Push Marketing Strategy with Public Relation Approach
Discuss about the Public Relation for Journal of Interactive Marketing.
The current business state of affairs demands distinctive and effective promotional and marketing approaches for the business organizations. This is due to the reason that intensity of the competition is much higher in the current time and traditional promotional approach of the business organizations will not help in gaining competitiveness in the market. In addition, goodwill and brand identity plays an important role in gaining competiveness for the organizations[1]. The more favorable will be the goodwill around the particular brand, the more will be their probability to gain the maximum output from the market. In this case, public relation is a major tool being used by the contemporary business organizations to get connects with their external stakeholders. This refers to the process of the maintaining the relationship between the organization and their customers in most effective manner. Public relation also helps the business organizations in creating favorable public image and enjoys better customer recall value[2].
However, on the other hand, it should also be noted that ineffective management of public relation strategy will have negative impacts on the business organizations. This is due to the reason that ineffective approach of public relation strategy will lead to negative word of mouth in the market and will affect their business potentiality[3]. Thus, it is important for the business organizations to follow certain steps in having their public relation strategy in most effective and ethical manner. This essay will discuss about the shortcomings of the current approach of the public relation strategy and what can be improved. In addition, this essay will identify the major issues with the current approach of the public relation strategy and will recommend a few steps for further enhancements.
Public relation strategy is having number of elements that can be used in different manner by the business organizations. One of the major and most popular ways of initiating public relation strategy is using of social media marketing[4]. This is due to the fact that social media is having huge market penetration in the current time and it provides the platform for the business organizations to get connected with the customers in more personalized manner. However, using of social media should be taken care of properly or it will be adverse impact on the business. According to Paek and Hye-Jin et al., (2013), social media is mainly being used by the current business organizations for campaign promotions and not for enhancing their relationship with the customers. This is due to the reason that with the help of the social media, business organizations are mainly targeting the huge active subscribers for pushing the sales of their products and not for creating connections with them.
Using Wrong Content in the Wrong Place
Thus, it can be concluded that majority of the business organizations are initiating push marketing strategy with their public relation approach. According to the theory of push marketing strategy, new products are introduced in the market and promoted to the customers for their sales. In this case, the requirement of the customers is not given the major focus rather the products are pushed in the market. Thus, according to the author, even though the organizations are using social media as an element of their public relation strategy, but it is not creating the brand recall for them. For instance, the introduction of the yellow lenses of Snapchat caused huge public outcry in the market[5]. This can be considered as one of the major failures of public relation strategy due to the reason the prior to the introduction of the yellow lenses; Snapchat did not bother to take the feedback of the customers. According to the reports, this caused adverse impact on the business of Snapchat and negative perception among the customers.
Another major shortcoming for the current business organizations in initiating their public relation strategy is the using of wrong content in wrong place. There are number of instances where it is seen that using of wrong medium and wrong content lead to failure of the entire process. As per Pearson (2017), ineffective approach of public relation strategy is causing the contemporary business organizations failure and negative impact. According to the authors, majority of the business organizations perceive public relation strategy as a collective tool that can be used in different alternative ways in generating the positive outcome. In accordance to this concept, business organizations are using their public relation strategy in different approaches and thus they are having more risk of facing negative consequences.
One of the most prominent examples of public relation strategy failure due to the wrong content and medium and situation is promotional newsletter of Adidas during the Boston marathon 2017. It is reported that they issued newsletters for the people complete the full marathon by saying “congrats, you survived the Boston marathon”. This was being done in contrast to the bombing in Boston marathon in 2013. Even though the idea was unique and but it was presented in wrong time and with wrong content and caused negative impression among the customers[6]. Thus, as per the author, it is important for the business organizations to select the right elements of public relation strategy to have the positive outcome. It can also be concluded that the main issue with the contemporary business organizations is their eagerness of utilizing every potential mediums for public relation. This also shows the lack of planning process prior to the initiation of public relation strategy. However, from this incident of Adidas, it is also identified that response of them in dealing with the outcome was proper by accepting the wrong and apologizing to the public.
Leadership and Public Relation Strategy
Leadership also plays an important in having effective process of public relation strategy. This is due to the reason that leaders are the one who will create the vision of the public relation strategy of the organization[7]. In addition, in the current time of connected generation, it is also important for the leaders to represent their brand to the market. However, there are number of cases where the organizations try to maintain separate entity between their internal management and their public relation strategy. According to Klettner, Clarke and Boersma (2014), leadership and public relation strategy are having direct relationship but majority of the organizations skip this element. It is also stated by the authors that public relation strategy is planned by the marketing department of the organizations and it is perceived that only the external stakeholders are involved. However, involvement of the upper level management is as important in public relation strategy and in this case; business organizations face the failure in their approach.
This theory of the authors is further proofed by different real world incidents where the business organizations had suffered due to the mismanagement of the upper level management. The prime example for this is the incident of Uber involving their CEO, Travis Kalanick. It is reported that in 2017, CEO of Uber got in to controversy when a recorded video surfaced about the fighting of him with an Uber driver over their business practices[8]. This caused adverse impact on their brand value and they faced a huge dip in new subscriptions. This incident proves that in the current time, customers are much more connected than before and they are well aware about the leadership of the organizations. In addition, different actions of the leadership influence the approach of the customers. Thus, it is also important for the contemporary business organizations in covering the activities of the upper level management also as part of their public relation strategy.
From the above section, it is identified that almost of the contemporary business organizations are having different approaches of public relation strategy. However, there are different factors identified, which are causing challenges for the organizations in achieving the best result from the process. Grunig (2013) stated that communication is the core and key area in the process of public relation strategy. This is due to the reason that with the help of public relation strategy, organizations communicate their vision to the customers. The authors have also stated that the effective will be the communication process; the more will be the utility of the public relation strategy. Effective communication process will also help the business organizations in aware the customers regarding the right content and in right way.
Communication is the Key Area in the Process of Public Relation Strategy
On the basis of this concept, Dozier, Grunig and Grunig (2013) stated that communication process should have two ways approach in order to have the provision for the customers to share their views and feedback. According to the authors, in the current time, social media marketing is extensively being used by the cotemporary business organizations but they are only be used for promoting the products. The authors stated that public relation should be viewed as a primary tool for enhancing the relationship with the customers and not only for pushing the sales of the products. Thus, the more provisions will be offered to the customers for their views and opinions, the more will be the probability of creating favorable relationship with them. Thus it can be concluded that public relation should be viewed as a tool for customer relationship management over basic marketing tool.
Corporate social responsibility is another important element in the process of public relation strategy due to the reason that effective process of social responsibilities will help to create favorable impression among the customers[9]. According to Austin and Pinkleton (2015), socially responsible companies are having more probability of higher returns from their public relation strategy over others. This is due to the fact that initiation of the social activities helps the organizations in creating positive image in the market and these can be further communicated with the help of public relation process. Hence, more market can be covered and chance of gaining of more favorable image will also be more. Therefore, it can be concluded that public relation can be viewed as a communication tool with the customers.
In the above sections, there are number of issues and shortcomings for the contemporary business organizations being identified. Hence, it is important for the organizations to have some effective and ideal steps to overcome these limitations. Ashley and Tuten (2015) stated that feedbacks and opinions of the customers gathered from the social media should be used in designing the future approach of public relation strategy. This is due to the fact that in different cases it is seen that feedback from the customers are being gained but they are not utilized properly. However, it is recommended by the authors that feedback of the customers should be utilized and evaluation of these feedbacks will help to determine taste and preference pattern of the customers and accordingly public relation strategy should be initiated. This will help in better connection with the customers along with considering their respective choices.
Corporate Social Responsibility in the Process of Public Relation Strategy
It is also recommended that business organizations should initiate culture based public relation strategy due to the difference in social and cultural backgrounds of the customer segments. Currently, social media strategy is more universal in nature and it should be made more adaptive with the target market. According to Scott (2015), personalized way of promoting social media content will help the business organizations in catering to the target market effectively. This is due to the reason that different regions are having different social approach such as conservative approach in the Middle Eastern regions and liberalized approach in the western countries. Thus, according to the authors, initiating public relation strategy with liberalized approach in the Middle Eastern countries will attract negative outcome and will affect the business potentiality. The author has also stated that it is important for the business organizations to determine the target market properly and identify the social and cultural dimensions. Accordingly, the approach of the public relation strategy through social media should be initiated. In this case, it is also important for the business organization to initiate the public relation strategy in more professional and ethical manner. This is due to the reason that ethical issues get emerged in determining the cultural factors of the target market. Thus, proper determination of the cultural dimensions will help in having ethical and professional approach.
Bacile et al. (2014) stated that the objective of the public relation strategy for the business organizations should to pull the customers towards their offerings and not pushing the products to the customers. As per the authors, if the prime objective of the public relation strategy is to only increase the sales of the products, then the outcome will not be favorable due to the fact that relationship and connections are not being created between the organizations and their customers. Thus, it is recommended that business organizations should design their public relation strategy in such a way that it will help in initiating pull marketing strategy. Cabile, Meltem and Tahir Albayrak (2016) further stated that business organizations will also get benefited from the pull marketing approach of public relation process. This due to the reason that pull marketing approach can help in creating higher level of brand recall among the customers and in the long term this will help in retaining the customers.
Selection of the mediums of public relation strategy is as important as selection of promotional and advertisement mediums. This is due to the reason that right medium is required for conveying the right content to the right set of customer segments. In the above section, it is discussed about how wrong selection of medium caused issues with Adidas. Hence, Grunig (2013) stated that public relation strategy is also a part of strategic management and mediums for it should be chosen in right way. In addition, it is also being stated by the author that contemporary approach of public relation strategy calls for extensive process and thus it is recommended that more and diverse mediums should be chosen by the business organizations in order to cover the maximum customer segments through their public relation strategy. This will also amplify the potentiality of the public relation strategy for the organizations.
Conclusion
This essay concludes that current approach of public relation strategy is having different shortcomings and business organizations perceive the concept in wrong way. Some of the major shortcomings of them are critically analyzed in this essay along with some real world evidences. In addition, this essay also discussed about the effective ways of initiating public relation strategy and how it can be improved in the long term. Number of ways is discussed in this essay with the help of the views of the authors. A few recommended steps are discussed in this essay in accordance to the identified issues. These recommended steps are also stated based on the views and opinions of the authors and their respective approaches. It can be concluded that effective implementation of these recommended steps will further help the contemporary business organizations to enhance their process of public relation strategy in the long term.
Reference
Ashley, Christy, and Tracy Tuten. “Creative strategies in social media marketing: An exploratory study of branded social content and consumer engagement.” Psychology & Marketing 32.1 (2015): 15-27.
Austin, Erica Weintraub, and Bruce E. Pinkleton. Strategic public relations management: Planning and managing effective communication campaigns. Routledge, 2015.
Bacile, Todd J., Christine Ye, and Esther Swilley. “From firm-controlled to consumer-contributed: Consumer co-production of personal media marketing communication.” Journal of Interactive Marketing 28.2 (2014): 117-133.
bbc.com. “Anger Over ‘Racist’ Snapchat Filter.” BBC News. N.p., 2018. Web. 14 Oct. 2018 . <https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-37042475>.
Boult, Adam. “Adidas Apologises For ‘You Survived Boston Marathon’ Email.” The Telegraph. N.p., 2018. Web. 14 Oct. 2018 . <https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/04/19/adidas-apologises-survived-boston-marathon-email/>.
Caber, Meltem, and Tahir Albayrak. “Push or pull? Identifying rock climbing tourists’ motivations.” Tourism Management 55 (2016): 74-84.
Dozier, David M., Larissa A. Grunig, and James E. Grunig. Manager’s guide to excellence in public relations and communication management. Routledge, 2013.
Ferguson, Mary Ann. “Building theory in public relations: Interorganizational relationships as a public relations paradigm.” Journal of Public Relations Research (2018): 1-15.
Grunig, James E. “Furnishing the Edi?ce: Ongoing Research on Public Relations as a Strategic Management Function.” Public Relations and Communication Management. Routledge, 2013. 41-66.
Grunig, James E. Excellence in public relations and communication management. Routledge, 2013.
Grunig, Larissa A., and James E. Grunig. “The relationship between public relations and marketing in excellent organizations: evidence from the IABC study.” Public Relations and Communication Management. Routledge, 2013. 93-118.
Hennig-Thurau, Thorsten, and Ursula Hansen, eds. Relationship marketing: Gaining competitive advantage through customer satisfaction and customer retention. Springer Science & Business Media, 2013.
Klettner, Alice, Thomas Clarke, and Martijn Boersma. “The governance of corporate sustainability: Empirical insights into the development, leadership and implementation of responsible business strategy.” Journal of Business Ethics122.1 (2014): 145-165.
Men, Linjuan Rita, and Don W. Stacks. “The impact of leadership style and employee empowerment on perceived organizational reputation.” Journal of Communication Management 17.2 (2013): 171-192.
Paek, Hye-Jin, et al. “Engagement across three social media platforms: An exploratory study of a cause-related PR campaign.” Public Relations Review 39.5 (2013): 526-533.
Pearson, Ron. “Business ethics as communication ethics: Public relations practice and the idea of dialogue.” Public relations theory. Routledge, 2017. 111-131.
Scott, David Meerman. The new rules of marketing and PR: How to use social media, online video, mobile applications, blogs, news releases, and viral marketing to reach buyers directly. John Wiley & Sons, 2015.
Servaes, Henri, and Ane Tamayo. “The impact of corporate social responsibility on firm value: The role of customer awareness.” Management science 59.5 (2013): 1045-1061.
Urbancova, Hana. “Competitive advantage achievement through innovation and knowledge.” Journal of Competitiveness 5.1 (2013).
Wong, Julia. “Uber CEO Travis Kalanick Caught On Video Arguing With Driver About Fares.” the Guardian. N.p., 2018. Web. 14 Oct. 2018 . <https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/feb/28/uber-ceo-travis-kalanick-driver-argument-video-fare-prices>.
Order an Essay Now & Get These Features For Free:
Turnitin Report
Formatting
Title Page
Citation
Outline
