The rope model of public relations

(1) the client

(2) the problem or potantial problem to be solved,

(3) audiences or publics.

1. 
   informing the audience
   
2. 
   modifying their attitudes
   
3. 
   modifying their behaviors.
   

Program  to accomplish the objectives.

a central theme,

messages

various forms of the communication
Evaluation  examines the practitioner’s degree of success in achieving objectivess.

I) RESEARCH
Research consists of investigating three aspects of the PR procedure.

1) The client  for whom the program is being prepared.

2) The opportunity or the problem  why does the client need the program at this moment

3) The audiences  who are targeted for communication in the PR program.

OPPORTUNITY OR PROBLEM RESEARCH

• 
  Is it because of a unique opportunity to favorably influence public opinion or behavior toward the client? or
  
• 
  Is it in response to the development of unfavorable opinion or behavior toward the client? (problem!!!)
  

Public relations programs that arise out of opportunities are called PROACTIVE programs.

Programs that are needed to respond a problem are called REACTIVE programs.
When a fire breaks out, we must call the fire department. Public Relations practitioner must be ready to extinguish “fires” but they should also be skilled in “fire prevention”.
Thus, the investigation of why a public relations program is necessary. Through the investigation we can find out if the program should be a proactive one, or a reactive one.
AUDIENCE RESEARCH
The third aspect of research involves the investigation of target audience or “publics”. This part of the research includes identifying the particular groups that should be targeted.
AUDIENCE all organizations should have long-term or sometimes short-term relations or communications with certain “standart” publics. There are publics of principal concern to most organizations such as the media, internaş employees or members, the organization’s home community, and the national or local governments. Besides these, for example, a business that provides a product or a service is concerned with consumers as an important public. A nonprofit organization may target its donors.
To address publics most effectively each one should be segmented into its diverse components, so that each segment can become a seperate public to send special messages.
DESIRED DATA Once target audience is segmented into their key components, the practitioner is ready to collect data for each public. The practitioner needs to know:

• 
  each targeted public’s level of information about the organization,
  
• 
  the image and other relevant attitudes held about the organization and its products and services,
  
• 
  the past and present audience behaviors relevant to the client or organization.
  

Each one should be specific and measurable.

Below is the hierarchy of these objectives in ascending order of importance.

• 
  to publicize special event X through the local daily newspaper during the month October.
  

These objectives can be easily measured by counting the number of news releases sent to the media. Some practitioners use only output objectives in their programs and thus, have the advantage of seting definite, specific and attainable goals, which can be measured quantitatively. Once these goals have been met, the practitioner can claim success.

• 
  Informational Objectives include message exposure to, message comprehension by, or message retention by the target audience.

  Two examples of informational objectives are:

  
  to increase awareness of the company’s new plant by (15 percent) among all segments of the community (during May).
  

• 
  Attitudional Objectives aim at modifying the way an audience feels about the client or organization and its works, products, or services. Attitude modification may consist of forming new attitudes where none exists, reinforcing existing attitudes, or changing existing attitudes.
  to promote favorable attitudes toward the company’s new retirement policy (among 80 percent of current employees during 1988)
  

It is rather easier to create or reinforce the attitudes, than changing them. The reversal of the attitudes is the most difficult of all tasks in public relations.

• 
  Behavioral Objectives involve the modification of behaviors toward the client. Like attitude modification, behavior modification can consist of the creation or stimulation of new behavior, the enhancement of existing favorable behavior or the reversal of negative behavior of the audience.
  to persuade 60 percent of people overthe age of 50 to regularly take a cancer test.
  
  
  

1. 
   statement of the theme, if applicable, and messages to be communicated to the audiences.
   
2. 
   action or special event(s) sponsored by the client
   
3. 
   use of the media, either uncontrolled or the controlled
   
4. 
   principles of effective communication
   

1. THEME AND MESSAGES

2. ACTION OR SPECIAL EVENT(S)

1) source credibility 2) message: salient information 3) message: effective nonverbal cues 4) message: effective verbal cues 5) channel and feedback 6) receivers: opinion leaders 7) receivers: group influence 8) receivers: selective exposure 9) feedback : audience participatipation

Evaluation of PR program is realized according to its stated objectives, each of which can be measured by different methods.

• 
  Evaluating Informational Objectives
  

Measurement of informational objectives include 3 dimensions:

1)message exposure 2)message comprehension

3) message retention

• 
  Evaluating Attitudinal Objectives
  

Attitudes can be measured by well-established survey research instruments, most known of these are Likert Scales. Attitude measurement require both pretesting and posttesting and must be done by competent professionals well-schooled and experienced in quantitative research methods.

• 
  Evaluating Behavioral Objectives
  

1. 
   Target audience can be asked what their behavior have been since exposure to the PR program (requires pretesting and posttesting)
   
2. 
   Observations can be done, behavior is simply observed, in some cases can be counted.
   

• 
  Evaluating Output Objectives
  

Involve the distribution of controlled and uncontrolled media.

Evaluation by

- keeping records of number of news releases sent to publications and broadcaststations, the number of contacts made by journalists, number of speeches given to the targer audience, the number of meetings held with key audiences.