A. ASSIGNMENT SUMMARY:
In this section, we will revisit the assignment's expectations and the steps necessary to complete the assignment effectively.
- Assessed criteria:
- Analyze the contextual scenarios of the public relations industry.
- Identify current trends and problems in the public relations field.
- Assignment details:
- The campaign must not coincide with any that appears in class.
- The case study must not be later than 5 years ago.
- A minimum of 3 relevant and academic sources is demanded.
- Format: 1,500 words written essay
- Objectives: Present and analyze a PR OR marketing campaign
- Suggested approach: The campaign can be about the following social concepts:
- Women empowerment
- Work-life balance
- Effects of businesses on environments
- Traditions in modern life
- Mass media
- Etc.
- Assignment structure (recommended word count for each section)
- Introduction (150 words)
- Presentation of a chosen social issue (200 words)
- Presentation of basic info regarding the campaign that addressed said issue and its tactics (400 words)
- The campaign’s performance and degree of success (theory-based evaluation) (700 words)
- A personal reflection on the campaign and your assessment of it (150 words)
- References and appendices
B. KEY TERM DEFINITION:
In this segment, we will take another look at the terminology associated with assignments that is discussed within the context of the course.
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Term
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Definition
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Public Relations (PR)
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A strategic communication process, PR is utilized in maintaining a company’s healthy relationships with stakeholders like the media, partners, and sponsors. Its goal revolves around portraying its organization in a positive light through messages and actions.
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Advertising
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Fundamentally a marketing strategy, advertising involves promoting a product, service, or brand to a target audience via different communication channels. At its core, corporations use advertisements to sell the public something.
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Persuasion/Social influence theories
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- Social Exchange Theory: Since social behavior is an exchange between people, this theory assumes that a person after weighing up the pros and cons of a relationship will either abandon or maintain it.
- Social Learning Theory: Consisting of four learning aspects (community, identity, meaning, and practice), this model claims that from experiencing social actions and attitudes can change a person’s behavioral pattern as they learn from and model after them.
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Mass media theories
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- Agenda setting: Through this action, we can identify what the media are telling us to think about regarding an issue. For example, presumably, we don’t know anything about watermelons and the media tells us they are bad for your health, it is setting an agenda.
- Media framing: This course of action entails highlighting only an aspect of a perceived reality, either to promote or discard an interpretation, a definition, an evaluation, and more.
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Grunig and Hunt’s 4 models of PR
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A framework classifying approaches to PR strategic practice. It has four components:
- Press agentry: strictly one-way communication, in which the validity of truth is not essential. Used to influence and persuade audiences. Mainly adopted by sports and entertainment companies.
- Public information: still one-way communication but since it pertains to spreading information, its accuracy is prioritized. Often deployed by governmental organizations.
- Two-way asymmetrical: a dialogue is now in play but has an imbalance result as the company seeks only to understand the audience's perceptions and construct relevant messages. Mainly utilized in political campaigns or health administrations.
- Two-way symmetrical: regarded as the ideal approach to PR practice, this method emphasizes truthful communication between parties. Its primary goal is to establish understanding and allow negotiations to take place. Used widely by NGOs, businesses, and governmental departments.
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C. DETAILED OUTLINE:
In this step, we will discuss in detail each component and its requirements within the assignment.
To begin with, your selection of a social issue and a PR campaign to work on determines the quality of your assignment. Since this choice is two-fold, you should start by identifying a campaign that has reasonable to ample coverage on multiple platforms (social media, news channels, and even academic websites like WARC), then move on to exploring the issue. Remember, your chosen campaign dictates your analysis of it, not the social issue.
Example: India is the land of the tea drinker. In India, for every 16 cups of tea, only one cup of coffee is consumed. NESCAFÉ, India's oldest and largest coffee brand, has always found it extremely hard to penetrate this overwhelmingly skewed hot beverage market. With no ingrained habit of coffee drinking amongst Indian adults, the only way NESCAFÉ could make inroads was to recruit teens. The campaign “Know Your Neighbour” aimed to make young Indians fall in love with the Nescafé Classic brand. The objective was to make drinking coffee at home fun and aspirational.