MKT1510 Final Assignment: PR Plan
The following scenarios reflect a variety of PR challenges, similar to ones we will be discussing in class. Select one of the following scenarios for your assignment. For the scenario, you are the PR professional hired by the organization. 
Please note, the scenarios below reflect real organizations and some factual details. However, the descriptions of PR issues and opportunities are purely hypothetical and created as an academic exercise only. For this reason, no contact should be made with these organizations and no primary research with actual customers, employees, etc. should occur.
- The Guelph Humane Society
The Guelph Humane Society is celebrating 125 years in business this summer. The Humane Society is committed to protecting and caring for animals within the Guelph community and finding pets a forever home. Their commitment to the welfare of animals relies on the community’s ability to donate money and adopt animals who need a home.
The Guelph Humane Society has hired you to conduct a PR campaign that will use their 125th anniversary as a reason to celebrate the shelter in hopes of creating awareness among the community about the shelters continued needs.
- The Bald Barber
The Bald Barber is a locally owned barbershop located in Kitchener. Well known among their loyal customer base, The Bald Barber has decided to give back to their community.
The Bald Barber has hired you as a PR professional to help them develop a campaign that will raise awareness and money for the local Alzheimer’s Society. They have never done this before and are hoping that your creativity and use of PR tactics will allow them to be successful in raising awareness and donations. Their budget for this campaign is very small, and so traditional PR will be a perfect fit for them. They would like to engage their customer base to take part in giving back.
- St. Jacobs Farmers Market
St. Jacobs Farmers’ Market is an important part of the community. The market is well known for their fresh food and produce from local farmers. The market has been growing and expanding for 45 years and draws people from all over Ontario. With incredible food being offered, one part of the market that is often overlooked is their crafts and local art that is found at the market. Many of the vendors are local and create unique, environmentally sustainable products.
Your PR agency has been hired by St. Jacobs Market to conduct a PR campaign that will raise awareness about the local artists that are on display at the market. They are hoping this campaign creates a buzz about the importance of supporting local artists.Requirements:
For your selected PR scenario, develop a detailed PR plan based on the following outline. A template is provided in this document for your use as a guideline. Final projects will include details, with full sentences and paragraphs. A written plan, word document, submitted on eConestoga in the submission dropbox.
Due Dates:
- The PR plan (.doc) must be submitted online through the submissions folder on eConestoga. Emailed copies will not be accepted.
- The PR Plan is due Week 13, during your regularly scheduled class time.
- PR Plan Requirements:
Your PR plan should be based on the following outline (see attached template for details):
| 1. | Issue/Opportunity statement |
| 2. | Research
(i) Secondary – extensive secondary research on your topic, and any relevant information for your topic, will be conducted. This research will be included in your plan, and properly referenced. (ii) Primary – include a sample survey of 10+ questions as an example |
| 3. | PR Objectives (develop 2) |
| 4. | Stakeholder Analysis (identify and describe 2) |
| 5. | Key Messages (one key message for each stakeholder) |
| 6. | Tactics (develop 4 tactics, that means 2 tactics per PR objective) |
| 7. | Timeline (implementation plan) |
| 8. | Evaluation (Evaluate the 4 tactics and 2 PR Objectives) |
Note:
- Submissions must include title page, headings, references and appendices (as required)
- Your plan must follow APA format: see APA@Conestoga website: https://apa.conetogac.on.ca
- Online submissions will be submitted to Turnitin for originality checking (plagiarism)
- Any plan that is shared, copied, taken from other sections or previous years submissions, papers written by a third party (contract cheating) will receive a mark of zero, and an academic offence
- All work must be original (secondary research is the only information that you will be finding on the internet and it must be cited and referenced properly)
Name of PR Plan
Each section in the plan must be written in full sentences. Point form is not acceptable.
| Issue/Opportunity Statement: |
Consider giving a brief introduction of the organization, the issue and the opportunity.
What is the organization trying to achieve?
What is the issue and/or opportunity?
| Research: |
- What research could you conduct to learn more about the issue?
- What existing data could we review?
- Conduct Secondary research in full. Statistics and in depth research must be conducted online and included in your plan. This section will require citations and references as information will be found online. Think about your scenario and the kind of in-depth research you can conduct to help identify PR Objectives, target audiences and key messages. Include all your online research in your plan.
- What primary research could you conduct?
- What is a sample survey of 10 or more questions you would create for primary research?
| PR Objectives: |
Based on the scenario, issue/opportunity, and the additional research, state two clear PR objectives.
PR Objectives should be written using the SMART formula.
| Stakeholder Analysis: (Target Audiences) |
- Who are the target audiences that you will need to connect with in order to achieve your PR objectives?
- What do they know / do today and what would we like them to know / do? This is the question you need to ask yourself to pinpoint which target audience will help you achieve your PR Objectives.
- Include two key target audiences. Ensure they are detailed. “People” for example is vague and too big. Detailed information might include age, geographical area, economic status, education level, personality preference etc depending on your campaign.
| Key Messages: |
What is the foundational key message?
Adjust your foundational key message for each target audience.
The plan should have two very clear key messages that are designed for each target audience. These key messages are concise and are written to persuade your target audience to behave in a way you would like them to/or raise awareness/or take action etc.
These key messages are in line with what the campaign is hoping to achieve.
| Tactics: |
- Include four tactics – two tactics for each PR objective.
- What are the different ways we can reach our key stakeholders with our messages?
- Think about all the different tactics we have reviewed during our class warm-up analysis of PR campaigns, class discussions, slides on eConestoga etc.
- All tactics should be PR tactics exclusively. No advertising tactics.
- All four tactics should be described in detail in this section. How will they be implemented? What exactly is the PR tactic?
- Please make it clear which two tactics go with which PR Objective.
- 2 PR Objectives x 2 tactics = 4 tactics in total
- Note: Social Media is not a tactic unless it is described exactly how it will be used, exactly what platform is being used and how it is being used
| Timeline: |
How will you map out your tactics against a timeline? For example, what needs to happen first, second, third, etc.?
Do you have a calendar that includes all four tactics and when they will be implemented during the campaign?
| Evaluation: |
- How will you know if your plan is successful?
- Have you explained in detail how each of your four tactics could be measured for success?
- What metrics should we include to measure the extent to which you have achieved your PR objectives?
- When writing this section, you are explaining HOW you will measure the success of the tactic. This plan has not been executed. Therefore, your wording would be:
- “We will measure the success of our press release by the number of journalist inquiries, the number of stories written about our campaign, and the number of interview requests.” or “We will measure the success of our action objective by how many volunteers have signed up at the end of the campaign.”
- NOT:
- “We had 150 articles written about the campaign therefore we know it was a success” also NOT “We had 200 volunteers sign up so we know it was successful.”
- Again, the campaign HASN’T happened.
- You want only to explain to your client HOW you WOULD measure the success of the tactics and PR Objectives.