• Unit 5: Developing Strategic Messages

    Unit 5 will focus on how to use key messages to tell your company's story and how to incorporate key strategic messages in online and traditional media tools. This unit will also discuss how to help managers communicate timely, effective, and truthful messages while adhering to sound business principles.

    Imagine you work for a company that is trying to negotiate with its union employees for their routine 4 to 6-year contract renewal. Imagine you are the public relations spokesperson for the second largest company in the United States and there are few trained spokespersons at your company, including you. What starts out to be a routine renewal labor union contract renewal turns bad. As the spokesperson for your company, what do you do? In 1997, a situation like this occurred when UPS employees were negotiating their contracts. When talks failed to produce an agreement that provided more job security through full-time employment and less part-time employment, without warning, the Teamster's Union announces that its UPS employees would go on strike. This resulted in millions of dollars in lost revenues and expenses. Approximately two weeks later, in hindsight and with the help of the case study authors, management reviewed how effective planning and message development could have resulted in a better outcome. In this unit, you will find out more about crisis management while reading the UPS case study.

    Completing this unit should take you approximately 2 hours.

    • Upon successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

      • explain how to brainstorm key messages that tell a company's story;
      • explain how to incorporate messages in online and traditional media tools;
      • describe how to help management communicate truthful messages; and
      • describe how to communicate to various stakeholder groups

    • 5.1: Practice Writing Key Messages that Tell Your Company's Story

      • The Importance of Public Relations: UPS Case URL

        Read Chapter 1 for a case study about how negotiations broke down and led to UPS employees going on strike. This chapter will help you understand the importance of developing message strategies and how to develop them for crisis management.

      • What Is a Message Strategy? URL

        Read this article on message strategy. This article will help you understand the importance of developing message strategies and how to develop them for crisis management or marketing. This article includes a position statement and three supporting points.

      • Discussion: Section 5.1 Forum
        Make forum posts: 1

    • 5.2: Incorporate Key Messages Using Online and Traditional Media Tools

    • 5.3: Help Management to Communicate Truthful Messages

      • Crisis Communication in Social Media: Are You Ready? URL

        Read this article, which explains what happens during a crisis, how to plan for a crisis, and how to use the ICE method to guide the actions of management and the crisis response team.

      • Business and Marketing Ethics URL

        Read this article, which will provide you with guidelines for ensuring management is ready to handle a crisis and also outlines specific business ethics that should be followed to ensure truthful disclosures.

    • 5.4: Communicate to Various Stakeholder Groups

    • Unit 5 Assessment

      • Unit 5 Assessment SCORM package
        Complete and pass the activity Receive a grade

        Take this assessment to see how well you understood this unit.

        • This assessment does not count towards your grade. It is just for practice!
        • You will see the correct answers when you submit your answers. Use this to help you study for the final exam!
        • You can take this assessment as many times as you want, whenever you want.