Tactics are public relations action designed to have a particular effecto on an organization’s relationship with a public. 

Tactics can be seen as messages and tactics and channels that can be taken are SPECIAL EVENTS, CONTROLLED MEDIA, AND UNCONTROLLED MEDIA.

SPECIAL EVENTS- “actions speak louder than words”.  special events weave together the message and the channel.  This occurs when organization offers a special deal, etc… that will strengthen its relationship with its public.

Controlled Media- advertising, employee newsletters, speeches, brochures, and websites.  We control what is being published, therefore we control our image. 

UNCONTROLLED MEDIA- the news media that we cannot control.  credibility is heightened with uncontrolled media because the organization is not controling the message. 

Successful Tactics:

• part of a written pr plan that is tied to an organization’s mission
• target different publics one at a time
• based on research about a particular public’s values, interests, etc.
• send a clear message
• evaluated as they are performed and after they are executed

Their are different channels that you use for the different publics of each organization.  What may be the most successful tactic used with employees may not work for the community groups in the area. 

Accomplishing the task involves 6 steps: 1. delegation 2. deadlines 3. quality control 4. communication within the team 5. communication with clients or supervisers 6. constant evaluation.

Research and Evaluation allow us to investigate what we think we know and what we do not know.

In a research strategy we ask ourselves: what do I want to know? and How will I gather that information? We explore these questions through many types of research.

–client research–stakeholder research–problem-oppurtunity research–evaluation research–secondary research–feedback research–communication audits–focus groups–

Focus Groups occur when interviewers meet with groups of people to get their opinions on issues. The interviews compile a list of questions, select a skilled moderator, recruit participants, record the sessions on tape, observe the session, limit the discussion to between an hour and hour and a half, discuss opinions and problems, transcribe the tape sessions, and prepare a written report. KEEP IN MIND THAT THIS IS INFORMAL RESEARCH.

Research is so critical to pr practitioners because “as organizations become more results-oriented, public relations practitioners are increasingly expected to defend their decisions and measure the effectiveness of the actions they propose”.

Publics seem to be a driving force behind the success or failure of Organizations because the publics can have a great influence on whether or not an organization can achieve its goals.

Publics include: employees, the news media, governments, investors, multicultural committees, voters, businesses and consumer/customers…all have some pull on organizations.

There are three main things organizations need to know about publics:

1. How much can the public influence an organization’s ability to achieve?

2. What is the public’s stake in the relationship with the organization?

3. Who are the opinion leaders and decision makers for the public?

Public Relations has been used in our country since we were formed however the importance of PR has shifted entirely since then. What we refer to now as modern PR was only just recently taken on as meaning in the 20th century. From what I gather, Public Relations was originally used as a way to get the general public educated and involved in the governmental process, something that was most likely a foreign concept to most citizens. Ivy Ledbetter Lee, who wrote Declaration of Principles was one of the first major players in the PR arena, but the real “father” of public relations was a man named Edward L. Bernays who made great strides in spreading the words of a variety of agencies. It seems that as Public Relations has become a more integral part of our society, and as our world has become more interconnected, we’ve realized both how dependent we are on the public relations area and how corrupt it can be.

Chapter Thirteen goes more in-depth about the relationship between Public Relations and Marketing. The funny thing about this chapter was that it was almost like an overview of my principles of advertising course that I took last spring. The book says that it is so important to read about and understand the key concepts of marketing because Marketing and many aspects of Public Relations focus on the same thing. Public Relations Professionals used to be able to rely on mass marketing to get their word out. However with the rise of mass media, audiences have become can be reached on one television station. Even though audiences have become fragmented, they are still easily and more efficiently reached due to the increase in channels through mass media. With the fall of mass marketing, the PR world has adopted a new kind of marketing that is “consumer-focused”. This uses “a variety of media to build relationships with individuals”. This is where Integrated Marketing Communications has become really important. The rise of consumer-focused marketing has changed the face of Public-Relations from an afterthought in the minds of advertising agencies, to an integral part of the advertising process. The idea of combining marketing and public relations is that if we build relationships with consumers, we can better understand how to persuade the publics to purchase products.  On the other hand.  The article by Bill Sledzic talked about what PR is not and his main focus was on the fact that Public relations and Marketing are not the same thing.  Public Relations uses tools like advertising, selling, public affairs, media relations, publicity, and marketing but in know way are they the same thing.  because PR reaches a far broader scope.

Chapter one talked about how important it was to understand what PR really means. The word seems to be tossed around quite a bit and few people actually understand what Public Relations really is. Rex Harlow defined public relations as a management function that “helps establish and maintain mutual lines of communication, understanding,acceptance, and cooperation between an organization and its publics.

Public Relations Defined

PUBLIC: any group of people who share common interests or values in a particular situation-especially interests or values they might be willing to act upon.

STAKEHOLDER: Public that holds a stake in an organization

PR IS:-a management function

-two way communication

-a planned activity

-research based social science

-socially responsible

RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT-well-managed organizations know they must have good relationships with publics important to their success.

A profession gaining in respect

Historically, PR’s goal was persuasion, information dissemination, or propoganda…

their is a mutual understanding gaining between publics and management.

The Hunt-Grunig Models of Public Relations

1. press agentry/publicity model: getting favorable coverage from media

2. public information model: dissemination of objective and accurate information

3. two-way asymmetrical model: info gathered from publics to persuade publics. “selfish” model

4. two-way symmetrical model:two way communication as a means of conflict resolution

Public Relations and marketing

talks about using PR as a part of IMC integrated marketing communications

ADVERTISING-the use of controlled media in an attempt to influence action of publics

Marketing- process of researching, creating, refining, and promoting a product or service to targeted consumers.

PUBLIC RELATIONS- management of relationships between organization and its publics.

Why a Public Relations Career?

PR agencies-companies that contract to provide pr services for others

Corperations-pr units within companies

Government: tax-payer supported units within government agencies

Nonprofit Orgs- PR units that serve not-for-profit orgs

Independent PR consultants- self employed pr practitioners.

The Public Relations Process

four step model- involves Research, Planning, Communication, Evaluation.

dynamic model- not necessarily going in that order (?)

The Role of Values in Public Relations- both models for PR are missing values