When you are finished reading, create a non-evaluative standard summary of the chapter and upload it to this assignment.
Be sure your summary is objective and completely in your own words.
Write Like a PR ProChapter 2: Setting Strategy: Finding the \u201cWhy\u201d
My CEO pokes his head into my office to tell me he thinks we need a company brochure and would like to set up a meeting for later in the week to discuss. When we sit down to talk details, what should be my next question as a public relations manager?
1. What information did you want included in the brochure?
2. When did you need this brochure?
3. Why do you think we need a company brochure?
These all seem reasonable questions, but it\u2019s the role of the professional communicator to consider strategy before execution, so you have to start with the \u201cwhy?\u201d A big part of the job is asking questions and doing the research to ensure there is strategy \u2013 a reason why \u2013 behind a course of action. After sitting down with my CEO, I learned that he recently attended a conference and noticed that other executives had materials that easily fit inside a suit jacket and gave them a place to take brief notes or quickly give out basic company information. We discussed his needs and ultimately decided to create a notepad slim enough to fit in a pocket that had the company logo and some basic contact info and lines for note-taking. It was less expensive and time-consuming to create, and better met the need.
For larger initiatives, a more in-depth discover process is needed to find the \u201cwhy\u201d and explore other information relevant to development of a strong strategy.
The Discovery Process
Marty McDonald, executive vice president at Fahlgren Mortine, a full-service integrated marketing agency headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, says a discovery phase is where they start with their clients to get back to that question of \u201cwhy.\u201d They look at the past and current state of the company or initiative and consider what\u2019s working and what isn\u2019t. \u201cWe\u2019re given permission to be curious and get back to the questions that matter. It sets the foundation for everything we do from that point forward,\u201d McDonald says. And this applies to not just working with new clients, but new campaigns or phases of work with existing clients.
This discovery phase is a crucial step in developing sound strategy. It can be difficult when a client or others within a company start with a course of action already in mind or come in anxious for creation of tangible products. McDonald says Fahlgren sets the expectation up front for why their team is asking so many questions and explains to clients that the point will come where they shift from asking questions and gathering input to implementing\u00a0action steps. Discovery can move at different speeds and dig to different depths depending on available time and money and the needs of the project. \u201cThat\u2019s really the crux of what we do as communicators. We figure out what\u2019s going on and where we\u2019re going. Filter out what matters and what\u2019s important. Start making new recommendations,\u201d says McDonald.
The discovery phase doesn\u2019t follow a patented five-step program. McDonald says the nuts and bolts of discovery are custom every time if done well. What does remain constant? Knowing what you want to learn and then preparing well, developing a good questionnaire and conducting any other needed research to establish a strong foundation of information.
Discovery can be the starting point for a specific campaign or project, or an organization may just hit a \u201ctell it to me straight\u201d moment, especially when facing a transition such as new leadership, a major rebrand, a merger or another significant milestone. In these situations, discovery provides a comprehensive communication audit by a third party, which can give a helpful and objective analysis of how a company is communicating with employees, stakeholders, media, consumers and other potential publics. It can include an analysis of a company\u2019s website, social media channels,
graphics, media coverage, branding and print\/electronic communications. It can include information from interviews with employees, customers and other stakeholders, or relevant information about the company relative to competitors or the current market environment. It identifies perceptions, missing links, inconsistencies and areas of opportunity. It also can help prevent the dangerous inertia that keeps a brand plodding along in the same (and often ineffective) way even as circumstances and the environment around it change.
An objective look at the organization\u2019s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (a SWOT Analysis) provides a good framework for organizing this information about the current state of an organization and its situation. The SWOT creates a bridge between information gathering and analysis and planning. Nearly every semester I ask my classroom of college students to name some of their favorite brands. Apple, Under Armour, Nike and Disney usually make the list, but another that surfaces without fail is Old Spice. This brand, which traditionally focused on an older target market, changed directions in 2010 with the release of a funny video series that made deodorant look young and youthful. This switch earned it a spot on the 2016 Forbes list of \u201c5 Examples of Rebranding Done Right.\u201d It took an objective look at its brand, its competitors and the overall market
and recognized an opportunity to shift its brand image and reach a new target audience. The discovery process helps organizations recognize these opportunities, especially in three important areas:
\u2022 branding
\u2022 audiences
\u2022 business and communication objectives
Understand Your Brand
All communications, internal and external, should rest on a clear and unified understanding of an organization\u2019s brand. So what is a brand? Doug Frazier, chief strategy officer of Columbus-based public relations agency FrazierHeiby, gave a definition of \u201cbrand\u201d in a presentation to students that I liked and adopted. He said it was the emotional response customers have when they hear your name or see your logo.
Consider iconic and established brands like Coke and Apple. Emotions and images come to mind immediately at the mention of those brands. Smaller and younger organizations, like teenagers struggling to \u201cfind themselves,\u201d must proactively explore who and what they want to be and make calculated decisions to help define their brands. A firm understanding of a brand translates into greater consistency with messaging, images and actions that build trust and understanding with consumers.
Identify Audiences
With so many ways to share messages \u2013 from the language used to the channel where it appears \u2013 knowing the intended audience and what these people want, need and care about is an important area for discovery. Audiences can be external or internal, positive or negative, consumers or influencers or media with the ability to sway consumers. The discovery process identifies past, current and potential audiences. It then digs deeper into those audiences identified as a target for the organization or specific initiative.
Really Know Target Audiences
Public relations focuses on building relationships between organizations and different groups of people, and it\u2019s difficult to forge or grow a relationship without investing the time to get to know those people. This may include exploring information from basic demographics to lifestyles and a deeper understanding of a target audience\u2019s wants, interests and needs. With a firm understanding of both your brand and your target audiences, you can seek out points of overlap or ways your organization can integrate into an audience\u2019s lifestyle or appeal to specific wants\/interests\/need. As the discovery process moves into the planning process, this information will support development of messaging, visuals and platforms tailored to the specific audience.
How the Pros Do It: Selling a New Nevada to Millennials
Fahlgren Mortine worked with Travel Nevada on an advertising campaign specifically targeting millennials. They faced the challenge that many people think they already know Nevada \u2013 cue mental images of Las Vegas. Travel Nevada wanted to reach younger consumers with different concepts of Nevada. Fahlgren developed a platform and began testing it, showing millennials mockups of a video ad. The Falhgren team noticed that the audience reacted to the \u201cDon\u2019t Fence Me In\u201d background song and saw an opportunity to tap into the millennial tendency toward independence and individuality. They reworked the campaign and brought that to the forefront.
Target Specific Objectives
My family likes to play games. Whether it\u2019s a board game or a card game, whenever someone introduces a new game it always works best to state the object of the game. \u201cYou want to get rid of all of your cards.\u201d \u201cYou want to complete the most routes and stockpile the most points.\u201d With that object in mind, it\u2019s a lot easier to learn other details of the game and maybe even win. The same goes for strategic message development. With strong objectives \u2013 knowing the \u201cpoint\u201d and what needs to be achieved \u2013 the messaging can tie back to tangible results that support business objectives. In addition to analyzing branding and identifying audiences, the discovery process should clarify the short- and long-term objectives of a specific campaign or effort as well as larger
company objectives. These could be business objectives such as increasing sales, establishing brand awareness, improving productivity or driving business during slow times of the year. Or they could be relationship-based objectives like creating repeat customers, improving employee retention, changing perceptions or encouraging trials of a product or service.
How the Pros Do It: Overcoming Apathy to Register New Organ Donors <\/p>\n
In 2016, Fahlgren Mortine worked with Donate Life Ohio and the Ohio Department of Health on an award-winning campaign with three specific objectives: increase consumer engagement, drive traffic to a website and add 65,000 new organ donors to the Ohio Donor Registry in six months. With these objectives in mind, the Fahlgren team embarked on discovery. A survey conducted several years earlier by Donate Life Ohio and the University of Cincinnati identified the top three myths people associate with organ donation. A successful myth-busting campaign addressed these issues but registration numbers had leveled again and the groups needed a new effort to challenge the returning apathy. Fahlgren faced the choice of mining existing data for new insights or spending campaign budget on new research. The team looked into the existing survey data, paying specific
attention to respondents who said they would NOT register as a donor. They noticed that nearly a third of those people didn\u2019t have a specific reason for saying no. The data also showed that 86 percent of respondents said real life stories of organ recipients were an important factor when choosing whether to be a donor. Read this Fahlgren Mortine case study to see how clear objectives and a strong discovery phase resulted in a campaign that achieved its goals, won recognition from the Public Relations Society of America and ultimately saved lives.
References
Marty McDonald. (2017, June) Personal interview.
DeMers, J. 5 Examples of Rebranding Done Right. Forbes. Retrieved from: https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/
jaysondemers\/2016\/07\/07\/5-examples-of-rebranding-done-right\/#7d223a9f385a
Doug Frazier. (2017, July) Personal correspondence. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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