Public relations - PR campaigns

Communications strategies are used in order to achieve the objectives set by an organization or to solve the organization's problems and are dictated by the issues arising from the PR practitioners' analysis of the information they get from their publics.

As Grunig underlines (Theaker 2001:10), strategy should be formulated partly in response to publics' needs and views. “Excellent organizations, practicing a two-way symmetric approach to communication management, should adapt their strategies according to publics' opinions identified through research.”

After the PR practitioners have the knowledge of the public opinion, they can build up the strategy and choose the appropriate tactics and techniques to make their strategy work. Even if we talk about written, visual or spoken tactics, the PR practitioners must know how to use these channels of communication when they have to prepare a news release, write a speech or an annual report and coach a client for a television appearance o stage a news conference.

The PR practitioner's tactics is also important in dealing with the media. The secret of the success with the media consists in a good relationship with journalists by knowing and anticipating the needs of the press. Efforts are being made in two directions: public information by means of all media channels and proper answers given to journalists. In this respect, PR practitioners may be considered press managers because they are the ones dealing with the press.

Moreover, as nowadays it is impossible to have efficient PR without Internet and World Wide Web, PR practitioners should be capable to use this communication tool.

Within the organization there are also other issues that require the use of tactics: PR cost management, right messages sent to the media, special events or fixing errors about misunderstanding a culture.

But, in my opinion, PR campaigns and the way in which corporations deal with crisis are the most relevant for understanding communication strategies and usage of tactics by PR practitioners and this is why I have chosen to deal with these issues in this chapter.

PR campaigns

A campaign represents coordinated and extensive efforts oriented towards the achievement of a specific objective or a set of correlated objectives that shall allow the organization to achieve a long-term goal in the future. (Newsom 2001:571)

Campaigns are built and elaborated in order to approach a theme, to solve a problem, to correct or to improve a situation. They achieve these goals by changing the client's/the consumer's behavior, by modifying a law or changing an opinion; or by reinforcing a certain type of behavior, law or opinion that are desirable but contested by others.

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