The Importance of Public Relations in the Australian Automobile Industry
Within the present competitive business environment considering the automobile industry in Australia, assessment of market conditions and clients’ needs is essential for the survival and therefore public relations is considered as of utmost importance. This is a revolutionary approach that has benefited many businesses to stand out from the rest of its competitors and create something unique and deliver something innovative that can be attractive for both the public and media. The public relations are managed with focus on interest with both media and public, because the public is the purchaser of products and services while media has been responsible for selling the products and services (Volkswagen.com.au 2019). Considering the real world scenario, the major PR issue is about Volkswagen Australia that has faced customer anger with the increase in accidents caused due to the slowing down of cars sold by the company. A PR issue is often a major drawback to a company, which may hinder the management of a positive brand image and name and further lead to decreased sales and poor revenue generation too, furthermore leading to poor brand performance and inability to gain competitive advantage in business as well (Berger and Meng 2014).
Nowadays, the public relations strategy is implemented with focus more on providing value and delivering appropriate information about the services to the clients rather than prioritising on the advertising and promotional activities. The PR strategy not only educates the individual to make him understand his needs and preferences, but also allows for enhancing the brand image, reputation and even allow preventive measures to ensure that the reputation and positive brand image can be protected (Austinand Pinkleton 2015). There are multiple channels that are used for communication while implementing a PR strategy, which can also establish a proper brand image among the clients regarding the products and services through development of content about the company and its products through broadcast media as well(Volkswagen.com.au 2019).
The public relations strategy
The public relations are aimed at managing a positive brand image and keeping the media channels monitored for the assessment of public comments made about the company and its products and services associated, The public relations strategy can also help in dealing with crises management and protect the company against any kinds of external threat, which may lead to damaging of brand reputation and image and at the same time, affect the sales and revenue generation negatively too. The public relations strategy couldalso be beneficial for the development of good will within the targeted market segments with the implementation of various special programs and events, furthermore ensure coping up with the stressful situations and maintain a good status within the competitive business environment as well (Elsbach 2014). The main tools and techniques used for managing successful public relations include media relations management, sponsorships building relations with the communities in Australia, focus on engagement with other businesses and managing special events too. This major issue was brought into limelight and here the public relations strategy should be effective for delivering the right key messages that should provide a point of view for a specific time and allow for the implementation of various public relation methods and techniques that could facilitate product positioning along with reaching the target audiences with much ease and effectiveness (Swann 2014).
The Case of Volkswagen Australia: A PR Issue
The main goals of public relations management strategy for Volkswagen in Australia are to development brand and product awareness, create interest among the customers, provide relevant information and data about the company and its products to them, which could reinforce the brand and finally, stimulate the demands and expectations of clients by providing good quality products and services and ensuring customer satisfaction at the highest level possible (Smith 2013). Just as seen from the PR issue, it could be understood that the company faced issues like poor brand image due to the inadequate quality of cars delivered, which slowed down while driving and it caused major accidents too. Due to this, the customers were quite angry with the products and services, which further deteriorated the brand image and resulted in lack of sales and lesser revenue generation too (Doorleyand Garcia 2015). Thus, the company needs to relaunch a new product with changes in the technology used in the cars and enhancing the quality of transmission for ensuring that the right targeted audiences are attractedand higher level of customer satisfaction is achieved largely at Volkswagen. The marketers must be cautious about implementing the right public relations strategy for creating awareness among the clients through media and special events, furthermore make them acknowledged about the new cars available for them, which might be central to the reduced numbers of accidents in Australia (Theaker 2017).
After the debacle of Volkswagen caused with the poor performance cars delivered with slower transmission and speed and thus public relations strategy is essential for creating interest among the clients, which could compel them to gain the trust on the Australian automobile brand again and try out the cars again with improved functioning. Specialholiday offers and additional discounts could also be provided for promoting the product and make public aware through special events and furthermore facilitate the public relations’ management (Reddi 2014). To make sure that the issues do not emerge again, the company needs to provide in depth information about the products and services to its people through management of websites, articles, blogs and forums too. The public relations strategy could also help in creating a positive brand image and ensure business growth, development and even allow Volkswagen, Australia to survive during the crisis situations as well (Daymonand Demetrious 2013). Volkswagen’s main issue was to fulfil the clients’ requirements and needs and to deal with it, proper public relations strategy should be essential for reinforcing the brand and maintain a positive brand image too with the major audiences targeted to develop a string brand image effectively too(Volkswagen.com.au 2019).
Developing an Effective PR Strategy to Reinforce the Brand
The PR issues have emerged with the poor services’ delivery and lack of customer satisfaction for Volkswagen in Australia. The issues emerged when there were complaints regarding slowing down of Volkswagen cars, especially Polo, Golf, Passats, etc. Due to slowing down of vehicle, often there have been accidents caused by getting hit by truck from behind and even not being able to move the vehicle properly in the middle of the road. With the problems emerging, many clients came up with the same issues regarding slowing down of vehicles while driving and this has been one of the major causes of accidents too (Kimand Ni 2013). The customers became very angry and even with the involvement of industry bodies, drivers ad Government, there has been no such steps undertaken to resolve such kinds of issues faced by many of the customers in Australia. There must be proper approaches undertaken by the company to redesign more than 25000 cars and resolve the defects associated with the transmission of the cars, which has been the major cause of cars’ slow down and accidents (Spicer 2013).
On the other hand, the CEO of the company provided statement that the brand focused more on the safety measures and the present problem has not been due to the faults of the Public relations team of Volkswagen, rather the issues have emerged due to the individuals responsible for managing the business processes related to production (Guthand Marsh 2016). The corporates have even become dependent upon the lawyers and mitigators of risks for gaining media advice, which has further contributed to the major issues and problems associated with the management of public relations management at Volkswagen, Australia. Another major issue could be the emissions scandal where many vehicles did not pass the emission test and the company was founded cheating the emissions’ test where there were irregularities on the emissions of carbon dioxide from the petrol engine cars. Again, this major problem further attracted huge media coverage and damaged the company reputation (Strömbäckand Kiousis 2013). Though, the slowing down of cars due to transmission problem has been considered here as the most important issue, still the cheating of emissions’ test had resulted in scandals and this resulted in poor business performance, poor brand image lesser revenue generation as well. Volkswagen felt short of understanding the issues properly at first and thus failed to put the right measures in place for preventing the difficult situations from increasing into the entire PR crisis (Kinzey 2013).
Tools and Techniques Used in Public Relations Management
Due to these issues, multiple questions have arisen such as:
How can the company respond to the issue when the issues came into lime light?
How engaging with the media can be done and communicating with VW owners and dealerships?
The development of public relations strategies essential for dealing with this kind of crisis situation, furthermore ensure accomplishment of business goals and objectives along with the maintenance of qualitystandards for the products and services to ensure higher level of client satisfaction. The PR tactics could develop the business profile and at the same time, pitch positive stories consisting of information about the company and its products and services to the media. This could bring long term positive results as well as help in organising the public relations activities to facilitate the process of strategic decision making, furthermore enhance the communication process (Burton, Millerand Shea 2015). It could also help in attracting the existing customers and even those whom were among the ones who complained about the kinds of services of services delivered by Volkswagen, Australia. Thus, the main purpose of developing the PR strategy has been to spread positive messages and information to rectify the mistakes done before and draw in the targeted audiences to increase the customer profile and build brand awareness among the people (Black 2013).
To start with, there are various steps that are followed to develop an effective PR strategy such as firstly, to identify the goals and objectives to be achieved while creating the PR strategy and all the goals and objectives should be SMART. It is important to determine the targeted audiences by Volkswagen for ensuring that the people feel interested in hearing about the business and the major decision makers contribute to the business performance through effective strategic planning and tailoring the communication process in such a manner that the behaviours and attitudes are influenced positively too (Neilland Schauster 2015).
After targeting the right audiences, the messages and information about the problems associated with the vehicles are delivered to the targeted audience, which is an integral aspect of the PR strategy that can structure the content development as well as communicate a unified message a or information to the clients. Volkswagen must issue a statement at the right time and make sure to avoid any such mistakes again in the future days to come. Because of dealing with real people who have certain behavioural traits, it should be essential for the company to approach the matter from a human perspective and manage the corporate and legal matters properly (Tataand Prasad 2015). The communication plan develop could assist in stabilising the relationship between the business and its clients, furthermore make them avail extra benefits while purchasing the new vehicles to be delivered to them without any faults related to the slowing down of vehicles(Volkswagen.com.au 2019).
Identifying Goals and Objectives for PR Strategy
After targeting the audiences and delivering the messages to them, the distribution of media release and this includes use of email newsletters, public speaking, blogs, forums and creating innovative ideas and concepts that can improve the business functioning and pass those through the testing phase for ensuring managing online activities too to spread awareness about the brand and how it has rectified itself by overcoming the issues where cars got slow down while driving (Coombsand Holladay 2013).
The development of a proper time frame could help in managing efforts and completing those within a timely manner while the development of an action plan could enable Volkswagen to represent the PR activities in a detailed manner for a specific month. With the development of an effective PR strategy, Volkswagen would also be able to determine the beginning time and deadline for completion of various activities, furthermore organise the workload along with management of better accountability and ensuring completion of tasks with much ease and effectiveness (Berger and Meng 2014).
Finally, the measurement of success will be crucial for Volkswagen to determine the key performance indicators and even analyse the areas where changes are required and improvements can be done. Thus, the development of PR strategy for Volkswagen, Australia would include various aspects of communicating the right messages to clients, though prior to that, apologizing or providing any justification for the faults in vehicles could be stated at first to create positive mind sets among customers (Austinand Pinkleton 2015). It can be effective for maximising the success of PR efforts, furthermore help to grow and develop business consistently too.
During the public relations crisis, Volkswagen must demonstrate the sensitivity to the individuals who are affected by the PR issues and even feel interested to rectify the matter. The company should use the scopes and opportunities to apologize and set a new agenda for spreading messagesandinformation about its future intentions (Elsbach 2014). The involvement of affected would help in better communication and at the same time, ensure that they are provided with additional offers and benefits while purchasing the next vehicle from Volkswagen, Australia (Volkswagen.com.au 2019).
Conclusion
Therefore, from the above assessment it might be stated that the concerned organization has PR issues relating to the technical inconvenience that is caused to the customers through the unusual slowdown of the cars. The research clearly enumerated the PR issues and the manner in which the organization might take steps to mitigate the same for enhancing the brand image. The research also enumerated a PR strategy that might be undertaken by the concerned organization in order to assess the issues that are faced by the same and thereby mitigate the glitches. Therefore, the report focused on identifying the issue that is faced by the organization and the manner in which they might be mitigated in order to ensure the retention of brand name without hurting the concerns of the customers.
Steps to Develop an Effective PR Strategy
Assess the issue
The organization must take steps to assess the issues that are faced by the same relating to technological malfunctioning of the cars. The assessment of the issues will be helping the organization in identifying the loopholes in the processes that are undertaken by the same. The identification of the different technical issues in the production department of the organization will be assisting the same in maintaining the efficacy of the operations as per the concerns that are encountered by the business. The identification of the issue in the production process also helps the venture in commencing the operations as per the client concerns. The identification of the issues will be helping the organization in administering the milestones and the activities that are undertaken by the organization.
Consulting with the teams
The organization should take steps to hold consultation with the team members and experts. Consultation with the relevant stakeholders will be helping the organization ion better identification of the technical faults in the design that sinbe4ing encountered by the cars. On the other hand, communication with the car designers will be helping the organization in getting the idea of the technical glitches that affected the design process. The key changes that are undertaken by the organization are dependent on the suitable communication and networking of ideas as per the concerns. On the other hand, the delineation of the issue with the stakeholders will make them aware of the system malfunctioning causes. It will be helping the organization in sorting out the issue through the utilization of agile methodology. The agile methodology will be assisting the organization in bringing forth modifications in the systems while identifying the glitches in the different phases of design. Continuous communication and consultation with the relevant stakeholders will be helping the same in mitigating the issue that are faced by the cars as per the concerns of the customers.
Apologizing for the issues
The organization might take steps to apologize for the issues that are faced by the customers. The apology might regain the brand image and customer trust of the organization. Moreover, apologizing for the inconvenience that is faced by the customers due to the technical issues of the cars is an ethical act, which must be undertaken by the organization. Doorley and Garcia (2015) stated that apologizing from the customers helps an organization in maintaining the efficacy of the operations as per the goals of sustenance. The organization must apologize from the different customers in order to retain their trust and confidence on the business.
Utilization of social media for undertaking communication with the stakeholders
The organization must make use of the social media platforms for reaching out to mass stakeholders. The utilization of the social media platforms will be helping the organization in enhancing the lines of communication with the customers. On the other hand, the social media networking will also provide the organization with a scope of holding frequent communication with the stakeholders. Berger and Meng (2014) stated that stakeholder engagement is one of the major priorities of an organization while mitigating risks. Therefore, the organization will be able to encourage the involvement of the stakeholders for enhancing the processes through collaborative functioning of the same. It will be helping the organization in enhancing the operations of the same as per the priorities of mitigating the PR issues.
Monitoring the activities and communicating the revival steps
The organization must take steps to monitor the different changed processes in order to avoid further situation of inconvenience for the customers. On the other hand, the organization must also take steps for communicating the revival steps to the different stakeholders for upholding the efficacy of the operations as per the concerns that are faced by the customers. Frequent communication with the stakeholders will be helping the organization in maintaining the efficacy of the operations as per the objectives of the business. Monitoring over the change processes will be helping the organization in controlling the quality of the cars. It will also help the organization in maintaining the brand name of the same through avoidance of technical problems in the cars as per the concern of the customers. Domingues et al. (2017) stated that the monitoring functions of the organization helps the same in maintaining the efficacy of the operations as per the concerns of the customers. The monitoring functions will be helping the organization in assuring the customers of the quality of vehicles as per their proposition. IT will be helping the organization in rebuilding the brand name of the business.
Developing strong brand culture for avoiding future issues
The organization must take steps to bring forth changes in the organizational culture i order to reduce issues relating to the quality of the vehicles that are manufactured by the same. Introduction of positive organizational culture and thereby providing vent to innovative ideas will be helping the organization in maintaining the efficacy of the operations as per the objective of sustenance in the markets. The development of strong brand culture will be assisting the organization in avoiding different future issues that might be faced by the same otherwise.
References
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Berger, B.K. and Meng, J. eds., 2014. Public relations leaders as sensemakers: A global study of leadership in public relations and communication management. Routledge.
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Volkswagen.com.au. (2019). Volkswagen Passenger and Commercial Vehicles. [online] Available at: https://www.volkswagen.com.au [Accessed 21 Jan. 2019].
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