Situation Analysis and Goals of EON Organisation - Case Study Example

TITLE: PUBLIC RELATIONS CAMPAIGN. NAME: REGISTRATION NUMBER: COURSE: DATE OF SUBMISSION: SUBMITTED TO: TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 1 Situation Analysis 2 Target publics 2 Goals 3 Theme 3 Measurement and Evaluation 7 Part B: Justification essay 8 References 14 Introduction EON is a non-profit organization based in West Australia that offers disease prevention through upholding a healthy lifestyle for aboriginal communities; this is done through providing gardens, teaching the communities in the area to effectively cultivate gardens that have fruits and vegetables. EON was founded in the year 2005 and up to now has been able to reach out to sixteen communities in Western Australia where it is based, the sixteen consist of both communities and schools and have been taught gardening practices, nutritional education, cooking and hygiene. The communities have improved in health over the years that EON has enjoyed presence amongst them and EON is now looking to expand into twenty one more communities and schools to provide the same gardening practices. The need for the campaign on healthy eating among Aboriginal communities was necessitated by the trends in the deteriorating health status of these indigenous people with several surveys showing that aboriginal children suffered many ill health conditions that are associated with poor nutrition. According to National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health survey of 2013 which is a recent survey; three percent of Aboriginal children below fourteen years suffer hearing loss. This public relations campaign is going to give strategies on how to reach out to a target public In order to promote EON and ensure that more and more communities and schools have access to gardens that produce fruits and vegetables to reduce the prevalence of nutritional diseases among the Aboriginal children. Situation Analysis In spite of significantly large expenditures on health, the Australian government has not done enough to curb the rise in diseases caused by poor nutrition especially in the grass root level, a place occupied by aboriginal communities. Statistics have shown the magnitudes of different diseases; The Aboriginal population has the fourth highest number of diabetes patients in the world, the highest middle ear infection in the world, more than sixty percent of Aboriginal children suffer permanent hearing loss by the age of five, Aboriginal children suffer anemia and malnutrition at Thirty times the rate of Perth children. All the above are third world rates of chronic disease prevalence and infection in a first world economy (Hands et al 2011) Diseases such as the above named not only have adverse negative effects on individuals but also on the community at large and on the economy of a country since it has been proven that these conditions lead to poor educational results which lead to poor employment performance. Low life expectancy due to these infections that are rampant among the young population deprives the country of a resourceful population and renders the future of a country oblique. The aim of this campaign is to ensure increased presence of EON to provide nutritional solutions to indigenous Australian communities by raising funds for the program and promoting awareness of the nutritional and hygiene services provided by EON. Target publics 1). Heads of educational institutions- It will be important to be able to reach out to heads of schools in the grass roots level and give them the interest to invite EON to their schools to set up the edible gardens since schools is the perfect place to ensure nutritional education to children and even providing the healthy foods to the children in schools. This has been a successful practice in the schools that have already welcomed EON. 2). Parents- The main target population in the campaign is the children below fourteen years, to reach them it is important to win the interest of parents to allow for setting up of the gardens in their communities. 3). General public- this is a wide audience, both in urban areas, rural areas and even the international community of all ages and backgrounds. This population is necessary to reach out to for purposes of fund raising drives to help facilitate the provision of the nutritional services and hygiene education to more communities in need of the services. Goals The main goal of this public relations campaign is to be able to have EON reach more communities in Western and Northern Australia, to partner with schools and communities and be able to efficiently set up and maintain edible gardens, train the locals on how to run the gardens and teach the young on nutritional hygiene and healthy eating habits. To achieve this, it is necessary to have the public aware of the plight of the aboriginal communities so as to be able to gain the support financially, have the communities appreciate the practice and to be able to create awareness on the issue of poor nutrition and its consequences. Theme Healthy eating for healthy living Objectives, strategies and tactics EON’s strategies for the foreseeable future are grouped into two, ones to be implemented by the corporate that include growing awareness of the health conditions caused by poor nutrition and giving solutions that are provided by EON, developing an efficient and an easy to adopt model for reaching out to communities that are in need of EON services, ensuring financial sustainability of EON as an organization. Operational strategies include the quest of EON to expand to the Northern parts of Australia and to deliver a sustainable program by both EON staff and the community in which the program is being provided. The delivery strategies include; Advocating and creating a bigger and more significant profile for the health conditions like, diabetes, anaemia, hearing impairment and others that EON seeks to provide a lasting solution to. Creating awareness and promoting EON as non-for profit organization and its working approach to solving the health conditions due to malnutrition and poor eating habits. This can be done by airing successful projects that EON has presided over in the recent past, providing case studies and journals, organizing field trips for interested parties to provide tangible evidence for the workability of the EON strategy. Appointing an officer in charge of media and the development of a suitable and conclusive media plan that is going to reach out to all the desired audience. This is to provide knowledge of the practices of EON, market EON as an organization and even be able to educate the masses on healthy eating and how it can be achieved. This will ease the necessity of reaching every affected citizen in person and be able to ensure the widespread practice of healthy eating in line with the goals of the organization. Reduction of delivery costs, this can be attained by identifying residents of Aboriginal communities that are conversant with healthy eating practices and are able to manage an edible garden and get them to volunteer to teach in schools and in the community on healthy eating habits and hygiene. Cost reduction can also be achieved by having lessons of healthy eating and nutrition be incorporated in the curriculum of formal education and championing for the employment of teachers of the subject to be employed and remunerated by the government. Providing more flexible program delivery options to increase investment by other organizations that can provide funding to the program. Creating a long term plan and work strategy that can be used to set milestones and timelines for various achievements. This will show the commitment of EON to reducing and even ending the occurrence of diseases poor nutrition. Creating a strong drive that will reach out to a big audience for purposes of creating awareness and secure new funding to ensure financial sustainability. One of the current drives that seeks to secure funding For EON is the Richard marathon which aims at raising fifty thousand Australian dollars by January two thousand and seventeen when the Richard marathon Odyssey will end. Practicing diligence in new prospective community projects, this can be achieved by planning ahead of the setting up of the edible gardens in the community. Planning ahead involves reconnaissance that aims at identifying the most widespread medical condition in the area and choosing the crops that will be most suitable for the garden, considering the type of soil and if need be outsource the suitable materials to avoid “false starts” in the field. Identifying people with useful skill in the community is also important prior to the actual setting up. EON also seeks to get funds to run six new projects awaiting commencement in Pilbara, channels for donation are open and accessible through the organizations website but there is also need for securing of new sources of funds. This can be done by devising a campaign to reach out to a wider audience, through print, visual and audible media for a fund raising drive to ensure timely commencement of the projects. Setting out of an exit plan from fully developed projects is necessary to avoid set-backs in cases of deterioration of the gardens due to neglect by the communities. A risk assessment test on various exit strategies should be done and a suitable practice for a smooth transition process from management of the gardens by EON personnel to the community leadership is identified and recommended. Setting up of a pilot program for training of personnel is a necessity to ensure expertise in the practice of gardening, teaching and even cooking of the fresh foods. This will ensure that there is achievement of the desired results of the program. All the above explained strategies are valid and are guaranteed to provide positive results hence the need for a public relations campaign. The public relations campaign will strive to reach out to the masses for purposes of informing, enlightening and getting people on board for this worthy course of eradicating diseases caused by poor eating habits among Aboriginal people that inhabit the western and northern parts of Australia. In trying to reach out to a target public it is important to identify the most suitable means that conveys the goals, objectives and strategies relevant to them. It is vital to craft these elements in a manner that aligns with and persuades the target publics (CQUniversity 2015). The goal of the campaign is to reach out to the general public which is the widest audience in the target publics and to reach out to heads of educational institutions and Aboriginal parents. Apart from the Richard marathon, more fund raising drives of the same manner can be devised like venturing into Australian Rules football which is Australia’s most popular sport; this will reach out to a wide mass and engage the youth aged between eighteen to thirty years of age. To create awareness among the youth; social media, brochures and discs will be used. Research shows that the current young generation pays less attention to the news and old modes of passing information like newspapers (Sternberg 1998). Social media is a cheap mean of passing information and has more impact among the youth (Mercadal 2014). To create awareness among the older population, the use of traditional media; newspapers and free to air television will be relevant. Having a monthly periodical in The guardian will reach out to big number of the older population, the periodical will include the past successes of EON, current projects, an awareness of how poor nutrition has led to the development of diseases among the aboriginal people and the need for the Australian community to pull together to help eradicate the problem. On free to air television, the airing of the “Healthy living Australian rules football tournament” will be advertised and aired after commencement, the funds for this will be collected by finding sponsors and having governmental bodies like Australian Charities and Not-for-profits commission, Australian commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander studies and many other involved parties to be part of the campaign. The use of newspapers that are widespread in Western Australia and airing on television networks and radio based in Western Australia will be able to ensure the message reach the Aboriginal parents and educational institution leaders. Measurement and Evaluation It is important to find out whether or not a campaign was a successful, (Wilcox et al. 2013).It is therefore important to keep track of all strategies and tactics of the campaign. The following measurement strategies are going to be put in place as the campaign goes on; Focus groups before and after the campaign, media impression counts, material distribution counts; and close monitoring of social media hits. Conclusion Upon review of the aspects presented in this report it can be seen that the information proposed is vital in ensuring the overall success of the public relations campaign on EON to ensure the smooth running of the organization by getting adequate funds and having the Aboriginal people practice healthy eating to eradicate third world diseases. It would be important to maintain presence in social media and keeping the organization’s website active even after the campaign. It would be suitable for the campaign to run for six months to exploit all possible chances of having the organization’s practices and its goals known to all within and without Australia. Part B: Justification essay Public relations can be defined as “a management function which evaluates public attitudes, identifies the policies and procedures of an individual or an organization with the public interest, and plans and executes a program of action to earn public interest and contribution” (Public Relations Institute of Australia 2015). The purpose of this essay is to explain and justify the public relations campaign report created for EON; a non-for-profit organization that aims to educate the Australian people and organizations on its practices of eradicating disease caused by poor eating habits of the Aboriginal people and getting them to support the program financially and practicing healthy eating habits. In particular, the scope of this essay will be confined to a discussion of the issues in which the campaign aimed to accomplish, followed by an explanation of the aspects outlined in the plan and also a discussion on the pros and cons of the measures in the report. A public relations campaign is based on the systematic building and maintenance of a long lasting relationship with the target publics. The aim of this public relations campaign was to raise an awareness of the plight of the Aboriginal children and the residents of western and northern Australia at large, getting the people and organizations to provide financial and logistical support(Hamilton et al 2005) in creating a wide d practice of healthy eating and hygiene. By implementing this campaign, EON was aiming to promote entering of EON to twenty one more communities and schools that have already been identified as in dire need of the edible gardens, this is a program that needs funds and the support of the Australian people as a whole to ensure long term partnerships and practice of healthy eating in every household in western and northern Australia in line with the goals of EON as an organization. Objectives, strategies and tactics were carefully created in order to successfully target these target publics in such a way that would persuade and interest these individuals to be a part of the program. The aspects detailed in this report were specifically formulated to ensure the success of the public relations campaign in reaching out to the target publics efficiently. The use of social media and the EON website will act as progress checkers by monitoring the hits on the website and the activity on social media. The turnout for the Healthy Living Australian Rules Football will also be used as a mode of measuring the impact of the public relations campaign on the target publics. After the campaign it would be necessary to issue questionnaires to the Aboriginal community to evaluate the impact of the campaign, the questionnaire will include questions on healthy eating and the effects of poor dieting; this is to find out whether after the campaign the Aboriginal people are aware off diseases brought about by poor diets and to find out whether the educational segments on social, print and audible media had a positive effect.it would also be important to ask if according to the target communities welcome the setting up of Edible gardens in their schools and communities and their views on the impacts of EON programs in the short term and long term on their communities health and welfare-wise. From the ultimate goal of the campaign, a specific goal was created for each target public. A goal is the final end result of a public relations campaign (CQUniversity 2015), therefore all of the aspects planned from the goal must be in line with and compliment what it sets out to achieve. The goal for the general public and organizations target publics was created in order to raise funds for sustainable running EON for the next five years in the twenty one identified communities that EON is seeking to set up edible gardens, The Aboriginal parents target public to ensure the adoption of healthy eating habits after the setting up and maintenance of the edible gardens, it is important to get the interest of the communities to ensure long term use of the EON programs even after the existing of the EON personnel from the communities. This goal was chosen as the target public and these methods; educational material and social media blend and align appropriately to ensure generational change in the awareness for healthy eating to eradicate disease. The use of print media is instrumental in reaching out to the corporate society and the older population, these are the target public that will in then provide funding for EON. The government can also be reached through all the above named media, legislation can provide a long lasting solution to the problem EON is seeking to address, including diet studies in the curriculum of young Australians will ensure the passing of the important skills EON is incorporating to the communities to the next generations for years to come(Gellweiler et al 2006). The objectives, strategies and tactics featured in this campaign are entwined with the goals. Objectives provide an indication of the methods that will be employed to achieve the goals of the campaign (CQUniversity 2015). The objectives employed in the campaign were a combination of corporate and strategic strategies, due to the need to educate and inspire participation and donation from the public. The social media element of this campaign would lean more on the education and creation of awareness side of things as the objectives aimed to invite target publics to physically visit and become actively engaged on both the social media sites and the Healthy living Australian Rules football league. The strategies and tactics were crafted in such a way that would wholesomely reach out to the widest audience possible. The public relations campaign would run for six months, after this the impact will be evaluated and ranked as successful if it raises the desired amount of funds, awareness and support for the program. If not the time for the campaign can be increased and some non-performing tactics be changed. Gantt chart Tactics August September October November December January 2017 Develop attractive posts to be aired on existing EON social media platforms. Create a hashtag to be used on twitter and instagram during the campaign. Get the posts promoted by popular pages in the social media platforms. Choose venues, participating teams, sponsors, media houses to air the Healthy living Australian football league. The Australian rules football league. Film a documentary to be aired in a leading television network Air the documentary on television networks countrywide Prepare a detailed report of the practices of EON and the strategic plan to be aired on print media rt Air the report on a leading newspaper on weekends Employ public relation campaigners to be hosted in radio and television shows. Have television and radio shows aired alongside the documentaries Collect feedback on the efficiency of the campaign References CQ University 2015, COMM11110 The public relations campaign: implementation: study guide, CQ University, Distance Education. Mercadal, T 2014, ‘Social media marketing’, Salem Press Encyclopedia, Research Starters. 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Paddock to plate: Food, farming and Victoria's progress to sustainability. Melbourne: Australian Conservation Foundation Carlsson-Kanyama, A. (2008). Climate change and dietary choices - how can emissions of greenhouse gases from food consumption be reduced? Food Policy, 23(3/4), 277-293. Carlsson-Kanyama, A., Ekstrom, M., & Shanahan, H. (2006). Food and life cycle energy inputs: Consequences of diet and ways to increase efficiency. Ecological Economics, 44, 293 307. Gellweiler, K. (2006). Go for 2&5 fruit and vegetable campaign results - phase 1. Brisbane: Queensland Health. Grunert, K. (2005). Current issues in consumer food quality perception. Paper presented at the Consumer and Market Demands Network Workshop, Edmonton. Hamilton, C., Denniss, R., & Baker, D. (2005). Wasteful consumption in Australia (No. Discussion Paper Number 77). Canberra: The Australia Institute. Hands, B., Parker, H., Glasson, C., Brinkman, S., & Read, H. (2011). Physical activity and nutrition levels in Western Australian children and adolescents. Perth: Western Australian Government. (Hands et al 2011) (Hamilton et al 2005) (Grunert et al 2005) (Gellweiler et al 2006) Read More