Textbook Chapter 13

In this chapter, I learnt about how different Asian nations have different public relations ideologies. As different countries have different cultures, their public relations ideologies would not be the same. Thus, it would be difficult to classify all aspects of Asian public relations into one theoretical model.

As a result, communications have to be framed within the boundaries of cultural, religious and social norms of each community and public. I feel that this is especially important for practitioners dealing with international campaigns within Asia. If a public relations practitioner has little understanding of a nation’s culture, he or she may end up offending the community unintentionally.

For instance, a public relations campaign for an international refugee resettlement programme involved encouraging Vietnamese boat people to take up aided pig farming as a livelihood. While this programme was feasible and could benefit the refugees in the long run, it did not go down well with Malaysia and Indonesia. The promotional videos on pig farming had offended the Muslim-majority communities in these nations.

Public relations practitioners have also tweaked the same campaign into different versions to suit varying tastes in different countries. South Korea’s tourism campaign in 2009 had different promotional videos for broadcasting in different countries. The public relations team had strategically used the celebrities’ varying popularity in different countries to maximise the campaign’s potential. For instance, the Japanese version of the promotional video made use of a pop group which had a steady foothold in the Japanese music market, while the Chinese version featured celebrities who have a strong fan base in China.

Thus, I feel that a public relations practitioner has to be sensitive to foreign culture and social norms and trends when handling international campaigns, especially in Asia. I also think that practitioners should do extensive research on a country’s background and demographics when planning an international public relations campaign.

Textbook Chapter 12

In this chapter, I learnt about the effects of technological advancement on the relationships and communication between organisation and publics, and audiences and communities. With the rise of new media, public relations practitioners have more options when attempting to disseminate its intended communication message in a campaign.

The Internet has become a useful medium in many public relations campaigns. Several online public relations campaigns have enjoyed success in the recent years. For instance, IKEA’s public relations campaign on Facebook not only managed to reach out to international audiences, it also drew praise from many. The campaign utilised one of Facebook’s basic functions: adding tags to photos. Photographs of IKEA’s showrooms were uploaded to its Facebook profile and users were encouraged to tag products in the photos with their names for a chance to win that item. This promotional campaign went viral and Facebook users promoted it through their news feed and profiles.

I was particularly impressed with this campaign as it did not incur high costs and took relatively little effort to implement, but it successfully managed to grab the attention of netizens worldwide. From this, it is evident that new media can be a powerful tool for public relations campaign.

However, the rise of new media has also created more ethical and legal issues for public relations practitioners to consider. The anonymity of the Internet makes it easy for users to fall prey to unethical or even illegal practices. For businesspeople, also increases the temptation to engage in unethical behaviour to reap more profits.

While it can be lucrative to utilise the Internet to promote a public relations campaign, I feel that it is important for organisations and practitioners to ensure that all aspects of their campaigns are above board, even if it is at the expense of some benefits.

Textbook Chapter 11

This chapter gave me some insight on how public relations practitioners work with the media to disseminate the organisation's intended communication message. Media relations are an important aspect of public relations practice.

The media and public relations practitioners have an interdependent relationship. The media is reliant on public relations practitioners to keep them updated and provide news resources through media releases as time constraints do not allow them to follow up on every new lead.

Besides helping to fill journalists in on the latest news, public relations practitioners also rely on the media to disseminate the organisation’s message in a PR campaign. The media is a powerful communication tool as it has a large outreach and has some influence over its audience. Thus, I feel that the media is the most efficient way for public relations practitioners to market their campaigns.

I learnt that in any public relations campaign, it is better to err on the side of caution and under-promise. Losing the media’s trust has adverse effects on the public relations practitioner and client thus it is unwise to over-promise and be unable to meet expectations.

As mentioned in an earlier post, the media has significant control over an organisation’s reputation. Thus, I feel that it is important for public relations practitioners to foster good relations with the media as it is beneficial to both parties in the long run.

Textbook Chapter 10

Chapter 10 sheds light on issues and crisis management in public relations practice. As organisations function in an open environment, they have to be responsive to changing opinions and expectations from the public. Thus, it is important for public relations practitioners to be well-versed in issues and crisis management so that they can deal with such matters effectively.

As mentioned in Chapter 8, a public relations practitioner is responsible for reputation management in the organisation. This chapter gave me more insight on how reputation management is related to public relations. When a public relations practitioner is able to manage a crisis effectively, this helps in salvaging the organisation’s reputation, which may have been damaged when problems arose.

MasterFoods faced a crisis in 2005 when it received extortion letters from an unidentified source, where it threatened to contaminate MasterFood’s food products. As MasterFoods was able to settle the crisis effectively by placing public interest as its priority, it received praise from the public. This even resulted in a reputation enhancement for MasterFoods when it won several best practice awards for its crisis management campaign.

Conversely, poor crisis management can cause substantial damage to an organisation’s reputation. In 2010, Johnson and Johnson’s reputation took a severe beating when it failed to properly manage a product scandal. Several of its drugs had to be pulled off the shelves as people were reported to have suffered adverse effects after consuming them. The root of the problem was traced to contamination during shipping to its distributors. Johnson and Johnson was widely criticised for its slow response to complaints and failure to inform the Food and Drug Administration promptly.

From the above incidents, I feel that it is important to place public interest as a priority in issues and crisis management. The public is a primary stakeholder of the organisation. It would be unwise for an organisation to have a poor relationship with the public as it risks damaging its reputation.

In my opinion, public relations practitioners should always be prepared to face crises. In this way, the organisation would be able to respond to problems quickly and effectively to minimise losses.

Textbook Chapter 9

In this chapter, I learnt about strategies in public relations practice. Strategies are developed through analysing research results and assessing the best way to create intended meanings through a contested space. These intended meanings encompass product marketing and reputation management for the organisation.

I feel that creating strategies is an important aspect in any public relations campaign. With a strategy or strategies in place, the organisation would be able to come up with a specific goal which it can work towards. In this way, it reduces the possibility of any sidetracking which can result from the lack of a clearly defined goal.

While having a strategy in place is largely beneficial to the organisation, I feel that it also has some limitations. When a strategy is present, people may feel inclined to strictly follow the initial strategic plan even when circumstances have changed. This can cause the organisation to be unable to reach its goal or it may even suffer losses.

However, having a strategy in public relations practice is still important. As mentioned in the textbook, the lack of a strategy is more likely to cause a public relations campaign to fail. In my opinion, it is important for the organisation to adopt a flexible mindset so that it can achieve its goals in the best way possible.

Textbook Chapter 8

This chapter gave some insight into reputation management for organisations. It is indeed important for an organisation to have a positive reputation as it can make or break a potential client’s first impression of it. These days, reputation management is a part of public relations practitioners’ jobs.

I agree with the textbook’s notion that an organisation’s relationship with its stakeholders plays an important part in determining its reputation. One stakeholder who has a particularly large influence on an organisation’s reputation is its clients. When an organisation has a poor relationship with its client, it would mean that the client is dissatisfied with the organisation. If the client spreads the news about his bad experience, it can cause others to have a poor perception of the organisation too. In this way, the organisation’s reputation would have suffered some damage.

I feel that the media also has significant control over an organisation’s reputation, even though it is not a primary stakeholder. The public relies heavily on mass media for information on international and local affairs. Thus, any information disseminated by the media will have a large outreach.

According to the hypodermic needle communication theory, the media holds significant influence over public opinion. If the media portrays an organisation in a negative light, the public is likely to have a poor perception of the organisation. In this way, the organisation’s reputation would take a beating.

Although reputation management is part of a public relations practitioner’s responsibilities, I feel the organisation cannot solely rely on it. The other corporate functions are also responsible for reputation management. If one department in the organisation is unable to build a satisfactory relationship with its stakeholders, the damage to its reputation is already done and the effort made by the public relations practitioner to build a positive reputation would have been futile.

Textbook Chapter 7

In this chapter, I learnt that public relations practitioners are responsible for building relationships with employees and also the external publics.

In my opinion, it is important for public relations practitioners to be aware of the relationships between the public relations department and other corporate functions.

When the different departments have a clear idea of how they will interact and work with one another, each department’s tasks and responsibilities are clearly defined. In this way, individuals would be able to have better focus on their responsibilities and increase efficiency. When each department’s tasks are clearly defined, it also reduces the possibility of conflict arising from task confusion. The departments will then be able to work together smoothly towards achieving organisational goals.

Besides, when public relations practitioners are aware of the internal relationships in the organisation, they can help to mediate and settle any internal disputes.

In this chapter, I also learnt about open and closed systems in organisations. This part of the chapter was quite similar to Chapter 3, where it gave some insight on the system theory and questioned if it is possible for an organisation to be completely closed.

In my opinion, it is not only impossible for an organisation to be completely closed; it is also unhealthy for the organisation in the long run. Closed organisations have low regard for the environment. As a result, the organisation is unable to identify incongruence with the environment and this can cause a clash of interest with the public or fellow entities. This can damage the organisation’s reputation and affect its survival.

Textbook Chapter 6

In this chapter, I learnt about the standard practices of public relations practitioners. Regardless of the work environment, public relations practitioners are bound to face challenges daily. However, public relations is an important part of any organisation as it is able to create improved understanding, mutual benefits and joint action both internally and externally.

Public relations practitioners aim to foster good working relations between organisations and their stakeholders and communities. They work towards achieving this goal through communication between these entities.

I felt that this chapter is rather similar to chapter 4, where it discussed public relations ethics. In my opinion, public relations practitioners do not just have to behave ethically and maintain communication in order to maintain good relations with fellow entities and the community. They also have to behave diplomatically and be sensitive to others.

This notion can be proven from the recent Mediacorp fiasco, where its public relations officers sent emails to its advertisers, encouraging them to book advertisement slots during news updates on the earthquake and tsunami in Japan as it would have high viewership during those time slots.

While this was a pragmatic business tactic and was not considered unethical, this incident drew a great deal of flak. The public thought that it was "insensitive and tasteless" to draw on a tragedy to increase profit. As a result, Mediacorp had to issue an apology.

The criticism against Mediacorp in relation to this issue had caused some damage to its reputation. I have learnt it is also crucial for PR practitioners to be sensitive towards the public so that the organisation can maintain a positive image and a good reputation.

Week 7 Textbook Chapter 3, 4 & 5

Week 7

Week 7's lecture was slightly different from previous ones. In this lecture, we went in depth into how a public relations campaign is carried out. The sportswear label Reebok was used as a case study.

In Reebok's public relations campaign, it roped in the aerobics guru Mr Motivator for its brand promotional activities. The campaign aimed to increase public awareness on the brand and encourage females to work out regularly. Mr Motivator was scheduled to appear on talk shows on television and radio, where he would dish out advice on healthy living and exercising.

This campaign aimed to reach out to audiences globally and Mr Motivator travelled to many countries to promote Reebok. In the Singapore leg of the promotional activities, a mass workout was held at Vivocity and an aerobics dance party was held at Zirca.

The campaign was largely successful, judging from the overwhelming response from the public and rave reviews from the media. I have learnt that it is important for organisations to have a clear idea of their target markets in order to execute their campaigns effectively.

In Reebok's case, the organisation had a very specific target audience - young and health conscious females. In this way, it allowed Reebok to plan its promotional activities so that it could have a maximum outreach. For instance, Reebok arranged for its workout events at a shopping mall and a nightspot - places which its target audience is likely to frequent. Thus, it is important for a PR practitioner to have adequate research while planning a campaign in order to pin down its target audience.

Chapter 3

In Chapter 3, I learnt about some theories which are utilised in public relations practice. The system theory postulates that an organisation has to adapt to the surrounding environment in order to survive. A change in environment will lead to response by the organisation as it adapts to the new environmental conditions. The extent in which an organisation interacts with its surrounding environment depends on whether it is closed or open. An open organisation interacts frequently with its surrounding environment and constantly adapts to changes, and vice versa for a closed organisation.

Is it possible for an organisation to be completely closed then?

In my opinion, any business oriented organisation has to be open and adapt quickly to changes in order to stay afloat. A business-oriented organisation functions by making monetary deals and exchanges with consumers and other organisations, thus there will definitely be external interaction involved.

For instance, an apparel retail business has to keep up with the latest fashion trends so that it will know which products to manufacture or import, in order to maintain consumer appeal. The organisation has to alter its range of products according to the changes in environment (i.e. trends). In this way, it would not risk losing its clients to competitors.

Chapter 4

In this chapter, I read about how three organisations' public relations campaigns were criticised for being unethical: Walmart, Coke Zero and Al Gore's party. All the above campaigns were likely to have come under fire for misleading the public. In all cases, the audience was given the impression that the publicity messages were created by members of the public and were not related to the organisation. While this was not illegal, it was unethical as the public was deliberately misled.

I feel that behaving ethically is important in public relations practice as an individual's or an organisation's image is at stake. This chapter brings me to the Australian Wheat Board (AWB) saga, which was also mentioned in the debate. The AWB had been embroiled in a legal tussle for allegedly having shady deals in the Iraqi wheat market. While the organisation was advised to issue a public apology during the ongoing lawsuit, AWB chose to deny all involvement instead. Evidence of AWB's illegal activities was made public after the lawsuit ended, and AWB's reputation was left in tatters. The public was particularly unhappy with AWB's dishonesty when it refused to apologise during the court proceedings.

The saga also had an adverse effect on AWB's revenue as there was a loss of consumer confidence. Thus, it is important to behave ethically as can help to build a positive image for the organisation and prevent unnecessary losses.

Chapter 5

In this chapter, I learnt that it is important for public relations practitioners to conduct thorough research on clients and consumers when planning a campaign. Research enables a PR practitioner lay concrete plans which can be beneficial for the organisation, without having too many doubts or speculations.

When researching, a PR practitioner can look at primary and secondary data. Primary data refers to information that is gathered by the PR practitioner himself, specifically for the campaign. Secondary data is information that has been gathered by other researchers for other purposes.

I feel that secondary data may not be as useful as primary data sources. Secondary data sources are not specifically tailored for the subject campaign, thus it may not be able to provide as accurate or as useful information in comparison to primary data sources. However, secondary data can come in useful if the PR practitioner would like to compare results. For instance, a PR practitioner may need to compare the number of guests who turned up for the same publicity event at different locations, and these statistics may be gathered by another researcher. In this way, the PR practitioner would be able to judge which location would be a better place to hold a PR event.

By having appropriate research, the PR practitioner would be more well-learned on the clients' and consumers' needs and expectations. In this way, the PR practitioner would be able to find ways to reach out and engage the audience while keeping the clients' interests and values in check.

Week 6

This week's lecture gave additional insight into the different job scopes of PR practitioners and journalists. While journalists are free to interpret information at their own discretion, PR practitioners have to interpret and find an angle directly from the sources provided by the client.

PR practitioners may also look for third party sources to support the organisational positioning of the client. For instance, a PR practitioner doing a feature on sports may also look for sport apparel brands to strengthen the newsworthiness of the press release.

I have learnt that a PR practitioner cannot rely only on the resources provided by the client to create a good press release. A PR practitioner has to do additional research in order to fully understand the position of the organisation in the market. A PR practitioner can include the SWOT guidelines in his research to gather adequate information required for the PR campaign.

Relationships between PR practitioners and the media have to be built on trust and positive experiences from both parties. I have learnt that a PR practitioner's job does not just involve creating a positive image for the client. A PR practitioner also has to foster good relationships with journalists so that there will be a better chance of his press release being used in the publication. In the highly competitive media industry, it is important to have an edge over other competitors and this can be achieved by having positive media relations. However, I have some suspicions on the ethical issues linked to this. Would a journalist publish a media release of a poor quality just because he has close media relations to the PR practitioners?

What do you think?

Case Study - Australian Lunch Week

Sanitarium Lunch Today was the first to introduce heat-and-eat lunches to cater to the busy lifestyles of working women. However, there was a lull in the sales of the products due to misconceptions on the nutritional value of packaged meals and there was low awareness of Lunch Today.

Australian Lunch Week was launched to increase public awareness on the nutritional value of Sanitarium's products and the convenience of packaged lunches.

Interestingly, Sanitarium's PR campaign followed all aspects of the SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, objectives and threats) guidelines, and the campaign proved to be a success, with the outcome exceeding the measurable objectives.

Sanitarium secured speaking events at major organisations such as Telstra, Pfizer and Ernst & Young. Besides, it also engaged high profile spokespeople to convey their marketing message to the public. From this, I have learnt that using prominent organisations or individuals enables the PR practitioner to increase the credibility of the campaign, thus increasing its chances of succeeding.

Experiential marketing was also employed in the campaign. Product samples were distributed to consumers and the spokespeople talked about their personal experiences with Lunch Today. This form of marketing enabled the public to judge for themselves if the food was nutritious and convenient enough for a quick and healthy lunch. Getting the spokespeople to relate their experiences with Lunch Today would play on the public's emotions and convince them to buy the product.

However, I feel that Sanitarium could have done even more to achieve its objective. Besides hiring high profile spokespeople to endorse Lunch Today, laymen could have been roped in to speak too. The target audience of the campaign had been young women who were too busy with work to get a healthy lunch. Perhaps Sanitarium could get a few individuals who fall within this category to sample Lunch Today and then get them to speak about how it has benefited them. The target audience would probably be convinced to buy Lunch Today more easily as the spokespeople have similar lifestyles and would be able to relate better to them.

Week 4 + Textbook Chapter 2

This week's lecture gave me some insight to how PR practitioners plan marketing strategies. Planning is important as it enables organisations to minimise losses and maximise their resources.

Research is an integral part of planning. It ascertains how best to position the organisation's offering and enables the PR practitioner to create a suitable marketing strategy. Research also allows the PR practitioner to gather essential data which can aid in deciding which type of strategy to implement.

However, public relations is not a sure-win way to attract consumers, as the marketing strategies may not impress the audience enough to persuade them to purchase the marketed product or join the marketed activity.

Public relations work best when an integrated communication campaign is involved. An integrated communication campaign employs various forms of media to transmit the same message. For instance, the same public relations campaign used for promoting a particular product can be found in both newspapers and on advertising billboards. With the advent of new media, integrated communication campaigns have become more complex and have a larger outreach now.

Within new media, communication trends are also constantly evolving. In the recent years, many public relations campaigns have taken to social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace to send out communication messages. Organisations have also taken to the micro-blogging website Twitter to send live updates and morsels of information, instead of junking all its information on an independent website.

Hence, PR practitioners will have to keep up with the latest communication trends and explore multiple media outlets so that they can create successful integrated communication campaigns. In my opinion, these guidelines which were discussed during lecture - research, analysis, goal setting, objectives, developing strategies, devising and implementing tactics, monitoring and evaluation are also important in planning PR campaigns.

I would recommend PR practitioners to follow the guidelines carefully while keeping a lookout for the latest communication trends when planning strategies to achieve successful plans. However, it is difficult to predict the future and there may be unexpected circumstances which hinder the effectiveness of the strategies. Thus, I think that PR practitioners should also have a flexible mindset and implement necessary changes while executing the tactics to cater to different circumstances.

Reflections - Chapter 1

Chapter 1 of the textbook has answered my question posted on the previous blog entry on January 10. I have learnt that PR practitioners have to ensure that the organisation's values and goals are in line with the values and goals of the public. PR practitioners also have to practice transparency and advocate two-way communication while handling PR issues. In this way, it would ensure that PR matters are handled fairly and are above board.

I have also learnt about various PR theories. These theories are useful and can be applied to real-life situations, but they do not completely prepare a person to handle PR matters. A PR practitioner has to have experience and constant practice to effectively tackle PR issues.

The first PR theory which I have learnt is the communication theory. It postulates that the receiver of a message has to interpret it and respond to the message. This is similar to Schramm's communication model, which portrays communication as a circular flow where messages are passed two-way between parties.

This theory can be linked to crisis management in PR practice. PR practitioners have to handle the communication between the organisation and the public when there are disputes between both parties. For instance, the communication theory is utilised when PR practitioners have to respond to complaints from the public. Messages from the public are sent to the organisation and PR practitioners have to interpret them to understand the complainant's objective and then find the best possible way to respond.

The behavioural change theory postulates that the objective of public relations is to increase awareness on a particular cause and provoke action from the public. In this theory, PR is seen as a form of education for the public and a catalyst for people to take action against a particular issue.

This theory can be applied to awareness campaigns, which are organised by PR practitioners. An example of such campaigns would be blood donation drives, which aim to garner more blood donors among the public. The Singapore Red Cross Society regularly recruits donors by conducting talks in schools, companies and community organisations. These talks increase the public's awareness on the importance of blood donation. Their increased knowledge on blood donation means that the public is more aware that they can help to save lives. This incentivises them to step forward and sign up as donors.

Week 3

This week's lecture gave me some insight into experiential marketing. Unlike traditional marketing which focuses on the functional features and benefits of a product, the crux of experiential marketing lies in swaying consumers' emotions using creative and compelling methods.

Experiential marketing involves one-on-one interaction the marketer and the consumer. The marketing strategies go beyond grabbing consumers' attention. Instead, these strategies engage and impact consumers using methods that are memorable and relevant to them.

As consumers are allowed to sample the products, they can immediately judge if the products are of an acceptable quality and if they need the products. This advocates transparency and product authenticity, deterring organisations from committing fraud and reducing the possibility of consumer complaints and disputes.

However, experiential marketing also has its disadvantages. Word-of-mouth advertising is a large part of experiential marketing. This means that if a consumer has used a product and is satisfied with it, he or she markets that product to friends and relatives by telling them about it and influences others to buy the same product. As a result, it is difficult for the organisation to measure how effective its advertising strategies are.

An example of experiential advertising, as discussed during the lecture, is the Sony Ericsson T68i mobile phone advertising campaign. In this campaign, product ambassadors pose as travellers and ask strangers to take a photo of them as a memento, using the mobile phone. In this way, the consumers are able to see if the mobile phone is of a good quality and if it suits their needs.

However, I feel that these advertising campaigns may not be as effective in Singapore. Many Singaporeans have a "mind-your-own-business" mindset and are more wary of strangers. Hence, if a similar ad campaign was done in Singapore, many people are likely to ignore the product ambassadors. This would defeat the purpose of experiential marketing as the consumers do not get to sample the products at all.

Week 2

This week's lecture was an introduction to the various responsibilities of PR practitioners.

In short, public relations refer to managing an individual's or an organisation's reputation and image. This involves communication with the media, consumers and fellow business entities. Besides helping to build a desirable image for the individual or organisation, PR practitioners are also involved in crisis management, where they monitor and respond to issues which may potentially damage the organisation's reputation.

I have also learnt that declining to comment is taboo in the public relations industry, as maintaining silence can create more speculation and rumours among consumers and the media. This can potentially harmful to the organisation's image, which will in turn have a detrimental effect on its stakeholders.

From this, I can infer that public relations is a delicate task which requires a high level of eloquence. PR practitioners have to choose their words carefully, especially when responding to crises as the organisation's reputation may be at stake.

While it is important to build a positive image, I feel that ethical dilemmas may exist in public relations practice. Since the organisation's image is of utmost importance, I daresay that there is a possibility of information manipulation in PR communication.

Here's a possible scenario: an organisation comes under fire for defective products. Naturally, consumers would demand an explanation for that. Wouldn't it be possible for the organisation to deliberately omit some information (eg. the defects were caused by deliberate negligence, but the organisation leaves this fact out to make it seem like an unfortunate accident) in order to protect its reputation?

I wonder if there're any solid examples to back up my claim though. I'll leave readers to comment on that.