Week 10.

Readings: Chapters 7 and 8 – Strategy, Planning and Scheduling/Tactics in Public relations: theory and practice / edited by Jane Johnston and Clara Zawawi. Crows Nest, N.S.W. Allen & Unwin, 2004. 2nd ed

I think the key points to remember from this week's readings were firstly, that strategy is not a seris of campaign steps or tactics. It is the underlying rationale that guides the selection of these tactics or stages.
PR practitioners should develop an organisations strategic plan with communication in mind. The PR practitioners input into the design influences its ability to be understood by all the organisation's publics. This shows the importance of PR, and also why it is essential that PR must operate within the decision making dominant coalition of the organsiation.
The systemic design of PR plans is vital to the goals and objectives of an organisation. These goals and objectives must compliment what it is that the organsiation is trying to communicate.
Tactics and strategies are different. The strategy will determine the choice of tactics to be used in order for a campaign to be successful.
There are no correct or surefire tactics that can ensure success in a PR campaign. Success comes from the analytical and creative skills of the PR practitioner when attempting to choose appropriate strategies and tactics for a campaign.

The readings made me think more about public relations theory/practice in that creative and well research planning is essential to a successful PR campaign. There are so many tactics a practitioner can choose for a campaign, from using celebrities and event to promote a product to using community service announcements community meetings to inform a particular public of something.