First, let’s make sure we share
the same definition of the term.

While some argue that targeted “publics” is preferable to “stakeholders” or “audiences.” In
reality, the each of these terms are interchangeably because what we’re talking about are groups of
people who have mutual concerns and/or interests, and who have the ability to influence
(positively or negatively) others, and vice versa. Therefore, generally “publics” are:

 Identifiable
 Homogenous
 Important to the organization
 Large enough to matter
 Reachable

Public relations practitioners generally rejects the notion of a “general public,” as this term is too
ill-defined and serves no useful purpose for planning communication strategies and tactics. You
can't target everyone, and “everyone” may not be a constituent of the issue(s) and client(s). Dr.
James Grunig (University of Maryland, College Park) developed the Situational Theory of Publics
(STP), a segmentation theory, that provides a way to segment, or divide, a larger group of people
into smaller groups, called “publics” (Grunig, 1997; Grunig & Hunt, 1984, Ch. 7). As Broom (2009)
noted, demographics, sociographics, and/or psychographics are standard methods of segmentation.
Grunig surmised that these variables, although useful, were not optimally useful for the purposes of
public relations. At its most basic, Grunig’s STP proposed segmenting publics based on three
variables:

 Problem recognition: The degree to which someone recognizes a problem.
 Level of involvement: The degree to which someone feels connected to that problem.
 Constraint recognition: The degree to which someone feels they can do something

about that problem.

Note:

“Constraint” is an inverse relationship, meaning the higher the constraint recognition,
the less someone feels they can do something about it. This variable can fluctuate on
factors including self-esteem ("My vote doesn't count") and logistics ("I can't find a
babysitter so now I can't go to that town-hall meeting").

Simply, publics can be segmented—and thus more effectively communicated with—based on the
degree to which a person recognizes a problem and feels involved or connected to it, plus the

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degree to which the person feels that he or she can get involved to do something about this
problem. Therefore, a public that feels both a high degree of problem recognition and involvement
and a low level of constraint recognition is a public that an organization should wisely engage and
communicate with as a high-priority “active” public. Broom’s (2009) discussion of publics and the
STP, you might wonder, “Gosh, Grunig’s four standard types of publics seem really useful from an
academic standpoint, but what about in the real world?”

Here is Grunig’s typology:

 All-issue publics—active on all issues
 Apathetic publics—inattentive and inactive on all issues
 Single-issue publics—active on one or a limited number of related issues
 Hot-issue publics—active after media exposure and there is widespread social

conversation.

In the real world, this typology doesn’t necessarily work very well: Who is active on all issues?
Who isn’t aware of at least one issue? The following typology is much more useful for practical PR
purposes. PR practitioners need to understand and watch out for latent, aware, active and activist
publics.

 Latent publics are comprised of people who have low degrees of problem recognition and
level of involvement. Constraint recognition isn't a factor yet. Latents can evolve into
aware publics.

 Aware publics are comprised of people with moderate degrees of problem recognition
and level of involvement. Constraint recognition still really isn't a factor yet. Awares can
evolve into active publics.

 Active publics are comprised of people with high degrees of problem recognition and
level of involvement, plus a low degree of constraint recognition (meaning, they feel
empowered and can/will do something). Active publics are the people with whom
organizations should communicate and engage in a relationship, because when active
publics are ignored and become ticked off, they may likely evolve into activist publics.

 Activist publics are comprised of the people who can present many challenges to
organizations, and—because no prior positive relationship exists—can really be quite
troublesome.

Grunig's four types of publics as presented in Broom (2009) gives us a more robust way of
thinking about who our target publics (or audiences) are for a particular issue, product, service or
problem. However, it isn’t enough to know whether one is aware or unaware. To really understand
who your target audiences are, you need to know as much about them as you can. Here are some of
the variables to consider:

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 Age
 Gender
 Race
 Geography (urban vs. rural, east, west, north, south, local, national, international, etc)
 Education
 Political orientation
 Cultural differences
 Sexual orientation
 Religious affiliations
 Married, unmarried, with or without children
 Profession
 Health condition (good health? Chronic condition? Insured? Uninsured?)
 Internal vs. external
 Attitudes, wants, needs
 Level of knowledge
 Media-use habits

Not all of these will be important to every issue, and you may identify other variables as you
explore a particular issue or situation. The whole point of really understanding the publics is that it
affects how you do everything else: what strategies you pursue, what tactics you use, how you
write, what media outlets you select, etc. Knowing your audience is critical foundational analysis.

Strategies**

The “approach” or “how” PR practitioner and client are going to reach the objectives. Strategies
are not measureable; however, they can be “proactive” or “reactive.” Strategies often involve:

 Positioning: An assertion of how an organization seeks to distinguish itself from peers or
competitors or your particular niche. Your organization earns this reputation when it
achieves the goal. Sample positioning statements:

o The leader that sets industry standards
o Offers best (value, quality, locations, reliability)
o Most prestigious
o Preferred brand among
o Family-friendly company, (environmentally-sensitive, pet-friendly)

 Intensity: Change tone, volume or level of activity. They may ratchet up support, seek to
tone down concerns, neutralize criticisms, or show ardent support.

 Attention: To get credit or draw in more customers or fans, this strategy involves
publicizing, highlighting or showcasing good work, new products or improved services.

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 Buzz: Get people talking about and engaging in; hard to measure.

 Channels: The various media and methods used to reach your publics. Media, web, new
media, events, newsletters, texts, tweets, posts. You may want to mobilize your forces, or
generate attention by using media or new media, internal channels.

 Alliances: Consider involving or becoming involved with others through a partnership,
coalition, alliance or sponsorship. Sometimes there is strength in numbers, other times
the alliance symbolizes a new direction or infers new efforts. Have others speak on your
behalf.

 Audience Participation: Involve your supporters (stakeholders). Encourage them to take
actions intended to affect the outcomes. For example: “Rock the Vote” showed that
younger Americans cared or that a cause or candidate had momentum, with a result that
younger voters turned out in higher numbers in 2008 and 2012.

 Divert: Attempt to change the focus of the inquiry, article, or concern. It might include
shifting blame to another entity, offering new information, shift attention, divert focus, or
indicating another party’s actions.

 Engage: When dealing with causes, social concern, environmental issues, organization
may want to involve supporters. Advocates are vocal proponents for the cause, while
activists are more inclined to take action (march, picket, write letters, protest, testify).
You may also lure, challenge, or bait opponents.

 Frame: Adjust the criteria and context in the marketplace by recasting, labeling,
screening or filtering.

 Strategic inaction: Take no overt action (for now); sometimes an organization may opt to
stay silent or not acknowledge a situation. Terms used may involve: pass, stay out of, do
not comment on, or refrain. Similarly, the organization may stay on course, for now,
while they launch an investigation or study.

PR Writing
For events, the “first” i teration of an event (or activity) i t i s ca l l ed th e “I na u gu ra l XYZ
Cha l lenge” (event); for the second a nd s ubsequent events, they be come “2nd An n u a l XYZ
Cha l lenge,” etc.

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Verbs/Terms Often Used in Strategies

 Position  Take a stand, line in the sand,
unwavering commitment, stand behind

 Humanize, glamorize, symbolize, put a  Pass, pause, stay out of, do not comment,
trusted face on refrain from, stay above the fray ….

 Publicize, promote, highlight, showcase,  Divert, pre-empt, attack, counter, rebut,
draw attention, display, parade shift attention, re-label, refocus, redirect

 Generate a buzz, create momentum,  Investigate, determine, probe
foster participation, build anticipation  Rectify, correct

 Encourage, sway, motivate, ease the way

 Activate, mobilize  Commiserate, concede, confess,
apologize, regret, repent

 Ally, partner, sponsor, in tandem, form a  Attack, call out, pre-empt, feed off
coalition

Timeline

You should develop a timeline as a way to ensure you implement your plan’s tactics effectively
and “timely” and assign responsibility so that everyone has a clear picture of who does what when.
This can be done with a simple linear chronology or perhaps with a table; for example:

LINEAR TIMELINE DONE TASK STAFF MEMBER RESPONSIBLE
 Media release Natasha Adams
DATE  Media response coordination Brian Wilson
January 15 Post release to Social Media Natasha Adams
 Write script for Open House video Dinesh Ibrahim

Natasha Adams
January 16 ☐ Prepare Open House brochure
Robert Brown
January 18 ☐ Print Open House brochure Dinesh Ibrahim
☐ Shoot Open House video
Amy Williston
January 20 ☐ Open House Coordinator

Organizations may or may not have an established format. Therefore, if there is no set style or
format for the timeline (or a plan in general or other products), you just have to make it easy for
everyone to understand and follow—the “who does what, when.”

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* For more information on the PR professional accreditation, read: The Universal Public Relations

(APR/ABC) Study Guide (2016) found in your Webliography; the elements of Planning you would
be tested on begin on page 20.

** For more information on strategies, read: The Elements of Influence, by Alan Kelly. Credit and

appreciation on the “Strategies” language goes to: Susan Whyte Simon, University of Maryland
(College Park, MD). For

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References

Broom, G. (2009). Cutlip & Center’s Effective Public Relations (10th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Prentice Hall.

Burns, R. (n.d.). Alexander Burns Club. Retrieved from
http://www.robertburns.org.uk/Assets/Poems_Songs/toamouse.htm

Grunig, J. E. (1997). A situational theory of publics: Conceptual history, recent challenges and
new research. In D. Moss, T. MacManus, & D. Vercic (Eds.), Public relations research: An
international perspective (pp. 3–48). London: International Thomson Business Press.

Grunig, J. E. & Hunt, Todd. (1984). Managing Public Relations. Austin, TX: Holt, Rinehart and
Winston.

Eisenhower, D. D. (n.d.). The Quotations Page. Retrieved from
http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Dwight_D._Eisenhower

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