I think the 2 key points to remember from this week’s reading were the need for PR practitioners to relate tactics to their targeted audience and taking extra precautions not to cross the line where the cultures of a community should be looked upon and respected before making the right tactics.
Firstly, tactics must relate be related back to the target audience. This is important to determine the tactic that the practitioner intends to use. At the end of the day, the practitioner’s goal is to deliver the intended message to their target audience. Distortion of the message is the last thing that should occur.
The readings made me think of how public relations practice use the tactic of audio-visual communication to connect with the target audience. Especially in this era where getting the attention of your targeted audience is already half the battle won, using audio-visual communication can be effective as this would appeal to our audience’s most important senses – sight and hearing.
However, as the readings have mentioned, using such a highly-invested tool to capture the attention of the audience can be very costly to some PR companies. Therefore, a company’s budget is the company’s limitation. In turn, they might lose their share of the audience. This, however, does not mark the end of the company’s ability to succeed.
With other right tactics, it would still be possible to overcome the hurdle and still capture the targeted audience.
The readings also made me think of how PR practice use advertising as a campaign to promote something – a product or a message may be inappropriate in certain cultures. Sometimes though, it can be a wrong move altogether. One example was the advertisement of Okomoto’s condom on bananas to demonstrate the length of its condoms. These advertisements which were pasted in public trains in Singapore had some of its citizens cringed on the sight of it. Singapore, a relatively conservative country may not be too open-minded yet with such issues. Though the advertisements may have achieved in delivering the intended message, it may also send the wrong signals to its audience too.
Therefore, PR industry should be sensitive in their choice of advertisement where the culture of the country’s people must be taken into consideration.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I don't recall seeing the condom ads in the MRT. Maybe I didn't take many train rides that time. Oh wells.
ReplyDeleteI can’t believe we saw things so differently. I totally disagree with what you said about the company's budget being the company's limitation because I believe that having a relatively low budget helps PR practitioners to be more aware of what is necessary and what is redundant in campaigning. With a high budget, PR practitioners may easily lose focus on the objectives and instead spend lavishly and extravagantly on promotional materials which may not connect with the target audience very well. While it is good to be ambitious, PR practitioners need to remain grounded and maximise the allocation of resources to its full use.
Precisely, PR practitioners need to 'remain grounded'. It all boils down to practitioners and situation as hand. Some companies may have huge budget but may not necessarily spend all of it.
ReplyDeleteRemember the Lifebuoy shampoo campaign in Vietnam? The budget was made small because practitioners were well aware that large budgets need not be used in a such a campaign that required a sizeable number of clients and simple props for the event.