CORPORATE COMMUNICATION
& PR 101
(BACK TO
BASICS)
By Rod C.
Estrera
Issue No. 006
– 15 August 2013
The R.A.C.E. And A.C.E. Principles In Communication Strategy
And Planning
HOPE ALL CONTINUES TO BE WELL WITH YOU AND YOUR LOVED ONES!
Welcome back again! This is now the sixth issue of
my new Blog Series on Basic Public Relations and Corporate Communication
lessons, tips and insights for Industry Professionals and interested
Non-Practitioners. Feel free to visit and re-visit the first to fifth issues (01,
04, 09, 15 and 22 July) here on my Blog Site. Many thanks once more to the
readers who have sent feedback, either directly on this Blog or as comments on
my social media posts providing links to my Blog. I will do what I can to utilize
these. I do regret that this issue took
almost three weeks since the last one. Things have been rather toxic at my
regular day job. Someday, I may talk about it, but I have an internal policy to
avoid citing case studies from past and present employers, unless such
particulars are already public knowledge. If I do discuss these, I will only
deal with objective facts.
In our last issue (Issue No. 5), we concluded “The Four Key Questions” that need to
be asked and addressed in the preparation of every Communication Plan, be it
for PR, Advertising, Marketing, Corporate
Communication, Special Events or even for Crisis Communication. We then
segued to the development of our
Communication Plan and began to touch on the Basic “R.A.C.E.” Formula, as originally introduced by John Marston and reinforced by Dennis Wilcox, and recapped as follows:
·
Research (or the Listening
Stage) – What
is the problem or situation?
·
Action (or Program
Planning) – What
is going to be done about it?
·
Communication (or
Execution) – How
will the audience/public be told?
·
Evaluation – Was the audience reached
and what was/were the effect/s?
Like I said last time, different organizations,
authors and executives utilize variations of the above, but R.A.C.E. will continue to be a
universal general outline. We will revert to and discuss the various aspects of
this formula every now and then, moving forward.
What about the “A.C.E.
Principle” (or rather “A.A. – C.C. –
E. Principle”) in Communication
Planning I mentioned last time. As I have been teaching my college students
throughout the years, this acronym represents the escalating stages of what we
want to achieve with our audience (or target market, for marketing efforts). A
great number of my industry colleagues who use this principle, which stands for:
A – AWARENESS.
Obviously,
this first phase is the information stage to make our audience know or know
more about your product, company, politician or advocacy. This is followed by…
A –
ACCEPTANCE. Our
goal here is to ensure, through effective persuasion, that not only does our
audience know, but also accept that we are promoting is valid (i.e., “I know
and accept that ‘Brand X’ Shampoo is a worthwhile product or that Mr. John
Smith is a potentially good Senate candidate, etc.).
C –
CONVICTION. Once
our audience accepts what we are advocating, we next need to “convince” them to
purchase such a product or vote for our candidate, as the case may be. This is
the “call-to-action” that is key in all communication efforts and campaigns.
Our audience is now determined to act in our favor.
C –
CONVERSION. By
this time, our original or initial audience is now in the “word-of-mouth” or
“viral” phase. Instead of our relying on an expensive celebrity endorser, our
audience is now doing this for us by “spreading the good word” about us and
convincing their family, friends and colleagues to also patronize what we are
promoting.
E –
ENDEARMENT. Now,
all of the above are simply not enough. Our efforts should not stop there. We
should not be merely content with one-time actions or transactions. What’s next
then? In Marketing, this is referred to as the “Repeat Purchase.” Our target
market loves our product so much that they are willing to come back for more
(or more variants of our product). In politics, they are willing to re-elect
our candidate or see him/her in another or higher government post. Our
communication here involves both reminder
and reinforcement. Our audience
should not just return because they have no choice, but more importantly
because they ardently and passionately wish to.
Do continue to stay tuned for my next issue in a
few days’ time, hopefully much sooner than the long wait for this issue. We
will look at another easy-to-remember acronym I have personally created – “C.C.P.” – which is what I
continuously and strongly espouse and advocate among my college students and
seminar participants if they want to secure a job or get ahead in their
careers, more so for those in the various Communication fields. Again, I do hope
these easy-to-remember topics prove to be useful for both my fellow PR/Communication
Professionals and our Clients/Bosses.
Thank you once more for your interest and patronage. As always, may we all have a great and
productive week and a fun and restful weekend ahead!
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