COMM411 Public Relations Plan - Free Samples to Students

Name, Mission and Purpose of the organisation

The Wounded Warrior Project (WWP), a not for profit organisation in the United States, was formed to assist the men and women of the United States who during the war on terrorism have been severely injured. The organisation, through empowerment projects to the wounded warriors, works to ensure that the most successful and well-adjusted generation of wounded warriors is created in the United States’ national history. The organisation’s mission is to ensure wounded warriors are honoured and empowered (Grant, 2015).

Facts of the Event and Negative publicity

Wounded warrior project suffered public relations crisis in 2016. New York Times and CBS reports purported that the charity organiza

Further, the charity’s tax forms also showed that the organization spending on meetings and conferences also increased by about twenty-four million dollars within four years and the employees also gave shocking examples of increased extravagance within the charity organization. The organization was also alleged to have misrepresented its financial information, by claiming that the project spends 80.6% of the donations it gets on the veterans. These revelations caused a public relations crisis to the organisation, regardless of the many ways in which the financial statements can be interpreted. The organisation’s revelations could lead to the various businesses partnering with this organisation to take caution. Additionally, this was likely to create public relations crisis considering all this information could be accessible to the larger public from the media.

Goals of the Public Relations Campaign and their Justifications

It thus became necessary to develop a public relations plan to persuade the public that the facts of the matter were not as bad as shown by the reports. The goals of this campaign would be one to regain employees’ loyalty and trust for the organisation. This is because, from the media revelations, it was evident that the employees had been part of the revelations showing that they lacked trust in the organisations. The employees themselves would help in creating a better image of the company. Using informational objectives that include message exposure and comprehension and retention by the public it would be possible to change the public view of the organisation (Hendrix, & Hayes, 2010).

The second goal would be to change the attitude of the public towards the organisation. Public relations crisis spoils the image of the company in the view of the public. The public’s perception of an organisation is one of the key factors that determine the company’s success. This goal would help change what the public think about the organisation after the media revelations that spoilt the organisation’s public image (Diggs- brown, B. (2012).

Finally, another goal would be to change the media attitude towards the organisation (Collister & Roberts-Bowman 2018). This would be possible through presenting genuine financial statements and making the necessary corrections on the financial statements that may contain errors. Further, employing the services of an auditor and also making appropriate changes in the finance department of the organisation., The media gets the first information about any crisis and can also assist in correcting the public image of an organisation.

Action Plan to Achieve the Goals

To attain the goals, some steps would be taken. The first step would be, defining the campaign strategy. Here, a clear framework of the reason, layout and duration of the campaign would be identified and written down. Secondly, the campaign team would be selected that would help in promoting the campaign strategy. Thirdly, it would be necessary to investigate the problem (In Gregory, 2013). This would help unveil the reasons and loopholes that may have led to the bad public image. Moreover, the analysis of the company’s financial statement would be done to uncover the reality of the revelations that led to poor public relations. The next step would be to call an employee meeting and discuss with them over the issue. From here, it would be possible to get their ideas and also to answer their concerns regarding the company’s spending. By this, the employees would feel involved and retain their loyalty to the company. Also, solutions to their complaints about the organisation spending would be found.

After meeting with the employees, the next step would be to make the appropriate changes as pertains to the revelations. For instance, changing the financial officer, auditing of the company’s statements, firing the employees that may have caused the scandal, that is, those involved in misspending of donations, and availing the correct company statements to the media and other interested parties like the donors for scrutiny and analysis. The final step would entail using the media to assure the public that the organisation’s conditions had been rectified and that the situation is not as worse as they may appear.

Evaluation Plan and Assessment Criteria

Developing a public relations evaluation plan would enable the organisation to determine whether the organisation’s plan is working toward meeting the set goals. To develop a successful evaluation plan, first, the plan should be flexible. This allows it to adapt to changes in crisis, technology or even personnel availability. Secondly, the plan should be able to determine the specific audience to which the message is intended, not just the general public.

Thirdly, the plan should allow for testing of the potential messages to the actual audience to know the effectiveness of the message before it is finally released. Fourth, the plan should explore whether the intended messages are suitable for use in the type of media that the organisation would like to use to communicate the crisis message.

The plan should development process should also determine if the organisation stakeholders are informed about vital issues in the organisation as this may arise during the crisis communication. Next, the plan should explore main contributors in the crisis team, them having adequate training and if the available resources are adequate to handle the intended project. Finally, the plan should use such platforms as interviews, surveys and peer groups to enhance the success of the crisis communication process (Du, 2010).

References

Collister, S., & Roberts-Bowman, S. (2018). Visual public relations. Strategic communication beyond the text. Routledge publishers.

Diggs- brown, B. (2012). Strategic public relations: An audience-focused approach. Boston, Mass: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

Du, P.D.F. (2010). Introduction to public relations and advertising. Lansdowne: Juta

Grant, R.M. (2015). Foundations of Strategy. John Wiley & Sons Inc.

Hendrix, J. A., &n Hayes, D.C. (2010). Public relations cases. Boston, MA: Wadsworth CENGAGE Learning.

In Gregory, A. (2013). Public Relations in practice. London. Kogan Page. Retrieved 7^th May 2018 from www.prnews.com/wounded-warriors-project