Credibility and the PR Profession

Situation

Membership for the PRSA has been decreasing over the last few years. Some believe this is because the PR profession  has a lack of credibility within the USA. PRSA Communications Director, Shelby Dayvault, and her team want to generate more credibility for the PR profession, and for the organization as a whole.

 Goals

To generate national credibility for the PR profession by informing public relations practitioners and prospective practitioners.

Objectives

1. To Increase awareness of the PR Profession
2.  To distribute 300 newsletters to local PRSSA chapters by December 31, 2009
3. To Increase PRSA membership by 30%.

Target Audience

1. Present and prospective PRSA members
2. Current and future PRSSA members
3. Public relations practitioners.
4. Users of public relations.
   

Strategies

1.  Use the appeal of the profession to capture major publics’ interest.
2.  Spread the word of the profession though face-to-face contact
3. Change feelings of discontent with high fee cost to become a member of the PRSA

 Tactics

1.  Increase awareness of the PR profession by sponsoring free workshops. Each workshop will talk about what is PR and why it is needed.
2. Send 300 flyers to local PRSSA chapters, so they can hand them out and spread the word about the PR profession. Each flyer  will give major information about the PR profession and the free workshops.
3. Increase PRSA membership by 30% by cutting the membership fees in half until December 31, 2010.
4. The PRSA  will create  media kits and press releses, send them to the newspapers and telvision stations.

Calendar

• 18 months for entire campaign.
• Four months for research and planning.
• Five months for preparing  media kits , etc.
• Nine months of scheduled events and news releases.

Budget

The  budget  for this  plan is $300,000  and will be uses for 18 months

 Evaluation

At the end of the 18 months, PRSA will hope to  improve awareness of the PR profession and see a 30 %  increase in its’ membership. A survey will be conducted, that included new and old members of the PRSA, to see if the flyers or the free workshops made any diffence.

This plan will work in creating more credibility for PR, because it is about informing at the ground level.  Starting at the local chapters and moving out is a major way to get the word out about the profession. If people are educated on the local level, he or she with not question the credilibily of PR.  

(Disclaimer:  This blog is for a class assignment)

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