Planning and Managing Public Relations Campaigns

Planning and

Managing

Public Relations

Campaigns

PR in Practice Series

Published in association with the Chartered Institute of Public Relations

Series Editor: Professor Anne Gregory

Kogan Page has joined forces with the Chartered Institute of Public Rela￾tions to publish this unique series which is designed specifically to meet the needs of

the increasing numbers of people seeking to enter the public relations profession and

the large band of existing PR professionals. Taking a practical, action-oriented approach,

the books in the series concentrate on the day-to-day issues of public relations practice

and management rather than academic history. They provide ideal primers for all those

on CIPR, CAM and CIM courses or those taking NVQs in PR. For PR practitioners, they

provide useful refreshers and ensure that their knowledge and skills are kept up to date.

Professor Anne Gregory PhD is Director of the Centre for Public Relations Studies at

Leeds Business School, a Faculty of Leeds Metropolitan University. Before entering aca￾demic life in 1991 she spent 10 years in public relations at a senior level both in-house

and in consultancy, ending her practitioner career as a Board member of a large UK

consultancy. At Leeds Metropolitan University Anne oversaw the growth of the public

relations area into the largest department in Europe and now is the only full-time pro￾fessor of Public Relations in the United Kingdom. As Director of the Centre for Public

Relations Studies she is responsible for major research and consultancy projects. The

Centre’s client list includes the UK Cabinet Office, Department of Health, NHS, Local

Government Communications, Nokia and Tesco Corporate. She is also a non-executive

director of South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Trust. Anne is Consultant Editor of the

PR in Practice series, edited the book of the same name and wrote Planning and Manag￾ing a Public Relations Campaign, also in this series. She was President of the CIPR in 2004.

Other titles in the series:

Creativity in Public Relations by Andy Green

Effective Internal Communication by Lyn Smith with Pamela Mounter

Effective Media Relations by Michael Bland, Alison Theaker and David Wragg

Effective Personal Communications Skills for Public Relations by Andy Green

Effective Writing Skills for Public Relations by John Foster

Ethics in Public Relations by Patricia J Parsons

Evaluating Public Relations by Tom Watson and Paul Noble

Managing Activism by Denise Deegan

Online Public Relations by David Phillips and Philip Young

Planning and Managing Public Relations Campaigns by Anne Gregory

Public Affairs in Practice by Stuart Thomson and Steve John

Public Relations in Practice edited by Anne Gregory

Public Relations Strategy by Sandra Oliver

Public Relations: A practical guide to the basics by Philip Henslowe

Risk Issues and Crisis Management in Public Relations by Michael Regester and Judy

Larkin

Running a Public Relations Department by Mike Beard

The above titles are available from all good bookshops and from the CIPR website

www.cipr.co.uk/books. To obtain further information, please contact the publishers at

the address below:

Kogan Page Ltd

120 Pentonville Road

London N1 9JN

Tel: 020 7278 0433 Fax: 020 7837 6348

www.koganpage.com

p r i n p r a c t i c e s e r i e s

Planning and

Managing

public relations

campaigns

Anne Gregory

a strategic approach

Third Edition

To those I love and those who love me.

Publisher’s note

Every possible effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in

this book is accurate at the time of going to press, and the publishers and author

cannot accept responsibility for any errors or omissions, however caused. No

responsibility for loss or damage occasioned to any person acting, or refraining

from action, as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by the

editor, the publisher or the author.

First published as Planning and Managing a Public Relations Campaign in Great Britain

and the United States in 1996 by Kogan Page Limited

Second edition published as Planning and Managing Public Relations Campaigns by

Kogan Page, 2000

Third edition 2010

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or

criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act

1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form

or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the

case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms and licences issued

by the CLA. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside these terms should be sent

to the publishers at the undermentioned addresses:

120 Pentonville Road 525 South 4th Street, #241 4737/23 Ansari Road

London N1 9JN Philadelphia PA 19147 Daryaganj

United Kingdom USA New Delhi 110002

www.koganpage.com India

© Anne Gregory, 1996, 2000, 2010

The right of Anne Gregory to be identified as the author of this work has been as￾serted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

ISBN 978 0 7494 5108 0

E-ISBN 978 0 7494 5928 4

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Gregory, Anne, 1953–

Planning and managing public relations campaigns : a strategic

approach / Anne gregory. -- 3rd ed.

╇╇╇╇p. c.m.

Includes index.

ISBN 978-0-7494-5108-0 -- ISBN 978-0-7494-5928-4 1. Public

relations--Management. 2. Public relations--Great Britain. I. Title.

HD59.G686 2010

659.2--dc22

2010002521

Typeset by Jean Cussons Typesetting, Diss, Norfolk

Printed and bound in India by Replika Press Pvt Ltd

v

Contents

Acknowledgements ix

About the author xi

1. Planning and managing: the context 1

What is the point of planning? 2

The role of public relations in organizations 5

The role of the public relations professional within organizations 6

The position of public relations within organizations 11

Organizing for action 16

Who does what in public relations? 18

2. Public relations in context 22

Context is vitally important 22

Stakeholders and publics 23

Sectoral considerations 26

Organizational development – business stage 27

Organizational characteristics 30

Issues 31

Public opinion 32

Timescales 33

Resources 34

vi

Contents

3. Starting the planning process 35

Responsibilities of practitioners 35

Public relations policy 36

Why planning is important 38

Basic questions in planning 39

The 12 stages of planning 41

Linking programme planning to the bigger picture 44

4. Research and analysis 47

Embedding research in the planning process 47

The first planning step 50

Analysing the environment 51

Analysing the organization 57

Analysing the stakeholder 59

Who should undertake the research? 61

Research techniques 62

Investment in research pays – two cases in point 69

5. Communication theory and setting aims and objectives 76

Knowing where you’re going 76

Attitude is all important 77

The communication chain 78

How ‘receivers’ use information 86

Setting realistic aims and objectives 89

Golden rules of objective setting 92

Constraints on aims and objectives 94

Different levels of aims and objectives 95

6. Knowing the publics and messages 97

Who shall we talk to and what shall we say? 97

What is public opinion? 99

Types of publics 100

Using other segmentation techniques 104

So what about the media? 106

The implications for targeting publics 107

How to prioritize publics 107

What shall we say? 109

Constructing the content 110

Crafting messages 114

How the message should be presented 115

vii

Contents

7. Strategy and tactics 117

Getting the strategy right 117

What is strategy? 118

From strategy to tactics 118

What tactics should be employed? 120

Different campaigns need different tactics 125

Sustaining long-term programmes 131

Contingency and risk planning 134

8. Timescales and resources 138

Timescales 138

Task planning techniques 139

Critical path analysis 141

Longer-term plans 143

Resources 149

9. Knowing what has been achieved: evaluation and review 156

Measuring success 156

The benefits of evaluation 157

Why practitioners don’t evaluate 158

Principles of evaluation 160

Evaluation terminology 161

Levels of evaluation 163

A programme evaluation model and some other measures 164

Media analysis 172

Reviewing the situation 174

And finally 178

Index 179

Free online support material can be downloaded from the

Kogan Page website. Please go to:

www.koganpage.com/PlanningAndManagingPublicRelations

Campaigns

ix

Acknowledgements

In drawing up a list of those organizations and individuals who must be

thanked for helping with the writing of this book, it is very difficult to know

where to start.

First of all there are all the organizations I have worked for and with

whom over the years I have built up my knowledge and experience of pub￾lic relations to an extent where this book was possible.

Then there are those who have generously supplied me with materi￾als, including the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (I have borrowed

shamelessly from their Excellence Awards), Pilkington PLC, Lansons Com￾munications, Echo Research, Edelman, Trimedia, The Cabinet Office, Stock￾port and Norfolk County Council and The Worshipful Company of World

Traders.

I would like to thank the public relations students at Leeds Metropolitan

University and those working professionals for whom I prepare materials

on planning and managing public relations, and who constantly stimulate

my thinking.

I am very grateful to Ben Cotton who helped me with the case studies

and Rosie Boston, my fantastic PA, who did the final word-processing for

me and supported me throughout the process.

To the CIPR/Kogan Page Editorial Board, many thanks for your encour￾agement and support.

xi

About the author

Professor Anne Gregory PhD is Director of the Centre for Public Rela￾tions Studies at Leeds Business School, a Faculty of Leeds Metropolitan

University.

Before entering academic life in 1991 she spent 10 years in public rela￾tions at a senior level both in-house and in consultancy, ending her practi￾tioner career as a Board member of a large UK consultancy.

At Leeds Metropolitan University Anne oversaw the growth of the public

relations area into the largest department in Europe and now is the only

full-time professor of Public Relations in the United Kingdom. As Direc￾tor of the Centre for Public Relations Studies she is responsible for major

research and consultancy projects. The Centre’s client list includes the UK

Cabinet Office, Department of Health, NHS, Local Government Communi￾cations, Nokia and Tesco Corporate. She is also a non-executive director of

South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Trust.

She was President of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations in 2004

and led it to Chartered status. She initiated the CIPR/Kogan Page series of

books on public relations and is its consultant editor.

Anne is an academic and strategic adviser to practice of international stand￾ing. She is widely published in books and leading journals and is involved

in international research and consultancy aimed at raising the standards of

practice in the profession.

1

Planning and

managing: the

context

The world of public relations has changed radically in the last few years.

Indeed, as a barometer of society itself, it has had to. The challenges we face

as a society, such as globalization, global warming, the need to re-base our

notions of business and to re-evaluate our values away from ever increas￾ing consumption, are unparalleled.

Added to that are the seismic changes that new, communications-based

technologies bring to the way we connect and the nature of the interactions

we have. These changes are generating fundamental shifts in power away

from traditional sources of authority. Those individuals and groups who

can understand what is going on and are able to work with the new

communication tools at our disposal will emerge as a new elite.

It is not the remit of this book to explore the details and ramifications of

all these deep and wide changes that are happening, but the impact on the

practice of public relations overall is profound and therefore cannot be

ignored. A report by the Arthur W Page Society in 2007 called The Authentic

Enterprise1

, examines and evaluates some of these issues and concludes that

we have reached a point of ‘strategic inflection’ which requires organiza￾tions to embrace a new way of operating: communication is at the heart and

1

2

the key is authenticity. It goes on to enumerate four new practices and skills

for which the more senior public relations practitioner must assume a

leadership role:

l defining and instilling company values;

l building and managing multi-stakeholder relationships;

l enabling the enterprise with ‘new media’ skills and tools;

l building and managing trust in all its dimensions.

This view is very much complemented by the findings of the European

Communication Monitor 20092

, which reveals that senior corporate commu￾nicators believe that by 2012 they will have increased their activity in

responsible business and sustainability, internal communication and change

management, international communication, and coaching and training in

public relations and communication skills. Conversely the proportion of

time spent on marketing/consumer public relations, traditional media rela￾tions and investor relations will have decreased.

Organizations will have to be adept at responding to a variety of societal

issues, they will have to engage with a range of stakeholders who to date

have not been on their radar and who will hold them to account in new

ways and they will need to engage in different ways. They will have to

demonstrate that they are living their espoused values and the mandate, or

‘licence to operate’, given them by this complex web of multi-stakeholders

will be fragile and in need of attention and reinforcement constantly. Their

organizations will be judged not only by their corporate words and actions,

but by the myriad of individual transactions that they and their employees

engage in – hence the increased emphasis on internal communication and

coaching.

What is the point of planning?

It is quite legitimate to ask, therefore, given the level of complexity that

public relations practitioners face and the fact that things are in constant

flux and change, what is the point of planning and managing public rela￾tions programmes at all? Undoubtedly there are individual communicators

who thrive in chaos, who ‘sense’ their way through situations and are very

good at it. Most people are not like that, they are rational creatures who

seek a level of order and who, as far as possible, want to be able to operate

in a work environment that has some control and predictability about it.

Having a sense of direction and of what is important is part of wellbeing at

work and indeed, management by objectives is an accepted way to frame

and prioritize work.

Furthermore, organizations are purposeful entities. They exist for a

reason, whether that is to fulfil a social or business purpose. They too are

Planning and managing public relations campaigns