How the Dairy Farmers Can Use Public Relations - Coursework Example

Permeate milk (Dairy Farmers) Executive summary In all forms of business, Public Relation is very important as it determines the success of the business. Public Relations (PR) is important as it helps solve marketing issues that are affecting the business. PR is used to persuade and gain support from the public of the business. Dairy farmers in Australia have decided to sell permeate free milk to their consumers. Scientists claim that the campaign is a fake and the dairy farmers are using fear to market permeate free milk. Companies have caved in and are adopting permeate free milk. The dairy farmers have decided to use Public Relations to come up with a solution to this problem. This report will focuses on how the dairy farmers can use public relations to solve the issue at hand. It will focus on the process of public relations and its importance to the company. The paper will also discuss the stakeholders of the company, their importance to the dairy farmers and the relationship between the stakeholders and Public Relations. Introduction The research paper will first tackle the basics of Public Relations. This will include its scholarly definition, the process of public relations and its importance in relation to the dairy farmers. This will be followed by the stakeholders of the company, the definition according to Rawlins theory that is the linkage theory. Finally, the paper will discuss the importance of the stakeholders to the company and their relationship with Public Relations. Issue statement The source of concern is from the scientist who claim that permeate free milk campaign is a fake. The scientist claim that the farmers are using a strategy that is not right to market permeate free milk that is creating fear among the consumers so that they can shift from using milk with permeate to milk that is permeate free. The problem the dairy farmers are facing is; with the scientist statement, this can cause bad publicity for the diary farmers. This becomes a problem when the number of consumers starts decreasing due to the scientists statements. This issue will greatly affect the dairy farmers and the companies that are producing permeate free milk. This is because with the bad publicity the companies will lose customers that buy permeate free milk and in turn the dairy farmers go to a loss. In this issue, the bad publicity caused by the scientists is not good as it places the dairy farmers and the companies producing permeate free milk seem as liars, in turn the publics will feel cheated and swindled and would stop using the milk and turn to another option that is available to them. The dairy farmers will use Public Relations to solve the problem at hand, changing the perception that the scientist have created of the company and the farmers to a better perception. Public Relations Public relations aim to create good relations and understanding between an organization and its publics. Public relations create the image of a company which can either be positive or negative. Publics are the people who are directly affected with the company; this can either be the consumers of the product and the stakeholders of the company. According to Kitchen (1999, p.62) public relation is a planned and sustained effort to establish a relationship between an organization and its publics, this relationship has to be maintained. Public Relations involve managing problems or issues and keep in touch with the publics’ opinion about the company’s services and products. It is important for a company to have a good and functioning PR department as this will help a company achieve their goals; this means good relations with its publics equals to a successful business (Cutlip, Center, & Broom, 2006, p.29). Since PR is a planned process to influence people’s opinions and perception about the organization. Public Relations process is based on mutual and satisfying communication which is always two-way. Public Relations should be factual; a company should not give false information to improve the company’s image (Heath, 2010, p, 101). A company should try as much as possible to always give factual information to its target audience as their main agenda is to create a lasting relationship with them. The PR process has four major steps, these are; research listening, planning-decision making, communication-action and evaluation (Cutlip, 2006). The first part of the PR process is research-listening, at this stage; one asks questions that will give the opinions and attitudes of the publics. At this stage, one determines the problem at hand. The dairy farmers should research and understand the problem at hand (Gruinig, 2006, p.51). The second step in Public Relation process is planning-decision making (Cutlip, 2006, p.49). In this stage, the organization comes up with options to solve the problem using the information that was gathered at the research stage (the opinions and attitudes of the people). The farmers will decide on what way to go about the problem at hand. They will decide on the method they will use to influence its publics opinion on permeate free milk. Here they can decide whether to use the media, or have one on one communications with them; this is basically an analyzing stage. The third stage involves doing the actual tackle of the problem. The dairy farmers explain to the publics the reason behind the decisions and why they do things the way they do. The farmers will have to explain to the consumers why they opted to change to permeate free milk and the reasons behind it. This can be done through media either broadcast or written articles that will be accessible to the targeted audience. Communicating to the publics can also be done through seminars, conferences or workshops with the publics (Post, Preston & Sachs, 2002, p.10). This can be an effective way to influence the publics’ opinion. At this stage it is important to use factual information (McNett, 2005). In this case, the dairy farmers have to create a relationship and persuade its public in solving the problem at hand. It is noted that both the positive and negative things that people have heard about permeate free milk campaign will affect the people’s perception of the product and the campaign perception is reality to most people. The dairy farmers need to make their consumers understand why they feel permeate free milk is better for them. They should also find a way of making the scientist understand them and change the scientist perception of their campaign from a negative one to a positive one. The final stage of the Public relation process is; the evaluation process. The company gets to evaluate the outcome or the results of the campaign. Here the organization will evaluate how effective the process was and if it has influenced the publics’ opinion to a positive one (Grunig, 2005, 779). The farmers will evaluate if its publics have become receptive to the idea of permeate free milk (there publics include the scientists that are opposed to the production of permeate free milk). The dairy farmers can use different ways to create a good relationship with it publics; they can start by opening avenues for communication between themselves and it publics. The dairy farmers should listen to the opinions of both the scientists and their consumers. They should also try to explain what they can do to them in the easiest way possible. The dairy farmers should also find avenues in which they can communicate with their publics; this can either be through writing or talking using media as a channel as this is certain to reach a large number of its publics. Public Relations is very important to an organization, this is because with PR an organization can have a relationship with its publics and stakeholders (Durham, 2005, p.34). This way the two groups can communicate freely; this will in turn improve the organizations performance.PR leads to economic growth of a company (Smith, 2005). When things are running efficiently in a company and the company’s image is good, the business tends to attract a wider range of consumers thus increasing the company’s profits. With public relations, an organization can get to know the opinions and attitude of its publics and know what needs improvement (Hung, 2005, p.395). This increases the scope of ideas for the company on changes and improvements that they can make. With public relations, a company can be able to solve problems easily as they will be easily identified since there are communication channels between the company and its publics (Motion& Weaver, 2005, p.51). It is easy to identify problems as there are channels that are ready to get the required research information needed to identify a problem or issue, thus making the problem solving process faster. The dairy farmers need to have good Public Relations for them to grow both economically and the company at large. The PR will come in handy in solving issues the company is facing; for example the ‘permeate free milk issue’. With proper Public Relations skills the dairy farmers can be able to influence the publics’ opinion on permeate free milk. Stakeholders All companies have stakeholders as they are an important factor in the company’s being. Stakeholders are a part of the company’s public. Stakeholders determine the company’s survival. The stakeholders are directly or indirectly affected by the company’s operations (McPhail, 2002, p.60). According to Moloney (2006, p.41) a stakeholder is any one that affects or is affected by the company's objectives and decisions. Stakeholders can either be the consumers, owners, the neighborhood where the company is located, the government and other people that are affected by the company's being. Stakeholders are divided according to their importance or urgency to the company. The most important ones can be the employees, the consumers and owners of the company. The linkage theory explains the privatization of the stakeholders through a linkage model. The linkage model has four major links that is, enabling linkages, functional linkages, diffused linkage and normative linkages (Rawlins, 2006, p.10).This theory helps companies to recognize and prioritize the stakeholders according to the effect they have on the company. McPhail (2002, p.49) notes that all the other links; enabling, functional and normative linkages stakeholders never change, the diffuse linkage stakeholders vary with the situation at hand. The highest model in the theory is enabled linkage; here a company identifies the stakeholders that have some control or authority in the company. These are the stakeholders that enable the company to have resources and autonomy to operate (Mcphail, 2002, p.52). This group of stakeholders is given a higher priority as stakeholders as without them, the company loses its resources and its autonomy to operate (Hung, 2005, p.397). This group of stakeholders enable the company to operate they include; board of directors, government regulators and legislatures. In the case of the dairy farmers, the enabling linkages are the government and the board of directors of the dairy farmers co-operative. The other link identified by (Grunig, 2005) is functional linkage; they are defined as essential to the company’s functionality. This group is divided into two; that is input functions and output functions. The input function provides labor and resources to create the products and services offered by the company. They include the suppliers and the employees. The output functions are those that use the products and services offered (Rawlins, 2006, p.11). They include the consumers and retailers. In the dairy farmers situation the functional linkages are the consumers that use permeate free milk, the people that work at the production plant that produce permeate free milk. The other model is the normative linkages, these are links that have similar goals, target audience, and generally these are groups that have common interest. These are mostly competitors that have a common industrial association to the company’s (Heath, 2010, p, 104). The scientist that are opposed to the production of permeate free milk can be competitors to permeate free producers as they are advocating for milk that is not permeate free. The final link to this model is the diffuse linkage. These are stakeholders that do not frequently interact with the company. They only interact with the company when the company is in crisis (Rawlins, 2006). These include the media, the community and special interest groups. The stakeholders here in the dairy farmers problem is, the media as they are writing and giving information about permeate free milk and the controversy around it. This is the best stakeholder to use to disseminate the information that they need to pass the stakeholders that they cannot directly access. Publics Publics are people that are affected by the company’s being and its decisions. Publics arise on their own the company does not choose them. Mostly these include the product consumers and the media people. The consumers are in this category as they have made the choice to use a particular product and not any other. The media falls under the category of publics as they decide to cover a story about a company on their own (especially during a crisis). Publics are not to be confused with stakeholders although publics are a subset of stakeholders who are affected by a certain issue or decision of the company. There are two categories of publics that is target publics and influential publics. The target publics are those that help the company achieve its goals. The influential publics are those whose opinion of the company will influence others perception of the company. In the dairy farmers situation the publics are the consumers, who are target publics, they help in achieving the company’s goals. These publics will get affected by the controversy surrounding their marketing strategy. The media, the influential publics who are giving news on the controversial issue of permeate free milk. The difference between publics and stakeholders is not much; firstly, it is important to note that stakeholders are a part of a company’s publics. Although stakeholders are part of a company’s public, the major difference between the two is, stakeholders are chosen by the company through the decisions made by the company (Post, Preston & Sachs, 2002, p.12). The decisions that influence the choice of stakeholders are marketing strategies that target the consumers, retailers and the media at most times, the other factor that influences the choice is recruitment, this targets the employees and the suppliers of the company. The final influencing factor is the company’s investment plan, this targets mostly the enabling linkage stakeholders, while publics are not chosen by the company instead they arise on their own (Motion& Weaver, 2005, p.53). Publics are also very important to an organization as their relationship with the company is highly valued. Importance of stakeholders in a company The dairy farmers have to extensively exploit the Public Relations skills for a solution to come up with an effective solution to the ‘permeate free milk’ situation. The company has to consider the stakeholders in all the decisions made on how to tackle the issue. Stakeholders are important to a company in all angles. The dairy farmers should note that stakeholders are an important part of the company. Firstly; stakeholders enable the company to exist and operate, this are the most prioritized members of the stakeholders the enabling linkage (Cutlip, Center, & Broom, 2006, p.29). These include the government and the board of dairy farmers co-operative. They are important as they have enabled the dairy farmers to operate independently, without them it would be hard for the company to operate Secondly, stakeholders are important to the company as they dominate almost three quarter of the company’s agenda and goals (Motion& Weaver, 2005, p.54). These include the employees, consumers, retailers and suppliers. The company cannot function without them, if one of them is missing, for example the consumers, there is no business for the company and the work they will be doing is useless. These kinds of stakeholders are dependable; this is because the company cannot function if one group of stake holders does not exist (McNett, 2005, p.42). As such, the dairy farmers need the stakeholders for the company to function. The dairy farmers cannot afford to lose any link of these stakeholders as its existence will be useless and they will be running losses instead of profits. Conclusion Public Relations is an important part of a company’s growth. Companies with good and factual PR are successful compared to those that do not have Public Relations at all. Through Public Relations, a company gets to create a relationship and communication channels between the company and its stakeholders. Stakeholders are also very important to the company’s being and survival in the market, this is because the survival of the company depends on its stakeholders. A company has to consider PR as a stepping stone to solving its publicity and marketing issues that may arise. Public Relations is a sensitive part of running an organization as it creates the company's image and if the PR department is not doing a good job, this might lead to the company's closure as unsatisfied consumers tend to move to a better available option. References Cutlip, S. M., Center, A. H., & Broom, G. M. (2006). Effective public relations. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Prentice Hall. Durham, F. (2005). Public relations as structuration. Journal of Public Relations Research, 17, 29–48. Gruinig, J. E. (2006). Furnishing the Edifice: Ongoing Research on Public Relations as a Strategic Management Function. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Grunig, J. (2006). 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