For the Franchisor and Franchisee, Successful Public Relations Programming Is A Four Letter Word: P L A N
By Mary Schmidt

If your franchise company has a public relations plan in place then great! If you don't then get one fast! It's a certainty that your competition has a public relations plan, is working that plan and getting sure-fire results.

What's in a public relations plan, you ask? First and foremost, it's important to understand that today's public relations is not just about getting ink. Certainly good press coverage can be a key component of your public relations program. However, the public relations function goes miles beyond this. Today, public relations is considered a management function that involves strategic thinking, research, program planning, evaluation and two-way feedback. The evolution of the concept has led noted authors Scott M. Cutlip, Allen H. Center, and Glen M. Broom to offer the following definition in the 8th edition of their book Effective Public Relations: "Public relations is the management function that establishes and maintains mutually beneficial relationships between an organization and the publics on whom its success or failure depends."

The Scope of Public Relations

Beyond writing the simple press release, today's public relations practitioner is then or at least should be then a part of your franchise management team. The entire scope of public relations involves planning and sustaining the public relations program from a management perspective. On a corporate and local franchisee level, it deals with relationships between you and your publics. It also monitors awareness, opinions, attitudes, and behavior inside and outside the franchise organization. Good public relations programming first analyzes the impact of policies, procedures and actions found to be in conflict with the public interest and organizational survival, and then, helps to adjust those policies, procedures and actions. The public relations professional counsels franchise management, on a corporate and local franchisee level, on the establishment of new policies, procedures, and actions that are mutually beneficial to the organization and its publics. Public relations also helps to establish and maintain two-way communication between the franchise organization and its publics. then the franchisee and the consumer. It produces specific changes in awareness, opinions, attitudes, and behaviors inside and outside the organization that can result in new and/or maintained relationships between the franchise operation and its publics.

That Four-Letter Word

Getting back to that four-letter word, the strategic public relations plan involves four basic problem-solving processes: 1) defining the problem or opportunity, 2) planning and programming, 3) taking action and communicating, and 4) evaluating the program. A strategic public relations plan identifies the most promising of business opportunities, for the franchisor and franchisee alike, from a public relations perspective. It outlines how to successfully penetrate, capture and maintain desired relations with identified publics. This plan is not a one-shot activity then it's a continuous process that defines the public relations goals, principles and procedures that ultimately help determine the company's future. Of course, many times external factors may serve as cause to change or make subtle alterations to the plan.

Most plans integrate all the elements of the public relations mix: publicity; community, media and investor relations; research; issues management; public affairs; promotions; collateral material; audio visual support; trade shows and special events; and public relations advertising, to name a few.

The benefits of having and working a plan are many-fold. It assigns responsibilities and schedules the work; coordinates and unifies efforts; facilitates control and evaluation of all the plan's activities; creates awareness of obstacles to overcome; identifies public relations opportunities; and, facilitates the advancement of the company's goals.

Start with the Basics

Basic requirements for a public relations plan should be: it's simple to read; precise and detailed enough to avoid confusion; practical and realistic in goal attainment; adaptable to change; and, covers all the significant public relations factors.

A well constructed, strategic plan starts with defining the problem, analyzing the current situation, monitoring opinions and attitudes, and assessing the communications tools and techniques in use at the present time.

Based on this research, the planning and programming phase begins. Public relations goals and objectives are defined and basic strategies are mapped out. Next, target audiences are defined as well as appropriate media outlets that you want to reach with your message.

The tactical elements of a plan -- such as creating press kits, writing news releases, newsletters, brochures and speeches, staging a special event, holding a press conference, pitching a story idea, attending a trade show -- are the public relations practitioner's tools used to help achieve the specific objectives to accomplish the program goal.

The budget, timeline and staffing plan are also critical elements of your plan. Each of these elements helps to allocate the appropriate resources toward program implementation. By way of example, it's no use planning 10 major special events a year if you haven't the dollars, time or staff to put toward this effort.

Finally, the evaluation component allows you to actually measure the success of your efforts and helps determine your best steps for creating the next phase of your strategic public relations program.

While writing a plan can seem like a daunting task to the franchisor and franchisee alike, it's a much better alternative than "winging it." After all, you can't get there if you don't know where you are going.