Approaches of PR used in RWS Publicity Campaign
The public relation (PR) is important for creating healthy relationship with the public and improving the reputation of business (Hanzaee & Farsani, 2011). In this regard, the communication is significant for free flow of information between organization and public (Pearson, 2017). The present report is based on the analysis of publicity campaign of Resort World Sentosa (RWS) for gaining the public interest in their Halloween night event. For this purpose, evaluation of RWS publicity campaign on the basis of four approaches of PR and the ethical standard as integrity has been done. Apart from this, the three guidelines are suggested for effective designing of publicity campaign.
In order to appraise the publicity campaign organized by RWS, the four-part approach of PR has been used and detailed analysis of the same has been provided as follows-
For enhancing the relation with stakeholders, the research is essential for understanding the growing opportunities for business (Daymon & Holloway, 2010). In this regard, the research provides detailed information about the communication such as identification of audience, information and the purpose of communication (Smith, 2013). Apart from this, in this step consequences of PR activity also predict the ways to prevent the any unexpected situation (Grunig, 2013). By considering the importance of research, RWS gathered the information about the audience and accordingly defined the purpose of communication. Yet, the research on information was poor where company thought of creating public image on the basis of wrong information. However, business could have done better research for finding the scope of interest of public to demonstrate the right information.
At this stage, the objectives are set to achieve the PR goal. After that, the strategies are considered for building the plan (Smith, 2013). The planning enhances the effectiveness of desire outcome in PR activity with the effective time management (Theaker, 2017). Apart from this, the planning is imperative for the keeping PR activity on the right track (Smith, 2013). In this manner, RWS effectively planned the publicity campaign and implemented their PR activity before Halloween night (Stolarchuk, 2017). Apart from this, the goal of publicity campaign were clearly formulated (Theaker, 2017). Owing to this, with the help of effectual planning of publicity campaign RWS was successful for grabbing the attention of public.
In this stage, the firm focuses on the actual communication process and interacts with the public in the different manner. Here, the communication is the base line of PR. In this regard, for enhancing the relationship with public, the honesty, full disclosure and transparency in the communication are most considerable factors because these factors enhance the trust among the public (Smith, 2013). At this juncture, it is possible that RWS selected the right mode of communication whereby people can easily understand the story along with its meaning. Due to this, it created the positive relationship with the public. Furthermore, to the case of RWS’ publicity campaign the organization was not honest because the firm shared fiction story to the public. This dishonesty negatively affected the publicity campaign (Daley, 2017). Nonetheless, the low focus on the basic factor of communication was accountable for failure of publicity campaign of RWS.
Evaluation of RWS Publicity Campaign
It is the final stage of PR which is related to the evaluation of campaign result. In this step, the deeper evaluation is done on the basis of several consequences of PR activity such as press clipping and audience survey (Smith, 2013). In this manner, through the effective evaluation of publicity campaign, the spoke person of RWS handled the situation in an effectual manner with the help of advocacy to overcome the negative impact of publicity campaign on the firm (Koh, 2018). Thus, the evaluation of PR activity’s outcome is imperative for reducing the negative influences.
The sensationalism and deception negatively affect the business in long run because in the publicity, it misguides the public through fiction stories. Under this, emotions of public is considered and stories on the basis of their interest is narrated (Rubin, Chen & Conroy, 2015). In this manner, the RWS was misguiding the public through fiction mall collapse for the promotion of their event (Koh, 2017). Misguiding may be helpful for attracting public for certain time period but not suitable for enhancing the attraction for long time. Further, it negatively influences the mindset of public towards the organization (Loh, 2018). The misguiding behavior of firm in information sharing minimizes the fairness aspect of ethical behavior (Whiteman, 2012). In this context, Menzel (2014) asserted that for promoting integrity in an organization ethical attitude, the fairness in the content of information is essential. Therefore, by using fictional information in the promotion RWS shows unethical attitude in the public.
It is important for an organization to be honest and straightforward for the communication with public (Pearson, 2017). Further, it is also imperative for a firm to focus on the honesty in the information sharing process through including relevant facts and figure (Waldeck, Durante, Helmuth & Marcia, 2012). In this manner, in the present case of RWS, the firm shared fiction information to public which negatively affected the honesty of organization (Koh, 2017). In this context, Menzel (2014) asserted that honesty in the communication is significant for improving relationship with customers. Owing to this, the firm will not be able to retain the customer from dishonest behavior.
In publicity campaign, RWS used the three memorials at the different place in the Singapore to grab the attention of public for their Halloween horror night (Loh, 2018). In this promotion the RWS selected publicized location and placed a marble memorial with factitious name and photo of victims of mall collapse (Loh, 2018). By using sensationalism promotion strategies, the RWS was successful for achieving the attention of public for particular time. However, it is considered as indecent behavior of firm wherein firm used the public emotion for the personal use.
Ethical Issues in RWS Publicity Campaign
As per the case study and above discussion, it is found that the low focus on the ethical standards the firm disregarded by the press and faced the offensive situation. In this regard, the following guidelines are recommended to follow in the designing of publicity campaign.
In designing of publicity campaign, organization need to be honest and transparent for the information. This honesty and transparency will help to enhance the well-being of public towards the firm. In this context, Bowen (2016) asserted that the honesty and transparency is important for an organization to maintain the integrity in ethical standard. Further, the selection of right information will improve the goodwill of respective company in the public.
For designing of publicity campaign, it is necessary to give priority on interest of public. By analyzing public interest, the firm can easily understand the requirement of public and design the campaign on the basis of public concentration. The consideration on public interest will be helpful for firm to avoid negligence of public for campaign. Apart from this, identification of public interest increases the effectiveness of public campaign. Thus, in the designing of deeper knowledge of public interest is imperative.
As par the case study of RWS, in the design of publicity campaign, organizations can focus on the way of communication because in RWS case, the firm misused the public sensation for the firm’s mean. That’s why, by following courteous behavior in the designing of publicity campaign is important for building the positive image. This facilitates to derive the valid outcome.
Conclusion:
On the basis of above report, it has been concluded that in the creation of a publicity campaign, the consideration on every step of PR is necessary. However, the low focus on PR process resulted as poor outcome for grabbing public attraction. Apart from this, according to the analysis, RWS publicity campaign and ethical issue, it can be concluded that the publicity campaign should design on the basis of ethical standards, interest of public, courteous behavior and right information etc.
References:
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Daley, F. (2017). RWS Halloween event publicity stunt slammed as ‘tasteless’ and ‘insensitive’ .[Online]. Available at :< https://stomp.straitstimes.com/singapore-seen/rws-halloween-event-publicity-stunt-slammed-as-tasteless-and-insensitive>. [Accessed on 12October 2018].
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Hanzaee, K. H., &Farsani, F. T. (2011). The effects of brand image and perceived public relation on customer loyalty. World Applied Sciences Journal, 13(2), 277-286.
Koh, F. (2018). RWS Halloween event publicity stunt draws flak. [Online]. Available at:< https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/rws-halloween-event-publicity-stunt-draws-flak>. [Accessed on 12October 2018].
Loh, J. (2018). [Online]. Halloween publicity failures caused advertising complaints to spike in Singapore last year. Available at:< https://www.businessinsider.sg/halloween-publicity-failures-caused-advertising-complaints-to-spike-in-singapore-last-year/>. [Accessed on 12October 2018]
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Rubin, V. L., Chen, Y., & Conroy, N. J. (2015, November). Deception detection for news: three types of fakes. In Proceedings of the 78th ASIS&T Annual Meeting: Information Science with Impact: Research in and for the Community (p. 83). American Society for Information Science.
Smith, R. D. (2013). Strategic planning for public relations. Routledge.
Stolarchuk, J. (2017). RWS slammed for “tasteless” memorial wall erected for victims of fake mall collapse. [Online]. Available at :< https://theindependent.sg/rws-slammed-for-tasteless-memorial-wall-erected-for-victims-of-fake-mall-collapse/>. [Accessed on 12October 2018]
Theaker, A. (2017). What is public relations?. In The Public Relations Strategic Toolkit (pp. 17-27). Routledge.
Waldeck, J., Durante, C., Helmuth, B., & Marcia, B. (2012). Communication in a changing world: Contemporary perspectives on business communication competence. Journal of Education for Business, 87(4), 230-240.
Whiteman, N. (2012). Undoing ethics. In Undoing Ethics (pp. 135-149). Springer, Boston, MA.
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