The Public Relations Process

Public relations works best when it is a strategic management function. Strategic

public relations is focused on achieving goals and objectives that contribute to the

overall purpose and mission of an organization. To be strategic, public relations

practitioners need accurate information about the situations they face, the

audiences they communicate with, effectiveness of their communication efforts,

and the overall impact the program has on building and maintaining relationships

with critical stakeholders, without whom the organization could not fulfill its

purpose. Public relations practitioners may be tempted to start with tactics—such

as press releases, a blog, an event, and so on—but these first should be determined

by research, to help inform the overall goals and strategies of the function,

otherwise they may be wasted efforts.

1 Constructing the Strategic Plan for a Public Relations Campaign

This process is primarily composed of four steps: using research to define the

problem or situation, developing objectives and strategies that address the

situation, implementing the strategies, and then measuring the results of the

public relations efforts. Sometimes acronyms, such as John Marston’s RACE

(research, action planning, communication, evaluation) or Jerry Hendrix’s ROPE

(research, objectives, programming, evaluation) are used to describe the

research and ends with evaluation.

Although it is easier to remember such acronyms, the four steps are essentially the

following:

1. Use research to analyze the situation facing the organization and to accurately

define the problem or opportunity in such a way that the public relations efforts

can successfully address the cause of the issue and not just its symptoms.

2. Develop a strategic action plan that addresses the issue that was analyzed in

the first step. This includes having an overall goal, measurable objectives, clearly

identified publics, targeted strategies, and effective tactics.

3. Execute the plan with communication tools and tasks that contribute to

reaching the objectives.

4. Measure whether you were successful in meeting the goals using evaluation

tools.

Step 1: Formative Research to Analyze the Situation

The first step in the process is analyzing the problem or opportunity. This involves

research, either formal or informal, to gather information that best describes what

is going on. Research used to understand the situation and help formulate

strategies is called formative research.

pipeline. It must conduct research to understand what possible obstacles it might

face. Are there any environmentally protected or sensitive regions in the area? Are

there strongly organized neighborhood groups that might oppose the project?

What is the overall public support for natural gas and transportation pipelines?

Community relations professionals are very familiar with the NIMBY (Not In My

Back Yard) sentiment. Additionally, are there acceptable alternatives to the

pipeline construction? Alternative routes? Alternative drilling procedures?

Alternative construction times? All of these questions should be considered before

the first shovel breaks ground.

According to Cutlip, Center, and Broom, research “is the systematic gathering of

information to describe and understand situations and check out assumptions

about publics and public relations consequences.”Cutlip, Center, and Broom

(2006). Much of this information may already exist and may have been collected

by other agencies. Research that has previously been conducted is called

secondary research. For example, the Interstate Natural Gas Association of

America has conducted surveys on public opinion and communication practices of

pipeline companies. Research on NIMBY and other social behaviors is also

available through a review of academic and professional literature. Secondary

sources are the least expensive way to gain background knowledge.

for your purposes. You may need to conduct interviews or focus groups with

neighborhood associations or environmental groups. You might consider surveys

with homeowners and business that might be located near the pipeline (see

Chapter 8 "Public Relations Research: The Key to Strategy"). There are many

different methods to collect the data that is needed to fully understand the

situation. Analysis of previous news stories about pipelines in this region would

give you a good idea about the way this story might be framed by media. Another

analysis of blogs and other social media about pipelines also would be a good idea.

Again the purpose for gathering the information is to help with understanding the

situation.

Using a SWOT Analysis

A very popular tool for analyzing situations is the SWOT (strengths, weaknesses,

opportunities, threats) analysis. This breaks down a situation by looking at the

internal and external factors that might be contributing to the situation before

developing strategies. The internal factors are the Strengths and Weaknesses of

the organization. The external factors are the Opportunities and Threats

existing in the organization’s environment (see Figure 9.1 "SWOT Analysis").

Figure 9.1 SWOT Analysis

organization. For example, the energy company may find that it has very strong

relationships with members of the media, has good employee morale, is financially

sound, and has a culture that values innovation. It may also find that it has weak

relationships with environmental groups and neighborhood associations, has a

culture that promotes confidence in its decisions (perhaps even bordering on

arrogance), and has dedicated few resources in the past toward community

relations. This information helps inform the possible strategies it needs to take

regarding the construction of a new pipeline.

The external factors, opportunities and threats, are usually the reasons the

organization finds itself in the situation. In the case of the energy company, it sees

an opportunity to drill into a new methane gas deposit and provide that energy to

its clients. To the energy company, this appears to be a win-win situation because

it can continue to provide energy to meet the demand of its consumers. However, it
also needs to assess the possible threats, which include probable legal actions from

opposition groups that could lead to court injunctions. Other threats might include

negative coverage of the project by the media, leading to a damaged reputation and

lower public support for the project.

After conducting the SWOT analysis, you can couple the internal factors with the

external factors to suggest possible strategies.

● SO strategies focus on using organizational strengths to capitalize on the

external opportunities.

● ST strategies also use organizational strengths to counter external threats.

● WO strategies address and improve organizational weaknesses to be better

prepared to take advantage of external opportunities.

● WT strategies attempt to correct organizational weaknesses to defend against

external threats.

Constructing a Situation Analysis

Once enough data and information has been collected so that you really do

understand the core contributing factors and not just the surface conditions, then

it is time to write a two-paragraph statement that summarizes the situation. The

first paragraph should redefine the situation using the data collected by your

research. Highlight the insights gained through formal and informal research. The

second paragraph should identify the problems, difficulties, and potential barriers

to resolving the issue. These also should have been identified in the research, and
the research also should help you recommend solutions to these barriers. For

example, the energy company would address the opportunity to provide a new

energy source to its customers using innovation and technology for efficient and

effective delivery of the natural gas, asking its employees to be ambassadors to the

community, and working with the media to tell the positive story of the project. It

would also need to identify that previous pipeline projects have been delayed, and

in some cases halted, because of the effective opposition of environmental groups

and neighborhood associations, and that it needs to improve its efforts with

community relations before starting the project.

From the description paragraphs, a succinct one-sentence

problem/opportunity statement is written that cuts to the core of the

situation and identifies the consequences of not dealing with the problem or

opportunity. For example, for the hypothetical utility pipeline situation, because

environmental and neighborhood groups have been influential in stopping pipeline

projects in the past and this pipeline route is planned to go through sensitive

regions, the company needs to build better relationships with the community

through communication and action that will eliminate or reduce obstacles to

building the pipeline.

Step 2: Strategic Action Planning

The strategic plan should be focused on resolving or capitalizing on the situation

identified in the problem/opportunity statement. It begins by flipping the

the goal might be the following: “To use communication and actions that improve

relationships with key members of the community in order to successfully

complete a pipeline that delivers newly found methane gas to customers.” Notice

that there is room for change with the pipeline plans in this goal statement. The

end goal is to build a pipeline, and in order to achieve this the company may need

to make adjustments to the routes or construction of the pipeline. Care should be

taken not to write goals that suggest that the public will do something you want

them to do. Because publics cannot actually be controlled, it might set up the

organization for failure. Instead, focus should be on what can be done to achieve

the goal, such as communicate and act in such a way that earns the consent or

endorsement of these publics.

The goal provides the direction for the strategic plan and objectives provide the

direction of specific and measurable outcomes necessary to meet the goal. A good

objective meets the following criteria: it should be an end and not a means to the

end; it should be measurable; it should have a time frame; and it should identify

the public for the intended [Link] and Hadley (1999).

● End and not means to an end. An objective should be an outcome that

contributes to the goal. There are three possible outcomes for these objectives:

cognitive (awareness, understanding, remembering), attitudinal (create attitudes,

reinforce positive attitudes, change negative attitudes), and behavior (create

of these outcome objectives are what Lindenmann called “Output

Objectives,”Lindenmann (2003). which are the means to an end. They include the

communication efforts to reach the objectives such as placement of messages in

influential media. These are actually strategies and not objectives (more on this

later).

● Measureable. Objectives also help hold public relations professionals

accountable for their efforts. Public relations should engage only in strategies and

tactics that actually contribute to larger organizational goals. Measurable

objectives often require a comparative number, such as 65% awareness of a

product or program. An objective cannot be set to increase awareness by 20% if the

current level of awareness is unknown. This is why formative research is needed to

establish benchmarks. If no such benchmark exists, then it is customary to

establish a desired level, such as “increase awareness to 85%.” The problem with

this is that you do not know how close you are to that figure before the campaign.

This might be an easy objective to achieve (if your level of awareness is already at

or above 85%) or a very difficult one (if your awareness level is around 20%).

● Time frame. When will the objective be met? If there is no time frame

specified, then it cannot be accountable.

● Identify the public. It is a good idea to identify overall objectives before

tying them to a public. This helps to think about which publics are connected to

the objective. However, to make an objective truly measurable it must identify a

and behaviors. For example, the objective may be to increase attendance at

employee benefits meetings. Research may find that the messages are getting

clogged at middle management, which has many people who have a negative

attitude about the meetings and are not encouraging employees. One objective

might focus on increasing the level of awareness of employees while creating

another objective focused on increasing positive attitudes of middle management.

Of course, this also means that you should look into your meetings and find out

how to improve them.

The objectives should advance overall business goals such as increase sales,

increase share values, retain employees, improve social responsibility, or reduce

litigation. They should also be written within the parameters of possible public

relations outcomes. For example, this might look like a good objective:

● Increase sales of product X by 20% over the next 6 months among younger

consumers (ages 18–24).

However, there are many variables that contribute to increased sales of the product

that are not under the control of public relations such as price, product quality,

and availability. Unless the public relations effort can be isolated to show that it

was the variable that moved the needle on sales (such as positive publicity in one

market that showed increases to sales while all other elements in the marketing

mix remained the same), you may be setting yourself up for failure. And, if sales do
increase, you will not be able to take credit for the increase because of the other

important variables. You would have to share credit with marketing, quality

control, and sales representatives. Public relations can contribute to this larger

goal through increased awareness, improved attitudes, and possible consumer

trials of the product. Provided that the product is of high quality, reasonably

priced, and available to consumers, these activities should contribute to increased

sales. So the following might be the reworked objective:

● Increase awareness of product X among young consumers (18–24) by 20%

within the next 6 months.

Generally there is a hierarchy to the different levels of objectives. Lindenmann

identified three levels of objectives: outputs, outtakes, and [Link]

(2003).

As mentioned previously, output objectives are focused on the effectiveness of

meeting strategies such as the number of placed messages in the media, the size of

the audience that received the message, the percentage of positive messages that

were contained in the stories, and so forth. It is helpful to measure output

objectives because they provide a good indicator of how well the strategy has been

implemented. However, they are not considered objectives as defined in this

section because they are not ends but means to an end. For example, an output

objective might read, “Place 30 stories in prominent newspapers about the product

in the next 3 months.” This is a means to the end of increasing awareness and
could be measured by the output of the message but not the impact of the message.

Therefore, output objectives should be relegated to the strategies section.

Outtake objectives are focused on increasing awareness, understanding, and

retention of the key message points. It is far more important to know that the

audience received the message than whether it was sent out. For example, you may

send out a message in an employee newsletter that reaches 10,000 employees. You

need to be more concerned on the impact that message had than the number of

people it reached.

Outcome objectives are perhaps the most important, but also the most difficult

to achieve. For example, let’s say the public relations program is for the state

highway patrol to increase awareness of the importance of seatbelt usage and the

objective is to decrease the number of fatalities caused by not using a seatbelt.

There is a diffusion process that occurs with adoption of this behavior. First,

drivers need to be aware and understand the safety advantages of seatbelts. Next,

they need to have a positive attitude about wearing seatbelts. Finally, this positive

attitude will hopefully translate to increased use of seatbelts. However, because

people are not always the rational beings we would like them to be, there is a

declining measure of success at each level. People who know what is good for them

do not always like it. “But seatbelts are uncomfortable.” “What if the seatbelt traps

me in the car after an accident?” “Seatbelts wrinkle my clothes.” Even if someone

has a positive attitude toward an issue, they may still not behave congruently with
the attitude. It could be out of habit, laziness, or dysfunction. So to increase

behaviors by 30%, attitude needs to increase by a higher level (50%) and

awareness by an even higher level (80%).

Once the goal of the public relations program and measurable objectives have been

established, it is time to turn attention to strategies. Strategies provide the means

by which objectives are reached. There are certain elements that should be

included in this step. First, identify what is trying to be accomplished with each

public (tie the strategy to an objective). Second, segment audiences based on

common characteristics. Third, create communication strategies that are focused

on the self-interests of the publics. And, fourth, identify how publics will be

reached with messages or actions.

Tie Strategy to Objective

Too often public relations programs have been primarily tactical and have skipped

the strategic step of creating objectives. Public relations professionals are doers

and often want to get to the action first. However, too many tactics have been

executed because of tradition (“We always send out press releases”) than because

of strategy. What makes public relations strategic is having the action tied to the

real needs of the organization. If you come up with a really clever tactic but it does

not help meet any objectives it should be seriously reconsidered. Far too many

resources often are wasted on creative tactics and fall short of addressing the needs

of the issue. At the same time, brainstorming on strategies may lead to a legitimate
idea that was not considered during the objectives phase, and it may require

reevaluating the objectives. But if a strategy cannot be tied to an essential outcome,

then it should not be executed.

Segment Audiences

All groups within publics should be differentiated based on common

characteristics such as demographics, geographics, or psychographics.

Demographics include variables such as gender, income, level of education, and

ethnicity. Females may be connected to the issue very differently than males.

College graduates may have different attitudes than high school graduates.

Geographics describe your public by their location. People living within a

thousand feet of a pipeline may have different attitudes toward energy companies

than those who live a mile or farther from those lines. Psychographics segment

your audience based on their values and lifestyles. People who are single,

adventurous, drive fast cars, and spend a lot of their income on entertainment may

have very different opinions about seatbelts than people who have small children,

drive minivans, and invest most of their money on securities. It is important to

segment your key publics because it will help you identify their self-interests. (See

Chapter 7 "Identifying and Prioritizing Stakeholders and Publics" for more

information on identifying and prioritizing publics.)

Create Communication Based on Self-Interests

and goals. You should ask yourself what your publics value and care about (based

on research). Knowing the demographic, geographic, and/or psychographic

differences of key publics, you can create a message that connects them to your

program. For example, for young adventurous drivers you may want to show how

seatbelts allow them to have more fun by showing how someone on a curvy road

stays snug in the seat, whereas someone without a seatbelt is sliding around and

has less control. Meanwhile, a soccer mom would be more interested in seatbelt

safety messages geared toward children. Once the self-interests have been

identified, a primary message can be created that will give direction to the

communication efforts. These can become slogans if they are clever and effective

enough. The “Click it or Ticket” campaign uses the threat of police monitoring to

encourage compliance. For the young adventurous drivers it might be more

effective to have a message from sports adventurists such as race car drivers or

stunt drivers explain how they rely on seatbelts.

Choose Communication Channels

The last element in the strategy is identifying the channel or medium through

which you can reach target publics. The channels can be mass media, such as

newspapers or television or radio programming. They can be transmitted by other

mediated channels such as e-mail, blogs, or Twitter. They can also be town hall

meetings, mediated slide shows, and face-to-face (interpersonal) communication.

teachers, scientists, doctors, or other experts. For example, if we wanted to reach

parents in our seatbelt campaign, information kits could be sent to teachers to use

in classrooms with students. These materials could be designed to take home and

complete with parents. The messages found in these kits could be supported with

billboards and radio public service announcements, reaching parents while they

are driving. Usually the target audience is reached through multiple points of

contact to reinforce the message.

So the following could be one strategy for the seatbelt campaign: “Appeal to young

parents’ concern for family safety through educational materials that require

interaction between parents and their children enrolled in elementary schools.”

Often, there are several strategies for each public and for each objective.

The most creative element in the strategic planning stage is the tactic. Tactics are

the specific communication tools and tasks that are used to execute the strategy. In

the case of the seatbelt campaign, the tactics would be the elements found in the

educational kit, such as crossword puzzles, coloring books, or interactive games.

They would also be the billboards, public service announcements, Internet Web

sites, social media applications, and other materials. The challenge is to create

tactics that cut through the clutter of all the messages competing for the audience’s

attention. A great deal of brainstorming takes place during this stage to develop

the most creative and clever messages, designs, and activities. However, there is
also the temptation to get carried away with the creativity and lose sight of the

tactics’ purposes. A cardinal rule is to always evaluate your tactics within

established strategies and objectives.

Step 3: Communication Implementation

The best public relations programs include both communication and action. The

old adage “actions speak louder than words” is as true for public relations as it is

for other business disciplines. Sometimes an organization needs to act, or react,

before it can communicate. For example, if employees are not attending training

seminars it might not be enough to try more creative and persuasive messages. The

seminars might need to be more relevant and interesting for the employees

providing something to communicate that might change behaviors. Organizations

should not only expect stakeholders to behave in ways that benefit the

organization; sometimes the organization needs to change its actions and

behaviors to improve these critical relationships.

Two additional components to the public relations process usually are developed

during the communication and action stage: the planning calendar and the

budget. Once the tactics have been determined it is best to plan the development

and execution of the tactics using a calendaring tool such as a Gantt chart (see

Figure 9.2 "Sample Gantt Chart (Numbers Within Bars Are Days to Accomplish

Task)"). A Gantt chart is a horizontal flow chart that provides a graphic illustration

of when tasks should begin and end in comparison to all other tasks.
Figure 9.2 Sample Gantt Chart (Numbers Within Bars Are Days to Accomplish

Task)

The costs for developing, distributing, and executing the tactics should also be

determined. You might want to start with the wish list of all tactics and pare them

down to those that will provide the greatest return on investment. Some tactics

may fall by the wayside when you project their costs against their potential of

meeting your objectives.

Step 4: Evaluation

According to Paine, four concerns should be addressed when evaluating the

effectiveness of a public relations campaign:

● Select a measurement tool.

● Analyze data, draw actionable conclusions, and make recommendations.

● Make changes and measure [Link] (2007).

If you have followed the steps in the public relations process then you have already

identified your audiences and established objectives for each. If your objectives are

measurable then you already have the criteria by which to evaluate the success of

your program. If you set the objective of increasing awareness by 40% then a

benchmark has been set against which to measure. The benchmark

compares your current situation to your past. Paine also recommends comparing

the data gathered to other organizations, such as key competitors. Comparative

analysis makes the data much more relevant. Instead of knowing how much press

coverage has been achieved; it can be compared to how much the competition is

getting to determine what is called share of voice.

Based on this evaluation, the tools that will best help measure against stated

criteria are selected. Generally, the same tools that helped establish the benchmark

data are used. If primary research was used to establish benchmarks then the same

methods are repeated to evaluate success. If you surveyed employees to establish

awareness and attitude benchmarks, then a follow-up survey is the obvious

measurement tool. If you used attendance at employee meetings to establish

behavior benchmarks, then counting attendance after the public relations program
is the appropriate measurement tool. As noted previously, primary research is the

most expensive and requires the most expertise, but it is the best measure of the

real impact of a public relations effort on stated outcome objectives, such as

changes in awareness, attitudes, and behavior.

Probably the most popular evaluation tools used in public relations measure the

output objectives. There are several ways to measure the effectiveness of

communication output, but some are better than others. One of the earliest

methods was clip counting. A clip is an article, broadcast story, or online

message that mentions the company or product. You can either hire a clipping

service or collect your own clips. At the end of a predetermined period, the number

of clips obtained is examined. This measure is the most simple and convenient way

to measure output and is one way to monitor media coverage. It is also the least

informative because you do not know what the clips mean (they are only counted,

not evaluated) except that, perhaps, it has stroked the egos of some senior

management by getting their names in the media.

Many public relations measurement services will analyze media coverage to

evaluate the percentage of articles that contain program key messages, the

prominence of the message (for a press release, whether it was printed on

page 1 versus page 16; in a broadcast, how much time was allocated to the story

and where it appears in the program), the tone of the message (positive,

neutral, negative), and how the media efforts compare with key competitors
(share of voice). These organizations provide metrics that help establish

benchmarks pertaining to program output objectives and strategies. However, to

know if these communications actually affected people’s awareness,

understanding, attitudes, or behaviors, primary research such as surveys needs to

be conducted.

Evaluation and measurement should not take place only at the end of your efforts.

You should be monitoring the media constantly to determine whether your

message is available for people to see (what advertisers call “reach,” public

relations professionals call “opportunities-to-see,” or OTS). If the media

strategy is not working, course corrections in the middle of the program are

required, not after the program has been completed.

Although sophisticated measures of communication output have been developed

over the years, it is still more critical to consider the outtake and outcomes of those

messages. Getting the communication into various channels, be they traditional or

new media, is only the means to the end of affecting attitudes, opinions, and

behaviors. The outcomes need to be measured in order to tie back to organizational

goals and purposes.

Cost comparisons between public relations and advertising messages are not

generally used or encouraged as an evaluation tool because of the difficulty in

measuring the actual impact of these messages. However, we do know that

although public relations and advertising generate the same amount of product
awareness, brand recall, and purchase intention, public relations content produces

higher levels of product knowledge and positive product evaluation than

[Link] and Michaelson (2009), pp. 1–22.

To measure attitudes and opinions, the most popular tool remains the survey.

Public opinion polls and attitude surveys can be conducted and compared to

benchmarks to determine whether the messages and behaviors of an organization

have had the intended effect. Intentions to behave and preferences for purchasing

can also be measured through surveys, providing some figures on people’s

inclinations.

Behaviors can also be measured against benchmarks. Increases in employee

retention, increased donations, and improved sales and investments could all be

used to measure behaviors. Often the connection between communication strategy

and behavioral changes could be due to other variables, so it is important to isolate

and track the impact of the public relations efforts in order to evaluate whether

they are the driving force in the change.

2 Chapter Summary

This chapter reviewed the process by which strategic public relations efforts are

accomplished. The process is very structured. It suggests that formal research be

conducted for formative and evaluative purposes. It requires connecting

communication efforts with goals, objectives, and strategies. This process works
best with planned efforts such as public relations campaigns. You may wonder how

it fits for everyday tasks such as responding to a reporter’s inquiry or writing a

speech for an employee meeting. Because these steps are required for strategic

public relations, they fit everyday duties as well. Regardless of the situation, before

acting or responding the public relations professional asks, “What do I know about

this situation?” (situational analysis); “What do I want to accomplish with my

messages?” (goals and objectives); “How will I accomplish this with my messages?”

(strategy); and “What will I say?” (tactic). This process should be ingrained if the

public relations professional is to become a strategic communicator.