Strategic Public Relations

First published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Helps readers move from a tactical public-relations approach to a strategic management style. This book demonstrates skillful use of research and planning techniques, providing research methods that make use of the Internet and programs aiding data entry and analysis.

The communications world is undergoing a seismic shift. The Web is colliding with the old way of doing things, shaking and rolling the marketing landscape as we know it. As the collision subsides and the market forces settle, PR is rising up to a new level of importance. Why exactly is this happening? For one, fragmentation. A new set of communication mediums ranging from blogs to podcasts to satellite radio are fragmenting the media landscape, making it harder to reach customers than ever before. Second, saturation. Advertising, which once reigned supreme in the marketing mix, is failing to have the impact it once had thanks to intense competition for consumer attention and the rising popularity of technologies like TiVo, which make it easy to block out TV ads. Third, reputation. With an overabundance of products from which to choose, consumers increasingly want to buy from companies they deem socially responsible, and they're using the Internet to learn the details. The new world order has created a new set of challenges, and PR is emerging as the marketing discipline best positioned to respond. Consider this: in a recent study by the USC Annenberg Strategic Public Relations Center, CEOs rated PR as one of the top contributors to organizational success. That's right, PR was right at the top of a list that included other major corporate functions, including human resources, legal, sales, strategic planning, information systems, and security. Just a few years ago, CEOs ranked PR near the bottom of these same corporate functions. PR has come a long way in a short amount of time. Increasingly, companies are backing their commitment to PR with their wallets. PR salaries are on the rise, and companies are adding staff to their ranks. Over the next five years, PR spending is expected to increase 11.8 percent to $4.26 billion, according to a recent Veronis Suhler Stevenson Communications Industry Forecast. But while companies are starting to see the connection between PR and organizational success, most continue to take a tactical approach to this medium, failing to harness the full power it can provide. If used strategically, PR can dramatically improve almost every facet of a business. It can expand customer base, increase revenue, boost reputation, attract first-rate talent, and enhance the perceived value of a company, to name just a few. The power of PR is astounding. Yet few companies leverage its fullest potential. In the new marketing landscape, companies that fail to treat PR strategically are putting themselves at risk. Unlike most other books on the market that focus on developing press releases and other PR tactics, Strategic Public Relations connects the dots to show you how you can more fully leverage the power of PR to achieve your most important business objectives. The initial pages of the book explain why a strategic approach to PR is critical to your success. Specifically, you'll learn what PR can do and what it can't, and why harnessing your PR program to your broader business strategy is your golden key to success. The book then provides ten guiding principles designed to help you take your PR program to the next level. Each of these principles is designed to be straightforward and simple so they can easily be applied to achieve better results. The lessons offered in this book are based on a tried-and-true approach to PR the authors have developed and perfected over the course of their careers. Over the last two decades, Jennifer Gehrt and Colleen Moffitt have worked on the inside of worldwide PR agencies such as Waggener Edstrom and within the walls of influential corporations such as Microsoft, RealNetworks, AT&T Wireless, and Tegic Communications/AOL. They have worked in the trenches with small and medium-size businesses and major corporations in a variety of industries, helping them to develop thoughtful PR programs that accr

Winner of the 2019 Textbook & Academic Authors Association’s The Most Promising New Textbook Award How can public relations play a more active role in the betterment of society? Introduction to Strategic Public Relations: Digital, Global, and Socially Responsible Communication prepares you for success in today’s fast-changing PR environment. Recognizing that developments in technology, business, and culture require a fresh approach, Janis T. Page and Lawrence Parnell have written a practical introductory text that aligns these shifts with the body of knowledge from which the discipline of public relations was built. Because the practice of public relations is rooted in credibility, the authors believe that you must become ethical and socially responsible communicators more concerned with building trust and respect with diverse communities than with creating throwaway content. The authors balance this approach with a focus on communication theory, history, process, and practice and on understanding how these apply to strategic public relations planning, as well as on learning how to create a believable and persuasive message. Key Features Chapter-opening Scenarios capture your attention by discussing current PR challenges—such as the Wells Fargo cross-selling, VW emissions cover-up, and P&G’s “Like a Girl” campaign—and thus frame the chapter content and encourage active reading. At the end of the chapter, you explore various aspects of socially responsible communication to “solve” the PR challenge. Socially Responsible Case Studies in each chapter illustrate the key responsibilities of a modern public relations professional such as media relations, crisis communications, employee communications, applied communications research, and corporate and government-specific communications. Each case features problem-solving questions to encourage critical thinking. Social Responsibility in Action boxes feature short, specific social responsibility cases—such as Universals’ #NoFoodWasted, Nespresso in South Sudan, and Merck’s collaboration with AIDS activists—to highlight best practices and effective tactics, showing the link between sound public relations strategy and meaningful social responsibility programs. Insight boxes spark classroom discussion on particularly important or unique topics in each chapter. Personality Profile boxes will inspire you with stories from PR veterans and rising stars such as the U.S. CEO of Burson-Marstellor, the Chief Communication Officer of the United Nations Foundation, and the Executive VP at HavasPR.

Informed by decades’ worth of agency experience, Bernard Gauthier prepares aspiring public relations professionals to think strategically about communication and to plan and implement effective campaigns. Strategic Communication in Canada is grounded upon a simple yet comprehensive framework called the CARE model, which teaches readers how to strategically select goals and objectives that bring about change, identify and engage key audiences, determine their strongest resources as well as those needing improvement, and scan the external environment for opportunities and threats. Brimming with examples from the Canadian context, this highly accessible text demonstrates how to develop a communication strategy, from building an action plan and amassing content, to implementing the campaign and evaluating the results. Easy to follow, this step-by-step guide to strategic planning features practical advice and study tools such as learning objectives, key terms and concepts, questions for critical reflection, and an original, detailed case study of a successful campaign. This insightful read is essential for students in public relations, marketing communication, and business strategy.

Public relations professionals are operating in an increasingly challenging and complex environment. Pressures from outside the organisation include new accountabilities, empowered stakeholders, increased public cynicism and a new communication landscape. Internally, there are increasing demands to demonstrate a strategic contribution, alongside a requirement to coach and counsel senior managers exposed to these environmental pressures. This revised and updated edition provides a framework to enable public relations professionals to clearly articulate and demonstrate their own contribution to organisational effectiveness, while also setting out the specific capabilities public relations leaders must exhibit to operate at the highest levels of the organisation. This edition further develops the pioneering approach to integrating thinking around public relations, leadership, and strategy. It has been updated comprehensively to address contemporary developments and introduce new research and fresh perspectives from the authors. New to this edition are insights from Chief Executives on what they expect from public relations leaders and a comprehensive set of capabilities which scope the demanding role of professionals at the top of their game. Concise and practical, this textbook is suitable for MBA and other postgraduate and executive education qualifications in Public Relations and Corporate Communications – especially for those students who wish to pursue a successful career as a professional public relations specialist, able to operate strategically at the top of successful organisations.

Communication and relationships sit at the centre of our hyper-connected lives, and their effective management is a strategic necessity for all organisations today. As the communication and public relations industries continue to grow globally, they offer a dynamic career for those with the right skills and knowledge. Jane Johnston and Leanne Glenny show how strategic communication and public relations plug into the social, economic and political world, creating crucial links between organisations and people. They explain how communication professionals build partnerships, motivate and engage stakeholders, manage content, media and planning, develop reputations, and troubleshoot crisis communication. Strategic Communication is a complete introduction to the fundamentals of communication and public relations for the next decade. It presents innovative and creative approaches to deliver 100 tools and tactics, over 30 theories and models, and three levels of strategy that underpin successful communication. The authors include examples from around the world, from private sector, public sector and not for profit organisations.

This book brings together a broad and diverse range of new and radical approaches to public relations focussing on the increasingly vital role that visual, sensory and physical elements factors play in shaping communication. Engaging with recent developments in critical and cultural theories, it outlines how non-textual and non-representational forces play a central role in the efficacy and reception of public relations. Challenging the dominant accounts of public relations which center on the purely representational uses of text and imagery, the book critiques the suitability of accepted definitions of the field and highlights future directions for conceptualizing strategic communication within a multi-sensory environment. Drawing on the work of global researchers in public relations, visual culture and communication, design and cultural theory, it brings a welcome inter-disciplinary approach which pushes the boundaries of public relations scholarship in a global cultural context. This exciting analysis will be of great interest to public relations scholars, advanced students of strategic communication, as well as communication researchers from cultural, media and critical studies exploring PR as a socio-cultural phenomenon.