Strategy

An important part of any PR campaign is the planning. Before anything can be done, we need to plan the strategy. What is strategy; it can be defined as “a plan designed to achieve a long-term aim”.

And why do we have a need for strategy, this long-term plan.
I guess it is because a PR campaign, like any other type of campaign, would have goals to achieve.

In order for them to achieve these goals, a plan or set of plans will be needed. You cannot just plunge into the water without knowing how deep it is, or what else is in the water. How about trying to swim to Australia from Singapore, and not knowing how far it is or even which direction to swim.

In the former, you might just give your head more than just a nasty bump if you jump into waters that are not deep enough. In the latter, you will end up sleeping with the fishes or be in Malaysia if you are lucky.

It can be the same for a PR campaign without a good strategy, it will struggle and drown.

One point that this chapter had revealed to me is the business element it PR. A PR practitioner might not have to deal with the daily in and outs of a company, but it is important for them to understand it. Another thing that I learned is that the entire process must be top-down, where the public relation role must operate within the decision making dominant coalition of the organization.
This ensures that the PR manager has a say in the planning and development of the strategy. Therefore, it is important for the decision makers in the organization to understand the values of PR.

This means that one part of the PR practitioner’s job is to educate the decision makers.

1st Post

I had once wondered about the difference between Advertising and Public Relations. Therefore, I must say that I am delighted to see such an explanation being offered in the book. The simple but clear explanation state that the main difference between the two is in the way that the message is structured and perceived. How that advertising use controlled message as they are buying space and time in the media.

PR seeks to use the media in a different way from Advertising. I can see how it gives up the control over the message in order to gain credibility, by letting the journalist have the control over the way the story is written.

Another difference I think that the two have is that PR battle is more often than not fought over a longer period of time, as compared to that of an advertising effort.

From the few chapters that I had read so far, I find that contrary to popular and public beliefs, PR is more than just publicity. This is a point that is reinforced during the tutorial, when I am further exposed to the roles of the PR practitioner. What I think is that the role that PR plays in an organization is something similar to that of a ‘gate’ or ‘doorway’. It is though this ‘gate’ that an organization interact with the public.

It is true that the organization can do without PR, but it can do even better with a good PR effort behind it.