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PR Perspective by Jane Baxter Lynn, Principal The importance of planning in communications is paramount, whether you’re developing a communications and marketing strategy for your business or organization, launching a brand or new product, organizing a fundraiser or other promotional event, writing a speech, or handling crisis management. Someone once said (okay I did!) that if you don’t have a plan, how can you change it? You can either bumble along and hope that you’re doing the right thing, or you can be sure of your direction because you’ve established your priorities, defined your key messages and have an action plan to follow. Planning enables one to stop and think things through, something one can’t do when constantly putting out fires. This is the reason that facilitated retreats or planning sessions are usually so productive. Although planning involves a fair amount of work upfront, you are more likely to succeed in whatever you’re undertaking. As the Master Card ads portray, the ultimate reward for planning is priceless! Because the subject is so vast, I’m going to focus in this Perspective on the fundamentals of planning and the benefits derived from them. I’ll highlight some examples of situations to illustrate and give you a few planning check-lists for specific activities. In the last ten years technology has changed the way we communicate enormously. The development of new media and the growth of two-way communication between an organization and its audiences now present a huge range of opportunities for getting messages heard. It has become essential for organizations to practice strategic communications planning in order to maximize efforts and assure goals are achieved. Benefits: I just returned from a Texas Wine & Grape Growers Association conference. One of their speakers was talking about how to establish and run a winery tasting room. The first thing he said was that one would need to develop a plan. He talked about goals, organizational chart, systems and procedures, financial process and sign off of the plan. One of the owners there queried why that was necessary, especially for a small family owned and run business, where the tasting room would merely be part of the winery. The speaker responded with a question: “How else would they keep track of operations, hold people accountable, determine which wine and non-wine products sold well, and most of all ensure that everyone was on the same page through clear communication? It seems to me that planning, no matter how basic, is key to a successful outcome. Having a plan:
Process: So now that we’ve established the benefits of planning, let’s take a look at the general process for development of a plan:
Types of plans: There are a number of different types of plans a communications person might be responsible for developing:
Overall strategic plan The essence of an overall plan for business, department or organization, large or small, is to determine “Where are we now?”, “Where do we want to be tomorrow?” and “How can we get there?” To ascertain the “Where are we now?” it is useful to do what is called a SWOT analysis. What are our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats? Even an informal evaluation like this can help one focus on how to proceed. Once that is done, developing a mission statement helps determine what you’re planning to achieve. Every plan needs to have clearly defined goals, which describe actions to be taken or tasks to be accomplished by the implementers. Aside from knowing what you want to achieve, goals help set priorities and provide the means against which success can be measured. A recent client was the Auburn Tourism Board, which represents tourism promotion for the City of Auburn, just south of Seattle in Washington State. Funded by hotel room-night taxes, the Board had hired a PR agency to promote the city’s tourism. The agency was fired 18 months later as the Board did not feel that it was getting good value. They approached me to take on the role. Instead I persuaded them that, without a plan and a clear understanding of what they wanted to achieve, hiring another agency was a waste of money. It was also unfair to the agency as, without a clear brief, they were pretty much doomed to fail from the start. Relying on feeling to evaluate success is usually not a good idea. As a result, the Board hired me to develop a strategic marketing and public relations/communications plan. My role was to coordinate planning, develop a clearer idea of priorities and objectives, and produce an effective tourism marketing strategy, along with the tools to implement it. The purpose of the plan was to serve as a platform for all future PR and marketing efforts. In addition, if found to be appropriate, to assist the Board in the selection of a Public Relations agency, and provide the tools to manage and ensure value for money from the agency. The goal was to use the development of the plan as an opportunity to:
My work included:
The outcome was a strategic marketing and communications plan, supported by all the players involved. What we discovered to their surprise was that the major industry players were not working together and that the local community did not know what Auburn had to offer (including many city officials and Tourism Board participants!). As a result, we determined that the first priority was to educate the local community about Auburn’s tourism opportunity and to ensure that the various players associated with tourism in the area worked as a cohesive group. So rather than hiring a PR Agency, the Board appointed a Tourism Marketing Coordinator to coordinate the Board’s efforts. Annual action plans An annual action plan should be linked to the overall business plan, and timelines and schedules should be developed in collaboration with other departments such as marketing and advertising. You would be surprised at how many companies’ communications departments are not included in the marketing development process. You hear statements like “Oh, that’s marketing’s responsibility”. Project plans Whether organizing a charity fund-raiser or preparing a merger or acquisition for your company the process should always be the same. In advance, develop standard plans for projects such as mergers and acquisitions, crisis situations, events, trade show attendance and any others outlined in your overall plan. Mergers and acquisitions: The first time I had to handle the internal and external communications for the acquisition by HFS Inc., a stock exchange listed franchise company, of a company, I was given 24 hours to create a plan, get the communications pieces in place and be ready to disseminate the moment the announcement was to become public. There was no plan in place and I was not able to involve my staff. Thankfully, I was able to bring in a senior level consultant who assisted me in putting it all together. After that ‘adventure’, I developed a plan and the next five acquisitions communications went without a hitch. Crisis management: Although a thoroughly prepared crisis management plan cannot turn bad news into good, careful planning and preparation will help you and your organization successfully handle crisis situations. Again, this is relevant today more than ever before because of the rapid exchange of news and information, many times without complete accuracy. Being ready with identified spokespeople, targeted media lists and established relationships, well thought through scenarios and draft materials, and a step by step Action Plan will make a difference to your ability to handle a situation in a crisis. Many items in a plan appear to be merely common sense. Common sense however is often absent in a crisis situation, unless triggered by a coherent plan. Most major companies today have crisis communications plans in place both for their overall operations and for specific issues. For example, a company like Expedia, which depends on international travel and tourism for its business, has an overall crisis plan for its business globally. In addition, when the Avian Flu situation arose, its communications department developed a plan in the event that the flu might negatively affect any of Expedia’s businesses or its customers anywhere in the world. They did not have to use it but at least they were ready in the event that it had been necessary. The type of information you should include is:
Events: Whether it’s a simple event or a major production, having a plan is really helpful. Although it’s important to remember that it only works if everyone uses it! When I was head of PR for Holiday Inn Worldwide’s Europe, Middle East and Africa region, I had to organize the official openings of two Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza hotels within a month of each other. One was in Geneva, Switzerland, and the other was in Casablanca, Morocco. I developed an event plan, including media relations, speakers, dignitaries and so forth. The general manager of the Geneva property and his staff adhered to the plan completely, if anything enhancing my suggestions. Everything went like clockwork (very Swiss!) and it was a great success. On the other hand, no-one at the Casablanca hotel had read the plan I sent to them well in advance. When I arrived nothing had been done. We had 48 hours to make it all happen. In the end it was a great success, and everyone seemed very happy with the result. However, I had had to step on people’s toes to implement at least some of what my management expected. More recently, we had an excellent example of how not having a plan can turn an activity into chaos. A local Austin charity for which I volunteer organizes an annual fund-raiser, arranged by its volunteer body. The two volunteer project leaders ended up doing most of the work themselves as nothing was in a format that could be quickly and easily communicated. We’ve all been there – sometimes it’s just easier to do it oneself than to have to explain. Understandably these very busy people burned out. At the critical hour, just days before the fundraiser, they disappeared from view. The organization, on whose behalf the fundraiser was being held, was left to pick up the ball and, as best they could, make it happen. The result was a lot of unhappy people and a not very successful fundraiser. If there had been a plan, the organizers would have been able to delegate easily and volunteers, who were more than happy to help, would have been able to be included. A standard event plan:
Trade Shows: In my years of promoting travel and tourism and wine at trade shows, I have been fascinated by how little pre-planning some companies and organizations do on the communications side before they attend a show. In fact many seem to think that trade shows are generally a waste of time from a PR perspective. Granted the sales people set up sales meeting, the marketing folk organize the booth design and collateral and some PR people arrange media activities. However, a lot don’t take advantage of the incredible opportunity to have target audiences, particularly the media, in the same place at the same time at relatively low cost. A standard PR plan for Trade Shows might include the following headings:
In conclusion: A plan should always be a work in progress; an organic process, which should be regularly reviewed and updated to ensure that it is in line with the goals and objectives. Most importantly, all the constituents involved should be aware of the plan and should be encouraged to use it, not put on a shelf and ignored. Jane Baxter Lynn heads JBL Strategies www.jblstrategies.com, an international strategic consulting business. Jane has spent more than two decades in management of global, national and regional marketing and communications, addressing both external and internal audiences. She has lived and worked in Belgium, France, South Africa and the United States, with responsibility for other areas of the world. Her firm provides a senior level consulting resource, focusing on strategic planning, crisis and issues management, branding, and marketing communications. She specializes in the Arts, Travel & Tourism, and Wine industries. Copyright © 2008 Jane Baxter Lynn. All rights reserved. Re-printed by permission. If you have links, comments or information pertaining to the editorial you would like to share, please feel free to email me at info@workinpr.com. Space permitting, I'll include them in the next newsletter.
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