COMM411 Study Guide
Unit 2: Stakeholder Identification and Prioritization
2a. Identify characteristics of domestic and global target audiences, considering factors such as communication channels
- How do we categorize target audiences or stakeholder groups?
- What characteristics do PR practitioners use to identify domestic and global target audiences or stakeholder groups?
- What sources do PR practitioners use to collect data to describe domestic and global target audiences?
Stakeholder groups are collections of individuals who may be affected by an action taken by an organization. We categorize stakeholder groups or target audiences by their relationship with the organization or a particular challenge. There are four stakeholder categories: enabling stakeholders, functional stakeholders, normative stakeholders, and diffused stakeholders. Enabling stakeholders have some control over how the organization conducts its business. Functional stakeholders are essential to the operation of the organization. Normative stakeholders are external groups with which the organization shares common interests. Diffused stakeholders are groups of people who come together to interact with the organization when issues arise that align with their concerns.
PR practitioners use the following characteristics or behaviors to identify target audiences or stakeholder groups. Aside from common demographics such as age, race, gender, and geography, practitioners identify stakeholders and target audiences based on their behaviors in communication transactions. Advocate stakeholders take actions to advocate on behalf of the organization. Dormant stakeholders are usually quiet until they have enough information to form an opinion. Adversarial stakeholders are against something the organization is doing, something they feel that is harming the world. Apathetic stakeholders are numb to the organization.
PR practitioners can learn information about their different audiences and stakeholders through secondary and primary sources. Secondary sources of information include repositories like the U.S. Census data. Primary sources of information include company-specific sources such as employee records and customer satisfaction surveys.
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2b. Identify stakeholders involved with and impacted by public relations efforts, such as customers and the local community
- What are some stakeholder groups associated with nonprofit organizations?
- What are some stakeholder groups related to publicly held enterprises?
- What are some stakeholder groups related to commercial organizations?
Every organization will identify its most important stakeholders. We call these groups priority publics, groups of people on whom the organization depends to accomplish their goals. The lists provided here are just a sampling for each type of organization. Stakeholders or priority publics for a nonprofit organization may include donors who give money, volunteers who give their time, clients who are being served, and legislators who make laws that impact the issue the organization is trying to defend.
Stakeholders or priority publics for a publicly held enterprise may include:
- investors who buy shares;
- financial analysts who consult with investors regarding their portfolios;
- clients who buy the company's products or services;
- government regulators who ensure the company is obeying the laws;
- activist groups who may take issue with how the company operates;
- employees who produce the products and services; or
- vendors and suppliers who provide the raw materials to the company.
Stakeholders or priority publics for commercial organizations may include:
- customers who buy the company's products or services;
- government regulators who ensure the company is obeying the laws;
- activist groups who may take issue with how the company operates;
- employees who produce the products and services; or
- suppliers who provide the raw materials to the company.
Some stakeholders and target audiences are unique to the type of organization, and others may be similar across industry platforms.
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2c. Analyze key issues to be addressed within a public relations campaign, including potential opportunities
- What were the key issues in the UPS case study that public relations was able to address?
- What role does PR play in social marketing?
- What are four strategic approaches that PR practitioners can use in a campaign?
Public relations staff were able to address the following key issues in the UPS case study: the importance of developing and maintaining relationships with both supportive publics and adversarial publics, the importance of supporting the employees, and the importance of issues management as a means to identify problems before they get out of hand.
The subfunctions of marketing communication and corporate social responsibility play a significant role in social marketing. PR practitioners support the marketing function by providing insights into the stakeholders of the organization and their interests in social issues. Social marketing focuses on influencing the public's perception of an organization based on the organization's participation in social issues that the public perceives as important.
There are four strategic approaches a PR practitioner might consider when developing a campaign: defensive, responsive, assertive, and collaborative. The defensive approach is a reactive strategy or self-defense on behalf of the organization. The responsive approach is also a reactive strategy that takes into consideration the effect the organization will have on the publics. The assertive approach is a proactive strategy that promotes self-interest and enables the organization to gain control of the situation. The collaborative approach is also a proactive strategy that attempts to use two-way communication with the public to encourage a resolution.
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2d. Select messages that will connect with the demographics and particular mindsets of the audience
- How does channel selection impact the success of organizational messages reaching target publics?
- How do demographics, psychographics, and geographics impact the messages crafted by the organization?
- How can a PR practitioner learn more about their publics and the messages that will be most interesting to them?
Public relations campaigns use a multi-media set of channels. Different groups of people pay attention to different media channels (both traditional and social media). Understanding which channels your stakeholders use to learn about news and issues will affect where you attempt to place your campaign messages.
The demographics, psychographics, and geographics of the stakeholders, publics, or audiences affect how a message is structured. Demographics describe characteristics such as age, race, education, gender, and income. Psychographics describe values and lifestyles. Geographics describe your publics by location. Investors will be more interested in messages that share the financial well-being of the organization. At the same time, community members will be more concerned with messages regarding the impact the organization has on resources and the surrounding area.
Using formative and secondary research, a PR practitioner can better understand their publics, and which messages will be most interesting to them. Formative research refers to research collected to understand the situation and formulate strategy, tactics, and messages. Secondary research refers to research previously collected by another source that is useful for learning about the situation and the public.
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Unit 2 Vocabulary
This vocabulary list includes terms you will need to know to successfully complete the final exam.
- adversarial stakeholder
- advocate stakeholder
- apathetic stakeholder
- assertive approach
- collaborative approach
- defensive approach
- demographics
- diffused stakeholder
- dormant stakeholder
- enabling stakeholder
- formative research
- functional stakeholder
- geographics
- normative stakeholder
- priority publics
- psychographics
- responsive approach
- social marketing
- stakeholder