week 10s readings

This weeks readings are from Chapters 7 and 8 – Strategy, Planning and Scheduling/Tactics in Public relations: theory and practice / edited by Jane Johnston and Clara Zawawi. Crows Nest, N.S.W. Allen & Unwin, 2004. 2nd ed.

I think the key points to remember from these readings are:

• Organisational strategy is a pattern or plan that integrates an organisation’s major goals, policies and action sequences into a cohesive whole

An excellent communication/public relations department:
• Run by managers who make communication policy decisions and accept responsibility for the success or failure of programmes
• Contributes significantly to the organizations strategic plan and organisational decision-making
• Works with top management to solve organisational problems that involve communication relationships
• Facilities 2way communication between top management and key stakeholders, helping them understand each other and developing win-win situations
• Uses formal and informal research techniques to understand the environment inside and outside the organistaion to identify key issues

A mission statement is formulated to help close the gap between the unsatisfactory present and the more perfect future, it is:
• Consistent with and supportive of an organizations vision
• The road map that describes how the organization will move to reach its vision
• The means of telling people why the organization is in business
• The source of strategies that collectively create a business plan

Lester Potter’s (1997) ‘ten-step’ strategic communication plan
1. Executive summary
2. The communication process
3. Background
4. Situation analysis
5. Main message statement
6. Stakeholders
7. Messages for key stakeholders
8. Implementation
9. Budget
10. Monitoring and evaluation

Tactics can be broken into 2 main groups –
Controlled – advertising/annual reports/brochures/posters/direct mail/adversarial
Uncontrolled – media relations/ public meeting etc

Methods of delivery
• Mail
• Faxes
• News distribution agencies
• Email
• CD-ROMs
• Couriers
• Videos
• Video-conferencing
• Personal delivery
• Websites

This weeks readings made me reflect upon the detailed work that goes into being a public relations practitioner and the extreme importance of the need to be a very organised and neat person. These chapters were very practical and instead of the previous chapters which usually cause me to reflect this weeks was very detailed and more something that I will flick back to in order to get fine details such as the standard envelope size and wether to use single coloured publications or two, three, four or five colour publications.