WEEK 10- Strategy, Planning, Scheduling and Tactics

Readings- Chapter 7 'Strategy. Planning and Scheduling’ and Chapter 8 ‘Tactics’

The first reading for this week was chapter 7 which was a required reading from week 5 but I will still discuss this chapter in my blog. Chapter 7 focuses on how to think and practise strategically as a PR practitioner. Strategy is a series of planned activities designed and integrated to achieve a stated organisational goal (Allert & Zawawi 2004:170). The key points to remember is the stages of strategic process in PR which are: creation of vision and mission statements for the organisation, creation of PR mission and vision statements, establish performance indicators, budgeting, writing of a strategic PR plan and scheduling PR plan activities (Allert & Zawawi 2004:170).

In my blog entry for week 5 I emphasised the importance of mission and vision statements within the organisation therefore I will not discuss these points again. Key performance indicators is a concept I have come across within the company I work for however the concept has never been explained to me. KPI’s are used by organisations to measure the progress towards achieving their mission (Allert & Zawawi 2004:177).

The chapter also outlines Lester Potter’s ‘ten step strategic communication plan’, which has been proven to meet the needs of many different organisations. This ten step strategic communication plan is beneficial for a PR practitioner as it provides the template to a step by step communication plan, which is as follows: executive summery, the communication process, background, situation analysis, main message statement, stakeholders, message for key stakeholders, implementation, budget, monitoring and evaluation (Allert & Zawawi 2004:178).

The key point to remember for chapter 7 is that the strategic and systematic design of a PR plan is vital to the effective identification, implementation and management of the PR goals and objectives that support organisational goals and objectives (Allert & Zawawi 2004:188).

Chapter 8 discuses tactics and the types of tactics that can be used and what the difference is between tactics and strategy. Before reading this chapter I was confused to what the difference was between strategies and tactics as I had come across a journal article that I was going to use for my annotated bibliography but it was only discussing strategy rather than tactics. Strategy is the overall plan that allows a PR practitioner to ensure that goals and objectives are achieved. The strategy determines the campaign that may be necessary and the choice of tactics that will allow the achieving strategic outcome (Hudson 2004:198).

Tactics are only limited to your imagination! The tactic you chose as a PR practitioner has to be relevant to your campaign and research. Tactics include publicity, advertising, meetings competitions the list is extensive. Tactics are broken up into two major groups controlled and uncontrolled. Controlled tactics are those in which a PR practitioner maintains and controls every aspect of the process. Uncontrolled tactics are those that can be altered or blocked completely such as media release (Hudson 2004:199).

As a PR practitioner the key point to remember is the correct use and choice of tactics can ultimately make or break the success of a PR campaign. As a PR practitioner you have to chose the right tactic and consider all the impacting factors. Tactics must relate back to the strategy, tactics must relate to the target audience, what is the most appropriate way to convey the message and what budget you have to work with (Hudson 2004:225). Think outside the square as boring tactics will produce dull results.

References:

Johnston, J. & Zawawi, C. (2004). Strategy, Planning and Scheduling. In Public Relations Theory and Practice. (pp. 169-196). Sydney: Allen & Unwin

Johnston, J. & Zawawi, C. (2004). Tactics. In Public Relations Theory and Practice. (pp. 197-225). Sydney: Allen & Unwin