In preparation for a campaign, it's essential to research an organization’s internal and external environment and public perception of the organization.
INTERNAL ENVIRONMENT
The first step is evaluating and researching the organization’s internal environment. Before developing a campaign it’s important to understand how the organization stands currently.
Some things to consider are how employees feel about the company, whether employees feel valued at the company, and what key stakeholders have to say.
Employees are a critical component of an organization's success,
and because they have such a large impact, it is critical to understand how/what they feel. Read more about the impacts employees have on organizations, here.
One of the most important keys to evaluating an internal environment is the performance of the organization. Understanding how the organization is performing and identifying the changes that must be made in order to outperform current or previous performances.
Another aspect of an organization’s internal environment is its niche.
A niche is a feature of an organization that distinguishes it from others and helps it stand out or be recognized. This is crucial to know before creating a campaign so that the objectives of the campaign are in line with the organization's niche.
If you are a start-up business and need help developing a niche, understanding a niche market, and how to dominate the niche market check out this article from Business News Daily.
Another key factor in evaluating an internal environment is identifying its internal impediments.
This entails identifying the organization's weak points and areas for improvement. When pointing out its weak points, don't pick a major issue that requires more attention than a tweak. Internal impediments should be considered when planning the campaign, as the campaign itself may be able to assist.
EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT
Competitors, supporters, opponents, and external impediments all make up the external environment. The external environment includes consumer trends, regulations, the economy, demographics, and other external impediments. The external environment research is extensive and is broken down more in this Indeed article, click here.
Competitors – Determining how a competitor communicates with customers and how the public perceives it. This will serve as a starting point for a campaign by identifying what the campaign should not do, as well as what the campaign must beat to outperform its competitors.
Supporters – Acknowledging who or what supports the organization.
Opponents – Opponents are groups of people who can hurt or help a campaign because the campaign may benefit, harm, or have no relation to them. Identifying the opponents will assist a campaign's communication in steering clear of certain opponents or targeting specific opponents who may benefit the campaign’s success.
External impediments – The environment is a large component of external impediments. When determining who or what the external impediments are, consider current consumer trends, current social and economic issues, and the demographics that the campaign wishes to reach.
PUBLIC PERCEPTION
Understanding the public’s perception of the organization can be related back to the internal environment. After the internal environment is evaluated and the PR agency knows the organization’s mission, vision, and values, research needs to be done to see if the public perception agrees with the organization’s efforts.
Researching on how the public perception views the organization's efforts can be identified through:
Social media
Message boards
Reviews
Forums
Surveys
This will also determine whether or not the public is aware of the organization, what it does, and how reliable the public perception's information is. Acknowledging the public perception of an organization’s reputation will help determine if there’s a negative or positive public standing of the organization. This is critical for every organization; not knowing what the public perception is can be disastrous, and end an organization. This Forbes article discusses the importance of public perception and the consequences of not researching the perception.
Photo of employee hands by krakenimages on Unsplash
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