Program/Action Plans

Planning

Public relations students and practitioners are often familiar with the acronyms used to describe public relations campaign planning processes, such as Marston's (1979) RACE (research, action planning, communication, evaluation) and Hendrix's (2001) ROPE (research, objectives, programming, evaluation). The goal of these planning processes is to provide a methodical and systematic mechanism to help the campaign planner understand the issue at hand, clearly identify publics, develop realistic and attainable goals and objectives, select appropriate and effective strategies and tactics, execute those strategies and tactics, and finally evaluate effectiveness. It not only serves as a blueprint for the nature (such as the selection of channels and media), order, and timing of the tactics to be used during the campaign, but also articulates the roles and responsibilities for those involved and the allocation of available material and budgetary resources.

Applications

When developing program/action plans, the practitioner must remain focused on the larger picture: the desired outcomes of the campaign. To reach those objectives, the practitioner must clearly identify the decision makers who make up the publics that are or will be involved. Similarly, the practitioner must use current knowledge or research in determining what influences the decision maker, factors and processes to use to arrive at a decision and take action, and finally how best to reach and impact that decision maker. While research is crucial in any public relations program, it is even more necessary in a global environment, where strategies and tactics have to be tailored across international borders and/or cultures. These behaviors or “tactics” must be coordinated to maximize the effectiveness of the campaign strategies. Tactics are selected and prioritized by their ability to reach and affect the target public.

At this stage, the choice of channel selection and placement are addressed; communication vehicles are selected for their ability to gain the target's attention and to persuade or motivate the target. Finally, the effective campaign planner builds in sufficient redundancy to increase the “reach” of the campaign and to reinforce the impact of previous strategies and tactics. For example, if voters in a local referendum are the targeted public, letters to the voter (based on lists of registered voters) might be coupled with an ad campaign that uses print or broadcast ads, blog posts, social media messaging, and an advocacy approach that targets newspaper articles on the referendum issue. Multiple tactics should be used to increase the reach of the campaign, to reinforce previous strategies, and to build resonance whenever time, material, and budgetary resources are available.

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