Week 4 Reflections and Textbook Chapter 3

Lecture Response

As mentioned in the earlier entries, the job scope of a public relations officer may not be as easy as it sounds. It requires skills and proper expertise in ensuring that all things are managed and dealt with in the utmost professional manner. In today's lecture, I was taught about how one should learn to strategize his or her own tactics in making things work according to the company's objectives and goals.

The acronym SWOT - Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats, can be used as a tactic to evaluate a company's strategy for a particular campaign. It enables companies to identify various aspects of their strategies such as their competitors to work towards improving their competitiveness and in bringing about a competitive advantage to their campaign. I feel that this is a useful analysis in providing respective companies a framework for their strategy. However, adopting such analysis requires one to ensure that they have identified the correct competitors as well as established a specific and well-defined goal. In other words, companies need to have full knowledge about the industry that they are operating in, their position in the market, as well as other factors such as their target audience (which in this case, would be useful for their strategy and tactics).

A series of steps is also required for one to adopt to for a public relations plan - Research, Analysis, Goal Setting, Objectives, Developing Strategies, Devising and Implementing Tactics, Monitoring, and Evaluation. In my opinion, it is essential for one to establish a proper set of research questions and objectives to ensure that the results derived are useful to determine proper strategical plans. In addition, companies should try to expand their research by involving both internal and external research as discussed in the lecture to so that results derived are accurate and covered in all areas.

Therefore, I would highly recommend companies to adopt a crucial approach in their initial stages of planning to achieve an efficient plan and outcome towards their goals and objectives.

Reflections on Textbook Chapter Three - Theoretical Contexts

In this chapter, I was able to understand the various theoretical contexts that public relations practitioners apply to their daily work. I also realized the importance of key communication and organisational theories that have influenced public relations. By understanding the various theoretical concepts, public relations practitioners are able to contextualize and predict outcomes. At the same time, they are able to understand why certain strategies and tactics are not effectively implemented in campaigns. These theoretical concepts also enable public relations practitioners to understand the strengths and weaknesses of their strategies which could be an added advantage to organisations.

Among the various theories studied, I find systems theory an interesting and essential concept for public relations practitioners. Systems theory is subdivided into various components - cybernetics, requisite variety, and boundary spanning. This theory thus emphasizes on the importance of having an open system by interacting with the environment such as the audience or publics. By doing so, public relations practitioners are able to get feedbacks about the products or campaigns that will enable them to improve on.

I also like how the textbook explained a particular organization as a system that consists of several components. This means that an organization could only conduct a successful campaign if it has the full cooperation of the subsystems that it is made up of. As the saying goes, every member is important in the company. Needless to say, teamwork is something that many would emphasize on. It is therefore important that organizations ensure that their various components are well taken care of before they could successfully implement their operations.

Week 3 Reflections and Textbook Chapter 2

Lecture Response

During today's lecture, I was being introduced to the term "experiential marketing". A concept used to involve elements of emotions, logic, and principles in engaging with consumers, marketers aim to establish a connection with consumers by allowing the latter to respond positively to the marketed products as a result of certain emotions that was generated within them.

As compared to traditional marketing, experiential marketing attempts to connect to consumer personally in memorable ways. It should deliver product meaning and benefits to consumers in order to receive positive response from them. Hence experiential marketing is a consumer based approach and as a result tap onto the emotions of the consumers.

However, I felt that such marketing approach may be a little risky as different consumers may respond differently to the products or services being introduced. For instance, a toy may invoke positive feeling from someone who had good childhood memories and as a result receive positive response from these consumers. However, it does not necessarily apply to all as a person with the lack of childhood would never comprehend the benefits of these products and thus respond negatively.

Therefore, marketers should be sensitive when engaging in such approach because consumers may feel emotionally offended and this would be detrimental to the products' popularity.

Reflections on Textbook Chapter Two - Trends and Developments

This chapter discussed how public relations practitioners could adjust to the changing environment. The types of method adopted in the past may no longer serve relevant in today's context and so there is a need to constantly revise our method in dealing with clients, especially when it comes something that extends beyond our culture.

I would like to discuss how public relations practitioners should deal with campaigns that are on an international stage. This means that there would be a myriad of cultures and ethnic groups that we will be exposed to. Public relations practitioners should thus avoid being ethnocentric and think that foreign and unknown cultures are inferior to theirs. It is important the public relations practitioners conduct a thorough research on the background of the respective cultures to ensure that no culture or ethnic group is being offended. For instance, you would not want to campaign a beef burger to a country like India where it is known to avoid beef as a source of food.

In addition, I think that being multinational companies that have tapped onto a variety of cultures in all parts of the region would find themselves suitable to help connect and narrow the gap that exists between foreign operations and top management.

Thus , I can not emphasize any further how important it is for public relations practitioners to understand the respective countries' culture, and ethnic particularities to enable the success of international campaigns.

Week 2 Reflections and Textbook Chapter 1

Lecture Response

I was never sure about the definition of public relations till today's lecture when I was being introduced to the nature and dynamics of this specialization. In my point of view, one may define this term as promoting a set of objectives and image of a person or organization to establish an impression of the said subject.

During lecture, I get to understand the daily operations of a public relations officer. The job scope of a public relations officer may not be as simple as one thought it to be. Not only do they have to be good in their communications skills, but should also excel in writing. This is probably because a public relations officer serves as a representation for the particular organization and thus, the work produced by him or her has to be of excellent quality - something that would tap onto the public's interests. For instance, public relations that are related to consumer goods would need to come out with a good press release to catch the interests and attention of the journalists who would in turn feature the respective products on magazines that the public subscribes to. Hence, one may also infer that a journalist's write up of your products is largely determined by your quality of press releases.

Earlier on, we were asked about the difference between advertising and public relations.
I felt that advertising is a subset of public relations. This means that a public relations officer inculcates advertising in his or her work. This would make a lot of sense as mentioned that public relations officers act as a voice for the respective organizations that they are working with.

Having said that, it is important to note that while image enhancement is a crucial objective for public relations officer, one should mind the ethics that are involved to ensure that no forms of dishonesty or fraud are committed.

Reflections on Textbook Chapter One - Understanding Twenty-First Century Public Relations

People often have the misconception about the job scopes of a public relations practitioner. In this chapter, I was able to understand the dynamics public relations. In fact, there are several responsibilities that a public relations practitioner ought to do and these are some of the few points that people may not know before advancing into the public relations industry.

What does a public relations practitioner ought to do? I strongly feel that regardless of your organizations' objectives, maintaining a certain level of ethical practice is vital to survive in the public relations industry. This is because clients would only trust and respect a public relations practitioner if he or she handles the job in the utmost professional manner. Thus, even if it means not being able to achieve your clients' objectives due to ethical issues, your clients would know that you are doing your job as a professional public relations practitioner who would not go beyond a certain level that exceeds the code of ethics. Even if you are one who would do so in order to obtain your clients' objectives, your clients may have a different impression about you. As supported in the textbook, Chia and Synnott (2009) states that "consultants cannot assume that the client is satisfied with their work, no matter how it is carried out" (p. 19).

In addition, I would also like to highlight how important it is for a public relations practitioner educate the client on certain information such as the code of ethics or research findings to enable the client to understand his or her objectives in embarking on a particular action. In doing so, there would be no gap between the clients expectations and the delivery of the public relations practitioner.

Therefore, it is important that a public relations practitioner takes responsibility in protecting the interests of the client and this includes the educating of clients on proper ethical management and strategies that would not tamper both the public relations practitioner and the clients' reputation in the industry.

References

Chia, J. and Synnott, G. (2009), An Introduction to Public Relations: From Theory To Practice, Oxford University Press, Australia, New Zealand