Public Relation campaign for Huntingdon Life Sciences - Essay Example

? Public relation campaign Table of Contents Introduction to Huntingdon Life Sciences 3 Issues involved with Huntingdon Life Sciences 3 Public relation campaign 4 Developing effective public relation campaign 6 Effective communication with stakeholders 8 Planning for eventualities 10 Evaluating public relation effectiveness 11 Reference 15 Introduction to Huntingdon Life Sciences Huntingdon Life Sciences is a Contract Research Organisation (CRO) which is founded in Cambridgeshire, England in the year 1951. It has one laboratory in United States and two laboratories in United Kingdom. It is the largest non clinical CRO in Europe. HLS provides Contract Research Organisation services in non-clinical and pre-clinical biological safety evaluation research. With other major CROs operating, the major business of HLS is to serve the pharmaceutical industry. However, its business is also contributed towards the non-pharmaceutical sources, specifically the crop protection industry accounting for 60% of non pharmaceutical business. Huntingdon Life Sciences uses animals in the biomedical research conducted by it for its customers. In UK around 60,000 animals are annually used. This number is further broken down by species like fish, bird, mouse, rat and other mammals. In the field of non clinical CRO, HLS is the third largest in the world but it is better known to general public as the target of animal rights campaign of high profile. Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC), the animal rights group, has mainly orchestrated the campaign. Issues involved with Huntingdon Life Sciences Huntingdon Life Sciences has been criticised by the group of animal welfare and animal rights for using animals in research for abusing animals and for testing wide range of substances, particularly non-medical products on animals. It has been claimed by SHAC that around 500 animals died everyday at HLS. A film was recorded secretly inside HLS in UK which was subsequently broadcasted on television channel as “It’s a Dog’s Life” showing serious breaches of animal protection laws. It has also shown the taunting of animals and a puppy held up by scruff of neck and was repeatedly punched in face. The laboratory technicians responsible for this activity were suspended from HLS after this broadcast. The campaign of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty is based in US and UK which aimed to close the company Huntingdon Life Sciences. The methods of campaign are the direct action which are non-violent and demonstrations and lobbying. It not only targets HLS but any institution, company or person doing business allegedly with laboratory, whether as suppliers, clients, cleaning and disposal services and employees of those companies. So, HLS was forced to set up its own security, laundry service, catering and delivery as the outside suppliers doing business with it declined. The campaign against HLS led to crash of its share price. The Royal Bank of Scotland closes its bank account and the British government arranged for the state owned Bank of England to give them an account. The share price of company fell down and was dropped from New York Stock Exchange as its market capitalisation fall below NYSE limits. The British Government then took decision to tackle the problem of extremism of animal rights. There was an enactment of a police campaign called Operation Achilles against SHAC, involving police officers in Amsterdam, England and Belgium. 32 people linked to the group were arrested and seven leading members of SHAC were found guilty of blackmail. As a consequence of the operation, most violent activists were jailed. Public relation campaign Following the major issues involved with Huntingdon Life Sciences, a suitable public relation campaign can be proposed to improve the public perception of company and to counteract the negative effects of animal rights lobby. Public relations refer to the forms of planned communication, both inward and outward, which occurs between an organisation and public in order to achieve specific objectives with effect to mutual understanding (Heath, 2001, p.21). Advertising, press agency, publicity, internal relations, lobbying, public affairs, investor relations, issues management, crisis management and development public relation are all parts of public relation function. The ultimate aim of public relation behaviour is getting people to do something, getting them not to do something and winning their consent to let the organisation to do something (Oliver, 2010, pp.21-27). The principle lying behind public relation is to help causes and organisations to get over positive, true and honest messages to their stakeholders and customers and thereby, to maintain and create the desired corporate image. There are three distinct stages associated with the development of public relations. These stages are manipulation, information, mutual influence and understanding. In the stage of manipulation, the PR uses whatever means available to achieve the desired public opinion and action. In the stage of information, PR is regarded as a conduit for information flowing from organisation to public to let the public understand, sympathise with and patronise the organisation. In the stage of mutual influence and understanding, PR accepts the responsibilities of information stage, and provides council and information to management on the realities of methods and public opinion by which a company can make decision, establish policy and take action in the light of public opinion (Johnston and Zawawi, 2009, p.85). There are four key linkages for identifying organisational links to publics. These are enabling linkages, functional linkages, normative linkages and diffused linkages. The enabling linkages with social groups and organisations provide control and authority to the resources that enable the organisation to exist. It includes shareholder relations, public affairs, community relations and government relations. Functional linkages with public or organisation provide inputs or take outputs. The inputs can be labour relation, employee relation and supplier relation and the output can be consumer relation. Normative linkages with public or organisation share similar problem or share similar value. No formalised PR programme is required for this linkage. Diffused linkages with public arise as a consequence of some action taken by the organisation. It includes minority relations, environmental relations and media relations. Developing effective public relation campaign There are three effects to public opinion and public relations. These are to maintain and reinforce public opinion, to neutralise hostile opinion and to create favourable public opinion. The functions of public relation involve strategic planning, forming relationships, writing and editing, producing special events, speaking, research and evaluation (L’Etang, 2008, p.78). The public relation campaign can be achieved through activities like organising events, organising press conferences, staff training workshops, grooming senior managers for TV appearances, handling incoming criticisms or complaints, internal marketing, developing the culture of organisation towards customer orientation. Development of an effective public relation campaign can be made in the following manner. Creating a plan Plan is the roadmap to a campaign. A campaign should be started with a specific goal or broad vision. Public relation goals apply to three areas: reputation, relationships and tasks. The goal of a business reputation is for a temporary employment agency. The objectives should be more specific and measurable. Campaign research Appropriate research should be made before and after the campaign to get publicity. Pre-campaign research provides a benchmark which helps to define objectives. An outside firm should be employed or informal surveys should be used. Through email and call media, a research should be made on how many have heard of the Huntingdon Life Sciences, both before and after the campaign. The research can also be publicized to get publicity. Media research Media research is an important component of an effective public relation campaign. The resources can be conserved and the chances of getting publicity can be increased by tightly targeting the media to those who covers the industry. Starting with a publication list, then it is required to find out what reporters are covering the cause or business. If it is not determined, then it should be asked to the managing editor. Once the names of reporters are got, some of their articles should be read. Then each individual should be emailed with pitch and information like offering a more detailed interview. Media requires news The chances of campaign success can be improved if one key thing is remembered and that is the media cover news. If their time is wasted, it poses a risk to the credibility. The fact which is not news to one outlet may be interesting to other. The increase in business may not be newsworthy but that point is surveyed by a customer to a changing business trend which makes it newsworthy. Effective communication with stakeholders A stakeholder is defined as anyone who is in a position to affect or to be affected by the action of a group or organization. Non profits and corporations pay a great deal of attention to stakeholders whose behaviours and attitude can make a difference between the success and failure of the mandate of an organization. Communication with stakeholders is critical for organization but it is not always done effectively. However, effective communication with stakeholders involves the following steps. Identification of stakeholders Every entity or organisation interacts with others. Technically, any person interacting with organization will be considered stakeholder. It is required to assess the importance of each stakeholder group while developing a stakeholder communication program. In a traditional organization, typical stakeholder groups include suppliers, customers, employees, management, subcontractors and contractors. Whereas, in an academic or non profit setting, stakeholders consist of elected officials, students, citizens, workers, municipal leaders, management, staff and other non-profit. Setting communication objectives Before developing a messaging campaign, it is required to clarify the reasons behind communication. Whether the purpose of communication is to inform the stakeholders of some decision or impending action or to engage them or involve them in an initiative, or to overcome or prevent opposition. The approach to communication will be different if the purpose is simply to inform or raise awareness rather than influencing behaviour or affecting perceptions. Developing message The communication must take into account the audiences and objectives for communication. If the audience includes local business people and the objective is to engage cooperation in a new initiative, the communication should address their specific concerns and should demonstrate a clear benefit of participation in such cause. If the objective is to increase awareness of organization in the marketplace or community then the communication can be more geared and general to a broader audience. Choosing a communication format The way of communication of message can range from personal encounters to mass communication (Levy, 2006, p.91). If the goal is to change behaviour, two way communications is desirable such as in person or telephone contact with stakeholders. In general, one way information is desirable to inform stakeholders. Public service announcements on radio or television, flyers, magazine or newspaper ads are an appropriate choice. Feedback on effectiveness The ultimate test of effectiveness of communication with stakeholders is getting feedback from the stakeholders themselves. Research should be conducted with all relevant constituencies to determine whether the desired messages have been received and the desired results have been achieved through the efforts of communication. The research can be in the form of internet, mail or telephonic interviews, whichever is more effective to reach the audience. There are several mechanisms which can be used to communicate with shareholders. It include general media, structured meetings like CHMP, EU working groups and PhVGWP, formal and informal dialogue like meeting with or without a report, mail shot, workshop or information days, professional groups, professional media, public relation consultants, video presentations, workshop and open days, surveys, lectures, video presentations, television or radio etc. Planning for eventualities There are six steps in planning for eventualities to prepare a public relation campaign for the business. These steps have been described as under. The elevator pitch It refers to the ability of summarising what the company does in around 20 seconds. A long explanation to a journalist can create confusion and they can lose interest easily. So it is required to know the company and to get across it quickly and accurately. On submission of a press release, journalists often call for further comments and quotes. So, some potential comments and quotes should be prepared on any big related news stories in media. Availability of images This constitutes screen shots, product shots, logos, company photos and spokesperson photos. A choice should be provided to the journalists. If none of the images are appropriate enough, the journalists will run the story without a photo which will not prove effective. Online press office Online web pages can be set for the press providing detailed information about the organization, recent and past press coverage, and contact details of someone to be contacted about press enquiries. Press pack It contains the same information as online press office but it provides more indepthness including case studies and personal biographies of senior personnel. Presence of someone When a journalist is about to put a story together and comes across the organization, there should be someone contactable. Non accessibility of contact details may result in journalists not bothering for quotes from the organization and rather they went to a competitor instead. Case studies Availability of a couple of potential case studies may make sense depending on the industry and also presence of customers whom the journalists can contact about the product or service. Planning for these eventualities can save a lot of last minute problems by eliminating the need to phone various customers asking them whether they would mind giving an interview. Evaluating public relation effectiveness There are many public relation programmes which do not add any value. A public relation department which cannot demonstrate value to the organisation cannot influence the policy decisions affecting its own fate. So the evaluation permits the practitioner to make an assessment of the effectiveness of effort, demonstrating that effectiveness to management and planning for future efforts. Management strategies Just like every aspect of practice of public relation, evaluations also need careful planning. The effort of evaluation should be planned from the inception of programme. When evaluation constitutes a part of overall plan, each component can be constructed with a focus toward later measurement of its success. Measurement by objectives (MBO) Use of management by objectives or similar process of planning will alleviate the problem of measurement facing public relations. MBO is used to evaluate individual employees; its basic elements can be applied to projects, programmes and work groups (Henslowe, 2003, p.88). Its objective is to prepare advance statements during the phase of planning which should be mutually agreed by all the persons involved before the occurrence of action. The basic step in MBO involves: Working group involvement If more than one person is working on a project, the entire group should be involved in setting objectives. This ensures that no portion of task has been overlooked and also ensures commitment of each contributor towards the effort. Manager-subordinate involvement After establishing the objective of group, each subordinate is required to work with project manager for defining a set of individual objectives. These keep the project moving ensuring that everyone understands his or her role. Determination of intermediate objectives Setting of intermediate objectives permits the evaluation more precise in progress and enables to consider the corrections in mid course before the project gets out of hand. Determination of measures of achievement The point of completion of effort should be specified in terms of achievement of stated objective or in terms of a time element. Review, evaluation and recycling It is important to use information gained from each process of evaluation for making improvement in the planning for next effort of planning relation. Impact analysis For assessing the impact of any public relation campaign, certain dimensions of measurement can be applied irrespective of its size. These can be audience response, audience coverage, environmental mediation and campaign impact. Closed system evaluation It is a model of evaluation of public relation which is employed most frequently. The purpose of this model is to test the messages and media of a public relation campaign before presenting them to intended publics. This pre-test strategy is being designed to uncover the miscalculations which have been unnoticed in the stage of planning. The post test evaluations are conducted after the campaign is been in long underway to produce results. The post test data can be compared to the campaign objectives and pre test results for evaluating the effectiveness of effort. Open system evaluation A pre test and post test design is appropriate to evaluate short range projects. However, there are many complex public relation programmes which require a method of evaluation to provide feedback throughout the process before the availability of end results. The model of open system evaluation account for factors which are outside the control of public relation campaign while assessing its effectiveness (Parmenter and Crosby, 2009, p.51). The model put emphasis on the extent to which the function of public relation is incorporated with numerous other aspects of organisation and its environment. Factors like effectiveness of organisational administration and unintended audiences are also included. Social audits and environmental monitoring like method of data gathering can also constitute valuable information in evaluating the effectiveness of public relation campaigns. Further, internal data is also useful to evaluate public relation campaign. It is valuable for organisation to research their internal climate for public relation planning information. The practitioners of public relation should look inside and outside their organisations for measuring the effect of their efforts. Reference Oliver, S., 2010. Public Relations Strategy. 3rd edition. USA: Kogan Page Limited. Heath, R., 2001. Handbook of public relations. USA: Sage Publications, Inc. Johnston, J. and Zawawi, C., 2009. Public Relations: Theory and Practice. 3rd edition. Australia: Griffin Press. Levy, S., 2006. Public Relations and Integrated Communications. New Delhi: Lotus Press. L’Etang, J., 2008. Public Relations: Concepts, Practice and Critique. London: Sage Publications Ltd. Henslowe, P., 2003. Public Relations: A practical guide to the basics. 2nd edition. London: Kogan Page Publishers. Parmenter, L. and Crosby, O., 2009. Public Relations Primer: A Practical Presentation of Public Relation Fundamentals, Especially Adapted for schools. United States: National School Service Institute. Read More